Depp, Carter Make Magic in Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) – animated
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language)
DIRECTORS: Mike Johnson and Tim Burton
WRITERS: John August, Caroline Thompson, and Pamela Pettler
PRODUCER: Allison Abbate and Tim Burton
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pete Kozachik
EDITOR: Jonathan Lucas and Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/MUSICAL/FAMILY with elements of comedy and romance

Starring: (voices) Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Michael Gough, Jane Horrocks, Enn Reitel, Deep Roy, Stephen Ballantyne, Lisa Kay, Danny Elfman

12 years ago, Tim Burton conceived and produced a fabulous stop-motion animated film, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Henry Selick). It remains something of a cult classic and family favorite and has spawned numerous merchandise spin offs, including several toy lines. Burton returns to stop-motion animation with the new film Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, co-directed by Mike Johnson.

Transformed from a Russian folk tale, Corpse Bride begins in a small, gloomily repressed Victorian town that is about to see the wedding of two young people who’ve never met. Canned fish tycoons, Nell and William Van Dort (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) crassly make a bid to social climb by wedding their bachelor son, Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) to old-money aristocrats.

Maudeline and Finis Everglot (voices of Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney) have an old-money aristocratic name, but are penniless. All they have left is their name and social standing and a daughter named Victoria (voice of Emily Watson). The Everglots are willing to hold their noses and grudgingly marry Victoria off to Victor, whose money will allow them to climb back into the upper reaches of society (where their ancestor, the Duke of Everglot, was). By marrying Victor to Victoria, the Van Dorts will have the requisite class to go with their enormous wealth.

Upon their first meeting, Victor and Victoria do slowly and quietly begin to fall in love, but at the wedding rehearsal, Victor continually bungles his lines. Pastor Galswells (voice of Christopher Lee), who will preside over the wedding, sends Victor away until he can manage to learn the somewhat tricky lines of his vows. Humiliated, he wanders into the dark forest that surrounds his village. Alone, he successfully recites his vows, and even goes so far as to place his wedding ring on the root of a tree as a finishing touch.

However, the root is really bony finger. Like a magic incantation, Victor’s vows and the ring resurrect the decaying corpse to which the finger belongs. Up rises the strange and strangely beautiful Corpse Bride (voice of Helena Bonham Carter) wearing the tattered remains of a wedding dress. She may have died long ago (after being mysteriously murdered on her wedding night), but her search for true love and a husband never died. She grabs Victor, mistaking him for husband and drags him beneath the earth to the Land of the Dead, a colorful and rowdy place that is the exact opposite of the dull, somber, and cold Land of the Living (known by the denizens of the Land of the Dead as upstairs).

Victor tries in vain to return to Victoria. Meanwhile, the Everglots have hastily arranged a second wedding for their daughter, to a mysterious, arrogant, and somewhat sinister stranger calling himself, Lord Barkis Bittern (voice of Richard E. Grant). With his Corpse Bride determined to hold him in the bonds of their unholy matrimony, Victor must find is way back upstairs to his true bride-to-be before Victoria is also bond by an unfortunate marriage.

First, if I had the chance, I would tell co-directors Tim Burton and Mike Johnson and their animators and other crew that their 55-week shoot during, which 109,000,440 individually animated frames were set up and filmed, resulted in a truly glorious film fairy tale. I don’t know if they think the effort was worth it, but I sure as hell do. Corpse Bride is an exuberant stop-motion, pop Gothic animated fable. Delightfully and mysteriously creepy, the film is a sweet tale of love both lost and unrequited. Corpse Bride does have the usual Burton ticks. For instance, the Land of the Dead is a fun, colorful and oddly creepy place where the dead do more that just make the best of it, while the Land of the Living is so cold and somber. The living are so reserved, grave, serious and sober, while the dead party up!

However, it all works because the film’s internal logic makes sense (with only a few exceptions). The direction and camera work (they shot the film using digital still cameras rather than film cameras) create a sense of movement and a flow in the narrative that is… well, as animated as live action film. The script captures the film’s whimsical, yet eerie nature with a narrative that is melancholy, yet filled with funny moments and also dialogue that fits right in with all the whimsy, moodiness, and dead things.

