To some people (me particularly) Tim Burton’s other 2005 film,
Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory seemed to say: “Hey! Look everyone!
We’ve remade Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! removing all
the things that made the original a classic; the drug-addled psychedelia,
Gene Wilder’s spectacularly unhinged performance and the darker,
malevolent tone; replacing them with an vacuous Studio lustre, uneventfully
ticking off each scene as we went; providing no imagination or investment
of our own!”.
Thankfully Corpse Bride takes a shovel and thoroughly buries Charlie in terms of creativity, gallows-humour and enjoyment. Tim Burton’s previous venture into animation saw him co-writing and overseeing A Nightmare Before Christmas (working with Animator / Corpse Bride co-director Mike Johnson); the film gave Burton’s trademark gothic humour and lonely-romanticism a global audience, gave a shot in the arm to stop-motion animation, and made Goth-girls across the globe lust after the pumpkin-headed Jack Skellington.
Johnny Depp, Burton’s most regular thespian muse, makes for a far more interesting character in Corpse Bride’s Victor Von Dort. Victor (Johnny Depp) is a repressed, monochromatic quasi-Victorian Hugh Grant, being thrown into marriage by his money-grubbing Mother. Nervously clutching his tie and bumbling endearingly through his life until he meets his betrothed, the doll-like Victoria (Emily Watson) and then, in a school-boy error, marries a corpse instead (Helena Bonham Carter), thus he is whisked away into a jazz-tinged effervescent underworld.
What gives the story its life (no pun intended) and vibrancy is the remarkable ‘claymation’; which is seeing something of a comeback with Corpse Bride and Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (both nominated for an Oscar) as opposed to the rapidly escalating world of CGI. It can be argued that contemporary animation is the greatest source of physical comedy, especially with Corpse Bride, as the subtleties and complexities provide a constant flow of giggles, in-jokes and enchantment for (yes) the whole family.
Corpse Bride also boasts an impressive vocal-ensemble. Co-stars include: Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Joanna Lumley, Paul Whitehouse, Jane Horrocks, Tracey Ullman and so on. Non of the actors worked face-to-face, yet their characters interact seamlessly. Corpse Bride also uses its brevity to great effect, at 76 minutes the film possesses not an inch of fat, and manages to be three or four times more interesting than Charlie… for non of its budget.
Yet excellent production and an interesting cast alone does not a good film make. Nobody enjoys a film without a twinge of emotional engagement, and Corpse Bride’s characters (created by Manchester’s Mackinnon and Saunders) with their big pretty eyes and little flapping lips resonate the story beautifully, allowing Tim Burton’s vision (the film couldn’t be any more Burton) to hit home superbly.