![]() ![]() These two most recent animated movies were received with mixed reviews, but were moderate successes at the box office. A computer animated version of The Addams Family was released in 2019 and was followed up with a sequel in 2021, called The Addams Family 2. Since then there have been multiple television shows, both animated and live-action that have featured this oddball family, as well as specials such as a crossover with the Mystery Inc gang from Scooby-Doo. They came to life on television screens in 1964, when the first live-action portrayal of the family aired on ABC. The Addams Family is an eccentric aristocratic family that has an obsession with all things morbid and dark, and a complete unawareness of how their unique interests make outsiders extremely uncomfortable. Created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the hilariously macabre family made their debut in a single-panel comic published in The New Yorker in 1938. Then came the rough patch that continues to this day: the aimless hodgepodge of overpriced visuals in “Alice,” a pointless “Dark Shadows” reboot, the shrug of “Frankenweenie,” the half-baked drama of “Big Eyes,” the unmemorable “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” and the inanity that fills every frame of “Dumbo.The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values are both iconic movies of the early 90s. 2007’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” was a blast, merging Burton’s gruesome interests with a Grand Guignol musical on the same wavelength. “Corpse Bride” arrived at a curious turning point, as he revved up for one of his biggest spate of successes followed by a steep decline. Burton always struggles when he gets away from his best instincts. It’s a concept equal parts “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands,” the two movies that best illustrated Burton’s storytelling strengths at the height of his popularity. Only once he’s thrust into an otherworldly scheme, forced to choose one bride over the other while correcting the sins of the past, does he gain some confidence and communal responsibility. Through it all, Victor is an innocent conduit: He’s a useless tool of society, with his wealthy fishmonger parents eager to marry him off to Victoria (Emily Watson), the child of aristocracy, to improve their family’s class. “Remains of the Day,” Elfman’s riotous, jazzy showstopping number, includes a delightful throwback to the famed Disney short “The Skeleton Dance,” and showcases Burton’s ability to transform the macabre into a delightful getaway while the land of the living remains an uninviting drag. It’s Burton unplugged in a way we’ve never seen him before or since.Īnything goes in “Corpse Bride,” and when Victor winds up thrust into the afterlife for a song about the dead woman to whom he accidentally offered his hand, the movie explodes with visual innovation. At the same time, it conjures a wilder experimental quality, combining the icy milieu of 19th century English literature with the graphic eeriness of an Edward Gorey cartoon. On the one hand, the world of “Corpse Bride” registers as an extension of the “Nightmare” universe, with the stop motion materials combining a sense of familiarity with dreamlike remove. Over the years, the filmmaker’s best ideas have merged spookiness with sensitivity, and that’s certainly the case with the plight of wide-eyed Victor Van Dort - the wayward young bachelor voiced by Johnny Depp - who accidentally recites his vows to the ghost of a murdered woman, and finds himself in a rather ghastly love triangle. We may have “Nightmare” to thank for justifying the expense of “Corpse Bride,” but “Corpse Bride” distills Burton’s distinctive artistry to its bare essence. ![]() Instead, it operates on an intimate scale, weeding out the invasive need to pander to wider audiences that often pervades Burton’s storytelling and gets in the way of its most endearing qualities. Co-directed with Mike Johnson, this stop-motion wonder doesn’t waste a frame, delivering pure unbridled Burtonesque joy at every turn: In 77 minutes, it delivers a haunting ghost story with ample romance, inventive sight gags, and fairy tale wonder, united by a handful of soulful Danny Elfman tunes.īefore you can say “Nightmare Before Christmas,” not quite: “Corpse Bride” doesn’t turn on the same vast world-building as that holiday staple, which took Burton’s vision and expanded it to an epic framework. That was when “ Corpse Bride,” an intoxicating Victorian fantasy that Burton made in between production on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” encapsulated everything that makes this filmmaker such a singular artist in the very place. To truly appreciate Burton at his best, you have to go back 15 years. The State of the Streaming Industry’s Password-Sharing Crackdowns ![]()
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