Corpse Bride

[Behonkiss]

Wait, it's been out for two days and no one's mentioned it? Fire away here, then.

 

[Hordesman]

9 days in several cities.

 

[SirLemming]

Seriously, dude! Not only that, but it had a limited release LAST week! What's going on here?!

I saw it today. Very good movie. It seems a little more small-scale than The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's somewhere between an hour and an hour-and-a-half, like old-school animated movie length (think Bambi or... TNBC). But although the actual runtime isn't much of a difference (though it seems shorter), it doesn't have the epic scope of a race to save Christmas. In fact, I'm clearly obliged to say you shouldn't compare it to TNBC, but what the heck, we'll all be doing it anyway.

It's basically a typical tale of 1800's arranged marriage stuff... except it's actually entertaining to watch. Lots of skeletal entertainment. There are about 5 or 6 musical numbers in total and they're quite good, especially the piano solos/duets and the Corpse Bride's song. There are more jokey bits than in TNBC, but thankfully they're well done.

I, uh... I'm not sure what else to tell you. Just see it. It'll speak for itself.

 

[langden alger]

a great movie...love the animation, the style, the story...the bride of coarse, my fav character, but the parents of victor and victoria were really fun to watch too...this will soon be a proud member of my dvd collection...

btw, for anyone interested, here's the original fairy tale the film was based upon.

The Corpse Bride



Once upon a time there was a young man who lived in a village in Russia. He was to be married and he and his friend prepared to go to the village where his bride-to-be lived, two days walk from his own village.

The first night the two friends decided to set up camp by a river. The young man who was going to be married spotted an unusual looking stick in the ground that looked like a bony finger. He and his friend started joking about this bony finger sticking out of the ground and the young man who was going to be married took the golden wedding ring from his pocket and put it on the strange-looking stick. And then he started to do the wedding dance around the stick; he danced around the stick with the golden wedding ring three times and he sang the Jewish wedding song, and recited the entire marriage sacrament as he danced around the stick, he and his friend laughing the whole time.

Their fun stopped suddenly when the earth started rumbling and shaking beneath their feet. The place where the stick had been opened up and a very bedraggled looking corpse emerged, a living corpse, she had been a bride, but now was barely more than a skeleton held together by shreds of skin, still wearing an old torn white silk wedding dress. Worms and spider webs hung on the once-beaded bodice and tattered veil.

The two young men were aghast.

"Ah," she said, "you have done the wedding dance and pronounced the marriage vows and you have put a ring on my finger. Now we are man and wife. I demand my rights as your bride."

Shuddering with terror at the corpse bride's words, the two young men fled to the village where the young bride was waiting to be married. They went straight to the rabbi.

"Rabbi," asked the young man breathlessly, "I have a very important question to ask you. If by some chance you're walking in the woods and you happen to see a stick that looks like a long bony finger coming out of the ground and you happen to put a golden wedding ring on the finger and do the wedding dance and pronounce the wedding vows, is this indeed a real marriage?"

Looking very puzzled, the rabbi asked, "Do you know of such a situation?"

"Oh no, no, of course not, it's just a hypothetical question."

Stroking his long beard thoughfully, the rabbi said, "let me think about it."

And just then, a big gust of wind blew the door open, and in walked the corpse bride. "I lay claim to this man as my husband, for he has placed this wedding ring on my finger and pronounced the solemn marriage vows," she demanded, her bony finger rattling as she shook it at her intended brigegroom.

"This is indeed a very serious matter. I'll have to consult with the other rabbis," said the rabbi.

Soon all the rabbis from the surrounding villages were gathered together. They went into conference, while the two young men anxiously awaited their decision.

The corpse bride waited on the porch tapping her foot, declaring, "I want to celebrate my wedding night with my husband."

These chilling words made every hair on the young man's body stand on end, though it was a warm summer day.

While the rabbis were conferring, the real human bride arrived and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. When her fiance explained just what had happened, she started weeping, "Oh, my life is ruined, all my hopes and dreams are shattered; I'll never be married, never have a family."

Just then the rabbis came out and asked: "Did you indeed put a gold ring on the finger, and did you dance around it three times and did you indeed pronounce the wedding vows in their entirety?"

