I mean, face it, nearly all movies are predictable in some form or another. You knew from that start that Johnny Depp’s character was only going to marry ONE of the brides (he wasn’t Mormon as far as I could tell), just as you knew from the start that the movie was going to be a musical. The conclusion was inevitable, but instead of going the standard Hollywood “happy-ending” direction (like introducing a second, attractive male side-character to get pawned off to the bride who didn’t wind-up with Depp, or something equally cliche’d) you were left with someting bitter-sweet which is much more meaningful.

Besides, it’s not the ending (predictable as it may have been to some) which is the core of the movie, it’s how they GET to the ending that makes the movie.

We all knew the Titanic was going to sink at the end of James Cameron’s saucey waste of time, we all knew King Kong was going going to become a gooey crater at the end of Peter Jackson’s pretty remake, we all knew Anakin was going to become Darth Vader at the end of George Lucas’ “masterpiece”…but that’s not why we went to see those movies. We went to see HOW they got to that end.

Or, to bring up another example just because I feel like it; any of you ever watch “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”?

“You KNOW Sunshine Boy gets to the top of the mountain, but it’s HOW he gets there that’s so exciting!”

So really, predictability isn’t a major fault. At least, certainly not for The Corpse Bride.

In regards to the “cuteness” complaint…this was a dark comedy. Its whole purpose was to be a blend of cute and funny with gruesome and nasty.

Sure, the Corpse Bride was totally hawt…but she also had a rotting, exposed jaw and ribs and a maggot worming around in her brain.

Sure, those two kids were all laughing and giggling all the time in their adorable little sailor suits…but they were DEAD CHILDREN. You knew a mother was grieving out there somewhere.

And I think that’s what the people who make the “too cute” accusation tend to miss. The “cuteness” was just a sugar-coating for the dark and violent plot of the movie; the murder of the Corpse Bride and her eternal sorrow and loneliness.

They also need to realise that this was marketed in a very grey area.

Is it aimmed at kids? It’s animated and has songs and it’s rated PG.
Is it aimmed at teenagers? The trendy goth necronerds are big into this stuff and are sure to buy all the latest t-shirts at Hot Topic.
Is it aimmed at adults? It’s got corpses and necrophelia undertones and dead children and a murder mystery.

This movie had a little something for everyone. Music and “friendly” zombies for the kids, a hawt corpse for the goth teenagers and lots of dark and grotesque imagery for the adults.

I wouldn’t say it was A-worthy like the Ninja, but it’s a high-ranking B in my opinion.

I also drew more comparisons to Beetlejuice than Edward Scissorhands when I first viewed it; what with the dark yet silly version of the underworld and all that.

But that’s just me.

All of Tim Burton’s are incredibly predictable and bitter-sweet. That is part of his appeal as a filmaker and storyteller. And targetted towards kids? Considering how most people in their 20’s have grown up with Burton since childhood, it only testifies to the appeal of his movies to both little ones and grown-ups.

Lets borrow from Pixar - Monsters Inc vs Finding Nemo. Both of the same style, but I found Monsters Inc to be a bit too cutesy for me, whereas the other had just the right amount of fun.

To get to the nitty gritty, I found the story to be incredibly perdictable. I Found there to be nothing of interest, and I found the music to be subpar and not at all exciting.

Or in another word, targetted to kids and not at all interesting to me.

Like a philosophy class in which is taught the complication posed by two competing truths, the proposition that fandom gives weight to opinion is immediately challenged when you have 2 fans of contested fanhood arguing 2 different points of view. I too am a fan of Tim Burton but I do not use it to justify whether my opinion is worth a flip.

But it is worth a flip because I am a ninja, and ninjas flip out all the time.

I do not know how “cutesy” is being defined, so I asked my friend Merriam-Webster. He/she says:

Cutesy: “Deliberately or affectedly cute; precious”

Deliberately cute? I would argue that a little girl in pig tails is cute as is a midget on a tricycle. But a blue, semi-hot corpse who gets strangled by her scummy lover, doomed to find her one, true love? Not cute. And if this is the standard for cutedom, then what of The Nightmare Before Christmas or Edward Scissorhands, which covered similar themes in their own respective fashions? If there is any complaint that I can concur with with this movie, it is that it comes off as The Nightmare Before Scissorhands Lite. But I like Coke Zero, so naturally I enjoy the dilution.

I saw this at the TIFF, and of all the movies I saw (Capote, Where the Truth Lies, Proof, and this), this movie was the most underwhelming to me. I’ve been a fan of Tim Burton for a while, and also of stop/claymation, but there was one problem with this movie - it was too damn cutesy. Really only way I can explain it.