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Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is an Academy Award-nominated 2005 stop-motion-animation fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton. It is based loosely on a 19th century Russian-Jewish folktale version of an older Jewish story and set in a fictional Victorian era village in Britain. Johnny Depp led an all-star cast as the voice of Victor and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom the project was specially created) voiced Emily, the title character.

The movie exhibits Burton's trademark style and recurring themes (the complex interaction between light and darkness, and of being caught between two irreconcilable worlds). Life is portrayed as boring and dully gray tinted while death is more fun, as evidenced by the brighter colors and jaunty music. The image of a butterfly/butterflies is a recurring motif.

The movie can be particularly compared to The Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton's previous stop-motion feature project, and Beetlejuice, especially in the scenes depicting the underworld and its deceased denizens.

The film was nominated in the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, but was bested by Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

In a Victorian era town, the Everglots, a family of recently bankrupt aristocrats, reluctantly agree to marry off their daughter Victoria to the timid Victor Van Dort, son of nouveau riche fishmongers. Despite their initial uneasiness about the situation, having never before met, Victor and Victoria hit it off immediately. Unfortunately, after his clumsiness ruins their wedding rehearsal (accidentally lighting Victoria's mother's dress on fire), Victor is banished until he can learn to recite his wedding vows properly. Victor wanders deep into the forest while practicing, eventually performing a flawless mock recital. In doing so, he places his bride's wedding ring on a tree root resembling a human hand. However, it turns out it truly is a hand, which comes to life and grabs Victor by the arm. Emerging from the earth is Emily, the "Corpse Bride," a beautiful undead girl in a moldy bridal gown who declares Victor her husband.



Emily takes Victor to the Land of the Dead, where Victor learns how she was jilted, murdered and robbed while trying to elope with a mysterious stranger, and had been waiting for her true love to return ever since. Victor tries to flee from Emily, who finds and attempts to bond with him, even reuniting him with his beloved and long-deceased dog, Scraps, as a wedding present. Dearly wishing to return to Victoria, his own true love, Victor tricks Emily into returning him to the Land of the Living under the pretense of introducing her to his still-living parents. Just as Victor reunites with Victoria and confesses his feelings for her, Emily discovers them and spirits Victor away back to the Land of the Dead. Feeling betrayed, Emily gets into an argument with Victor, climaxing with Victor telling her that their marriage was a mistake and he would never marry a girl like her (referring to her being dead). Misunderstanding him and heartbroken, Emily leaves thinking Victor only loves Victoria for being alive while she herself is not.

Victoria tries to convince her family of the danger Victor is potentially in, but her claims of the existence of a "Corpse Bride" fall on deaf ears. Instead, her parents arrange her to be married to Lord Barkis Bittern, a presumably wealthy drifter who arrived earlier during the wedding rehearsal, though Victoria is too troubled by Victor's disappearance to object. Unbeknownst to the others, however, Barkis intends to kill Victoria and make off with the fortune he believes she has.

Feeling guilty for his earlier deception, Victor apologizes to Emily, and her love for him is renewed. Suddenly, the coachman of Victor's dies and arrives in the Land of the Dead, informing Victor of Victoria's engagement to Barkis; Victor is shocked and heartbroken at the news. Emily, meanwhile, learns that her marriage to Victor is not official; as the wedding vows bind them till death do them part, and she is already dead, she and Victor must return to the Land of the Living to re-recite their vows, after which Victor must kill himself by drinking poisoned wine to validate their matrimony. Victor, believing that Victoria has moved on with her life without him, agrees to carry out the ceremony, and invites all of the dead to attend.

After Victoria and Barkis' wedding, the town erupts in panic as the dead arrive, but their fear is replaced with joy when the living residents recognize their loved ones among the dead; Barkis, however, is shocked to discover that Victoria's parents are penniless. During the ceremony, Emily spots the heartbroken Victoria and realizes that Victor's death will cheat her out of a happy life just like she was cheated out of hers, calling off the ceremony before Victor drinks the poison and reunites him with Victoria. Barkis then crashes the party to reclaim Victoria, with Emily recognizing him as the man who jilted, murdered and robbed her years ago. Victor engages Barkis in a sword fight (though Barkis is the only one with a sword while Victor is armed with a dinner fork). Before Barkis can land a killing strike, Emily takes the blow instead and, due to already being dead, remains unharmed. Emily lividly orders him to leave, but before he does, Barkis proposes a mock-toast to her and drinks the wine intended for Victor. However, he does not realize it is poisoned until it's too late and dies within seconds, as the outraged dead proceed to make hell out of his afterlife. Content that Victor can now live happily with Victoria and having closure with her murder, Emily finds herself at peace and ascends to the heavens in the form of hundreds of butterflies into the moon as Victor and Victoria watch on.