‘The Corpse Bride’ is a stop-motion-pro picture film, set in a Victorian European village. The director, Tim Burton created a film that is built upon several varying genres and the movie has fundamental ‘gothic’ themes. The Corpse Bride can be classified as a ‘gothic’ genre, but there are several elements of the film that do not fit into the conventions of a ‘gothic’ motion film.
In The Corpse Bride the basic underlying theme is death. Death is an important attribute to the film because it links the two worlds together, and it also creates a ‘gothic’ tone which fits in with the story. Other significant themes are marriage and romance, a sense of as misery and dread, well as a distressed heroine. All of which are very common in the ‘gothic’ genre.
The main theme of The Corpse Bride is the idea of another world after death. The afterlife is displayed as a fun and colourful place, because all of the stress and worries of life are lifted and the dead are free of all boundaries and expectations. The film has aspects of comedy and romance, both of which are examples of the varying themes in The Corpse Bride. Another theme of the film is that it is an animation. This makes the film easier to be seen as a ‘gothic’ movie because of the way the characters and settings appear.
The settings of the film contribute to the ‘gothic’ theme, the settings displayed differently for the two worlds. The ‘land-of-the-living’ is very dark, grey and bleak, in mono-tone colours. For example, the Everglot mansion is bare and uninviting. It is completely grey, with long corridors and hallways, as wells as large echoing floors. The colouring makes it seem very cold and empty. However, in contrast the ‘land-of-the-dead’ is colourful, exciting and bright. This is ironic, because the dead are usually supposed displayed as gloomy and ominous, and this creates the idea that the dead are free and happy, and