Here Comes the Bride

I am not a goth. It’s a common misunderstanding, seeing as how ninjas wear black too.

That being said, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is a must-see.

Tim Burton’s movies touch a very universal chord of sentiment in a way that many filmmakers cannot. It’s a shame that the Goth culture has embraced his work as an expression of their angst: the irony is that Goths identify solely with Burton’s isolated characters whereas Burton clearly makes his movies with no niche in mind. His films are not elitist nor categorically defined, which is perhaps why there are so appealing.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride has been compared to being direct kin to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the relationship is merely superficial. This film has more in common with his masterpiece, Edward Scissorhands: it is a fairly simple love story wrapped under a Gorley-esque gothic bow. Better said, it combines what was good about its predecessors and amalgamates it into one of this year’s best films.

The appeal of Burton’s work here and with Edward Scissorhands is that the emotional stakes are raised by the impending permanence and finality that their climaxes entail. Romantic movies follow a generic formula of one sex seeking the love of another (the end, as in real life, is either positive or negative and rarely inbetween). Realistically, however, there is very little at stake: the jilted lover will continue his or her life in pursuit while the lovebirds will find complications within their relationships. There is no finality to the romantic movie taken to its logical conclusion. But Burton’s characters are not afforded such a luxury. They are separated from the world in such a way that they are not afforded a second chance. Edward Scissorhands will either get the girl or be secluded from the world: there will, literally, never be another girl. It is perhaps this, and not the gothic imagery that Burton utilizes, that appeals to the Goth subculture: an overwhelming yet temporary anxiety that unrequited love will be a permanent facet of life.

In both films discussed, the protagonists are not given the happy ending but instead learn to appreciate and live a true and lasting definition of love and life. Edward will forever be stuck in his mansion for eternity, caught in a freeze-frame of having loved and lost yet forever more at peace. At the end of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, one of its protagonists must also peacefully contend with the reality of the situation. What makes these moments that much more meaningful is that they are essentially the opposite of what we are taught about practical love: we respond to rejection with anger, contempt, and a passive attitude that is accusatory and/ or apathetic. We aim to move on. Burton’s characters are uplifting in that they encourage an idealistic view that love and hope should exist beyond hurt and pain, both of which are temporary.

“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride” is how one character describes the afforementioned Corpse Bride. Unlike movies which attempt to disprove or rise above such negative sentiments, the characters of Tim Burton accept the grim reality of their situation and are content with their lot in life.

Grade: A

Comment posted by Beetlejuice - Movie Reviews Blog
at 10/30/2006 3:45:43 PM

[…] Tim Burton has a way of making the grotesque and the macabre look like as much fun as possible. Movies like Beetlejuice, the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride are proof of that. The Neitherworld is packed with corpses; people who have been severed in two, had their heads shrunken by voodoo priests, choked on chicken bones or died in grisley car wrecks. All these mutilated dead people are brought to life with a visual style that treads that thin boundary between “gruesome horror movie” and “humorous cartoon”. Sometimes, you don’t know whether to laugh or wince. […]

Comment posted by The Nightmare Before Christmas - Movie Reviews Blog
at 10/20/2006 4:03:43 PM

[…] In a day and age when every animated feature film has to be CG-animated, the Nightmare Before Christmas is something wonderfully different. It’s scary, it’s moving, it’s beautiful…it’s perfect. It’d be a crime not to give this film an A. A decade later it received a sequel in spirit, called the Corpse Bride, which is also worth checking out. October 20, 2006 Posted by DrSpengler as Reviews, Horror, Kids/Family, Musical, Animation at 2:59 pm […]

Comment posted by AhmedF
at 1/23/2006 5:43:52 PM

I think jumping too much on here - would I take my kids (if I had any to this) - definitely. Did I enjoy it on mine own? Not really - dunno for whatever reason, but it did not draw me in.

Comment posted by DrSpengler
at 1/23/2006 4:22:58 PM

In regards to the “predictability” of the film, I thought that it steered pretty clear from typical Hollywood “predictability” andgave us some “less-expected predictability”.

I mean, face it, nearly all movies are predictable in some form or another. You knew from that start that Johnny Depp’s character was only going to marry ONE of the brides (he wasn’t Mormon as far as I could tell), just as you knew from the start that the movie was going to be a musical. The conclusion was inevitable, but instead of going the standard Hollywood “happy-ending” direction (like introducing a second, attractive male side-character to get pawned off to the bride who didn’t wind-up with Depp, or something equally cliche’d) you were left with someting bitter-sweet which is much more meaningful.

Besides, it’s not the ending (predictable as it may have been to some) which is the core of the movie, it’s how they GET to the ending that makes the movie.

