Movie review: 'Tim Burton's Corpse Bride'

3½ stars (out of four)

Whether directing apes, aliens, monkeys or the dead, Tim Burton can't stay away from two intertwining themes: the clash of worlds and the allure of any reality that isn't this one. "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride"--his first animated feature since 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas"--is no different.

With each frame, Burton seems to say, "This life is bland and stifling. Certainly the next must be more interesting."

Indeed, in the magnificently creepy "Corpse Bride" death teems with life, humor--even bone-rattling musical numbers.

Burton's doppelganger and hero Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) discovers this quickly when he's unexpectedly betrothed to a cadaver (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) on the eve of his arranged marriage to Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson), a "breather," in the vernacular of the dearly departed.

In the underworld, Victor finds a freedom he hadn't known in the suffocating, shades-of-gray world occupied by his domineering (ITALICS) nouveau riche (END ITALICS) parents. He's even reunited with his boyhood pooch, minus the fur but not the affection or pluck. Thus, Victor is torn between two worlds and two women, struggling to retain his integrity and perhaps even his pulse.

Burton's tale has roots in a 16th Century Jewish folk tale, though he's re-imagined in 19th Century England. But "Corpse Bride," in both title and content, is more a throwback to those schlocky flicks of the drive-in movie circuit, such as 1958's "I Married a Woman" and "I Married a Monster From Outer Space."

When not commissioned by studios for remakes ("Planet of the Apes," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"), Burton is at his best making personal visions ("Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands"), lovingly cannibalizing the B-movies he fell for as a child. One of Burton's first short films was "Vincent," an ode to his childhood hero, Vincent Price (later a "Scissorhands" star), and he's carried such otherworldly sensibilities into each project. Burton and co-director Mike Johnson bring a cartoonist's eye and imagination to each scene. In a climatic marriage scene, the dead rise to the occasion, reuniting with the living for the ceremony. A withered widow even finds her pipe-smoking, skeletal husband, who emits heart-shaped smoke rings from his eye sockets.

Though Burton isn't the first director to equate love with death, seldom has it seemed so autobiographical. A few years ago, Burton broke with longtime muse Lisa Marie, picking up with Bonham Carter after some monkey business on the set of "Planet of the Apes." The pair have since had a child, Billy Ray, but no wedding bells yet. It seems that Burton doesn't fear the reaper, but the wedding march sends chills down his spine.

Casting Bonham Carter as the corpse bride is as close as he has come to actual vows. If he finds the idea of traditional marriage stifling, he's imagined an alternative that's creepy, comforting and bizarrely Burton-esque.

Undoubtedly, some Burton fans will unfavorably compare "Bride" to "The Nightmare Before Christmas," mostly because of the former's restrained color palette and absence of a song that stands up to Danny Elfman's infectious "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" in "Nightmare." (Elfman also provides music and lyrics for "Bride.")

But Burton's new effort isn't a lesser movie; it just explores different sensibilities. If "Nightmare" was a jazzy pop number, "Bride" is a waltz--an elegant, deadly funny bit of macabre matrimony.

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"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride"

Directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson; screenplay by John August, Pamela Pettler and Caroline Thompson; cinematography by Pete Kozachik; art direction by Nelson Lowry; score and songs by Danny Elfman; edited by Chris Lebenzon and Jonathan Lucas; produced by Allison Abbate and Burton. A Warner Bros. Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:16. MPAA rating: PG (for some scary images and action, and brief mild language).

Victor Van Dort - Johnny Depp

Corpse Bride - Helena Bonham Carter

Victoria Everglot - Emily Watson

Nell Van Dort and Hildegarde - Tracey Ullman

Maudeline Everglot - Joanna Lumley

Finis Everglot - Albert Finney

Barkis Bittern - Richard E. Grant

Pastor Galswells - Christopher Lee