'Corpse Bride' (2005)
PG | September 23, 2005 | 77 mins
There's been a grave misunderstanding.
In a 19th-century European village, a young man about to be married is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious corpse bride, while his real bride waits bereft in the land of the living.
Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter [+]
Director: Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Writers: Caroline Thompson, Pamela Pettler, John August
Producers: Tim Burton, Allison Abbate
Cinematographer: Pete Kozachik
Editors: Jonathan Lucas, Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures
Victor: With this candle… I will set your mother on fire.
Victoria: Hildegard, what if Victor and I don’t like each other?
Maudeline: Hmpf! As if that has anything to do with marriage. Do you suppose your father and I “like” each other?
Victoria: Surely you must, a little.
Maudeline and Finis: Of course not.
Finis: If ever I see that Van Dort boy, I’ll strangle him with my bare hands!
Maudeline: Your hands are too fat, and his neck is too thin. You’ll have to use a rope.
Emily: I’ve spent so long in the darkness, I’d almost forgotten how beautiful the moonlight is.
Victor: I want some questions! Now!
General Bonesapart: Answers… I think you mean answers.
Victor: Thank you, yes, answers. I need answers.
Emily: I was a bride. My dreams were taken from me. But now – now I’ve stolen them from someone else. I love you, Victor, but you are not mine.
Pastor Galswells: Begone, ye demons from Hell! Back to the void from whence you came! You shall not enter here! Back… back… back.
Skeleton: Keep it down, we’re in a church!
Town Crier: In other news… THE DEAD WALK THE EARTH!
Emily: You!
Barkis: Emily?
Emily: You!
Barkis: But, but I left you.
Emily: For dead!
- Composer Danny Elfman originally wrote the part of Bonejangles, looking for another musician to sing it. Still, after failing to find a voice that fit, director Tim Burton asked Elfman if he would sing it. The result was so brutal on his vocal chords that Elfman was left hoarse whenever he had to voice the character.
- The movie had a 55-week shoot and included 109,440 individually animated frames set up and filmed.
- Multiple identical puppets had to be created so that more scenes could be accomplished in a shorter period. In all, fourteen puppets of the Bride and Victor were made, and thirteen were created of Victoria.
- This movie was based on a 19th-century Russian-Jewish folktale, which Joe Ranft introduced to Burton while they were finishing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). This movie began production in November 2003, while Burton was completing Big Fish (2003). He continued with production on his next live-action film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), which was produced simultaneously with this movie.
- This movie, along with Cars (2006), is dedicated to the memory of Pixar’s Joe Ranft, who tragically passed away in a car accident in August 2005.
- When the dead enter the living world during the wedding dinner of Victoria and Lord Barkis, several old women are reunited with their dead husbands. One of them utters the famous phrase “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, from Gone with the Wind (1939). The accompanying music is a brief excerpt from the film’s theme music.
Videos
Corpse Bride
1:03
9:36
5:28
5:10
9:46
17:50
- Black Sheep Reviews [Joseph Belanger]
- Combustible Celluloid [Jeffrey M. Anderson]
- Flickering Myth [Chris Ward]
- Gone with the Twins [The Massie Twins]
- Morgan on Media [Morgan R. Lewis]
- The New York Times [Manohla Dargis]
- Reeling Reviews [Laura Clifford, Robin Clifford]
- ReelViews [James Berardinelli]
- Roger Ebert [Roger Ebert]
- Rolling Stone [Peter Travers]
- San Francisco Chronicle [Ruthe Stein]
- Slant Magazine [Keith Uhlich]
- Slate [David Edelstein]
