Corpse Bride

Overview

Corpse Bride (2005)
Production Company: Warner Bros
Producers: Tim Burton, Allison Abbate
Director(s): Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Screenplay: John August, Caroline Thompson
Story: Tim Burton
Camera: Jonathan Lucas, Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production Designer: Alex McDowell
Cast: 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, Paul The Head Waiter), Joanna Lumley (Maudeline Everglot), Albert Finney (Finis Everglot), Richard E. Grant (Barkis Bittern), Christopher Lee (Pastor Galswells)
Running time: 115 min

Victor and Victoria are more than slightly nervous about their looming arranged marriage, until they meet. For the first time, both find hope that a ray of light will come shining into their gloomy and loveless worlds. On the eve of their wedding day, the faltering groom-to-be walks through the woods practicing his vows. Finally, the words come perfectly, and he places the wedding ring on what he thinks is a branch. Unfortunately, the branch turns out to be the finger of a corpse - a corpse bride - and she is not about to give up her new husband.
Now married to of one of the dead, Victor finds himself among the morbid creatures of the underworld. He must now try to find a way to make things right, so he can return to his true love. Despite the ghastly circumstances, Victoria vows to help him. Victor’s decomposing bride turns out to be quite sympathetic, though, and Victoria must deal with evil forces at work in the land of the living, as a mysterious newcomer manipulates the strange events to assure that things go his way.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a 2005 stop-motion-animation film based loosely on a 19th century Russian-Jewish folktale version of an older Jewish story and set in a fictional Victorian era village. It was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, and filmed at 3 Mills Studios in London. Johnny Depp led an all-star cast as the voice of Victor and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom the project was specially created) as the voice of the Corpse Bride. This is the first animated film in which Johnny Depp has been a voice actor. The film's initial release was two weeks prior to that of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, marking the first time that a stop-motion animated film and a claymation animated one were in simultaneous wide theatrical release. Interestingly, both films feature the voice of Helena Bonham Carter in a lead role and a character named Victor.
The film was nominated in the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. It lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
The film is dedicated to the memory of Joe Ranft.