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.