The voice cast is excellent, and I’m loathed to single anyone out. However, Helena Bonham Carter as the Corpse Bride (whose name was/is Emily) does a superb job straddling the line between macabre and sweet and between comic and menace (especially in the scene when she arrives at the Everglot estate to get “her man” back from Victoria). Still, Johnny Depp (obviously Burton’s stand-in) and Emily Watson are also very good and make their characters charming and engaging. All in all, they’re part of fine cast and crew that made Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride a great film, a must-see for lovers of animated films.

10 of 10

Friday, October 07, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Tim Burton and Mike Johnson)

First Burton/Depp Joint, "Edward Scissorhands" is a Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Caroline Thompson; from a story by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson
PRODUCERS: Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stefan Czapsky (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Richard Halsey
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Robert Oliveri, Conchata Ferrell, Caroline Aaron, O-Lan Jones, Dick Anthony Williams, and Vincent Price

The subject of this movie review is Edward Scissorhands, a fairy tale film from director Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp in the title role. Edward Scissorhands is the first of several films in which Burton and Depp have collaborated, including the shortly to be released Dark Shadows.

A romantic fantasy, the film opens with an elderly woman telling her granddaughter where the snow outside their window comes from (because they live in an area in which snow is not common). That story begins when a local Avon saleswoman, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) visits a Gothic mansion that sits on a hill just outside her suburban neighborhood. She finds Edward (Tim Burton) hiding in the castle. Edward is a mechanical young man created by an old inventor (Vincent Price), and he has scissor-like contraptions where his wrists and hands should be.

Peg takes Edward home where he befriends her son, Kevin (Robert Oliveri), meets her husband, Bill (Alan Arkin), and later meets and falls in love with her teen daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder). At first Edward fits right in with the family, and the neighbors also take to him, especially after they discover that he has skills they can put to use. However, petty jealousies, simple misunderstandings, and selfish interests soon make it difficult and dangerous for both the Boggs and Edward.

Critics and movie fans have described Edward Scissorhands as Tim Burton’s most personal film. According to the 2006 book, Burton on Burton (by author Mark Salisbury), the title character of Edward Scissorhands comes out of a teenaged Burton’s feelings of isolation and also his inability to fit in and to communicate with the people in the suburb where he grew up. The more I saw of Burton and of his work, both films and illustrations, the more Edward Scissorhands’ themes of self-discovery and isolation made sense to me. I can see Burton, a Goth-type teen with his strange drawings and stranger looks, not exactly fitting in with the conformity zone that suburban areas are (at least on the surface, cause there’s no telling what goes on behind closed doors).

Seriously though, I think Edward Scissorhands goes beyond mere commentary about familiar suburban vs. rebel themes. In the film, the Boggs live in a drab suburban world that manages to make even the pastel colors that blanket the wood frame homes seem dull and boring. When Edward comes into the Boggs’ world, it isn’t so much that he is a breath of fresh air. It is that he becomes a novelty act, and he is accepted, for the most part, as long has his talents are of use to his new neighbors and as long he entertains. The black-garbed Edward is the proverbial Negro in a white bougie woodpile.

Edward, although he is a mechanical boy, has a good soul and has an open spirit. He isn’t clueless, as throughout the film, we can observe how quickly Edward learns. He has a surprising sense of humor, born of the way he can see past the façades people put forth. The problem for Edward is that he is open-minded or, at least, open to new experiences; his neighbors are not.

In this film’s last act, the neighbors reveal themselves for what they really are – a white citizens council, a lynch mob willfully ignoring any truths so that they can kill someone. They want an excuse, any excuse, to get out the torches and pitchforks. Hell, when it comes down to it, they don’t really need an excuse. It is not a coincidence that the most understanding and sympathetic person to Edward, outside the Boggs, is an African-American police officer played by the late Dick Anthony Williams (who died in February of this year.)

One can make an argument that Edward Scissorhands is Burton’s best film. For all its autobiographical elements, it is his sharpest and most satirical drama. In the context of Burton’s apparent persecuted youth, Edward Scissorhands is the revenge of the nerd that made it in spite of the haters.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Makeup” (Ve Neill and Stan Winston)

1992 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Production Design” (Bo Welch); 3 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood), “Best Make Up Artist” (Ve Neill), and “Best Special Visual Effects” (Stan Winston)

1991 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Johnny Depp)

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Happy Birthday, Uncle Willie

I won't guess at your age, but I will wish you a great day, Unca Willie.

