'Corpse Bride' set visit

Chris Tilly visits the set of Tim Burton's forthcoming stop-motion spectacular.

Sep 19 2005

Working for Time Out, one is asked to carry out strange and unusual tasks on an all too regular basis, but visiting the 'Land of the Dead' is something this journalist hadn't hoped to do for sometime yet.

Earlier in the year TO was asked to do just that however, when we were invited to the set of Tim Burton's forthcoming stop-motion feature, 'Corpse Bride'.

A bittersweet Victorian tale of 'boy-meets-dead-girl', the film features the vocal talents of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter and Emily Watson, and follows in the gothic footsteps of Burton's previous stop-motion classic, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

Depp voices Victor, who mistakenly proposes marriage to the titular 'Corpse Bride' the night before he is due to wed the beautiful Victoria. He is then whisked away to the 'Land of the Dead', where he must decide where his heart really belongs.

Burton, his co-director Mike Johnson and a huge team of animators and artists are hard at work creating both the 'Land of the Living' and the 'Land of the Dead' when we visit, and the results are quite simply spectacular.

Johnson, who previously worked as an animator on Harry Selick's 'James and the Giant Peach', takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the small but perfectly formed sets, and the attention to detail throughout is quite simply mind-blowing.

Inspecting a variety of heads, torsos, arms and legs, it's obvious that the puppets aren't just toys; they are mini people – 15 inch replicas of the real thing, down to every last eyelash, dimple and freckle.

The heads themselves have three internal gears (previous puppets only had one) to control the smile, frown and jaw, and when turned in unison, the results are disconcertingly real, as if Victor the puppet has come to life right in front of our eyes.

Johnson leads us from pub to church to town square – beautiful, hand-crafted sets just waiting for the filmmakers to bring them to life, and what's immediately striking is the fact that many of the animators are working alone.

Crawling in and around the scenery, they set up each and every shot themselves, filming tiny character movements for days and sometimes weeks on end.

It seems like the most lonely and frustrating job in the world, and I ask Johnson if you have to be slightly mad to survive the solitary nature of the work?

'I think so, yes', he chuckles, 'but it's interesting how varied that manifestation of craziness is amongst the animators. There is a certain something that drives a person to sit in the dark and animate puppets all day, but I don't know exactly what that single ingredient is. Some of our animators are very introverted and some are very extroverted – their personalities vary. But I do think it takes a certain madness to want to do it.'

Touring the set, it's also immediately obvious that Burton's influence is everywhere, from the macabre fairytale story to the ghoulish cast of characters, and Johnson agrees, saying 'It's Tim's world, and we all play in it – his is definitely the overriding vision behind the film.'

Johnson explains that pre-production started with a stack of Burton sketches that set the tone for the film, which was then followed by screenings of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s to truly flesh out the vision.

Looking around at the gruesome cast of characters, from the half-and-half man who splits down the middle to the skeleton with his innards out, it's clear that such gothic horror permeates every nook and cranny, so much so that one wonders if 'Corpse Bride' will be too frightening for the young audience at which it is aimed.

Johnson takes the point onboard, but believes they have found the right tone to ensure that the movie appeals to children and adults alike: 'I think that's very much Tim Burton's aesthetic and style' he says of the visuals, 'And it is a fine line, but it's a path that he's walked many times.'

Perhaps the most striking decision the filmmakers have made however, is in terms of the film's palette, in that the 'Land of the Living' is a cold, dead world of greys and blacks, while the 'Land of the Dead' is a vibrant, colourful feast for the eyes.

Johnson says that the intention was to play with traditional conventions: 'The idea there is that people in daily life have all their hang-ups and their repressed urges and nowhere is that more evident than in Victorian society, so we wanted to really contrast that idea. Maybe it's an idealised idea of death, but once they're free of their earthly concerns, there are no more worries.'

The effect is breathtaking, especially in the series of rushes that complete the tour, when the 'Corpse Bride' really takes flight as a glorious, hilarious and quite beautiful assault on the senses.

Seeing these supposedly dead characters in motion is a sight to behold, and a particularly jazzy musical number involving a chorus line of dancing skeletons is perhaps the most impressive thing yet seen in the stop-motion genre.

With that, Johnson bids us farewell as he returns to work in the 'Land of the Dead' while TO journeys back to the 'Land of the Living', which, thanks to the imaginings of Burton and his bunch of crazy cohorts, suddenly seems like a dull, stale and strangely lifeless place.

'Corpse Bride' is released on October 21, and we'll have full Q&As with Mike Johnson and producer Allison Abbatte on the site soon.

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