Review: Corpse Bride

I read before that Corpse Bride is based on a Russian folktale. A folktale, huh? I thought folktales were suppose to have a lesson in the end, or am I confusing that with something else...

Anyway, Corpse Bride is about a young man named Victor who has been arranged to marry a young girl named Victoria. Both parents have it in their head that the marriage will finally bring them into wealth, not knowing that both families are actually in the poor house. Victor gets cold feet and then goes into the woods to clear his mind. He practices vows on what he thinks is a tree branch and finds that he accidentally slipped the ring on a corpse, thus reviving her from her grave. Victor spends the rest of the film trying to return to the land of the living, while the Corpse Bride tries to keep him. As any folktale, there will be a happy ending.

This movie is rated PG, which I suppose is appropriate. It's not too scary for young children, aside from the scary music. And it's definitely an offbeat fairytale compared to something like Cinderella. Maybe a Cinderella for those little goths in training.

The only complaint I have is the ending. I think it wraps up too quickly. For something rated PG, they should make it a little more explicit that a happy ending occurs - for instance, we never do see a proper wedding, so how are kids suppose to know what happened in the end? Adults can fill in the blanks or Tim Burton intended to leave it to our imagination, but the younglings might not have an idea.

It's a fascinating study in stop motion animation. You can see the painstaking quality in the production and the music that fits like only Danny Elfman can. This is worth seeing in the theatre, but only for matinee price.

My Movie Ratings
Worth seeing in the theatre...at full price
Worth seeing in the theatre, but only if it's a matinee.
Worth renting.
Wait for it to show on cable.