The two young men who by this time were cowering in a far corner nodded their heads.

Looking very serious the rabbis went back to confer again.

And the young bride wept bitter tears, while the corpse bride was by now gloating at the prospect of her long awaited wedding night.

After a short while the rabbis solemnly marched out, took their seats, and announced, "Since you put the wedding ring on the finger of the corpse bride and you danced around it three times reciting the wedding vows, we have determined that this constitutes a proper wedding ceremony. Even so, we have decided that the dead have no claim upon the living."

Sighing and murmuring could be heard from all corners, the young bride was especially relieved.

The corpse bride, however, howled, "Oh, there goes my last chance for a life; I'll never have my dreams fulfilled now, it's forever lost," and she collapsed on the floor. It was a pathetic sight, a heap of bones in a tattered wedding gown, lying there, lifeless.

Overcome with compassion for the corpse bride, the young bride knelt down and gathered up that old heap of bones, carefully arranging the shredded silk finery and holding her close, half sang, half murmured, as if cradling a crying infant, "dont worry I'll live your dreams for you, I'll live your hopes for you, I'll have your children for you, I'll have enough children for the two of us and you can rest in peace knowing that our children and our children's children will be well cared for and will not forget us."

Tenderly she closed the eyes of the corpse bride, tenderly she held her in her arms and slowly and with measured steps she marched down to the river with her fragile charge, took her down by the river where she dug a shallow grave for her and laid her in it and crossed the bony arms over the bony chest, the one hand clasping the one with the ring on it, and folded the wedding gown around her.

Then she whispered, "May you rest in peace, I will live your dreams for you, don't worry, we will not forget you."

The corpse bride looked happy and at peace in her new grave, as if she somehow knew that she would be fulfilled through this young bride And the young bride covered up, slowly, the corpse bride, covered up the tattered wedding gown in the shallow grave, covered it all up with earth, then put wildflowers all over the grave and stones all around it.

Then the young bride went back to her fiance and they were married in a very solemn wedding ceremony and they lived many happy years together. And all their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren were always told the story of the corpse bride, and so she was not forgotten, nor was the wisdom and compassion she had taught them forgotten either.

 

[Dee]

That's a pretty cool tale--

It all makes a little more sense to me. Hopefully I can go see the movie tomorrow.

 

[Ivan]

Stylistically, I thought the film was great. Stop-motion animation has a naturally creepy vibe to it, like dolls come to life, which works great with Tim Burton's vision. Unfortunately I didn't think the story had enough substance to sustain a whole movie. Many of the sequences feel like they were added just to fill some time. Also the songs were pretty forgettable, which made me wonder why they bothered to make this a musical at all. It's more low-key than Nightmare, which initially made me feel a little disapointed, but it's probably unfair to compare the two films. One thing I did like was that they didn't end the movie with a crazy party or upbeat musical number, like Shrek or several other animated movies from the last decade. Also the piano playing scene was pretty cool.

 

[Tea]

Loved it. What I really enjoy about Tim Burton's films is that, more often than not, it centers around the sweetly macabre. The film went a totally different direction than I expected which is wonderful. Favorite sequences would be

Spoiler

The pub song, Emily's lament, the piano duet, anything involving Emily and Victor in the underworld.

Even the people I took to see it who hated Nightmare enjoyed it. I recommend the movie to any Tim Burton or animation fan. You won’t be disappointed.

 

[Scythemantis]

I wasn't expecting anything as epic as Nightmare, or as many characters, or as many musical numbers. Few movies can boast those things, and if this had been live action, noone would be drawing comparisons. The Corpse Bride is its own movie, and as cliche as it is to say, I think it's an instant classic. One of the first movies I've ever seen in a theatre that I'm immediately eager to own on DVD (I usually just....don't care....)

Most people hated Maggot, but I loved him. Best place ever for a Peter Lorre caricature, and he was more or less a horribly morbid "Sebastion" to a horribly morbid "Ariel". It's just a completely delightful pairing.

My favorite concept in the movie is definately the waiter. A head that gets around via a swarm of my favorite animal is the sort of thing I would come up with. Not my favorite character, though...that would have to go to Mr. Bonejangles (Elfman's character). He was just too cool.


