Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a short review for the Tim Burton and Mike Johnson directed flick CORPSE BRIDE before I get my shit together for my jaunt to LA tomorrow.
Of course I love NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS... I love vintage Burton, too, so I was greatly looking forward to this film.
The theater went dark, some jibbering little snot machines took this as their cue to start being loud and annoying, but the trailer that played before the film quickly shut them up. Not that I'm going out on a limb by saying this, but I am going on record saying that HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE is going to make so much fucking money. It's one of the best books of the series and is coming out after Rowling hit a home run with HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. The trailers have been great so far and when the newest GOBLET OF FIRE trailer finished before CORPSE BRIDE the entire audience erupted in applause. Bank, I tell ya'.
Unfortunately the energy in the room evaporated quickly when the film actually started. The opening musical number, sung by Victor's (Johnny Depp) eager parents (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse), is visually uninteresting (with the characters just walking around their carriage) and was just enough like some of the lesser remembered songs from NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS to feel like a retread, but without capturing the energy and magic of even the worst song from the NIGHTMARE soundtrack.
I was worried that this would be the beginning of a very sad and miserable time for me in the theater. I wanted to like this movie so bad and if it was a turd I was going to be walking out of the theater depressed.
Thankfully, the film picks up speed shortly after the opening song as Victor is introduced to the woman he's been arranged to marry, a lovely young thing named Victoria (of course), voiced by the lovely Emily Watson. In an interesting twist, the arranged marriage that both Victor and Victoria fear is a perfect connection. Their meeting is a wonderful scene, played out very low-key and sweet. Of course Victoria's parents are snooty aristocrats who don't care who their daughter marries as long as they're wealthy enough to keep them out of the poorhouse.
From here there's a wedding rehearsal where we meet Pastor Galswells, voiced terrifically by Christopher Lee. The strength and power in Lee's voice bring so much to this character and make him stand out.
Of course things go horribly and Victor flees and tries to get his vows straight. He fumbles until he focuses on his growing love for Victoria and that gives him the confidence to finally get them right, using the woods around him as stand-ins for the rehearsal. He unfortunately slips the ring onto a twig sticking out of the ground that is not a twig at all, but a boney finger.
Thus he is married to the corpse bride, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter. The momentum of the film has been slowly leading the point where Victor is taken to the Land of the Dead, which in another twist on the norm is bright and colorful, instead of the drab almost black and white quality of the Land of the Living.
Here is where the movie started falling into place for me. Tons of interesting and fun characters are introduced... all are dead, of course and have visually appealing designs and more fun dialogue. I think the character that will steal the hearts of the audience is Maggot, the Peter Lorre-inspired creature that lives inside the Corpse Bride's head that pops out to give her advice or comment on the situation. There was also a character that split himself in two at opportune times and a black widow spider that really liven up the film (sorry for the pun).
It's around this point where my favorite music numbers happen in the film. Danny Elfman as "Bone Jangles" tells us the story of the Corpse Bride in song. While it doesn't live up to WHAT'S THIS? or THIS IS HALLOWEEN from NIGHTMARE, it's a solid number with lots of Burtony colors and a great sense of humor. The Bride's sorrowful TEARS TO SHED is also a fine musical number.
The animation is, of course, beautiful and on the whole the film is very good. It's not great... I don't think it'll be a classic, but it's a very fun movie and at 76 minutes it blows by (once it regains its footing from that stumble during the first number, ACCORDING TO PLAN).
If you're looking forward to the movie at all you will enjoy it. You might be reminded that NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS did many similar things and did them better, but that won't bug ya' for too long. On the whole its a fun and entertaining movie, just not the instant classic I was expecting it to be.
Well, I have to head off. I'm going to be in LA from Wednesday (21st) through Sunday (25th) on some top secret missions. One bit that's not top secret, though, are the tickets I nabbed for the Katrina Benefit concert put on by Tenacious D with guests Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Fiona Apple, Dave Grohl and more. Should be a helluva concert.
Anyway, if any LA readers want to try to get together, drop me a line at quint@aintitcool.com. I'm already super booked, but we'll try to work something out! Hope to see some of ya' then!
-Quint
