What do you prefer? Watching at three o'clock in the morning the live broadcast of the awards ceremony "Oscar 2005" in now distant for us now March 2006, I gradually fell asleep. Yes, and probably would have fallen asleep if they had not shown the nominees for the award for best animated cartoon. Perhaps only an unusual passage of one of the cartoons made me completely open my eyes and completely lose sleepiness: on the screen of my TV I saw dancing and singing skeletons.
I don’t know what clicked in my head, but from that moment on, I decided one thing for myself: whatever happened, but I just have to watch this cartoon. At the time, I had no idea what the plot was (since I didn’t have the internet at the time), and I knew perhaps only one thing that it was called “The Corpse of the Bride.” So up until November of that same 2006, I was getting literally every movie rental I knew in my hometown with the same question.
I remember that day pretty well. At the time, I was desperate and finally got the album. Literally running home, I did not look at any cover or description of the film, and immediately turned on the player on the computer. It was only 76 minutes before I could take my eyes off my mother's screen. It is difficult to put into words what I felt when I first watched this cartoon, so, better not, I will say only one thing that for me, a lover of unshining mainstream cartoon films (for lack of opportunity to watch a movie of a completely different plan) at that time, he became then, if not the most beloved, then certainly one of them.
For starters, it should be noted that “Cadaver” is an absolute fairy tale in the best sense of the word, and not at all like the classical ones that Disney produces. The full title sounds like “The Corpse of the Bride of Tim Burton” and it is definitely deserved, because apart from this director, perhaps, no one could make a cartoon where the afterlife would be shown so attractive and romantic. In all Burton’s paintings there are bright contrasts, so this cartoon was no exception. Of course, this has already been discussed, but the soul asks to speak, so the next two paragraphs you can not read.
World of the Living. Boring, cloudy, unremarkable, forcing people to do terrible things. But for what? In order to stay in it longer and enjoy all its tediousness, all its vicissitudes, oddities and problems. Sounds awful and wild, doesn't it? So the logical question is: why is all this necessary? If you were to ask me, I would say that it is necessary to enjoy life in the afterlife. This is what we show on the example of such an unpretentious character as coachman Mayhew, if you just look at him first in one and then in the second world, and you immediately understand that deep chasm, called in some science fiction books and films the interworld.
World of the Dead. Bright, charming, somewhat fervent, lively and, of course, beautiful. One wonders why people do not rush there to enjoy all the delights of life after death. But of course, there is a pretty clear reason for this, called the Church. But, despite all the attraction of this world (may the emo and Goths forgive me), it is still worth visiting the Living World. An example of this is Victor Van Dort, probably the only person who was lucky (and perhaps unlucky – it all depends on how to look at it) to visit the World of the Dead while still alive.
I don’t know about others, but for me this story has a rather deep meaning, which is addictive when watching a cartoon. This is a very good example when you can come across philosophical and quite interesting thoughts in simple and accessible language. Therefore, I think lovers of intellectual work should appreciate this fairy tale no less highly than ordinary people.
Also, I would like to recall the unusual, for our time, performance of the cartoon. Still, it is not often possible to see a puppet cartoon on our screens. I think it's terribly difficult to shoot every frame of a movie with a regular camera, and it's probably almost impossible to edit all of those shots in the end. But the result is definitely worth all the effort. Separately, it is worth highlighting the quality of dolls, which is literally fascinating, since it is simply impossible to believe that they are the creation of human hands.
Naturally, I just can't help but remember the magical music written by the unforgettable Danny Elfman. Wonderful, fabulous, incredible, dark, frightening, afterlife, classic, sad, funny, explosive, incendiary - all these adjectives are catastrophically few, to describe the soundtrack of this picture. The music is full of conflicting emotions and feelings. It should leave a wonderful impression on the film in general and on itself in particular.
I consider voice acting one of the important components of the cartoon. I want to say that it is better to watch the cartoon in the original language, as I can notice that the cartoon is poorly translated into our native language. Russian actor who spoke for the main characters of the film Victor and Emily, very rarely got to the point in expressing the emotions of the characters, put absolutely wrong emphasis in dialogue and songs. So I'd rather talk about the English soundtrack.
It seems to me that the voices of all the characters are very well selected, so when watching the cartoon, there are no pictures from the recording studio where you see this or that famous person. Helena Bonham Carter just amazed with her vocal abilities, her song “Tears to Shed” is full of bitterness and sadness, you can listen to it. I was struck by the song “Remains of the Day” (in our translation “The Song of the Bone Shatter”), performed by Danny Elfman, the most uncouth and jazzy.
The already textured characters of Pastor Golswells and Elder Gutnecht seemed alive in the performance of the wonderful Christopher Lee and Michael Gough. I also liked the voice of Finias Everglot, the hero of the equally famous Albert Finney. Emily Watson did her best to voice Victoria Everglot. I can't forget Johnny Depp's voice, full of naivety, fear and insecurity.
Now I noticed that I do not want to summarize this cartoon. It's going to be hard to do. Still, this film belongs to such a unique genre as "truly Burtonian cinema", so someone may not see anything remarkable and new in it. But, I am confident in myself, which means that I will review the “Cadaver of the Bride” many more times and every time I will admire it, as if I had never seen anything like it before.
10 out of 10
Original