Corpse Bride (2005)

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Director: Tim Burton, Mike Johnson

Writers: screenplay by John August and Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler, characters by Tim Burton and Carlos Grangel

Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse



A marital alliance between a classless family of wealth and a wealthless family of class is thwarted when young Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) flees his wedding rehearsal.

 


Practicing his vows in a cemetery, he inadvertently places the wedding ring on the finger of the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) and is whisked away to be her lawfully wedded (according to the laws of the afterlife) husband. 



This is a visually arresting and touching tale from Tim Burton and Mike Johnson.

 



In their conception, the world of the living is rather dreary and gloomy while the afterlife is full of color, song, and dance.

 



The Bride herself is a figure of sympathy rather than horror, having lost her own chance for wedded bliss because of her murder on her wedding night. 



Since then, all she has wanted is a true love with whom to spend her "life."

 


Victor is torn--he truly loves the woman to whom he is betrothed (Emily Watson) but also feels great sympathy and growing affection for the Bride. 



The way this melancholy triangle plays out is charming, as is the manner in which the filmmakers constantly subvert the notion that the dead must be frightening.

 


It provides a valuable object lesson for young audiences that our differences need not make us hate and fear each other.


Spoiler alert!!! This is the end of the movie!!




















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