We all knew the Titanic was going to sink at the end of James Cameron’s saucey waste of time, we all knew King Kong was going going to become a gooey crater at the end of Peter Jackson’s pretty remake, we all knew Anakin was going to become Darth Vader at the end of George Lucas’ “masterpiece”…but that’s not why we went to see those movies. We went to see HOW they got to that end.

Or, to bring up another example just because I feel like it; any of you ever watch “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”?

“You KNOW Sunshine Boy gets to the top of the mountain, but it’s HOW he gets there that’s so exciting!”

So really, predictability isn’t a major fault. At least, certainly not for The Corpse Bride.

In regards to the “cuteness” complaint…this was a dark comedy. Its whole purpose was to be a blend of cute and funny with gruesome and nasty.

Sure, the Corpse Bride was totally hawt…but she also had a rotting, exposed jaw and ribs and a maggot worming around in her brain.

Sure, those two kids were all laughing and giggling all the time in their adorable little sailor suits…but they were DEAD CHILDREN. You knew a mother was grieving out there somewhere.

And I think that’s what the people who make the “too cute” accusation tend to miss. The “cuteness” was just a sugar-coating for the dark and violent plot of the movie; the murder of the Corpse Bride and her eternal sorrow and loneliness.

They also need to realise that this was marketed in a very grey area.

Is it aimmed at kids? It’s animated and has songs and it’s rated PG.

Is it aimmed at teenagers? The trendy goth necronerds are big into this stuff and are sure to buy all the latest t-shirts at Hot Topic.

Is it aimmed at adults? It’s got corpses and necrophelia undertones and dead children and a murder mystery.

This movie had a little something for everyone. Music and “friendly” zombies for the kids, a hawt corpse for the goth teenagers and lots of dark and grotesque imagery for the adults.

I wouldn’t say it was A-worthy like the Ninja, but it’s a high-ranking B in my opinion.

I also drew more comparisons to Beetlejuice than Edward Scissorhands when I first viewed it; what with the dark yet silly version of the underworld and all that.

But that’s just me.

Comment posted by OnePumpedNinja
at 1/23/2006 2:45:21 PM

But still, how are we defining cutesy? Are we looking at thematic cuteness, character cuteness, grammatical cuteness, or cuteness-by-design?

All of Tim Burton’s are incredibly predictable and bitter-sweet. That is part of his appeal as a filmaker and storyteller. And targetted towards kids? Considering how most people in their 20’s have grown up with Burton since childhood, it only testifies to the appeal of his movies to both little ones and grown-ups.

Comment posted by AhmedF
at 1/23/2006 2:40:16 PM

mmm I think you missed my point.

Lets borrow from Pixar - Monsters Inc vs Finding Nemo. Both of the same style, but I found Monsters Inc to be a bit too cutesy for me, whereas the other had just the right amount of fun.

To get to the nitty gritty, I found the story to be incredibly perdictable. I Found there to be nothing of interest, and I found the music to be subpar and not at all exciting.

Or in another word, targetted to kids and not at all interesting to me.

Comment posted by OnePumpedNinja
at 1/23/2006 12:10:55 PM

And “San Diego” is German for “a whale’s vagina.”

Like a philosophy class in which is taught the complication posed by two competing truths, the proposition that fandom gives weight to opinion is immediately challenged when you have 2 fans of contested fanhood arguing 2 different points of view. I too am a fan of Tim Burton but I do not use it to justify whether my opinion is worth a flip.

But it is worth a flip because I am a ninja, and ninjas flip out all the time.

I do not know how “cutesy” is being defined, so I asked my friend Merriam-Webster. He/she says:

Cutesy: “Deliberately or affectedly cute; precious”

Deliberately cute? I would argue that a little girl in pig tails is cute as is a midget on a tricycle. But a blue, semi-hot corpse who gets strangled by her scummy lover, doomed to find her one, true love? Not cute. And if this is the standard for cutedom, then what of The Nightmare Before Christmas or Edward Scissorhands, which covered similar themes in their own respective fashions? If there is any complaint that I can concur with with this movie, it is that it comes off as The Nightmare Before Scissorhands Lite. But I like Coke Zero, so naturally I enjoy the dilution.

Comment posted by AhmedF
at 1/23/2006 11:41:48 AM

Looks like we will be agreeing to disagree

I saw this at the TIFF, and of all the movies I saw (Capote, Where the Truth Lies, Proof, and this), this movie was the most underwhelming to me. I’ve been a fan of Tim Burton for a while, and also of stop/claymation, but there was one problem with this movie - it was too damn cutesy. Really only way I can explain it.