Review: "Hell and Back Again" is Not as Strong as It Should Be

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 33 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hell and Back Again (2011)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Danfung Dennis
PRODUCERS: Danfung Dennis, Martin Herring, and Mike Lerner
COMPOSER: J. Ralph
EDITOR: Fiona Otway
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA – War

Starring: Sgt. Nathan Harris and Ashley Harris with The Marines of Echo Company 2nd Battalion 8th Marine Regiment

The subject of this movie review is Hell and Back Again, a 2011 documentary from director Danfung Dennis. The film was nominated for a best Documentary Oscar in 2012.

Hell and Back Again focuses on U.S. Marine Sgt. Nathan Harris who was wounded by Taliban machine-gun fire and returns to civilian life where he must deal with a badly-wounded leg and the stress of painful rehabilitation. Over time, post-traumatic stress disorder begins to take a toll on both Nathan and his wife, Ashley Harris. The film also switches back and forth between scenes depicting Sgt. Harris’ time in Afghanistan and his life back in America.

Hell and Back Again deserves credit for offering an intimate look at a serviceman’s life both at war and at home. However, I did not find the film overall to be all that compelling, although it does have some gripping moments. Early in the movie, director Danfung Dennis records the men in Sgt. Harris’ platoon, as they attend to a wounded comrade, Lance Corporal Charles G. “Sharpie” Sharp. Later, in that same scene, a caption appears over a black background informing the viewer that the medics could not save Sharp. Then, the video returns to show several men carrying and accompanying a body bag that apparently contains the body of Sharp. This is a stunning moment that made my breath catch.

The rest of the film lacks that potency, although there are a number of moving moments. At times, Nathan Harris comes across sympathetic, but other times, he seems pathetic, even crazy. I think the director made a mistake not featuring more scenes in which the wife, Ashley, talks to the camera – by herself without Nathan.

There is a scene towards the end of the film in which this does happen. Ashley is in a Walgreens Pharmacy when she opens up about Nathan’s behavior and the state of their relationship. This moment in the film tells us more about Nathan’s state of mind at the time than the entire rest of the film.

Hell and Back Again also has many good scenes in Afghanistan that give a sense of the difficulties the Marines have in-country, and how strained their relationships are with the locals in some areas. Viewers will see that the Marines are the ones who try to make the best of a bad situation, even in the face of obstinate and (understandably) frustrated locals.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner)

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

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"Marvel's The Avengers" Sets Opening Weekend Box Office Record

“Marvel’s The Avengers” Scores Biggest Domestic Opening Weekend of All Time

With $207.4 Million Domestic Debut, “Marvel’s The Avengers” Grosses $654.8 Million Globally in 12 Days

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marvel’s The Avengers has posted the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time with $207.4 million for May 4-6, The Walt Disney Studios announced today. The Super Hero team-up crossed the $600 million threshold at the global box office in 12 days, and its cumulative worldwide box office gross is an estimated $654.8 million.

“Marvel’s The Avengers is something we’ve been carefully building toward since we began production on the first Iron Man film, and it is quite rewarding for all of us that The Avengers is appealing around the globe to both passionate fans and general audiences alike. It is a testament to all involved with this film that audiences across the board are embracing the film in this record-setting way,” said Marvel’s The Avengers producer Kevin Feige.

“Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige and the whole Marvel team have done something really incredible with The Avengers,” said Dave Hollis, Executive Vice President, Theatrical Exhibition Sales and Distribution, The Walt Disney Studios. “From the super-talented cast to the spectacular visual effects, it’s a grand slam, and we’re proud to be a part of this history-making film.”

In just three days, Marvel’s The Avengers is the fastest movie to reach $200 million domestically. The domestic debut kicked off Friday, May 4, and marks the second-highest single-day take of all time at $80.8 million, followed by record-breaking days on Saturday ($69.5 million) and Sunday ($57 million). Moviegoers gave Marvel’s The Avengers a rare and perfect A+ CinemaScore.

Marvel’s The Avengers began opening internationally April 25 and has set records as the biggest opening weekend of all time in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Central America, Peru, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates. It opened in Russia May 3 with $17.9 million to make it the biggest Marvel opening weekend ever. It debuted in China on May 5 with $18 million over two days. Marvel’s The Avengers has now opened in all major markets except Israel (May 10), Poland (May 11), and Japan (August 17).

