"I just love Tim Burtons films and Jonny Depp."

"What it is often most appealing about animated films is that despite, or perhaps because of, the infinite pains and almost superhuman attention to detail that go into making them, they are fast-paced, fun, and not a minute longer than necessary.

Making use of the stop-motion technique of animation he first employed in The Nightmare before Christmas, the technical proficiency of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is even more spectacular than in the previous film.

Corpse Bride springs from a dark period in Russian history when mobs, in fits of anti-Semitic frenzy, would descend on Jewish weddings, murder the brides and bury them in their wedding dresses.

Corpse Bride, though dark, macabre and imbued with Burton's trademark black humour, is a far cry from the horrors that inspired it.

The story is set in a small, 19 th century town on the edge of a forest, and centres around mild-mannered, nervous Victor van Dort (Johnny Depp) the son of nouveau riche fish merchants (Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehead), who is to be married to the eminently Victorian Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson), daughter of a pair of land-rich, but dirt poor, aristocrats (Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney).

Victor botches his vows during the wedding rehearsal, and ends up in a forest glade to get his act together.

Realising he has feelings for Victoria, he finally manages to say his vows perfectly, and places the ring in his pocket on a dead branch, only to realise that he has inadvertently proposed to a bride long buried (Helena Bonham-Carter) … who accepts and carries him off to the quirkily psychedelic land of the dead.

From the hectoring tones of Absolutely Fabulous’ Joanna Lumley as the mother-in-law from hell, complete with outrageously bouffant hairdo, and Richard E Grant as the insanely murderous Lord Barkis Bittern, there is more than enough to keep both children and grownups entertained. All in all, the film makes it easy to believe that being dead couldn’t be all that bad … in fact, quite a lot of fun.

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