Robinson than with her daughter Elaine the Bride, by comparison, has so much more life (so to speak) in her than Victoria, and Victor could certainly stand a little bit of excitement in his otherwise colorless existence. While watching Victor, Victoria and the Corpse Bride go through the matrimonial motions a second time on DVD, I was reminded of Roger Ebert's argument that Benjamin Braddock, the protagonist of Mike Nichols' The Graduate, was better off with Mrs. But these sequences shine all the more bright in direct comparison to the film's central conceit, which by all rights should be dominating our hearts and minds. That said, there are some amazing moments of visual magnificence - the shared, piano-side chat between Victor and Victoria, the dutch angles that signal the Corpse Bride's introduction - that far exceed the work done in Nightmare Before Christmas, and Burton isn't completely bereft of crackpot/genius ideas: in an inspired move, the reunion of the living and the dead is not the stuff of zombie flicks, but a series of wistful and often funny re-introductions between spouses, parents and children. Starting with Burton and Elfman of course, the picture is populated with recognizable, deservedly acclaimed talent - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, to name but a few - but despite their collective best efforts, the narrative never builds any momentum, rendering the film's melancholy musical mash-up a solemn song and dance indeed. At 77 minutes, Corpse Bride only barely crosses the finish line into feature-length territory, and yet, the film drags far more than it should - especially given the impeccable pedigree of the participants involved. Gothic wackiness ensues, and Victor soon finds himself at the nexus between the worlds of the living and the dearly departed when confronted with the choice of picking just one bride to take his side, Victor is forced to make a difficult decision - one that, as it turns out, just might literally raise the dead. Following the release of Burton's previously over-designed big-budget, empty-hearted spectacle Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride follows the unenviable travails of Victor (Johnny Depp), a hapless suitor who inadvertently proposes marriage to the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) while rehearsing his vows for a wedding to the very-much-alive Victoria (Emily Watson).
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