--- title: "Corpse Bride: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/corpse-bride/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/corpse-bride" critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 16 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Corpse Bride (2005): what the critics said Critics' score 66 from 16 reviews: 11 positive, 2 mixed, 3 negative. Most critics like Corpse Bride, and the praise settles on the same place: the stop-motion craft. The puppetry, the expressive faces and the contrast between a grey living world and a colourful, cheerier land of the dead come up in nearly every review, and several find the film sweeter and more coherent than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Emily, the bride of the title, is singled out as an especially strong creation, and the voice work is rated highly. The reservations cluster around feeling and length. Even admirers call it slight, a sketchbook rather than a fully worked story, and Time Out finds it cold to the touch for all its finish. The spread is wide: three reviews turn firmly against it, with the Los Angeles Times saying the folk-tale premise is stretched thin and Slant Magazine finding no emotional weight beneath the dazzle. A few also think Danny Elfman’s score falls short. ## The Times Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 September 2025. Tim Burton’s musical animation is almost perfect, with Johnny Depp voicing a 19th-century heir who proposes to a half-buried murder victim played by Helena Bonham Carter in this vivid stop-motion film. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/corpse-bride-2005-review-tim-burtons-musical-is-almost-perfect-3b2gv2dgk) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2007. The critic calls it Burton's miniature 2005 film, a sweet/sad Gothic fairy-tale more like Edward Scissorhands than Nightmare Before Christmas, finally affecting with a warm underworld contrasting the cold living world. He singles out the alluring, heart-filled Corpse Bride Emily as an especially strong creation. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/corpse-bride-review/) ## Radio Times — Leslie Felperin Rating 4/5. This is a wonderful fantasy and exquisitely crafted stop-motion animation that puts a hip spin on a Russian folk tale; it is sweeter than The Nightmare Before Christmas with a consistently funny and often lyrical script that is far better. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-8qpum2/tim-burtons-corpse-bride/) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 7 September 2005. Festival review. Corpse Bride brings Burton’s dark imagination to a hugely entertaining macabre love story with a ravishing neo-Dickensian visual style and unprecedented stop-motion facial expressions; it has more dramatic coherence than The Nightmare Before Christmas and allows sympathy for both brides. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/corpse-bride/4024240.article) ## The AV Club — Tasha Robinson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 September 2005. The film is a gently charming stop-motion fairy tale with a low-key tone and eye-popping visual details in its meticulously crafted world of whimsy and ghoulishness. It lacks the intensity and manic highs of The Nightmare Before Christmas but delivers a pleasantly plaintive elegy without the usual Burton flop sweat. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/corpse-bride-1798201038) ## Evening Standard — Derek Malcolm Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The re-release review lauds the stop-motion visuals as unmistakably Burton's and calls it an inventive comedy showing the living as greater freaks than the dead, with sight gags and expressive faces. It highlights the childlike fun and European influences on the Russian folk-tale adaptation. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-ghoul-can-t-help-it-7385999.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 22 September 2005. The film is a sweet and visually lovely tale of love lost rather than a macabre horror story. Burton creates contrasting palettes for the drab living world and the livelier, cheerier land of the dead, enhanced by stop-motion animation and small graceful details. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tim-burtons-corpse-bride-2005) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 21 October 2005. The film is a stop-motion fantasy about cadavers and ghouls that feels like a compendium of Burton's style, though it appears dashed off compared to his recent work. It mixes scary and funny tones with panache in its depiction of the living and dead worlds. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2005/oct/21/3) ## Variety — Justin Chang Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 7 September 2005. An endearingly schizoid Frankenstein of a movie that is by turns relentlessly high-spirited and darkly poignant, more disjointed than Burton's earlier stop-motion work but good-natured and benign overall. The visually restrained Victorian milieu and the Corpse Bride character are beguiling, with strong voice work and a story that wraps on a muted, melancholy note. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2005/film/awards/tim-burton-s-corpse-bride-2-1200523455/) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 21 October 2005. The review praises the pure Burton feel, terrific characters, and visual sketchbook style but finds the short runtime limits depth and notes Danny Elfman's score falls short. It concludes that viewers will remember the pretty look and kooky king status more than the plot. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/tim-burtons-corpse-bride-review/) ## Time Out — BW Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 18 October 2005. The film is beautifully conceived and impeccably realised in its stop-motion animation and gothic visual style, but it remains somewhat cold to the touch and lacks real animation or emotional spark despite its likeable qualities. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/tim-burtons-corpse-bride) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 16 September 2005. Burton's stop-motion film has more warmth and appeal than its title suggests but is finally more grotesque than good-humored, with the story stretched thin from a short folk tale premise. The world wears out its charm before the end, leaving one wishing it were a short rather than a feature despite Elfman's energetic music. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-16-et-corpse16-story.html) ## Slant Magazine — Keith Uhlich Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 16 September 2005. The film flattens Burton’s Victoriana and perversity obsessions into a minor-key fantasia with no emotional heft or meaning, boiling inspirations into postmodern mush. The stop-motion dazzle and Elfman songs are superficial, with shallow mortality puns and retrograde misanthropy replacing any real exploration of life, death, and love. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/corpse-bride/) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 16 September 2005. A necrophiliac entertainment for the whole family, the film ventures into stop-motion animation with a lightly kinked romance involving a melancholic boy, his intended bride, and a bodacious cadaver. The living world is gray and somnolent while the underworld bursts with mischief, skeletons, and color, suggesting Burton has not abandoned his dark kingdom. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/movies/its-a-dead-scene-but-thats-a-good-thing.html) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 21 October 2005. The critic declares Corpse Bride even better than The Nightmare Before Christmas, praising its masterful puppetry, inspired voicing and Burton's twisted sense of humour steeped in 19th-century romanticism. It highlights the lively underworld contrasting the cynical living world and Depp's sympathetic performance as Victor facing his dilemma. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/corpse-bride-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Den of Geek — Carley Tauchert Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 18 November 2009. The critic finds it a sweet and touching gothic fairytale with the dead more vibrant than the living. Praises the precise stop-motion animation and strong vocal performances that bring depth to the characters. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/looking-back-at-tim-burtons-corpse-bride/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/corpse-bride.md