So I just came back from watching the latest offering from director Tim Burton - the Corpse Bride.

It’s a beautiful flick, not only because it’s so well done that you can’t imagine how long it took the animators to put it all together, but because despite all the horrific elements, it’s very much a Disney story.

The Corpse Bride, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, is the titular main character. Her tragic story of unrequited love and subsequent murder takes a turn for the better when a bumbling groom-to-be recites his wedding vows in a dark forest just over her unmarked grave and accidentally marries her. He is then transported to the World of the Dead, and realises how dreary his own life is.

The utter morbidity of the Corpse Bride is tempered by the permeating humour throughout. It’s almost as if it’s hard to take anything seriously, even though a simple romantic storyline courses through the film. The images are macabre (people kept making noises everytime one of the dead characters split himself in two), but the delivery is just so… amusing. When it comes to visuals, director Tim Burton is a true master.

If nothing else, my only complaint would be how underused most of the characters are. Indeed, as the hero Victor Van Dort, character actor extraordinaire Johnny Depp’s role is surprisingly limited. Surprising because this role is right up Depp’s alley, and Burton knows that, having worked with Depp several times in the past, starting with Edward Scissorhands and most recently, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The character of Victor was a little too… bland for my tastes, and you hardly felt the genius of Johnny Depp coming through. A pity, really.

Nonetheless, Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride is a piece of filmmaking genius, and may have prolonged the art of stop-motion animation for yet another decade.