I don't know wether I'm relieved or disappointed to hear that the film will not be picked apart by Capalert. Apparently, Capalert guy is short on cash and will not be seeing any movies released this month.

 

[Doopliss]

I thought it was a great movie. The way that they made the Land of the Dead more cheerful than the living was a great concept. I didn't really mind the shortness for it, because if it was longer, they would just fill it up with filler material.

I would definietly see it again. I loved Victor.

 

[Agent S7]

Brilliant.

I enjoyed the story, although I felt some of the musical numbers were too planned. Also, nearly all the songs were fun. I particularly enjoyed Emily, Victor and Victoria's piano songs. They were haunting and imaginative.

Just like the movie itself. This was great, not as good as Nightmare Before Christmas (which, strangely enough, has the initials "NBC") but still MUCH better than a great deal of movies, animated and not, playing these days.

Bonus points because of the incredible actor Christopher Lee.

~s7

 

[Silly McGooses]

I'm seeing it today! Can't wait! It made $6.8 million on friday. Decent enough, eh?

 

[Sr.Infierno]

Does this follow the usual Tim Burton forumula of fantastic imagery with flat writing and storytelling?

 

[Silly McGooses]

Does this follow the usual Tim Burton forumula of fantastic imagery with flat writing and storytelling?

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sort of confused about this belief that people always connect with Burton. Really, I think most of his movies have a much stronger emotional and personal core at the center than almost everything else, and I never seem to have a problem with the way he tells his stories. Maybe it's just me.

UPDATE!:
Studio estimates are in: WB is saying $20.13 million for Corpse Bride's opening weekend. Again, not too shabby...

 

[Hordesman]

Does this follow the usual Tim Burton forumula of fantastic imagery with flat writing and storytelling?

I couldn't shake the feeling WB meddled a bit too much and there didn't seem to be much in the way of smaller scaled figures to film wide shots, but overall I was pleased.

BTW. anyone spot the Harryhausen piano?

 

[Silly McGooses]

I loved it! About WB's meddling, Burton and the co-director claim that they were given total freedom over everything and the only time WB asked them to change something was to change the title (which they refused to). Not quite as good as TNBC, but still very enjoyable.

 

[Scythemantis]

I figured it would do way better than NBC's opening weekend, since an entire generation or two grew up with it after its initial failure. I hope this is far from the last Burton/Selick project.

 

[Silly McGooses]

I wouldn't call $50 million a failure...but it certainly has grown tenfold in popularity since then. The amount of merchandise these days is almost sickening,

 

[Daffy Dork]

I just got back and that was....


Stunning.

It was one of the best movies I've ever seen, The story was well told, the animation was astounding, there were some great gags, and it managed to be romantic without being sappy.

Just amazing, I think I might even see it again.

 

[Silly McGooses]

it managed to be romantic without being sappy.

Besides the visuals, I think this is probably the movie's biggest accomplishment. That's exceptionally rare.

 

[AkirQueen]

Spoiler

The pub song

Its called "Remains of the Day" incase you were wondering what it was called.

I saw this the Saturday after it came out (for the select city release, since a BIG group of my friends and I wanted to see it ASAP in NYC).
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I'll be honest, I didn't think it was that great. It was good. Just not great.
I hated how the opening was handled-didn't really draw me in. I kinda expected something more interesting, but no; we follow around a butterfly. And just the way you see Victor at his desk and then "Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride" shows up in front of him...it irked me a lot.
Same goes for the ending.

Spoiler

Don't get me wrong, it was pretty and sad at the same time. Just it ended too abrubtly.

The musical numbers were a surprise, since I only thought there was going to be one (for Bonejangles). None of them really did anything for me, save the Bonejangles one. The piano piece Victor does is really lovely, too.

I loved how smooth the animation was. They even had subtle expression changes which was nice and gave the characters more realism.

7/10

Anybody else get the text "Tim Burton's Corpse" on their tickets? XD
"Alright guys! We're gonna see Tim Burton's Corpse! Hell, that's worth $10.50 for sure!"

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