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Late to the funeral (LTTF): Corpse Bride...

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In my most recent exile from GAF I saw Corpse Bride. The movie made me even more depressed.

Not because it was sad, but because it was...well...bad. Tim Burton is one of my favorite directors. I LOVED Nightmare Before Christmas. Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors. Danny Elfman is one of my favorite composers. The movies they have worked on together in the past (like Edward Scissorhands) have blown me away.

So clearly I had high hopes for Corpse Bride. I wanted to go see it at the theater, but I decided to see Willy Wonka (great movie) instead. Well, when I finally watched Corpse Bride last weekend, I was majorly disappointed. This is the most disappointing movie I've seen since The Village. Oh god.

The pacing of the movie is terrible. It never really explains why the characters "have" to get married, or maybe it did and I was too bored to pay attention. There is no character development. You see Johnny Depp's character (don't even remember his name) is a quiet guy, but that's it. Burton doesn't give us anything else. And his fiancee? We know she doesn't want to marry so fast, but Burton fails to shed more light on her too.

To make matters worse, the story is painfully predictable. It was obvious who the "villian" was, and to tell the truth he was a sucky villian. It's not too often in a movie that you see a villian who's villany solely is based on insurance fraud.

The music of the movie is a very mixed bag. On one hand, Elfman's score is amazing. But on the other hand, all the original songs are terrible/meh. I didn't hear one song that I could bop my head to or sing in the shower. With Nightmare Before Christmas, every song is classic. Everything is amazing. But in this movie the whole thing is meh. "It's a Terrible Day for a Wedding" is a decent song, but it just doesn't do anything for me.

The movie only has two things going for it. First off, the art design/animations are all amazing.

Second off, the movie has the best clay/robotic breats I've ever seen. Every single female in the movie seemed to have a C-E cup or something. FHUTT indeed.

Alas, I was very disappointed by this movie. It really felt like a tech demo that someone (say...Nintendo) tried to sell you for $20. Sure, there's an interesting idea behind it, and it has great potential. But it's just a tech demo, with little polish to boot. For the first 30 minutes I felt like I was waiting for the movie to start going and get better, but it never did. Sure, the part where the bride raises from the dead is cool, but after that meh. If Burton had spent more time on it, I'm sure this could have been a great movie. Nightmare Before Christmas is an award winning movie cherished by people for many reasons, and one of them is that it's clear the makers of the movie took their time with it. The movie has a lot of depth, and it's like this brilliant world Burton shared with us. Corpse Bride is more like an idea he wrote down on a paper napkin and then blew a load in. Sure, you can find little hints of Burton in there, but I want more.

6/10 >_<
 

White Man

Member
You're being too hard on this movie. Don't compare it to Nightmare. It was entertaining; worth watching once. I didn't have any qualms about the plot that suspension of disbelief couldn't handle.

My only complaint about the movie would be directed at the weak songs.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
saw it today. I think it was a decent movie, the animation was awesome, soundtrack sucked I mean c'mon this is Danny Elfman dude made some awesome soundtracks what's up with him lately he can't make a good soundtrack even if his life depended on it.

7/10
 

FoneBone

Member
It's not bad... but it overall struck me as a cynical attempt by WB to recreate the merchandising success of NBC. Wallace & Gromit was way better.
 

Patrick Klepek

furiously molesting tim burton
The songs were definitely disappointing -- but Remains of the Day is an absolute classic. Just as good as anything Elfman produced for The Nightmare Before Christmas. The rest, though...not so much.

Corpse Bride is interesting because, no, it's not as great as Nightmare, but it's a decent flick -- and a decent flick that happens to be beautifully animated. I have Nightmare, it's not going anywhere, and so, personally, have one is enough.

More than anything I blame the weakpoints on a poor script. They had a good idea that simply wasn't enough for a full film.
 

White Man

Member
eXxy said:
More than anything I blame the weakpoints on a poor script. They had a good idea that simply wasn't enough for a full film.

I agree, and I was rather disappointed because there were a wealth of things they could've done to make the story better.
 

sky

Member
PhoenixDark said:
Agreed... I wanted to love this movie, but the truth is it's just mediocre. The visual style is really all it has going for it - and although it's incredibly well executed, the actual designs seemed a bit lazy. You WILL compare this with Nightmare... it looks almost exactly the same, many of the characters are almost direct copies. Maybe next time it will all come together, again.... :/
 
The only music I enjoyed from it were the piano scenes. The songs flat out sucked and don't hold a candle to Nightmare. And yeah, the comparison had to be made. It would have worked great sans the music as a short film.
 
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