Corpse Bride

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Post by Ben » September 18th, 2005, 7:48 am

MonkeyBone is inspired lunacy.

The ending, with Chris Kattan, is the funniest man-without-a-neck-bone thing I have ever seen in the movies.

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Post by ShyViolet » September 18th, 2005, 2:28 pm

I think it's more of a guy movie. :wink:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by Meg » September 18th, 2005, 3:07 pm

I remember seeing T.V. trailers for it when I was 10. It astounded me how bad it looked.

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » September 21st, 2005, 11:26 pm

[quote="Meg"]I remember seeing T.V. trailers for it when I was 10. It astounded me how bad it looked.[/quote]

Are you talking about MonkeyBone?

I've only caught bits of it, but what I saw didn't make me want to watch the rest of it.

That's been the problem with most of the stop-motion after Nightmare Before Christmas. The stories and direction just haven't been that good. That's killed development of stop-motion more than anything else.

Same thing happened to hand-drawn animated features. Once a series of them failed in a row, the executives got the idea that it was the METHOD/GENRE of film-making that had failed and NOT the stories and direction of the films.

We'll see what happens once several computer-animated films fail in a row. There's already some nervousness at a few studios because many of the films are BARELY breaking even AFTER they get released on home video.

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Post by Meg » September 22nd, 2005, 5:17 pm

GeorgeC wrote:Are you talking about MonkeyBone?
Yes, I was.

Hopefully me and my freinds can catch Corpse Bride this weekend.

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Post by ShyViolet » September 22nd, 2005, 11:33 pm

Actually I heard Monkeybone (directed by Henry Sellick I think?) was hugely mis-managed by executives which is why it came out (in some people's opinion) very poor.

I think I read somewhere that it's worth it to get the DVD just to hear the Sellick's b*******g over the commentary!
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by James » September 23rd, 2005, 11:15 am

I'm going tonight to see Magnificent Desolation and Corpse Bride. I'll report in here tomorrow with a spoiler free report

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Post by ShyViolet » September 23rd, 2005, 11:33 am

I think it's interesting that the Bride's name is Emily, a la Emily Dickenson, who wrote many poems about death.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by Ben » September 23rd, 2005, 3:46 pm

MonkeyBone was basically ripped apart by Chris Columbus, who used to write slightly mean 'n' nasty kids flicks like Gremlins and The Goonies, but who since became all sweeted up and had to watch what he put out.

His company and name were attached to MonkeyBone back when it was a comic called Dark Town, but by the time it came out he wanted to cut all the really sick stuff and so the film was pale by comparison.

Selick is really quite truthful on his track, though I still love the originality of the film and the fact it was released at all.

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Post by Meg » September 23rd, 2005, 4:03 pm

ShyViolet wrote:I think it's interesting that the Bride's name is Emily, a la Emily Dickenson, who wrote many poems about death.
So it is Emily, huh? Heh. One of my buds I'm seeing this with is named Emily.

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Post by Macaluso » September 23rd, 2005, 4:40 pm

Seein it tonight!

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Post by Meg » September 23rd, 2005, 4:59 pm

Macaluso wrote:Seein it tonight!
Luck-EEE.

GeorgeC

I saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride today...

Post by GeorgeC » September 23rd, 2005, 10:54 pm

Yeah, it's about an 81%.

I don't think it's as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas nor do I think it's going to inspire as much cultism and merchandizing as that film did.

Can you go into ANY Spencer's, Suncoast, Media Play, or any other pop culture store and NOT see some Nightmare merchandise? They sell plush toys, statues, action figures, and other collectibles TWELVE YEARS after that film was released in theaters! Nothing else besides Star Wars has that kind of merchandizing longevity.

I do find it odd that Corpse Bride has next to nothing slated for the next few months besides the MacFarlane Toys action figures. I haven't seen any tie-in books for the film ANYWHERE, nor can I locate them online, and I haven't seen the soundtrack CD when I've looked for it, either... Sound like WB has a case of low expectations for this film's final box-office tally?

Listen, I think the film will do well the FIRST weekend, but I have doubts about its longevity past the Tim Burton and animation sub-cultists. It's a good film, but not a great one, and it's not ground-breaking like Nightmare. If anything, Corpse Bride suffers from comparison to Nightmare and feels like an artistic remake even if the stories are completely different. First, you have score and music by Danny Elfman even if this film's music isn't half as good as Nightmare's, and then you have the art design stylings of Burton and his helpers which everybody has known for twelve years.

There's just no big artistic breakthrough here. If anything, Nightmare is the brighter of the two films storywise, definitely a warmer film with more heart to it, and Corpse Bride is also literally drabber when it comes to the color palette. You just have to see both films to understand what I'm getting at here...

The animation is very good for stop-motion, but definitely jerkier than most hand-drawn animation. I do appreciate, though, that it doesn't have that ultra-smooth quality that's overabundant in CGI. It's good to see another animated film this year (beside Howl's Moving Castle which is the BEST animated film I've seen this year, and among the best films of the past year in my opinion, period) that isn't CGI.

I had no desire to see either Madagascar or Robots and really don't miss having not seen them. I don't feel cheated by Corpse Brider, either, even if it really doesn't live up to all my expectations. It's a well-made film, but definitely one that sort of feels like "been there, done that."



ADDED: I did find a listing for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride on Amazon.com after all. There is a visual guidebook coming out in October. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

Why this book wasn't released this month or this week is beyond me. This is really dumb scheduling on the part of the publisher and tie-in people at Warner's. I'm surprised that this is the only official thing coming out now for Corpse Bride besides the CD.

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Post by Macaluso » September 24th, 2005, 3:54 am

I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as Nightmare before christmas, and I don't understand how anyone COULD think it's better (i've heard a few friends like it more). But I loved it anyway. The corpse bride was such a lovable character too.

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Post by SingingDuckGirl » September 24th, 2005, 4:23 am

My school had an early screening of it tuesday...I love college!
I thought it was good, my only complaint was
the main bad guy, the one who was supposed to marry Emily and did marry Victoria. He just seemed so random...a guy who liked to murder brides? I got that he didn't like it that Victoria wasn't really rich, but what about Emily? ANd didn't he say something like, he was going to kill Victoria, before he knew she was broke? Even if all you want is her money, you might as well just keep her around...Maybe I missed something, since the sound in my school theatre isn't spectacular. Anyway, he could have used more characterazation.
But yeah, lots of good laugh out loud parts. and...
the grandpa and the husband returning? so flippin cute!
Of course not as memorable as Nightmare, but I wasn't expecting it to be. And the marketing thing, yeah, WB does that with their animated movies now. They have no clue what they're doing.
Oh, and I guess I do have another complaint, the same I had with Nightmare: too short! I guess stop motion just gets too tedious.

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