MY MOVIE SHELF: The Corpse Bride

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 299  Days to go: 289

Movie #74: The Corpse Bride

Tim Burton has sort of cornered the market on this particular kind of digital claymation horror flick, and kind of as a general rule you expect to see (or hear) his life partner Helena Bonham Carter and long-time friend and collaborator Johnny Depp in every one of them. The thing is, though, I’d totally forgotten they were in this one and I somehow missed the opening credits until it got to Emily Watson so I watched the whole thing without noticing Depp and Bonham Carter were the voices of Victor and Emily (with the other Emily, Watson, actually voicing Victoria).

Danny Elfman, in addition to providing his usual trippy score, writes a bunch of catchy songs as well. You really have to hand it to Tim Burton — he know what works for him and he continues to crank that sort of thing out, working with the same people, year after year. And yet he still manages to create new and interesting stories.

The Corpse Bride is definitely my favorite of the animated Burton films. It plays with ideas of obligation versus desire, and love versus longing. Lines are crossed between the land of the living and the world of the dead when Victor accidentally slips his wedding band on the petrified zombie finger of Emily, the corpse bride, reaching up from under the ground beneath a tree. The use of color to differentiate these planes of existence is excellent and plays against expectations, as Victor and Victoria’s lives are composed of pale and pasty shades of gray and sepia, whereas the underworld is all bright colors and unnatural complexions. It’s beautiful and interesting to look at.

The most fascinating part of The Corpse Bride, however, is how it empowers its young women. Victor is a nervous man, and while he definitely finds strength through the course of the film and proves to be a stand-up guy, Victoria and Emily are actually the heroes. Victoria, though she is foiled and forced to marry Lord Barkis (Richard E. Grant), is the only one to fight for Victor and try to save him from the underworld. And Emily, who has been wallowing in the heartbreak of her lost love (and murder most foul), learns to be strong on her own. She doesn’t need a man to be happy, and she releases Victor to be with his true love Victoria. However, she neither goes back to her wallowing, nor does she allow herself to be run over by the villain. She stands up to him, takes back her life (or death, as it were) and returns to the underworld in a flutter of magical butterflies. It’s a vision of a woman being set free from the things that can hold them back, and I’m all for that.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.

Movie #47: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I find that most people of my generation prefer the original, erroneously-titled movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but my personal leanings favor this one. The visuals are rich and gorgeous, the songs are catchy and fun, and Tim Burton’s aesthetic really suits the story well. Not only that, but Johnny Depp’s own eccentricities make him successful as a much more emotionally-stunted and socially-disabled eccentric Willy Wonka than Gene Wilder’s somewhat mean-spirited and vengeful one.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also focuses on Charlie (Freddie Highmore) and his poor but happy relationship with his family as the heart of the movie. He’s not just an example to be compared against the other children, over-indulged and ungrateful as they are, he’s an example to be compared against Willy Wonka himself as well, for allowing his differences with his father to destroy their relationship.

In the movie, as in the book, Violet Beauregard (AnnaSophia Robb) is my favorite of the terrible children and is dispatched in my favorite way. Anyone who doesn’t spit out a piece of gum that tastes like freaking tomato soup deserves what she gets, as far as I’m concerned. Honorable mention, though, goes to Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), both for the biting suggestion that Blueberry Violet be entered into a county fair, and for being attacked by a hundred squirrels who deem her, quite literally, a bad nut.

And as I mentioned, Johnny Depp’s performance really works for me here, too. His delightful goofiness throughout wins me over time and again, from his desire to watch his introductory show rather than be in it, to his matter-of-fact way of shutting down most everyone’s comments, particularly his insistence that Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry) is a mumbler. In addition, he effortlessly pulls off both the knowing smirkiness that indicates he is aware all along how this tour will go, and the innocent uncomfortability with which he approaches social contact and affection — one of the reasons I really don’t mind the added flashbacks and storyline involving Wonka’s childhood and father. I even like the way Wonka pronounces the H in “heir.”

Let’s not forget the fabulous work done with the Oompa Loompas (all played by Deep Roy), either, who look much more real and varied and interesting in this version. They’re comedic and wonderful instead of distracting and weird, and the CGI work required to put them into the film is flawlessly done. It only adds to the film’s endless watchability, which is a good thing when you have children who want to see it over and over again.

Really, though, I could watch this movie just for the chance to get the lyrics “Augustus Gloop, Augustus Gloop, you great big greedy nincompoop” in my head.