by Brianna R.
The Halloween season seems to always be the perfect time for horror movies and spooky things alike. But the movie you choose to watch doesn’t always have to give you nightmares. Corpse Bride is the perfect example of this. Unless the movie did give you nightmares then oh well, horror is subjective.
Corpse Bride is a movie directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, also well known for his movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, and released in 2005. Our main characters are Victor, Emily and Victoria. Victor and Victoria are to be wed however Victor can’t seem to do his own part of the ceremony correctly so he practices in the forest where he accidentally marries Emily. It sounds simple enough but it sure is more interesting than one would think. There's much to its charm, anyway.
What is, or rather one of the things that makes this movie so fascinating is it’s not animated digitally yet looks the part. Sure, there is some editing but the beauty for this movie definitely comes from its use of stop-motion animation. It’s hard to imagine exactly how long this movie took to make but it does look beautiful. In each scene, I always noticed how precise every little movement was and the attention to detail was absolutely done well. There’s not a part where it looks off and for stop-motion, it is extremely fluid. This form of animation adds such uniqueness to the film, it’s difficult to look away from the screen.
Besides the amazing animation, there's also the atmosphere. The world of the living is actually pretty dull looking despite it having everyone who is alive. On the flip side though, the world of the dead, there's lots of splashes of vibrant green and blue. Albeit for some dull colors there, the characters are extremely animated in the world of the dead. In the living, they are more collected and don’t really jump around. The movie overall despite the settings, has this cold feel to it due to its cooler colors, which really settles how this film is about a dead woman and her supposed groom.
One of the biggest things that is so enjoyable about Corpse Bride is it’s story. It’s not extremely complex to the point it confuses the watcher but it isn’t awfully simple either. There’s much someone can do when given a story about an already engaged man accidentally marrying a dead bride. Different reactions, characters, endings, many differences. But the way the story is handled is really interesting. Some parts of the story tie together nicely and each character has a reason as to why they are doing what they are doing. Whether it be to not get hurt again or to be with their true love, each motivation is backed up by back story or even the smallest detail in the movie that contributes that one wouldn’t expect.
The ending is for you to find out, but to be honest it can be quite subjective. That is not to say the ending doesn’t wrap up everything perfectly and leave a good impression but really, everyone has differing opinions on the perfect ending.
Does Corpse Bride deserve all the praise it gets? I find it to be quite an amazing film to watch during the halloween season and will always come back to it during this time. It does many things well, and like any other movie it does have its flaws but that really depends on what you expect. It definitely is quite the charming movie.