If there were a single director in Hollywood of whom one might expect to base an entire film on an eerie Kabalistic folktale about death, jealousy, and romantic longing, it would have to be Tim Burton. The modern master of the macabre, this film director–whose movies have included such strange subjects as a creepy chocolate factory (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” 2005) and a boy with scissors for hands (“Edward Scissorhands,” 1990)–should clearly have a grand old time adapting “The Finger,” a Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed folktale, to the big screen. Indeed, “Corpse Bride,” which marks his return to the stop-motion style of animation made popular in “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” is cheerfully dark entertainment that remains true to the basic premise of the old tale while also possessing the definitive stamp of the filmmaker and his frequent collaborator, co-writer John August.
The film, although stripped of its direct Jewish connection, and taking place in Victorian England instead of 16th century Russia, still contains the same thematic undercurrents. In both “The Finger” and “Corpse Bride,” a young man, soon to be wed, practices his wedding vows in front of a stick stuck in the ground in the middle of a forest outside of his village. When he places his ring on the stick, however, it pulls out of the ground to reveal itself as the ring finger of a corpse bride who, once resurrected, demands that she and the young man be married. In the Kabalistic tale, the result is a rabbinical discussion over the philosophical dilemma posed by a dead woman demanding the fulfillment of her marriage to a living husband.
Such a conclusion, however, could hardly be called cinematic, so Burton parts ways with the folktale to create an adventure through a dead underworld as his protagonist sees how his corpse bride lives. The film comes to life in this lively, happening underworld of bustling activity, varied color scheme and dynamic characters. With a compendium of caskets, pumpkins, skeletons and other ghoulish imagery, the beautifully realized underground setting is never less than a pleasure to behold. Ironically, however, the picture bears far more tonal resemblance to the melancholy Kabalistic fable in scenes of the dank real world than it does in its depiction of the afterlife.
Despite being significantly brightened at times for mass consumption by its targeted family audience, and differing with its source in its deft balance of the morose and the sunny, “Corpse Bride” maintains the same core themes as Issac Luria’s tale “The Finger.” Each demonstrates such key Jewish values as a pervading respect for the dead, an understanding of the sanctity of marriage and the necessity of treating both with appropriate deference. By creating the literal presence of the corpse bride, each effectively dramatizes the role of the dead in the everyday existence of the living, and highlights the persistent presence that the legacies of our ancestors maintain in our lives. In the fantastical worlds of Rabbi Luria and Tim Burton, these timeless ideas are what resonate deepest.
