Corpse Bride Escaped the Long Shadow of Tim Burton’s Most Famous Animated Adventure

Whereas not completely his child, The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas is endlessly related to Tim Burton, and it’s one of many motion pictures most consider when mentioning the veteran director.

For years, there was speak of Burton returning to cease movement. It had been an early ardour, in any case. A tumultuous time within the years since that film’s launch noticed Burton’s star burning rather less shiny due to flops each truthful (Planet of the Apes) and unfair (Mars Assaults!). Nevertheless, Burton may nonetheless create lovely and odd movies comparable to Large Fish and Sleepy Hole, so it was time to make that long-awaited sojourn to stop-motion.

Corpse Bride, co-directed by Mike Johnson, is a usually Burton piece, much more naturally so than The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas. Set in a Nineteenth-century European village, it follows the story of Victor, a younger man whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious corpse bride, whereas his actual bride, Victoria waits bereft within the land of the residing.

The characters and settings seize that signature type seen in Burton’s earlier drawings and animations. Victor particularly appears to be like like a ”Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton movie. Unsurprisingly, he sounds prefer it, too, as Depp as soon as once more teamed up with Burton. It was the second of their collaborations in that yr alone after Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility. It marked his first time voice appearing for a theatrical movie. Depp and Burton have been doing each movies collectively, so Depp was Willy Wonka by day and Victor by night time.

The solid is a formidable one, crammed with acquainted voices. Past Depp, Burton’s then-wife Helena Bonham-Carter, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Albert Finney, Emily Watson, and Tracey Ullman have been among the many roster. Lee had additionally labored with Burton on Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility, and having his grave tones within the film added to the gothic ambiance of the Nineteenth-century village.

Like Clockwork

Know-how had come a great distance since Nightmare, and the fashions have been far more intricate. Their facial expressions have been managed by clockwork mechanisms that have been nearly as painstaking because the previous replaceable heads. One crew member described having nightmares about his personal face being managed by clockwork after interacting with the mechanisms a lot.

A lot has been made from Burton’s enter into The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas and the omission of Henry Selick in promotional supplies lately. Burton was extra receptive to sharing duties and credit score on Corpse Bride. He defined the method was fairly totally different from Nightmare.

In a 2005 interview, Burton mentioned, “The distinction on that was that one I had designed fully. It was a really accomplished package deal in my thoughts. I felt prefer it was there. I felt extra comfy with it. With this, it was a bit extra natural. It was primarily based on an previous people story. We stored type of altering it, however, you already know, I had an awesome co-director with Mike Johnson. I really feel like we complemented one another fairly effectively. It was only a totally different film, a special course of.”

The end result was a fantastically, meticulously crafted movie that informed a greater story with a broader vary of robust characters than Nightmare. If it fell down anyplace, it was in opposition to Nightmare’s strongest go well with, the songs. Corpse Bride’s musical numbers have been visually attention-grabbing, however nothing is as memorable as This Is Halloween or What’s This?

Nonetheless, Corpse Bride is totally different sufficient to flee the lengthy shadow of Burton’s festive favourite. Its wealthy gothic European ambiance and quintessential Burton quirks make it one of many purest distillations of the director’s imaginative and prescient on the time. Which is stunning when it was much more collaborative than earlier work.