The Corpse Bride
Feb. 6th, 2006 02:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockRented it tonight. Doing so was a bit anticlimactic-- I can't decide if I'm glad I only spent five dollars on it, or if I would have been more enthused if I'd seen it on a large screen for 10 dollars. It's sort of in the middle, for me.
I found the movie to be cute and entertaining-- I expected it to be those, and it didn't disappoint. The animation was lush and stylistic, and the voice-acting was excellent. The story itself was good, if a tad predictable by older audiences. Still, I didn't find it as endearing and fascinating as A Nightmare Before Christmas. It's hard to explain why, but I'm pretty sure it's not just the lack of the always-endearing Christmas element.
The Corpse Bride was pretty and weird, but it still felt... average. Like your normal animated film you'll enjoy and then promptly forget-- like Ice Age. A Nightmare Before Christmas, on the other hand, was so original and bizarre and different---in ways that had everything to do with story and not at all the stop-motion animation. The storyline, the characters...Nightmare was the most eccentric holiday-themed animated family movie I'd ever seen. I mean, the king of Halloween having Santa Claus kidnapped to take over his job because he's having the ghoul eqivalent of a midlife crisis? That's arty and weird, but at the same time the celebration of the holiday spirit is there and the end result is incredibly endearing and memorable. Although the stop-motion animation gave Nightmare a distinctive look that grabbed the attention of audiences, I love it for the storyline far more than for the animation (which, to be frank, freaked me out a little in a few particular scenes), and I think that it was the strength and uniqueness of the story that made the film popular, and the animation was a vehicle for that.
In comparison, The Corpse Bride was just kind of cute. I'd watch it with my younger cousins, but I wouldn't consider buying the DVD for my own entertainment value.
But as rentals go--- I recommend it fo all audiences and ages. It's a good movie, and it's by Tim Burton. What else do you need to know? Go rent it! :D
I found the movie to be cute and entertaining-- I expected it to be those, and it didn't disappoint. The animation was lush and stylistic, and the voice-acting was excellent. The story itself was good, if a tad predictable by older audiences. Still, I didn't find it as endearing and fascinating as A Nightmare Before Christmas. It's hard to explain why, but I'm pretty sure it's not just the lack of the always-endearing Christmas element.
The Corpse Bride was pretty and weird, but it still felt... average. Like your normal animated film you'll enjoy and then promptly forget-- like Ice Age. A Nightmare Before Christmas, on the other hand, was so original and bizarre and different---in ways that had everything to do with story and not at all the stop-motion animation. The storyline, the characters...Nightmare was the most eccentric holiday-themed animated family movie I'd ever seen. I mean, the king of Halloween having Santa Claus kidnapped to take over his job because he's having the ghoul eqivalent of a midlife crisis? That's arty and weird, but at the same time the celebration of the holiday spirit is there and the end result is incredibly endearing and memorable. Although the stop-motion animation gave Nightmare a distinctive look that grabbed the attention of audiences, I love it for the storyline far more than for the animation (which, to be frank, freaked me out a little in a few particular scenes), and I think that it was the strength and uniqueness of the story that made the film popular, and the animation was a vehicle for that.
In comparison, The Corpse Bride was just kind of cute. I'd watch it with my younger cousins, but I wouldn't consider buying the DVD for my own entertainment value.
But as rentals go--- I recommend it fo all audiences and ages. It's a good movie, and it's by Tim Burton. What else do you need to know? Go rent it! :D
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:32 pm (UTC)The problem I had with Corpse Bride is that it didn't feel like a Burton film. Burton has always celebrated the weird and glorified the loner (hence why Jack Skellington is now goth king of the world) but with Corpse Bride, he made the mistake of having the two human characters get together and the different loner (ie Emily) just vanished because she had no place in that world. I think he was on to something with the relationship between Victor and Emily especially when he tries to make peace with her using music (the only mutual language they truly share) which is why I was disappointed when that was sidelined for Victoria.
In old-school Burton films, Victoria wouldn't have even existed (look at Beetlejuice and Lydia. By the end of the film she is still alone but making the effort to overcome her loneliness)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 02:22 pm (UTC)The main thing I remember is that when I first saw Nightmare, during the opening song I just had this sense of total amazement. I remember thinking, during the animation and the music, "I have never seen anything like this before." And I just never felt that way during Corpse Bride - not once. I enjoyed it all the way through, but none of the songs were very gripping... Even the "big number", though good, was not GOOD in the way the best songs in Nightmare were. (I mean, it does not compare at all with "Oogie Boogie's Song".) You're right about the voice acting - it was really awesome, from everyone. The design was neat. It was fun, and cute, but all of its "newness" came from the LOOK of it, and we've even sort of seen that look before.
I'm only disappointed in comparison, I guess, but it's just not enough of a movie to get excited over. On the other hand I *have* to watch Nightmare at least every couple of years or else I miss it. ;)