Movie Review
I created this film review for a class to effectively showcase my knowledge on film and the different characteristics that make a good film review. Viewers looking up a film review are looking for something straightforward yet professional. In this review I am displaying my professionalism and knowledge on the subject of film.
Bringing the Dead to Life with the Corpse Bride
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride isn’t a scary film as the title suggests. It is a visually captivating, animated story of love and loss. Everything in this world is the opposite of what is expected from an animated film. There is a clear distinction between life and death through the use of color, characters, music, and lighting. The world of the living is bland and dreary making it appear sad and uninviting while the land of the dead is bright and colorful. The musical aspect of this film is wonderful and intriguing adding to the beauty of the visuals. This film is overall an artistic masterpiece from beginning to end.
Victor is the main character voiced by Johnny Depp. Depp has done quite a bit of voice acting for Tim Burton. As the movie begins, there is a marriage being arranged between Victor and Victoria (Emily Watson). Victor is described as coming from a very wealthy family while Victoria is quite the opposite; she comes from a very poor family. This marriage would be very beneficial for Victoria’s family considering it would provide them with Victor's wealth. We come to realize soon that they have never met before, but surprisingly it was love at first sight.
​But there’s one problem, Victor can’t physically complete the vows for his marriage ceremony without messing up. The officiant sends Victor off to figure it out for himself, and he ends up in the woods. He’s in the woods practicing vows and puts the wedding ring on a stick coming out of the ground. This stick turns into the finger of a dead corpse named Emily who was reaching up from her grave. Emily is the Corpse Bride voiced by Helena Bonham. This turns out to be a real wedding ceremony in the eyes of the people from the land of the dead. After this is a colorful marriage celebration where skeletons are singing and dancing.
​Burton’s story leads the audience to sympathize with Emily, not to be afraid. Emily lost her chance for happiness when she was killed before her wedding so in turn she wants to be Victor’s wife. An interesting visual is the blue butterfly. The blue butterfly makes several appearances. Two notable moments were in the beginning and the end. In the beginning, Victor releases a blue butterfly from a glass bowl, and it flies through the dark town he lives in. At the end, Emily is going to get married to Victor but can’t because of her guilt. She feels she has taken Victor away from Victoria. In turn, she doesn’t marry him, and she goes outside where she transforms into a group of blue butterflies that fly off into the moonlit sky. The blue butterfly is a unique touch Burton uses. A European wives tale states that when an unwed woman dies she turns into butterflies. In the end, the Corpse Bride finds peace and is able to finally let go when turning into a swarm of beautiful blue butterflies.
Nowadays animated movies are computer generated. For this film the characters were Claymation which is much more labor intensive. This makes it so much more creative and realistic. Burton shows the audience some of the visuals he’s known for, like gothic, dreary places, and eerie trees. He creates one of the most visually captivating, animated films I’ve ever seen. This film is very unique in every aspect. Unique when it comes to the visuals and story itself. I feel like Burton did something phenomenal when he made this film, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. This movie does so much more than just tell a story, it creates a new lens for the audience to see the world. Using a storyline not typically conveyed through this style of animation, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride brings the dead back to life.