Comprehensive information and links about Tim Burtons Corpse Bride

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a 2005 stop-motion-animation film based on a 19th century Russian-Jewish folktale version of an older Jewish story. It was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, and filmed at Vinton Studios in London. It stars Johnny Depp as the voice of Victor and Helena Bonham Carter as the voice of the Corpse Bride. This is the first animated film in which Johnny Depp has been a voice actor.

The movie bears a striking resemblance to , especially in the scenes depicting the underworld and its deceased denizens. Some commercials for

The story is set in a cold, gloomy Victorian era town, a parody of aristocratic England. A young, nervous man by the name of Victor Van Dort, son of rich fishmongers Nell and William Van Dort, is due to be wed to beautiful young Victoria Everglot, daughter of bankrupt (as well as ugly and unpleasant) aristocrats Maudeline and Finnis Everglot. Victor isn't too keen on the idea of an arranged marriage until he meets Victoria face-to-face. After messing up his wedding vows at the wedding rehearsal, Victor is banished to the forest by the pastor to learn his vows. There he practices his vows, and discovering what he takes to be a tree root protruding from beneath the ground, places his bride's wedding ring on it. No sooner has he done so than Emily, the Corpse Bride, emerges from beneath the earth, dressed in a moldy, flowing wedding dress, and declares Victor her husband. She was mysteriously killed on her wedding day and has been waiting for her groom to come and claim her ever since. She whisks Victor away to the surprisingly colourful, vibrant, and musical Land of the Dead.

At first, Victor deceives Emily, convincing her to return them both temporarily to the Land of the Living under the pretense of introducing her to his parents. Victor meets Victoria and confesses his love for her, but a betrayed Emily spirits him away while Victoria watches helplessly. While Victoria tries to convince her pastor and parents that Victor needs help, Victoria's parents Maudeline and Finis plan to match up their daughter with the handsome (and presumed rich) drifter Barkis Bittern. Unbeknownst to the others, Barkis intends to kill Victoria and make off with her fortune, which he mistakenly believes is still viable.

A newly-deceased friend of Victor delivers the news of Victoria's engagement to Victor himself. Victor, thinking that Victoria is marrying Barkis willingly, severs all ties with Victoria, agreeing to drink poison as part of an above-ground ceremony that will make his marriage to Emily official. The residents of the Land of the Dead storm the town, and in the ensuing chaos, the newly-wed Barkis learns that Victoria is penniless.

Victoria heads for the church, and discovers Victor in the midst of the ceremony that will kill him. Emily sees Victoria, and realizes that she is cheating Victoria out of a happy life. Emily stops Victor from drinking the poisoned wine, but they are interrupted by Barkis, who threatens to kill Victoria. Emily recognizes Barkis as the man who both jilted and murdered her long ago. A battle ensues, ending when an overconfident Barkis drinks the poisoned wine in a mock-toast to Emily, and the rest of the deceased, except for Emily, surround (and presumably dismember) his still-fresh corpse.

Emily explains to Victor and Victoria that they belong together. When Victor protests, saying that he "made [Emily] a promise," Emily explains that he kept it, and that he "set [her] free." She leaves the church. As she reaches the threshold, Emily transforms into hundreds of butterflies, which soar towards the moon. Victor and Victoria watch on, happy to be finally reunited.

is the first movie to be shot with digital still cameras. Previous stop-motion movies (such as Aardman Animations' . The camera chosen for production was the Canon EOS-1D Mark II digital still camera. Additional work was required to develop systems to permit precise camera positioning, the mounting of Nikon optical lenses, and previewing a scene .

The film was also the first stop-motion animated movie to use the new "gear and paddle" technique for the maquette's heads. This new system involved the maquettes being built with a complex gear system inside of the main character's heads. The various gears were attatched to external paddles. A soft skin-like material was placed over these paddles to create the head. By adjusting the gears, done by inserting an allen wrench into small holes located on the maquette's head and in the ears (you can clearly see the holes in the ears throughout the film), the paddles would move, therefore adjusting the facial expression of the character. This allowed for a much more smooth system of emotion change and lip-sync than the old of replacing heads. The soft "skin" material also gave the characters a much more natural look.

Origins

The origin of the folktale can be traced back to Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, a 16th century mystic. In the original folktale, "The Finger," the "corpse bride" in question is not a deceased woman, but a demon. In the 19th century Russian-Jewish adaptation, a woman is killed on her wedding day and is buried in her wedding gown. Later, a man on his way to his own wedding sees her ring finger poking out of the ground and thinks that it's a stick. As a joke, he puts his bride's wedding ring on the finger and dances around it, singing and reciting his marriage sacrament. The woman's corpse emerges from the ground (with the man's ring on her finger) and declares herself married to the man.

The folktale adaptation was born of the anti-Jewish Russian pogroms of the 19th century, in which young women were ripped from their carriages and killed on the way to their weddings. In the Jewish tradition, a is buried in the clothes in which it died, and so the brides were buried in their gowns. The folktale usually ends with the rabbis deciding to annul the corpse's marriage and the live bride swearing that she will live her marriage in the corpse's memory, part of the Jewish tradition of honoring the dead through the lives and good works of the living.

A similar motif has also been used by Prosper Mérimée in his story , marking the first time that two stop-motion animated films were in simultaneous wide theatrical release. Interestingly, both films feature the voice of Helena Bonham Carter in a lead role.The piano that Victor plays is a Harryhausen. This is an in-joke reference to Ray Harryhausen, who is possibly the most famous of all stop-motion animation artists.Near the end of the movie, Victor's suit greatly resembles Jack Skellington's suit during The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the exception of the bat-bowtie being M.I.A. on Victor's outfit.