Burton’s “Corpse Bride” animates Venice film fest

By Mike Collett-White

VENICE (Reuters) – In Tim Burton’s ghoulish but hilarious
animation movie “Corpse Bride,” the world of the dead is full
of color, music and fun while the land of the living is black,
white and oppressive.

For his latest film showcased at the Venice Film Festival
on Wednesday, the director used painstaking “stop-motion”
animation with models, setting it apart from the more common
computer generation used in hits such as “Shrek” and “Toy
Story.”

“We feel so lucky, with computers and all taking over, to
be able to do this beautiful, old fashioned technique,” said
Burton, sporting his trademark dark glasses and shaggy hair.

“It’s something about the old fashioned quality of it,” he
told reporters. “There’s something very emotional about it. It
is hard to put it into words…the idea of somebody moving a
puppet frame by frame.”

The film, which took Burton 10 years to bring to the
screen, is not in competition for the Golden Lion this, but the
thunderous reception it received at a preview for the press and
critics late on Tuesday showed it might have been a contender.

When Victor, the bumbling hero voiced by Johnny Depp,
wanders into the woods outside his town, a twist of fate takes
him to a life beyond the grave.

The surprise arrival of a “breather” in their midst prompts
skeleton band the Skeletones to strike up, a severed head
scuttles across the bar at the Ball and Socket pub and a
general with a cannon-ball-sized hole in his chest knocks back
a glass of wine.

Emily, the decomposing damsel who believes she is betrothed
to the living Victor, has the unfortunate habit of losing an
eye whenever the worm inside her head pops out to make a point.

Based on a Russian folk tale, “Corpse Bride” also features
the voices of Helena Bonham Carter in the title role and Emily
Watson as Victoria. Christopher Lee is the authoritarian pastor
and Richard E. Grant the sinister Barkis Bittern.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

Because it could take animators a full day of work to come
produce just a few seconds of action, Burton and his team
developed new techniques to ease the burden since his 1993
animation effort “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

In that film, facial expressions were achieved using
replacement heads on the models.

In “Corpse Bride,” puppeteers created a gearing mechanism
inside the puppets’ heads which could be adjusted through the
ears or at various points hidden in the hair.

The corpse bride’s tattered veil and accompanying tiara
alone took 10 months to develop.

“It can be tedious work,” said co-director Mike Johnson.
“It’s just the kind of thing that you have to be passionate
about and willing to commit to completely.”

It is Burton’s second collaboration this year with Depp,
after the two worked together on “Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory,” an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book. Depp also starred
in Burton’s 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands.”

While Burton’s film means the attention on the Lido on
Wednesday is away from the main competition, two entries have
their official premieres.

French production “Vers le Sud” (“Heading South”), directed
by Laurent Cantet, is set in Haiti at the end of the 1970s and
stars Charlotte Rampling.

“O Fatalista” (“The Fatalist”), an adaptation of “Jacques
le Fataliste” by 18th Century French philosopher Denis Diderot,
is directed by Portugal’s Joao Botelho.

The festival ends with the award ceremony on Saturday.