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I was bored to death and unamused by Tim
Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and
that pretty much adequately described how I
feel about this film. The story is as dull as
dishwater and so are the lackluster colors on
Burton's palette here.
The story is pretty silly. A young dimwit
named Victor finds himself preparing for his
wedding in a marriage arranged by his parents
and in the most contrived of circumstances comes
instead to be married to a female corpse in
a wedding dress who was jilted at the altar.
The dead, of course, aren't inanimate here,
so there is no danger of Victor becoming a true
necrophiliac, especially since he has become
quite smitten with his pre-ordained intended.
The film drones on and on with the parents
of Victor and his intended, who is sadly named
Victoria in an unintended homage that must surely
have Julie Andrews rolling her eyes, becoming
increasingly shrill as the search for the missing
groom and then find him married to a member
of the netherworld. Burton tries to eek macabre
humor from this set- up but it is becoming more
and more clear as time moves on that he is no
Charles Addams.
Notes:
Voices by Johnny Depp, Emily Watson, Helena
Bonham Carter, Tracey Ullman, Joanna Lumley,
Albert Finney, Richard E. Grant, Christopher
Lee, Deep Roy (who played all the Oompa Loompas
in Burtons's "Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory") and Danny Elfman,
who also writes the score here.
Directed by Burton and Mike Johnson.
The film won an award for digital cinema
at Venice as it was shot using stop motion on
digital film, the first time this has been accomplished.
Ray Harryhausen, the father of stop-motion
cinema effects is paid homage in the film via
a nameplate on the piano Victor plays. The film
also references Peter Lorre, 1929's "The Skeleton
Dance" short by Walt Disney (the first "Silly
Symphony" cartoon) and many of Burton's earlier
works.
Viewed in Austin in November of 2005.
Report Card:
Script: F
Voice Characterizations: C+
Animation: D-
Originality: C
Music: C+
Final Grade: C-
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