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Romance isn't dead in Tim Burton's 'Corpse Bride'

Fans of Tim Burton's 1993 mirthfully macabre stop-motion animation feature The Nightmare Before Christmas — a group that grew substantially once the film went to the video after-market — only need know that he is back and in top form with another imaginative venture into the fanciful and ghoulish.

Apparently based on a Russian folk tale, then transferred to Victorian Europe, Corpse Bride is the story of an arranged marriage interrupted when the groom-to-be inadvertently finds himself engaged to a different woman who comes from beyond the grave. We know that the era is Victorian, because the initial betrothed couple are named Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) and Victoria (Emily Watson).

Warner Brothers Pictures 'Corpse Bride' A- The verdict: Tim Burton's new stop-action fable is charming, chilling and full of chuckles. Directors: Mike Johnson, Tim Burton Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Deep Roy Run time: 74 minutes Release date: Sept. 23, 2005 Rating: PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language. See showtimes Corpse Bride slide shows •  Stills from the movie •  The making of... On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

They are from different rungs of the social ladder, but their parents are all eager for the match since Victoria's aristocratic folks are actually impoverished and Victor's mom and dad are mere fishmongers, but wealthy ones. Happily, Victor and Victoria take an instant liking to each other, in part because he bares his artistic soul playing the piano, which she hears before ever seeing him.

But the easily flustered and clumsy Victor botches his vows at the wedding rehearsal. When he goes off to practice his lines, he meanders through a graveyard and conjures up the ghost of a woman named Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) — the title character — who insists he has just proposed to her. Decomposed, though still buxom, with an eyeball that keeps popping out of its socket, the corpse bride is alluringly lively, yet dead. And the closest Burton comes to a cute, Disneyfied sidekick for her is a chipper Peter Lorre-like maggot that often crawls out of her eye hole.

I leave it to parents and child psychologists to decide whether all of this will disturb young minds, but grown-ups are likely to enjoy the flurry of otherworldly puns and marriage jokes. The screenwriting trio, which includes John August (of Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), scatter the rapid-fire gags while Burton and his co-director Mike Johnson move the action along at a nimble pace. Together, the creative team packs a lot into the film's 77 minutes.

The Victorian world of the living is depicted in muted colors and a palette of grays and blacks, but when Victor descends to the Land of the Dead — to meet the corpse bride's family — production designer Alex McDowell delivers the intended contrast, envisioning a jaunty landscape of vibrant hues.

Also vibrant is the song score by frequent Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman, who further propels the story and expresses characters' inner thoughts through the traditions of musical comedy, from faux-Gilbert and Sullivan to ersatz Broadway.

The voice talent is note perfect, particularly Depp's hesitant, meek Victor and Carter's throaty, giggly Emily. Stop-action animation has substantially improved in the past decade, though it remains an attractively low-tech treat. Still, all feature animation succeeds or fails on its story and screenplay, not on its style of visualization, and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride's writing is as deliciously offbeat as its creator.