Corpse Bride

Went out last night and caught this little gem. If HP Lovecraft would have made a stop motion, romantic musical comedy, I fully believe that this is the movie he would have made. The city of the dead is especially evocative of Lovecraftian motifs. I also think that Victoria's parents could have crawled out of some eldritch story ("Shadow Over Innsmouth" comes to mind).

Anyway, it's the story of Victor whose noveau riche parents have selected him to marry Victoria, whose parents are gentry of the penniless variety. Victor makes a mess of the dress rehearsal and retreats to the woods to practice, where he inadvertently marries Emily who is even more scandalously, deceased. The rest of the movie revolves around the bizarre love triangle formed between the three.

The movie uses an improved form of stop motion animation as seen in Nightmare Before Christmas. They do some pretty impressive things, like animating moths in flight. Overally I found the movie visually very appealing. It doesn't have many songs (unlike Nightmare) which will be pleasing to some and displeasing to others, I guess. The voice work is good, particularly Richard E. Grant who plays the dastardly Lord Barkis and Christopher Lee as the minister. If you liked Nightmare, you'll probably like this one.