However, unlike many of her undead contemporaries from this past summer, Emily, the C.B., is not a grunting, shuffling, brain-eating ghoul; she’s quite the Chatty Cathy actually, and she and her band of skeletal comrades seem like a fun, easy going bunch. After all, I’m sure that dying is the worst thing that’s ever happened to them- everything else is a decided step up. They sit around pubs drinking, telling pun-y jokes, singing bawdy (as coarse as a PG film can get, anyway) show tunes, and so on. It seems like kind of a fun afterlife, all things considered.

Emily has a bit more on her mind though (besides vermin that is); she has been waiting for a true love to come join her, which she feels Victor intends to do when he accidentally places Victoria’s ring on her finger. Happily, Emily’s turns out to be as complicated a character as either Victor or Victoria; it’s nice to hear a slight touch of nervousness under her jokes, or confusion when she is ranting at Victor over his love for Victoria. After all, as she points out, technically they are the ones who are married, which actually makes Victoria the other woman.

Bonham Carter isn’t the only vocal standout in the cast though - Depp does a wonderful job conveying Victor’s mixed feelings over the whole situation. One gets the impression that over the course of the film Victor grows to genuinely appreciate the quirks of his preternatural spouse and her village of the damned. Also. Emily Watson is wonderfully sweet and understanding as Victoria; she’s just plain adorable.

The whole film has such a macabre appeal to it. Tim Burton really needs to work in this medium more often - from character/set design to scripting to performance, this film is nearly perfect in every conceivable way. This is especially noteworthy, as he is working with actual physical puppets in an animation era so firmly dominated by bits and pixels. In general though, I loved the contrast between the drab, colorless land of the living, and the wild, vibrant underworld. In addition, the songs, by longtime Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, were fun and catchy- parents, be prepared to shell out for the soundtrack. On the whole, the only real complaint I had was that as I left the theater, I realized the movie was a bit brief; I later learned it has a run time of only about 76 minutes. However, it is a lengthy 76 - the film felt like it went on for a lot longer, and by the end I kind of wish that it had.

One final note: I find it interesting how in the span of a decade and a half, the lantern-jawed nobleman has transformed from the likely hero of the fantasy genre to an almost certain villain. Beginning with 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast,” these former champions have been characterized on screen as muscle-bound jerks at worst (Gaston of “B&B”, Barkis Bittern (voice of Richard Grant) here), or naïve bumblers at best (Mr. Incredible from “The Incredibles”, Buzz Lightyear of “Toy Story”). Instead, the protagonists of these stories are more often than not the perceived monster, or a frail youth, or some other previously unlikely candidate. I like that notion. It’s comforting to me that one of the overriding messages being presented to the children of today in their entertainment is one of tolerance, acceptance, and appreciation for those who are different or strange- it gives me hope for the future.

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