Corpse Bride (2005)

Directed by Tim Burton & Mike Johnson. Starring (voices) Johnny Depp, Emily Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Enn Reitel, Jane Horrocks. [PG]

Macabre but delightful stop-motion feature from Burton and company, telling the story of a fish merchant’s timid, clumsy son (Depp), engaged to marry the daughter (Watson) of an aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times, but the poor guy accidentally slips the wedding ring onto the finger of a dead woman (Carter) who rises from the grave and accepts the “offer”! If Burton’s involvement wasn’t enough of a clue, the color scheme gives away this fantasy’s outlook—the land of the living is dull and washed-out and grim, but the land beyond is full of energy, hue, and humor. The trim running time helps overcome some pacing issues, yet this handsome, engaging fable gets overly cluttered with plot as it goes; the sly humor, love story, and performance pieces are what count, not the dark schemes and secrets of a murderous con-artist voiced by Grant. Splendid voice cast, with special notice to Reitel’s amusing (if brief) send-up of Peter Lorre in the form of a lime-green maggot that lives in the corpse bride’s head. Music by frequent Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman; he also voices the singing lounge skelly called Bonejangles. Loosely based on an old Russian folktale, with original characterizations by Burton and Carlos Grangel.

74/100