‘Corpse Bride’ Is An Underrated Tim Burton Classic

Burton's movies, especially early ones, show a distinct style. They use twisted, gothic imagery.Corpse BrideCorpse Bride is no exception. The movie features some of Burton's most extreme character designs. A tall, sharp priest contrasts with the inverted shapes of Victor's parents' heads and the thin, round bodies of Victoria's parents. Only Victor, Victoria, and Emily have bodies like normal humans.

Some of Burton's designs enhance their film roles. The town crier has a bell-shaped silhouette. Burton foreshadows Barkis Bittern's true character with long, tail-like coat tails and a hairstyle resembling two horns.

Corpse BrideCorpse Bride opens in a Victorian town. It has tall gothic buildings and an old stone bridge. A spooky, dense forest with a graveyard surrounds it. The setting and its people use only shades of gray, showing this is a boring, oppressive place.

Victor and Victoria's parents sing about planning a wedding. They only follow through because of inherited money. Victor finds his voice in the underworld, partly due to the afterlife's more exciting world. Burton loves this contrast: the 'boring' normal world versus the exciting world of outcasts. He builds entire worlds with animation.Corpse BrideThe visuals help make his point clear.

After Victor proposes to Emily and she kisses him, he faints and wakes up in the afterlife. Unlike the bland, gray world he left, the departed world is colorful and exciting. Victor's first experience there happens in a jazz club. Strange, deceased characters in bright colors play upbeat music. Several cultures and films like Coco and The Book of Life show the spirit world this way.CocoandThe Book of LifeThese films show the spirit world this way; the afterlife world of Corpse Bride.Corpse BrideCorpse Bride is very Tim Burton.

In his films, people considered 'normal' become weirdos and underdog heroes. Therefore, the dancing, singing skeletons and dead corpses in his underworld are some of his most visually Burton-esque movies.

In this kids' movie, death is a happy choice, not sad.

Victor thinks marrying Emily, the corpse bride, will bring him happiness after seeing Victoria marry another man against her will. Since Victor is alive, he must die for this. Emily briefly considers tricking Victor into drinking the Wine of Ages, which is poison. She changes her mind, not wanting to cheat Victor. Victor agrees to drink it willingly and calls everyone in the afterlife to plan their wedding.

Burton shows that finding comfort in the afterlife over the living world is not new.Beetlejuice.'s Lydia Deetze and Victor might share much.

Victor tricks Emily into thinking he wants to see his parents in the living world. He then sneaks to visit Victoria. Emily catches them and drags Victor back to the afterlife using frightening winds and lightning. Victoria tries to explain Victor's absence, but her family sees her as mentally unstable.

Locked in her room, Victoria climbs a wall to reach the church in the rain, hoping the priest will help. The priest pretends to believe her, then drags Victoria back to her parents. They lock her in her room, board up the windows, and force her to marry someone she dislikes. This action causes trauma.

Using a song advances the plot in many children's movies. Yet, most songs in kids' movies focus on dreams and feelings, not explaining a main character's death.

The underworld's jazz style has a one-eyed skeleton sing-tell Victor this story in a conflicting way. Instead of a sad ballad or song about anger at Emily's attacker, Burton tells the story through an upbeat dance number with skeletons singing backup. The song, "Remains of the Day," includes lyrics like:

Die, die we all pass away. Do not wear a frown; it is okay. You might try to hide or pray, but we all become the remains of the day.

The song uses cheerful music to frame death positively, but hearing it in a kids' movie feels creepy.

To celebrate Emily and Victor's wedding, underworld residents visit the living world. Their appearance there is terrifying. A scene recalls the "Day O" dinner party inBeetlejuice.Victor and Victoria's families eat until skeletons and corpses suddenly appear from the fireplace. They drop an eyeball into Victoria's father's soup. Chaos erupts as the living run and hide in fear. The dead seem to enjoy taking over the town, frightening old people and children. A child sees they are not as scary as they look; one kid recognizes a soul as a relative. All the souls are relatives, and they share a quick bond with the living.

