So, tonight I was fortunate to get into a sneak preview of Tim Burton's new stop motion animation movie, "Corpse Bride," here at the theater on the campus of the University of Maryland. As the movie isn't officially released until tomorrow, I'll keep all of my major descriptions involving the plot to a minimum, while trying to give you my review.

I should start by saying that the movie is short, only about 80 minutes or so, and much of the plot of the movie can be seen in the previews. In fact, easily the first thirty minutes of the movie are already sumed up in the previews leaving a short 50 minutes or so left in the movie to complete the story. However, the short length of the movie shouldn't be much of a surprise given the complexity of the work that it took to make the movie.

For those of you who don't want to know ANYTHING about the plot, just skip this paragraph, but I'm going to describe everything that happens through basicly what you see in the previews. Our main character, Victor Van Dort, is to be married in an arranged marriage to Victoria Everglot. Victor's parents insist he must be married to Victoria because Victor's parents, while living the "rich life" are actually broke and feel that if Victor marries Victoria, whome is the daughter of a wealthy couple, than the Van Dorts can regain their fame and their name will be saved. Ironically, Victoria's parents, who are actually also broke, what Victoria to marry Victor for the perceived fortune the Van Dorts have. As it is an arranged marriage, Victor really isn't too happy with this, though he does seem to be falling for Victoria. Unfortunatly, in his nervousness, the wedding rehersah the next day is filled with many problems and Victor runs off into the woods to escape the chaos. While strolling through the woods he practices and receits his wedding vows bumbling and mixing up the lines all the while. He finially settles and receits his vows perfectly placing the ring on what appears to be a tree branch. However, the branch is really the hand of Emily (the Corpse Bride) who was placed in her current situation by a man who married her, took her money, and left her dead in the forest. She vowed that she would remain there until her true love returned and spoke the vows of marriage once more. Having done this, Victor now becomes the husband of the Corpse Bride against his will. The story goes on from there, but for me to go on would be to go beyond what you see in the previews, so I'll leave it at that.

I must say that the stop motion animation on this movie is absolutly amazing. Leaps and bounds above what they did in Nightmare Before Christmas. The symbolism of protraying the world of the living so drab and dull, almost black and white, while portraying the world of the dead in a mass of bright colors was also amusing. The movie also sends you into a frenzy of emotions: you'll surely laugh, there are times you may be frightened, or at least jump a little, you'll be awed and touched by the ending, possibly even letting out a tear or two, and you'll surely be amused throughout.

Overall, I wouldn't say that "Corpse Bride" is as good as "Nightmare Before Christmas" but I may just have a place for that movie that no other movie can take. However, it is a really good movie and worth a shot at seeing. My biggest complaint would be the lack of plot as so much of the movie seems to just not advance the plot at all, but the beginning and ends of the movie are just absolutly amazing. I also think that the music in this movie is first class. You'll instantly recognize the Burton touch as many times the music seems very similar to that in "Edward Scisorhands" or "Nightmare Before Christmas", which is a good thing. Also, like Nightmare, "Corpse Bride" is a musical, so expect several songs, which are surprisingly good and help to advance the plot significantly.

For my raiting, I'd give "Corpse Bride" a 7.9 out of 10, it's going to have some good compitition in a few weeks/months, but for right now, it's a great start to the fall movie line-up. I recomend this movie to any Tim Burton fan, or anyone just looking for a good movie. As for the Johnny Depp fans, if you're going for him, be cautious, I could hardly tell it was him at all as he uses a skiddish/nervous voice most all of the film.

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Good Review. I'm absolutely dying to see this movie(No Pun Intended). I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, and have loved almost every movie he's ever Written, Directed, or Produced. While I may not have huge expectations for this movie, I still plan on seeing it ASAP. If it is even remotely close to as good as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was, then my 4 bucks will be well spent.

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University of Georgia Fan since '86
Tennessee Titans fan since '99
SacTown Kings Fan since '00
Atlanta Braves Fan since '86

I saw this tonight. I couldn't get into it very much. I never cared much for The Nightmare Before Christmas and likewise, I didn't care for this either. Well, actually, I never really wanted to see it but got sucked into seeing it anyway. The stop animation, yes, is amazing, but I absolutely hate the uber-gothic art and character style. I did enjoy the symbolism of the real world being bleak and the dead world being more "alive", but what does that prove? Nothing, especially since the characters portrayed couldn't possibly be anymore lifeless (I know that was the point, but still). The plot was very thin, you know exactly what will happen, none of the characters are given any real signs of development, oh, and, the music sucks and is really forced.

It's basically Hot Topic: the Movie.

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I saw it last night. I didn't like Nightmare Before X-Mas and I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I didn't know what to expect. I think it's a pretty good movie. A lot better than Nightmare Before X-Mas.

^^Random Fact: I know Tim Burton's aunt.

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