Tim Burton's Corpse Bride: Widescreen Edition DVD Review

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Title: Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

Region: One

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Starring The Voices Of: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Christopher Lee, Albert Finney, Joanna Lumley, Tracy Ullman, Michael Gough, and Richard E. Grant

Writers: John August, Caroline Thompson, and Pamela Pettler

Directors: Mike Johnson and Tim Burton

Feature length: 77 minutes

Extras: Inside The Two Worlds Featurette, Danny Elfman Interprets The Two Worlds, The Animators: The Breath Of Life, Tim Burton: Dark Vs. Light, Voices From The Underworld, Making Puppets Tick, The Voices Behind The Voice, The Corpse Bride Preproduction Galleries, Theatrical Trailer, Music Only Track

Languages: English, French (Dubbed In Quebec), and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 24

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2005/DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

“Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” is a dark fairytale about a young man (Johnny Depp) who finds himself in the land of the dead after reciting lines he as memorized for an arranged marriage in 19^th century Europe. The Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) mistakes his recital for the words of a suitor who abandoned her years ago and left her to die. From the drab world of the living, our hero finds himself in the colorful world of the dead where he must prove to his new bride that this is all a mistake or accept his fate and officially marry her in the world of the living. This stop motion follow-up to “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” has the same characteristic style and look found in all of Burton’s efforts, but the story is rather weak and viewers of all ages will see the climax coming within the first thirty minutes. Some of the characters are reminiscent of the stop motion creations seen in holiday programs from the 1960s, but with a darker edge Burton is famous for. “Corpse Bride” is not a bad film, but it certainly is not a work of genius. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was far more entertaining with more memorable music. It was funnier too. Danny Elfman’s music and original songs are simply unmemorable here. The best voice work comes from the ever-recognizable Christopher Lee, who proclaims Tim Burton as the best Director he has ever worked with. Considering Mr. Lee’s lengthy career in genre films, he is paying Burton a very high credit that I hope Burton truly appreciates, especially when one considers Lee has also worked with George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and Steven Spielberg.

The picture quality is fabulous with a matted (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions and a well mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. A French Language (Dubbed In Quebec) and a Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also included along with English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the dual layered DVD. A music only soundtrack is also made available and one can switch between the language soundtracks easily while the film is in progress.

The bulk of the extra value materials are featurettes that focus on developing the two fantasy worlds for the film (4:02) where one learns that no computer enhancement was used at all to create the drab world of the living. What you see on the screen is what they used for those segments. Since I was not particularly impressed with Elfman’s music or songs for the film, I cared little for his interpretations (4:57). The featurette focusing on how the animators brought the characters to life (6:38) was interesting because animators in many ways are truly the triple threat talents of Hollywood. They are actors because they must convincingly create characters out of inanimate objects, they are producers because they use their skills to create these beings from just about anything whether it is stop motion, cell, or CGI, and they are directors for their own characters too because in addition to the actor’s voice that helps to bring the characters to life, the animators are very much collaborators with all of the artisans and what they bring to their assigned roles is every bit as important as the actors who show up on a set to play their roles. Not to lesson the magic actors bring to a film of any type, but if I were to liken the relationship between animators and actors to a live action film, the animators would be the auteur that writes the screenplay, creates the characters, and directs the actors. The actors would be like the composer whose music invigorates the final product. Anyone who has ever made a film and added music to it, regardless if they are a professional or amateur realizes right away how much of a difference a score makes on any project so again, the actors are the ones who provide the performance the completes bringing the animated characters to life like a composer’s music, but the animators lay the foundations and about 70 percent or more of the actual construction without which there could be no film anymore than there can be a film without a script with a vision and well developed characters. That is at least most of the time.

A short exploration into Tim Burton’s vision for the film (3:38) seemed like a waste of time for me because it doesn’t take a film buff to get the obviousness that the world of the dead is livelier than the world of the living in the film. Featurettes on the voice recordings (5:58) and the puppet creations (6:33) are complemented by comparative footage of the actors recording their dialogue with scenes from the film (7:35) and a motion gallery of pre-production art (13:26). The theatrical trailer (1:54) and a DVD spots for “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory” (: 33) wrap up the extra value features included on this DVD. The interactive menus feature animated transitions and are easy to navigate.

“Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.

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