CCS–The Corpse Bride
The Corpse Bride is a satirical stop-motion animated film directed by Tim Burton. In this film, except Tim Burton, no one else can handle the Gothic style so delicately, the imagination so fervently, and the jokes so methodically. In fact, this movie is not as scary as the title shows. On the contrary, it actually conveys more warm feelings.
The story of The Corpse Bride has its roots in 19th-century Russian folklore, where radical antisemitism often targeted Jewish wedding brocades and killed the only bride who could carry on the Jewish family line. So couples of brides were buried by the side of the road in their dresses, and they died unexplained. In this movie, the ancient age and the seemingly isolated town make it seem like a place for ghosts to appear here. Another film with a similar scene is Sleepy Hollow, where the similarly tragic and terrifying headless horseman fits seamlessly with the time and place so that greatly adding to the horrific atmosphere.
The human’s world in this film is Gothic style, with dark colors, low music and people’s sad expressions to show the darkness of the world. In the hell, on the contrary, the bright colors and cheerful music represent a joyful and harmonious atmosphere, which constitutes a sharp contrast with the lifeless scenes of human life. The grotesque modeling of the ghosts with special skills to wantonly performance and singing and dancing from time to time in the audience surprise. Tim Burton excels at panoramas of hell and the scenes of monsters dancing in chaos. Dating back to
Beetle juice, in which ghosts on the waiting list show off their strange appearances, as well as its depiction of the human world as a confusing problem. He used interesting strange artistic way to reduce the horror feeling, and he always degenerated into mystery, with imagination and superb funny skill, let audience understand that joy is the main melody of hell.
The film always emphasizes the loveliness and kindness of the corpse bride in hell, which is in obvious contrast to the mercenary interests of Victor’s parents and Victoria’s parents on Earth. And Victor run away from the church, as well as Emily and Victor married, but the skeletons rushed to the world into the church. They are on the real life of the people of the world mercenary, ruthless exposure.
There is oppression, there is resistance, the corpse bride Emily and human bride Victoria are under the thick color of the resistance representatives. Victoria later falls in love with Victor, but is forced to marry the evil count after Victor’s disappearance, thus making what looks like a weak resistance in the eyes of outsiders. Victoria’s goodness and purity are far from the corpse bride’s brilliant, but the director did not ignore Victoria, from time to time on her to cast a finishing touch, so that her image is still clear and distinct. Looking back at the life story of Emily , we can easily find that she is also a victim of marriage, and also a secular person who ruined her life. From Victor to wear ring for her accidentally that moment rises, she also begins to experience the joy of marriage again and look forward to, persistent with tenacity, to the final marriage burst with the heart relieved like that. The director placed a lot of intentions on these two women’s body pursuit, make the Victor that serves as the hero appears dim without light, decide to sacrifice oneself such a major turning point also comes quite abrupt. But promoting women’s rights sometimes requires suppressing male fervor, and Victor’s feminine, decadent temperament is just the kind of concession needed.
At the end of the film, Emily finds out the murderer who cheated and killed her, and helps Victor and Victoria to get married. The skeletons return to the hell and the world returns to tranquility, which also shows us that the director Tim Burton’s yearning for a better future for the world.
The Corpse Bride. 2005. [Online]. Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. USA. Warner Brothers. [6th May, 2021]
Sleepy Hollow. 1999. [Online]. Tim Button. USA. Paramount Pictures. [4th May ,2021]
Beetle juice. 1988. [Online]. Tim Burton. USA. [6th May, 2021]
- The Corpse Bride and Jewish Folklore. Available at:https://tomtefairytaleblog.tumblr.com/post/151715472718/the-corpse-bride-variations-of-a-jewish-folktale[6th May 2021]
Valerie Spanswick. 2013. Gothic architecture: an introduction.
Available at:https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/gothic-art/beginners-guide-gothic-art/a/gothic-architecture-an-introduction [6th May 2021]