The other night, looking for something short and light to watch while waiting for the winter TV season to sputter to life, I noticed that Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, which was, like, #5 on my Netflix queue, had newly become available for instant viewing. So, I took the plunge six feet under. I put this on my queue for one complicatedly simple reason: I love Tim Burton, I love Johnny Depp, I love the unique animated whimsy of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride has all of these ingredients. I was hoping for an interesting new brew of gothic and goofy fun, but, instead, I got kind of an old brew that produced a pleasing if less-than-original taste experience, kind of like Bud Light. Trust me.
In Corpse Bride, dreamy Johnny voices Victor, an awkward and clumsy young man betrothed to Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson). The betrothal was arranged by both sets of parents (her father's voiced by Albert Finney) for mutual financial gain; unfortunately, the betrothed have never met and are more than reluctant to go through with the wedding. While attending the wedding rehearsal, presided over by the local church deacon (voiced by Christopher Lee), Victor forgets the vows and, through his clumsiness, royally derails the proceedings, so he runs out to the nearby dark and spooky forest in his frustration. In the process of reciting and re-reciting the ritualistic vows and gradually setting them to memory, he places the wedding ring on a tree branch, he thinks, only to find out that the branch is the inanimate skeletal finger of the legendary Corpse Bride (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter). By placing the ring on her finger and reciting wedding vows, the enchanted Bride believes that Victor has wed himself to her, unbeknownst to him, and she whisks him away to the land of the dead, which is apparently one big party, to live with her forever. In doing so, Victor realizes that he may actually love Victoria and tries every means possible to return to the land of the living, while Victoria worries after her beloved and falls victim to a scheming lord who insinuates himself into the financial arrangement by offering himself as a replacement for the missing Victor.
Corpse Bride was cute, mildly entertaining, and would have seemed highly original if it was not territory already repeatedly tread by Mr. Burton himself. Every Burton mainstay, from Depp to Carter to Lee to Finney to Danny Elfman, the scorer, to animator Mike Johnson, to other Burton collaborators, appear in this film. The end result, therefore, feels like an amalgamation of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, and Beetlejuice, with a bit of Sweeney Todd thrown into the mix, for, little did I know, Corpse Bride is a musical, complete with Carter's airy and unsupported voice crowding the mix. While the combination of the old standbys is largely unoffensive, it's also kind of boring and, well, kind of like beating a corpsified horse.
Corpse Bride had its good points, though, such as an inventive concept and, of course, the animation is what makes it fun to watch at all. There are plenty of sly, witty, and sometimes disturbing visual gags, including the weird and wonderful that Burton is famous for, to keep the viewer visually stimulated and entertained. Still, the songs felt sort of lifeless and forced and were largely subpar for Elfman, with some simplistic and sometimes annoying melodic/rhythmic structures, and the story execution was also lacking. The film clocks in at 77 minutes and was probably made with children in mind, so logical story progression was probably not a priority, but there was no character development, especially with regard to Victor; no background for the betrothal or the apparent wedding ritual; and there were some unlikely if barely plausible explanations for why Victor suddenly decides to love Victoria and vice versa, other than that doing so seems to offer viable escape from his newly deceased predicament.
Watching Corpse Bride was amusing and passed the time; it was a cute movie with occasional laughs and some production elements that were a cut above the usual animated fare, but it was surprisingly, and disappointingly, unoriginal for Tim Burton. I think, therefore, that the film deserves to be rated a 6.5 for being between cute/mediocre and shaky/entertaining. As to the test, I don't think it passes. I prefer The Nightmare Before Christmas as to story and originality and would prefer to see dreamy Johnny in all his glory in Sleepy Hollow and would rather tolerate Carter's singing in Sweeney Todd and would rather jam along to singing dead things in Beetlejuice rather than re-tread well worn paths with Corpse Bride, though at 77 minutes, it's a low risk recommendation for other Burton fans.