The scene unfolds pleasantly, yet it is horrifying at first glance. The town crier runs around screaming, "The dead walk the earth!" This is something characters in zombie movies often yell.

Many children's movies use animal sidekicks, and this film is no exception. This time, the creature companion is a little more gruesome.

Emily shares her head with a maggot that looks and sounds just like horror movie legend Peter Lorre. Like great animated sidekicks, he gives advice and punchlines while wriggling out of Emily's eye socket and repeatedly making her eyeball fall out. Later, the maggot connects with someone living, saying, "You don't know me but I used to live in your dead mother."

Burton's movies feature grotesque yet friendly companions. The maggot, though gross, fits right into this style.

Burton took ideas he played with in BeetlejuiceThe 1988 film showed an afterlife world with characters having clear fatal wounds—slashed wrists, being flattened, hanging from a noose—and Burton used animation to make these sicknesses worse.

Characters have knives sticking out of their heads and huge blast holes in their chests. Pulling a sword from a skeleton's chest lets the drink flow out for comic relief. Burton finds splitting people comical; Victor meets a man split in half to cross a narrow street. This is even worse: this character shows up many times, and the same joke happens repeatedly.

Burton shows interest in dead pets, seen in FrankenweenieandThe Nightmare Before Christmas. The pet inCorpse Bride, however, is a little more horrifying.

Victor accepts he proposed to a corpse and lives in the underworld. Emily gives him a wedding present: a box that rattles when shaken. Victor opens it, finds bones, and feels horror until they come alive as Scraps, his childhood dog. Victor realizes Emily returned his companion, and his fear lessens. Perhaps seeing so much weirdness makes a living skeleton dog less scary.

Victor remains timid and meek; he cannot recall his wedding vows correctly. Before the film's scariest scene, Victor leaves town. He practices, then walks through a forest. The forest grows darker, denser, and creepier the farther he goes.

Eventually, he reaches a gnarled tree from Burton'sSleepy HollowVictor places the ring on what he thinks is a branch. Victor does not notice how terrifying his surroundings become during his walk. Darkness covers him; hundreds of crows stare. Graves and tall trees fill the area. Then, a woman grabs his hand and crawls from the ground to chase him. Victor falls and runs into trees, showing slapstick. This movie seems meant for kids.

This film uses puns and clever jokes that younger viewers might miss. Some jokes are macabre, which works well in certain cases.

Victor wakes up in the afterlife jazz club. He meets Paul, the head waiter, who is a severed head acting as a waiter. Paul speaks with a French accent to fit the classy waiter image. Bugs help Paul travel. Paul is surprisingly not disturbing among the weirdos at the club.

Mayhew, a fishmonger and carriage driver, coughs through the first part. His sickness causes him to drop while driving the carriage, and he falls off before the vehicle runs him over. He died and went to the underworld. He told Victor important news about Victoria marrying someone else. His death moves the plot, but watching him fall and then hear him crushed by wheels is horrifying. Seeing deceased characters sing is one thing; seeing their end and then their blue face in the afterlife is another.

Of course,Corpse BrideThis film is one of Burton's most Burton-esque. Death is not excluded, even for kids.

Corpse Bride.The film holds subtle jokes. Some jokes take several viewings to catch. Observant fans saw Victor play a "Harryhausen" brand piano. This pays tribute to Ray Harryhausen, a legend in stop-motion animation. The film also includes references to Walt Disney.The Skeleton Dance., Rhett Butler's famous line from.Gone With The Wind.The film includes Edward Gorey's creepy Victorian style artwork and other things. Some movie jokes are more gruesome.

Victor first realizes he is trapped in the underworld. He tries to escape while Emily walks after him calmly. He runs through the underworld street. Viewers see it in detail. Victor and the viewer experience a clever, disturbing sight: the secondhand shop. It sells literal arms and hands that residents can buy if they want another limb.