The film’s successful debut comes a month after Marvel and Disney announced that a sequel to 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger will be released April 4, 2014. A sequel to last summer’s Thor is scheduled for release November 15, 2013, and the third installment of the hit Iron Man series, which has earned over $1.2 billion worldwide, will arrive in theaters May 3, 2013.

Marvel’s The Avengers is the first Marvel Studios film to be marketed and distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.


About Marvel’s The Avengers
Marvel Studios presents Marvel’s The Avengers — the team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

Marvel’s The Avengers is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures. The film was produced by Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story was by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon and the screenplay was by Joss Whedon. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I don't think I can top Saturday, today, but I hope today is still cool.

Marvel's "The Avengers" is Marvelous

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Avengers (2012)
Running time: 142 minutes (2 hours, 22 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon
WRITERS: Joss Whedon; from a story by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon (based upon the comic book created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)
PRODUCER: Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Seamus McGarvey
EDITORS: Jeffrey Ford and Lisa Lassek
COMPOSER: Alan Silvestri

SUPERHERO/SCI-FI/ACTION/FANTASY/DRAMA

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany (voice), Alexis Denisof, Powers Boothe, Jenny Agutter, Harry Dean Stanton, and Stan Lee

The Avengers is a 2012 superhero movie from Marvel Studios. The film, which is based upon the comic book created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, stars Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Thor, all of whom have been featured in their own films. Other characters appearing include Nick Fury (who has appeared in several Marvel Studios films), Black Widow (appeared in Iron Man 2), and Hawkeye (who made a cameo appearance in Thor).

These superheroes come together to battle Loki (the villain in Thor) and his alien army that are bent on conquering Earth. The result is The Avengers, one of the best movies of the year, thus far, and a marvelous superhero spectacular that rivals the best action movies in recent memory. The Avengers more than lives up to the pre-release hype.

Exiled Norse god, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), attacks a remote research facility in order to steal the Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential. In response, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of the espionage agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., reactivates the Avengers Initiative, a program that will bring together individuals with extraordinary powers. There is Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor the Norse God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth), Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

There are problems and complications, however, the biggest being that these people don’t get along. Meanwhile, Loki has made a deal with the Other (Alexis Denisof), an alien conqueror that wants the Tesseract. In exchange, the Other gives Loki an alien army, the Chitauri, to help him conquer Earth. Can the heroes become the Avengers in time to save the world?

There is no point in waiting, so I’ll just come out an admit it. I loved this movie. I loved how the CGI Hulk has more personality in The Avengers than the character had in the two Hulk movies. I loved how when S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier (a flying aircraft carrier) emerges from the sea, I felt overwhelmed and frightened, because it is such an enormous edifice and that moment in the movie is so gigantic. I love how truly frightening and menacing the Chitauri are.

The Avengers’ visual effects extravaganza and wall-to-wall action remind me of the second and third entries in the recent Transformers film franchise (Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon), but The Avengers’ mass of sound and CGI is more purposeful towards the story than what went on in the Transformers. Still, as is the case with the Transformers movies, The Avengers’ visuals can be overwhelming.

Of the five films produced by Marvel Studios, beginning with Iron Man back in 2008, The Avengers’ is most like the two Iron Man films directed by John Favreau (who is credited as an executive producer on The Avengers). That means high production values, quality storytelling, good villains, and excellent performances all around.

There are a lot of people that I can praise for making The Avengers a movie I want to experience through repeated viewings, but I will focus on writer/director Joss Whedon. Although he has been a screenwriter and script doctor for over two decades, Whedon’s best known work has been in television, most notably the long-running TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This movie could have been too big for him, but his enormous and fertile imagination crated a movie that is actually too big for a normal-sized movie screen.

Whedon, however, emphasizes the heroes’ humanity, and how the best of them can overcome individual pettiness, as must be the case with a true superhero. Whedon manages this behemoth because he is the one who built it, keeping the weight of the film buoyant through sparkling wit and humor. But Whedon never forgets the power, the spectacle, and the all-things-awesome that make superheroes marvelous entertainment. It is not perfect; for one thing, it is a little too long, but I give Whedon credit for making The Avengers such a smash-up sensation.

8 of 10
A

Saturday, May 05, 2012