Burton's “Corpse Bride” is a moving tale

Burton's “Corpse Bride” is a moving tale

NEW YORK - More than ten years after tingling the audience with “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” director Tim Burton returns with the self-styled “Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.”

The film combines stop-motion animation with digital technology and it must be admitted that it looks wonderful and as Burton claims 'a work of love.' Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter return to lend their voices to some amazingly sketched characters. Victor (Johnny Depp) and Victoria (Emily Watson) are engaged to be married and he is meeting her for the first time in a tête-à-tête arranged by his folks.

While practicing his marriage vows in a forest, Victor feels a hand reach him and grab his ring. The hand belongs to a dead young woman named Emily (Bonham Carter), who was killed on her wedding day and has been eagerly waiting for the day when she gets married.

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Emily now insists that they are married. Victor feels strongly attracted to his deceased 'wife', but he has also taken a liking to Victoria in the fleeting moments that he spent with her. What happens to Victor and who is his lucky bride forms the rest of the story.

Bonham Carter and Tim Burton are longtime romantic partners and both have put in a lot of hard work into the film. "Stop motion is such a beautiful process. It really brings you back to the idea of animation as an art form.

This story has been gestating with me for about 10 years, the way 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' had been an idea I had for years," Burton said recently in an interview. But it was not all fun as the shots involving the puppets were a painstaking process and Burton gives full credit to his team for sticking with him and the project.