Music • Danny
Elfman's music accompanies “The
Corpse Bride.” Warner
Brothers
Burton’s ‘Corpse
Bride’ does not live up to hype
By
Lesley Nickus
Online Forty-Niner
Diversions Editor
“The Corpse Bride” is about a wealthy young man, Victor (Johnny Depp),
betrothed to a young woman, Victoria (Emily Watson). Upon meeting, Victor and
Victoria feel a special connection, but Victor cannot seem to get his stuff
together during the wedding rehearsal and runs away in fear.
While rehearsing his vows in the forest, he finally gets them right, but there
is a problem. The stick he used in place of Victoria’s hand is actually
the bony hand of the corpse bride (Helena Bonham-Carter) who takes him to her
underworld home which seems a lot more exciting than the dreary world above.
In a related twist, the only reason Victoria’s parents, the Everglots
(Albert Finney and Joanna Lumley), have agreed to allow Victor to marry their
daughter is so the money belonging to Victor’s family, the Van Dorts,
will keep them from going broke.
After, Victor disappears, the Everglots find the next available suitor to give
their daughter to. Victor learns of Victoria’s sad fate while desperately
trying to return home and clear up the mess before his love is lost to another
man.
The voices of Depp, Watson and Bonham-Carter provide a calming contrast to
the shrill voices of the other characters in the film. Depp does a great job
in communicating the shy, clumsy character he portrays. Watson, although her
voice is featured far less frequently than the others, could have benefited
from a little more emotion.
During one scene where she is desperately trying to tell her parents what is
really going on with Victor, she seems relatively calm for someone being accused
of being delusional. Nevertheless, the vocal quality of all three characters
portrayed their normalcy quite effectively in the midst of the other strong-willed
characters.
In 77 minutes, the plots were quickly revealed and glazed over, leaving the
viewer somewhat unsatisfied. The storyline was simple, and the movie reflected
it in the same manner: simply. There were no climactic moments in the film,
there was very little suspense and almost no mystery. With a little bit of
attention, you can figure out why the corpse bride died and how it related
to Victor.
Although the plot was simple, the cinematography, like in all Tim Burton films,
was excellent. The start-stop motion filming was reminiscent of “The
Nightmare Before Christmas” and was equally well done.
The characters were created with the same dark qualities and they provided
the greatest satisfaction. Basically, even if the movie would have been awful,
as long as these clay characters were in it, it would have been fun to watch
as they moved around the screen.
Danny Elfman has joined Tim Burton once again to create an identifiable soundtrack
for “The Corpse Bride.” With the harpsichord sounds that gave the
soundtrack to”“The Nightmare Before Christmas” its sound,
Elfman does a good job in creating the spooky sounds of the afterworld. However,
the songs seemed out of place in the film at times.
The sound quality was not very good. Although this may be attributed to the
speakers in the theater, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” had
a similar problem: the bass was so loud, you couldn’t understand the
words. This problem however is not present on the CD.
Overall,’“The Corpse Bride” is a simple, fun movie to watch
and will open nationwide Friday.
The turnout for the free preview of “ The Corpse Bride” Monday
was a promising start to a new season of movies at the University Student Union’s
theater.
After waiting in line for some time, students passed through two security stations:
the first a bag inspection site where they were required to open their backpacks
and purses for inspection, and the second where they were required to surrender
any camera phones, video phones and digital equipment in order to prevent piracy.
Once inside, students were directed to their seats and empty spaces were filled,
which caused a slight delay before the movie started. A representative from
the Program Council discussed the seriousness of piracy and the presence of
security in the theater to prevent it, along with a short description of what
the Program Council does.
Once the previews started, the energy in the room increased. While watching
a movie in regular theaters, it is a rare occurrence for people to clap at
a preview, but not at Cal State Long Beach.
Excited fans clapped at a preview of the upcoming “Harry Potter” film,
and laughed out loud at the somewhat cheesy commercials for the USU. Once the
movie started, however, the audience was so enthralled by the cinematography
that a sound could scarce be heard.
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