Corpse Bride

PLOT:

In a Victorian era town, the Everglots, a family of recently bankrupt aristocrats, reluctantly agree to marry off their daughter Victoria to the timid Victor Van Dort, son of nouveau riche fishmongers. Despite their initial uneasiness about the situation, having never before met, Victor and Victoria hit it off immediately. Unfortunately, after his clumsiness ruins their wedding rehearsal (accidentally lighting Victoria’s mother’s dress on fire), Victor is banished until he can learn to recite his wedding vows properly. Victor wanders deep into the forest while practicing, eventually performing a flawless mock recital. In doing so, he places his bride’s wedding ring on a tree root resembling a human hand. However, it turns out it is a hand, which comes to life and grabs Victor by the arm. Emerging from the earth is Emily, the “Corpse Bride,” a beautiful undead girl in a moldy bridal gown who declares Victor her husband.

Emily takes Victor to the Land of the Dead, where Victor learns how she was jilted, murdered and robbed while trying to elope with a mysterious stranger, and had been waiting for her true love to return ever since. Victor tries to flee from Emily, who finds and attempts to bond with him, even reuniting him with his beloved and long-deceased dog as a wedding present. Dearly wishing to return to Victoria, his own true love, Victor tricks Emily into returning him to the Land of the Living under the pretense of introducing her to his still-living parents. Just as Victor reunites with Victoria, Emily discovers them and spirits Victor away back to the Land of the Dead. Feeling betrayed, Emily gets into an argument with Victor, climaxing with Victor telling her that their marriage was a mistake. Heartbroken, Emily leaves thinking Victor only loves Victoria for being alive while she herself is not.

Victoria tries to convince her family of the danger Victor is potentially in, but her claims of the existence of a “Corpse Bride” fall on deaf ears. Instead, her parents arrange her to be married to Lord Barkis Bittern, a presumably wealthy drifter, though Victoria is too troubled by Victor’s disappearance to object. Unbeknownst to the others, however, Barkis intends to kill Victoria and make off with the fortune he believes she has.

Feeling guilty for his earlier deception, Victor apologizes to Emily, and her love for him is renewed. Suddenly, an old acquaintance of Victor’s dies and arrives in the Land of the Dead, informing Victor of Victoria’s engagement to Barkis. Emily, meanwhile, learns that her marriage to Victor is not official; as the wedding vows bind them till death do they part, and Victor is still alive, he and Emily must return to the Land of the Living to re-recite their vows, after which Victor must kill himself by drinking poisoned wine to validate their matrimony. Victor, believing Victoria has moved on with her life without him, agrees to carry out the ceremony, and invites all of the dead to attend.

After Victoria and Barkis’ wedding, the town erupts in panic as the dead arrive, but their fear is replaced with joy when the living residents recognize their loved ones among the dead; Barkis, however, is shocked to discover that Victoria is penniless. During the ceremony, Emily spots the heartbroken Victoria and realizes that Victor’s death will cheat her out of a happy life, calling off the ceremony before Victor drinks the poison and reunites him with Victoria. Barkis then crashes the party to reclaim Victoria, with Emily recognizing him as the man who jilted, murdered and robbed her. Victor engages Barkis in a sword fight (though Barkis is the only one with a sword while Victor is armed with a dinner fork). Before Barkis can land a killing strike, Emily takes the blow instead, completely unscathed. Upon being ordered to leave, Barkis proposes a mock-toast to Emily and drinks the wine intended for Victor; however, he does not realize it is poisoned until it’s too late and dies within seconds, the outraged dead proceeding to make hell out of his afterlife. Content that Victor can now live happily with Victoria, Emily finds herself at peace and ascends to the heavens in the form of hundreds of butterflies as Victor and Victoria watch on.

REVIEW:

If you’ve read more than a few of my reviews on this site, then you know that I love stop-motion animation and feel that it is far superior to the overrated, overused CGI. It is this reason that I really like it when Tim Burton releases an animated film.

Corpse Bride is obviously a Burton film. The dark tones mixed with extreme color changes is his signature, not to mention his usual suspects, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham CArter, and music by Danny Elfman. Seems like you can’t have a Tim Burton film without at least one (or more) of them.

For some strange reason, “they” feel the need to compare this to The Nightmare Before Christmas. I don’t really see the similarity other than they are both stop-motion. Maybe I’m missing something.

