BLU-RAY REVIEW

(Tim Burton's) Corpse Bride

Featured In Issue 114, November 2006

Picture4.5
Sound4
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Home Video
(Catalog Number):
82850
(MPAA Rating):
PG
(Rating Reason):
For some scary images and action, and brief mild language
(Retail Price):
$28.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
77
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
(Theatrical Year):
2005
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
09/26/06
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Mike Johnson & Tim Burton
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital+ Surround EX, Dolby Digital+ 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

After just meeting each other for the first time, Victor (Depp) and Victoria (Watson) are scheduled to be married the next day. But Victor is a little nervous about the whole situation and goes for a walk in the woods. While practicing his vows, he places the wedding ring on an old tree branch—he thinks—but instead it turns out to be the skeletal finger of the "Corpse Bride" (Bonham Carter), who immediately accepts Victor's proposal of marriage. After the new missus drags Victor to the very strange Land of the Dead, he realizes that he has come to love his intented bride, Victoria. But his dead wife isn't too happy about Victor's love for the living and wonders what she can do to make Victor truly hers. Set in the same style as another Tim Burton film, "The Nightmare Before Christmas," this movie is sure to delight those of all ages. (Tricia Spears)

From the pop-up menu, the features are exactly the same as on the DVD and include the following featurettes: Inside The Two Worlds (four minutes), Danny Elfman Interprets The Two Worlds (five minutes), The Animators: The Breath Of Life (seven minutes), Tim Burton Dark vs. Light (four minutes), Voices From The Underworld (six minutes), Making Puppets Tick (seven minutes), and The Voices Behind The Voice (eight minutes). There is also a 13-minute preproduction gallery featuring each of the different characters in the film, the option of watching the movie with the music-only track, and the theatrical trailer.

The VC-1-encoded 1.78:1 Blu-ray Disc looks fantastic, with incredible detail and depth. The image really looks three-dimensional, not only popping out of the screen but also reaching deep into the screen plane. (Danny Richelieu)

While the Dolby® Digital Surround EX™ 5.1-channel soundtrack does sound very good, even slightly better than that which was included with the DVD (with its increased bit rate), it does not have the level of fidelity that can be provided by an uncompressed PCM soundtrack or a next-generation lossless or lossy audio codec. (Danny Richelieu)