I got my Iron Man Blu-ray Disc yesterday. I haven't checked out the Movie or Special Features yet, but the packaging is wicked.
Yesterday marked the first day of October. I decided to undertake an ambitious project for me. 31 Movies in 31 days.
31 Horror movies that is. And hopefully 31 reviews.
Yesterdays film was THE CORPSE BRIDE.
It's a beautiful looking picture especially on the Blu-Ray disc I saw it on. The sound was also nothing short of fantastic. Too bad the film had left as cold as the titular character. I had wanted to see this when it first came out. But made plans with a friend that never materialized. The plan and the friend seemed to vanish into thin air.
Even though I owned a copy of the film on DVD and I got the Blu-Ray for free last year with my Playstation 3, I still didn't feel right watching it.
Fuck It. I put on Tim Burton's follow up to Nightmare Before Christmas. And he turned it up to 11. The animation was smoother, the set design amazing. The voice acting talent, was also at a Whole Notha Level, with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter as the leads and not too mention Christopher Lee, Tracey Ullman and Albert Finney as part of the supporting voice cast. The humor and the frights found in the film also do not disappoint.
So why didn't I like this film? Nightmare before Christmas is Wonderful and joyous. I watch it every year and usually pay if it's in 3-D on the Big Screen. It's like if 5 year old Tim Burton's mind exploded on the big screen and that's what we got. Add Danny Elfman's score and catchy music, and lovable characters and you've got a masterpiece.
But Corpse Bride is missing all of this. Aside from the Corpse bride herself, the other characters aren't that interestingly designed. Compared to the citizens of Halloweentown in Nightmare the denizens of the Underworld in Corpse Bride are tame. The music and the songs just seemed phoned in, It feels like Danny Elfman didn't want to sound like Danny Elfman. Finally it seems also that Tim Burton who put out the wonderful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that year was way too busy to spend time on Corpse Bride.
He should have hired, who I know believe was the missing quotient, Henry Selick to oversee it all. While Nightmare Before Christmas was developed from an idea by Tim Burton and every frame of the film is stamped with his style, he didn't have the time to make the film because of contractual obligations to make the lunacy that Became Batman Returns. While it's not one of Burton's most remembered films you can tell by watching it that the same man was behind Batman Returns and Nightmare. Henry Selick was able to make Burton's vision come to fruition. While I love Nightmare to death it isn't a perfect film and it drags a bit near the third act. I always wondered what it would have been like if Tim Burton had directed it. If it's anything like Corpse Bride I might have been disappointed. Henry Selick would go on to make his perfect stop motion animation film in James and the Giant Peach. While it's not as fondly remembered or as entrenched in the subculture, It is in a word, wonderful. And it came from the mind of the one guy who's weirder and wackier than Burton, Roald Dahl.
As for Corpse Bride, it might have been a great live action film in the vein of Beetlejuice or Sleepy Hollow or even comparable to Sweeney Todd. But as an animated musical it fails on every level to charm.I recommend if you like Tim Burton films or animation. But other than that just go ahead and skip it. Watch Nightmare Before Christmas or James and the Giant Peach instead.
P.S. If you're interested in following along. Tonight is a double feature. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and Walt Disney's Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.
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