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Corpse Bride - 2005
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Over the course of the next week, we will be featuring films with a bit of Halloween flavor to them. Let's get started.
Our next film is 2005's "Corpse Bride", where we find a young man who finds himself suddenly "engaged" to a corpse. Now, he must find out the story of what really happened to the dead woman in order to get back to the woman he loves.
The film's voice cast includes Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Richard E. Grant, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, and Deep Roy.
William and Nell Van Dort are members of the nouveau riche of society. They are fish merchants. Their son Victor is newly engaged to a member of the upper crust.
Finis and Maudeline Everglot have arranged the match of their daughter Victoria with Victor Van Dort. They are less than thrilled about it. They have only allowed it because they are penniless, and the match with the Van Dorts will bring them back to the wealth they once had.
On the day before the wedding, the engaged pair meet for the first time. Remarkably, they develop an intense affection for each other.
At their wedding rehearsal, Victor can't seem to get any of his vows right, to the consternation of Pastor Galswells.
During the rehearsal, the Everglots get a visitor in the form of Lord Barkis Bittern. None of them know who he is, but they allow him to stay with them as a guest.
Victor accidentally drops a candle on his future mother-in-law's dress and sets it on fire. Naturally, they don't have a good opinion of him.
Victor flees into the woods where he can be alone and practice his marriage vows in peace.
He gets the vows right after some practice and places the wedding ring on a tree root as a substitute for Victoria's finger.
Victor is horrified when the "root" suddenly comes to life. A corpse bride emerges from the ground and whispers "I do" in response to Victor's vows. Frightened out of his wits, Victor runs away through the forest back to town.
The corpse bride catches up with him. As she gets closer to him, she whispers "You may kiss the bride". As their lips meet, everything goes dark.
When Victor's eyes open, he finds himself in the Land of the Dead. He sees a bunch of things that make him question his sanity.
We also learn the story of the corpse bride. "What a story it
is. A tragic tale of romance, passion,
and a murder most foul." It turns out that the corpse bride was murdered on the night she was to have eloped. The man who killed her was her intended groom, who stole a bunch of her family possessions.
Back in the Land of the Living, Lord Barkis Bittern tells the Everglots and the Van Dorts that Victor was seen in the company of an unknown woman on the outskirts of town. They are all in disbelief, and Victoria feels a bit let down at this news.
Victor tries to hide from the corpse bride, whose name we find out is Emily. She finds him, of course, and shows him the view of the Land of the Dead. "Isn't the view
beautiful? It takes my breath away. Well, it would if I had any." She tells Victor that she considers him her husband (while flashing the ring she's still wearing) and that this is now his home.
Emily also gives him a wedding present, which turns out to be Victor's old boyhood dog Scraps. Victor is delighted to see his old pal again. When Emily remarks on how cute Scraps is, Victor replies, "You should've seen him when he had fur!"
Victor wants to get back to the Land of the Living, so he tricks Emily into going by saying she must meet his parents. They go visit the ruler of the Land of the Dead, Elder Gutknecht, who says, "Now, why go up there
when people are dying to get down here?" He assists them in getting to their desired destination.
At this point in the story, I'm going to pause and just give you a few highlights. In the Land of the Living, Victor is engaged in a duel. He's also released from his "marriage" to Emily so that he can be with Victoria. With everything surrounding her murder finally out in the open, Emily can be at peace. I won't tell you how it all happens. You'll have to find that out on your own.
Cast rundown:
Johnny Depp..................................Victor Van Dort
Helena Bonham Carter.....................Corpse Bride
Emily Watson.................................Victoria Everglot
Tracey Ullman.................................Nell Van Dort/Hildegarde
Paul Whitehouse..............................William Van Dort/Mayhew
Joanna Lumley................................Maudeline Everglot
Albert Finney...................................Finis Everglot
Richard E. Grant..............................Lord Barkis Bittern
Christopher Lee...............................Pastor Galswells
Michael Gough................................Elder Gutknecht
Deep Roy........................................General Bonesapart
And that's it for Corpse Bride. This film had a fifty-five week shoot and had over 109,000 individually animated frames that needed to be set up and filmed. To facilitate a faster filming process, multiple puppets of the same character were produced. There were fourteen puppets for Victor and the Corpse Bride, while Victoria had 13.
As you can see, the sets for these shots were incredibly detailed and were huge! Many of the set designers could fit through the doors with minimal crouching.
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