In 19^th century England, two young people are about to get married. They are Victor Van Dort, son of a couple of fish merchants, and Victoria Everglot, daughter of two unkind aristocrats who can’t smile.

At some point, Victor and his parents visit Victoria’s home. Victor plays her piano, despite how it’s rude to do that in other people’s homes. But Victoria deeply admires his talent. Shortly after, the two fall in love.

Later, Victor and Victoria are at the local church, rehearsing for their wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, Victor makes too many errors. Although they are not intentional, he ends up angering the priest. Not only that, but he also accidentally sets Victoria’s mother’s dress on fire.

Victor flees, mortified about screwing up the rehearsal. He runs into a nearby forest and practices his vows. Little does he know that his actions cause the revival of a dead bride, who thinks he really meant those things. The corpse bride goes after him as he runs.

Victor faints and then wakes up in a peculiar place with skeletons and weird-looking people. He discovers that he is now in the Land of the Dead.

Shocked, he tries to “wake himself up.” But he realizes that what he is experiencing is real.

The bride introduces herself as Emily and reveals that her fiancé murdered her a while ago. Regardless of his feelings about being in the Land of the Dead, Victor is happy to reunite with his deceased dog, Scraps, even though he’s now all bones.

Since Victor suggests to Emily that she meet his parents, the two go to this elder Gutknecht. Gutknecht recommends against going to the Land of the Living, though. Yet he grants them access.

Victor meets Victoria again and says that he wants to marry her ASAP. However, Emily catches him, sends him back to the Land of the Dead with her, and cries over how he ditched her.

A spider and Emily’s worm companion who lives behind her eye try to cheer her up by singing about how Victor could have known what Emily is truly like. But Emily is hesitant to believe that.

Meanwhile, back in the Land of the Living, Victoria wants to find Victor and help him. But nobody will believe her when she says what happened to him. Even worse, her parents decide to marry her off to this potentially abusive Lord Barkis Bittern. Victoria does everything she can to resist, though.

After reciprocating with Emily, Victor finds out that Victoria is about to be forced to marry a cruel man against her will. Since he’s unhappy about that, he decides to marry Emily, hoping that they can go to the Land of the Living.

However, since Emily is dead, the reverse has to happen. Victor can marry her in the Land of the Living but then must drink a potion to be dead forever.

The dead all go “upstairs” to the Land of the Living. Of course, people freak out. However, they then start recognizing loved ones and are happy to see them again.

Barkis gets harsh toward Victoria since he really only cares about her wealth. So, Victoria dumps him for good.

But Victor and Emily are about to wed. What will that lead to for Victoria and everyone else?

Even though I enjoyed this movie as a kid, it was not the same rewatching it as an adult. The concept was interesting, especially for a film by Tim Burton. But some parts displeased me.

Even though this film is less than an hour and a quarter long, it lagged at times. Another flaw was how certain parts were gross. I covered my computer screen a few times.

On the bright side, this movie did have perks. For instance, Victor and Victoria has a sweet relationship with each other. They were also likeable and had good designs.

That brings me to my next thought—I had mixed feelings about many of the other character designs. Even though they were meant to bring out and represent their personalities, they also felt too default and creepy for some of them—particularly Victoria’s parents. They had big frowns. Her father was unable to smile no matter how much effort he put into it.

In spite of how I feel about the character designs, I do think they fit well with the mood of the story, which is dark. The color quality is also so muted that it almost makes the movie look like it’s in black and white. That also compliments well with the tone of the tale.

And a few moments were funny, such as some dead children throwing flower petals as Emily walked down the aisle to Victor. In addition, there were a lot of twists and turns.

But overall, I thought Corpse Bride was just okay. The dark tone did not ruin it for me, though. It just wasn’t as engaging as when I was younger.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.