'Corpse' Lacks Plot

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  "Corpse Bride," Tim Burton’s latest movie, follows in the style of "Nightmare Before Christmas." Although the stop-motion animation is the same, and the characters still have the characteristic large eyed bobble head look, the plot is somewhat lacking, containing nowhere near the intricacies of “Nightmare.”

   A young man in Victorian England, Victor Van Dort (voice by Johnny Depp) finds himself unable to go through his wedding vows at the rehearsal, runs out of his fiancée’s house and into the dark and mysterious forest on the outskirts of town. Once there, Victor completes his vows and finds himself married to a corpse. The corpse bride, Emily (voice by Helen Bonham Carter), was a young woman cruelly murdered by her fiancé on the night of their elopement. Victor is dragged down to the land of the undead and spends the rest of the movie trying to choose between his dead wife or his living fiancée, who’s parents are more than happy to exchange the nouveau riche Victor for the noble and slightly sinister Lord Barkis Bittern (voice by Richard E. Grant).

   That’s it. That’s the plot. If the artwork and songs weren’t so spectacular, this would be a terribly mediocre movie. As it is, artwork and Danny Elfman songs save the movie and provide a visual and auditory feast fit for kings and children alike.

   The movie was given a PG-13 rating, but there is no obvious reason. Although half
the movie is set among the undead, and there are characters with gaping chest wounds and at least one decapitated head running around, these characters are cartoons. Animated,
comical. They sing and dance more than they scare.

GRADE: B-

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