A romantic comedy. With corpses.

After a romantic dinner last night we wanted to watch a romantic movie. The choice was Tim Burton's Corpse Bride that we had missed when it was in theaters because it had received such mixed reviews. The obvious comparison is Burton's other doll animation Nightmare Before Christmas which is one of our all time favourites - but I think the comparison is a bit unfair. On the surface they do look much the same with the similar appearance and music numbers, but they are two completely different movies.

The story is about a young man Victor Van Dort who's about to get married to Victoria Everglot who he's never met until the wedding rehearsal day - but due to an unfortunate misunderstanding he ends up marrying a corpse (bride) instead. There are actually only few musical numbers in the story, and they are the perfect little Danny Elfman numbers we've come to expect and love (and I'm going to pop by HMV to get the soundtrack tonight). Music-wise there are only few echoes from Nightmare - I love that music, but I'm so glad this one has a tone of it's own. The animation, of course, is perfect and flowing and the dolls are original and expressive coupled with some fantastic actors. Story is funny and touching... Still, if put side by side, Corpse Bride suffers a defeat against Nightmare, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

So my suggestion is not to compare them at all if you can - watch it with a totally open mind and take it as it is. You'll enjoy it.

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