The story here is a bit on the strange side. Victor is betrothed to Victoria, gets cold feet and goes to the woods, practices his vows on a tree and up rises the bride….blah, blah, blah…villain enters who is responsible for her being dead in the first place and his overconfidence is what leads to his death. Nothing really spectacular about it, but the way it is told and animated makes it entertaining and attention grabbing.

There are a few songs thrown in here, but none are really worth mentioning, unless you into the Victorian sound, with the exception of Bojangles’ explanation of the bride’s story.

With all the celebrity voices in here, the one that impressed me, and seemed to fit the best was Michael Gough as the elder. His character really looked like him, then again, so did both Victor and the bride. Still, it seemed as if the part was written for him, specifically.

So, what did I actually think about this picture? I liked it, but didn’t love it. It’s good to watch at any given time, but I’m not going to go out of my way to make sure I see it. I do recommend seeing it at least twice, though. I think you need at least that many times to make an informed decision.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Blues Brothers 2000

PLOT:

Blues Brothers 2000 picks up 18 years after The Blues Brothers, with Elwood being released from prison, this time a rather high-tech private prison rather than the old Illinois state prison depicted in the first film. He learns that his brother, Jake (John Belushi) has died, along with their surrogate father figure Curtis (Cab Calloway), and that the orphanage the two had saved in the first film is no more; however he is told of his second brother (of sorts). The “brother” is the illegitimate son of Curtis, named Cabel “Cab” Chamberlain (Joe Morton), whom until Elwood entered his life had no knowledge of Curtis being his father. Cab is a Commander in the Illinois State Police and angrily refuses to support Elwood, a habitual criminal. Elwood takes a job as an announcer in a nightclub (A strip club owned by the drummer of the Blues Brothers band, Willie Hall), where he discovers that the bartender (played by John Goodman) has singing talent, while getting on the bad side of the Russian mafia who have been demanding payoffs from the nightclub.

After the Russian mafia burns down the club, Elwood resolves to put the band back together once again with John Goodman’s character as his new partner and a 10-year old orphan named Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) also tagging along. The band travels to several locations shown in the first film with a depiction of how they have changed in the intervening years (Bob’s Country Bunker for example is now Bob’s Country Kitchen, a family restaurant). As well as upsetting the mafia, Elwood also falls foul of a “white power group” and the police force, headed by a zealous and ruthless Cab.

Finally, the band heads south to Louisiana with the intention of entering a battle of the bands held at the home of a voodoo practitioner named Queen Moussette, played by Erykah Badu. At the battle of the bands they compete against B. B. King’s band. Ironically, B. B. King’s character started the band only after Elwood bought a police car from him in the beginning of the film.

REVIEW:

I’ve never seen the original Blues Brothers, but if its anything like this and the sketches I’ve seen in the early days os Saturday Night Live, I’m sure I’ll love it.

Many people and critics have thrown this film under the bus. I don’t really understand why because its good natured fun. The highlight, of course, is the music, but what do you expect in a movie that is about a blues band?

Keep a lookout for a plethora of cameos from the likes of B.B. King, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Travis Tritt, Erykah Badu, etc.

The acting in this picture is nowhere near Shakespearean level, but honestly, is that what you expected to see here?

Dan Aykroyd is his usual self, spouting off strings of big words in his monotone voice, but as Elwood there is a heavy emphasis on the Chicago accent.

John Goodman appears to step in for the late John Belushi. From what I’ve read and heard, Jim Belushi couldn’t take this role due to television contract disputes or something. Nothing against Goodman, but I just feel it would make more sense and been more honorable to wait for Belushi to have time to make this. Still, Goodman, as Mighty Mack is really a joy to watch, especially when he first gets on the stage and at the country fair.

This film has the distinction of holding the world record for biggest car pile-up on film, with 63.  The car chase scenes are enjoyable, but you can tell this isn’t an action flick. Everytime I see this, I have to scratch my head at the scene in which they drive the car into the lake and it comes up. Obviously, if this actually happened, the engine would have flooded out and they’d have drowned, but the ludicrosity of the scene is not lost on me (unlike some people who think everything has to be real).

Anyone who loves music will enjoy this, despite its acting flaws. We have here a light hearted comedy that doesn’t even try to take itself too seriously, except for Aykroyd playing the straight man to all the hijinks going on through the picture. On top of this, it’s a Guiness Wolrd Record holder!

4 out of 5 stars