The Corpse Bride Trailer Out Now

For the past several years since Planet of the Apes, director Tim Burton has been working on another animated film, using the same stop motion technique utilized on the wonderfully dark The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton’s style was clearly maccabe and heartfelt at the same time which should bleed nicely into the new film, The Corpse Bride, due out late 2005.

The trailer went online today at Apple.com under the Warner Bros shield. Judging by the small glimpse, Burton learned quite a bit from his work on Nightmare and has teamed up with clay and stop motion veterans at Will Vinton Studios. The characters and their expressions are considerably smoother and fluid compared to Jack Skellington’s but haven’t lost the Burton style by a long shot.

The Corpse Bride is a story loosely based on gruesom, real events that occured in Russia during the 19th century, in which anti-semites would frequently kidnap, murder and bury Jewish brides in their wedding dresses on the day of their wedding to prevent future generations. Burton’s story, although not lacking in skeletons and a dead bride, takes a more lighthearted tone in which a young suitor (Johnny Depp lends his voice and likeness) accidently marries a dead bride who rises from her grave to defend her honor against the man’s living fiance.

Check out the screen caps from the trailer below.