DVD Guide

The Corpse Bride (PG)

The wedding vow "till death do us part" takes on new meaning in Tim Burton's animated frightmare. When Victor van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) rehearses his nuptial vows in a forest, he awakens a deceased woman (Helen Bonham Carter) who believes he has come to marry her. She drags him into an underworld that's considerably livelier and more colorful than Victor's home, a 19th-century town shrouded in an ashen pall (call it Dickensian Gothic). It's not as morbid as it sounds - though the humor is macabre - and the characters are surprisingly soulful. The stop-motion animation is so exquisite that the "making of" extras are a must. Also of interest: a look at composer Danny Elfman, Burton's regular partner in grime. Grade: B
- Stephen Humphries