Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Family

Helena Bonham Carter	Corpse Bride
Johnny Depp	Victor Van Dort
Albert Finney	Finnis Everglot
Michael Gough	Elder Gutknecht
Richard Grant
Emily Watson	Victoria Everglot
Tracey Ullman	Nell Van Dort/Hildegarde
Paul Whitehouse	William Van Dort/Mayhew
Joanna Lumley	Maudeline Everglot
Richard E. Grant	Barkis Bittern
Christopher Lee	Pastor Galswells

Director	Tim Burton; Mike Johnson
Producer	Allison Abbate; Tim Burton
Writer	John August; Pamela Pettler

Who else but Tim Burton could make Corpse Bride, a necrophiliac's delight that's fun for the whole family? Returning to the richly imaginative realm of stop-motion animation (after previous successes with The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach), Burton, with codirector Mike Johnson, invites us to visit the dour, ashen, and drearily Victorian mansions of the living, where young Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) is bequeathed to wed the lovely Victoria (Emily Watson). But the wedding rehearsal goes sour and, in the kind of Goth-eerie forest that only exists in Burton-land, Victor suddenly finds himself accidentally married to the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), a blue-tinted, half-skeletal beauty (how pleasantly full-bosomed she remains!) with a loquacious maggot installed behind one prone-to-popping eyeball. This being a Burton creation, the underworld of the dead is a lively and colorful place indeed, and Danny Elfman's songs and score make it even livelier, presenting Victor with quite a dilemma: Should he return above-ground to Victoria, or remain devoted to his corpse bride? At a brisk 76 minutes, Burton's graveyard whimsy (loosely based on a 19th century Russian folktale) never wears out its welcome, and the voice casting (which includes Tracey Ullman and Albert Finney) is superbly matched the film's gloriously amusing character design, guaranteed to yield a wealth of gruesome toys and action figures for many Halloweens to come. --Jeff Shannon