Corpse Bride parents guide

Corpse Bride Parent Guide

Overall B

This Tim Burton stop-motion animation about a young man (voiced by Johnny Depp) who finds himself magically married to a Corpse Bride (Emily Watson), is full of dark and gruesome postmortem characters, as well as a bright and lively view of the afterlife.

Release date September 22, 2005

Violence C+
Sexual Content A-
Profanity B+
Substance Use B+

Why is Corpse Bride rated PG? The MPAA rated Corpse Bride PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language

Run Time: 76 minutes

Parent Movie Review

Tim Burton’s talents seem to lie in his ability to find a macabre angle to nearly any story. His Nightmare Before Christmas took almost all the cheer out of that festive holiday season and his tale of the Big Fish cast a gloomy pall over father/son relationships.

Now Corpse Bride takes a morbid, but well-animated look, at pre-nuptial jitters.

Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) is the cowering son of a status-seeking fishmonger couple. His parents have happily betrothed him to the upper class daughter of a titled nobleman and his snobbish wife. The Everglots, on the other hand, are appalled at the thought of their Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson) walking down the aisle with a commoner. Yet the reality is their money has long since trickled to an end and in order to maintain their air of wealth they must marry their girl off to someone who doesn’t demand a dowry.

Used as pawns in the game of illusions, Victor and Victoria meekly go along with their parental demands. But during the wedding rehearsal, Victor is so nervous he continually stumbles over his vows. Flustered, he runs away to the forest where he practices his lines over and over before placing the ring on an old, bare twig.

Suddenly the twig begins to move, rising from the ground to reveal a partially decomposing bride (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) who insists she and Victor are now married. Dragging the unwilling groom down to the land of the dead, Emily enthusiastically introduces her new husband to the other corpses who are wandering around in various degrees of decay.

The fact that Victor is still breathing doesn’t seem to concern the cadavers who cavort around in a bar setting, many still bearing the weapons that caused their untimely demise. In addition, those who died of natural causes are equally accepting of the new arrival.

Initially anxious to return to the world of the living and his warm-blooded fianc0xE9e, Victor begins to discover the unearthly charm of his bride. Accustomed to living according to the demands of others, he sees his personal ability to free Emily from the deathly curse she is under.

Definitely not aimed at children or those with an aversion to gruesome postmortem characters, the film also includes the suggestion of suicide and the depiction of a murder victim. However, it also introduces a lively afterlife where spirits are still subject to emotions and heartache. At one point, when the living and the dead briefly meet, there is a happy reunion for many who have been separated by the death of loved ones. More importantly, as the timid Victor starts to act positively in behalf of someone else, he finds the real power of love isn’t in money or appearances.

Still for many parents (who don’t want to be up at night), the nightmarish images will be reason enough to decline an invitation to the bizarre wedding party of this Corpse Bride for anyone younger than a teen.

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena BOnham Carter, Emily Watson. Running time: 76 minutes. Theatrical release September 22, 2005. Updated

Corpse Bride Parents' Guide

How are parent/child relationships portrayed in this film? What deception do the parents practice? How does that affect their children?

How does this script portray the afterlife? How does the world of the dead compare with that of the living? Do you believe there is another world where happy reunions will occur?

What do Emily and Victor learn about sacrifice?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Corpse Bride movie is January 30, 2006. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 31 January 2006
Rising from the vault of Warner Home Video is the Corpse Bride. The DVD comes with this extensive trousseau of featurettes: Inside the Two Worlds, Danny Elfman Interprets the Two Worlds, The Animators: The Breath of Life, Tim Burton: Dark vs. Light, Voices from the Underworld, Making Puppets Tick, and The Voices Behind the Voice. Other bonus extras include the Corpse Bride pre-production galleries, theatrical trailer, and a music-only track. Available in either wide or full screen, both presentations provide audio tracks in English (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) and French (Dolby Digital 5.1), with subtitles in English, Spanish and French.

Related home video titles:

Nowadays fairytales are often sanitized to be more children friendly, but many original stories, like the one this movie is based on, are much darker. Less kid-friendly than the animated account of Cinderella, Ever After is an adaptation of the tale aimed at older audiences. Johnny Depp also plays the man who created the fictional world of Peter Pan in the movie Finding Neverland.