Tim Burton's Corpse Bride sets a new standard for animated movies. It has easily eclipsed this year's top animations, including Robots and Madagascar. Burton spent almost 10 years nurturing the story based on old Russian tales of anti-Jewish people murdering Jewish brides who are on their way to their wedding ceremony. Everything in the film - the music, the plot, the characters and the visuals - is Burton at his best. It has all the elements a Burton fan wants: demonic trees, lively ghosts and ghouls, a bitter-sweet romance, sympathy for the misfits and mockery of conventional social values. Johnny Depp provides the voice for Victor, who is set to marry Victoria (Emily Watson), the daughter of a poor, aristocratic couple. Too nervous to memorise the wedding vows, he escapes to a nearby graveyard where he accidentally puts the wedding ring on the finger of Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), the corpse bride. She then takes Victor to the land of the dead where everything seems to be much livelier and happier than the world of the living where people care only about money and fame. Victor is the lead character but Emily gives the story its heart. Beautiful, clever and kind, she reminds viewers of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Both are so passionate that their emotions sometimes cloud their judgment. They try to bend the rules - for a good cause - but the world refuses to accept them for who they are. Despite its dark theme, the film has a fairytale atmosphere that makes it a wonderful family movie. Danny Elfman's jazzy score is spirited and there are plenty of hilarious characters, such as a talkative maggot and a band of singing skeletons. The ending, in which Emily is transformed into hundreds of butterflies in the moonlight, is beautiful. Through the corpse bride, the film shows us the best qualities - love and self-sacrifice - that make us human. Corpse Bride is now showing
