Herald rating: ***
Victor Van Dort (voice: Johnny Depp) is about to be married. His parents, the rich fishmongers Nell and William Van Dort (Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse), have an arrangement with Maudeline and Finnie Everglot (Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney) for the hand of their daughter, Victoria (Emily Watson).
Victor
and Victoria fall for each other. Victor, too shy to say his marriage vows, flees outside the church to practice.
As he repeats the words he slips the ring on a twig sprouting from a grave. It's actually a finger and that means he's won the hand of Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), murdered on the night before her wedding.
Rules of the underworld say that this is a civil union, so Victor is soon the guest of honour at a wedding feast with singing and dancing skeletons and a wedding cake made of bones. On the other side of the grave, Victoria's folks have found another bridegroom, a nasty piece of work who goes under the name of Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant).
Sounds creepy but it's a sweet story about love lost, love that might have been, with a wry twist in which the living world is grey and drab, the underworld is bright, happy - and the devil definitely has the best tunes.
Animators produce the best DVDs. On Inside The Two Worlds, director Burton clarifies his vision of the differences between the dark side and the light side - except that he reverses the usual concepts. Lead designer Carlos Grangel continues the theme while composer Danny Elfman puts it into a musical frame.
Burton expounds his vision in The Breath Of Life, accepts gushing adoration from cast and crew in Dark Vs Light and reveals his craft in Making Puppets. Depp, Bonham-Carter and their colleagues talk about acting with their voice alone in a feature that matches their "performance" to what's happening on screen.
* DVD, Video rental today
