Corpse Bride Escaped the Long Shadow of Tim Burton’s Most Famous Animated Adventure

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While not entirely his baby, The Nightmare Before Christmas is forever associated with, and it’s one of the movies most think of when mentioning the veteran director.

For years, there was talk of Burton returning to stop motion. It had been an early passion, after all. A tumultuous time in the years since that movie’s release saw Burton’s star burning a little less bright thanks to flops both fair (Planet of the Apes) and unfair (Mars Attacks!). However, Burton could still create beautiful and odd films such as Big Fish and Sleepy Hollow, so it was time to make that long-awaited sojourn to stop-motion.

, co-directed by Mike Johnson, is a typically Burton piece, even more naturally so than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Set in a 19th-century European village, it follows the story of Victor, a young man whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious corpse bride, while his real bride, Victoria waits bereft in the land of the living.

The characters and settings capture that signature style seen in Burton’s earlier drawings and animations. Victor especially looks like a ”Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton film. Unsurprisingly, he sounds like it, too, as Depp once again teamed up with Burton. It was the second of their collaborations in that year alone after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It marked his first time voice acting for a theatrical film. Depp and Burton were doing both films together, so Depp was Willy Wonka by day and Victor by night.

The cast is an impressive one, filled with familiar voices. Beyond Depp, Burton’s then-wife Helena Bonham-Carter, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Albert Finney, Emily Watson, and Tracey Ullman were among the roster. Lee had also worked with Burton on Charlie and the