13 Days of Halloween

Day 1: Corpse Bride

     For Halloween and the month of October, I decided to review Halloweeny type movies that don't necessarily try to cause nightmares for weeks on end. No, these shall be movies that are creepy or spooky but definitely fall under the realm of Halloween and they, for the most part, won't be the typical Halloween movie. First up, Corpse Bride.

     Let me start off by saying that Corpse Bride is not my favorite Tim Burton movie for reasons that I'll be going in to later. Corpse Bride tells the time old tale of boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy accidentally marries the spirit of a murdered bride, then everyone tries to figure out how to make this right. With songs! Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is betrothed to Victoria Everglot (Emma Watson) because the Everglots (old money) need money or they'll be destitute while the Van Dorts (new money) would appreciate the prestige and higher social standing. After messing up the rehearsal, Victor goes off to practice in the woods where he manages to finally say his vows perfectly. Unfortunately for him, he places his ring on the hand of the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) and awakens her spirit. (At the very end do we find out her name is Emily.) She made a dying vow that she would marry whoever says wedding vows and placed a ring on her finger. The rest of the movie is tasked with how does Victor get back to Victoria, is the mysterious Barkus Bittern going to help (spoiler alert: no), and what is going to happen to the Corpse Bride? 

     And here are the answers of course they get together, Bittern's crimes are revealed and the Corpse Bride is finally released from the vow she made so long ago. Now, Bittern isn't punished by any court of the living. The denizens of the realm of the dead like the Corpse Bride and are quite attached to her so, when Bittern accidentally drinks poison, they pull him behind a closed door with a rather sinister sounding "New arrival." Earlier in the film, it is shown that when someone dies, they become a "new arrival" and their presence is welcomed and celebrated. Not so much with Bittern...

Pros:

The animation is outstanding. 

Danny Elfman as Bonejangles is amazing. 

Cons:

The songs (except for the one about the Corpse Bride) seemed shoe horned in and didn't really flow with the story.

The ending could have been done differently. I wish the Corpse Bride (and the spirits of the dead) stayed and watched Victor and Victoria get married.

  The only unanswered question that I'm left with is what do the spirits of the dead do to Bittern?



Overall Rating: 3.5/5