With stop-motion fairytale Corpse Bride, director Tim Burton delivers family entertainment that is "both refreshingly original and enchantingly old-fashioned". Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter voice the star-crossed lovers who cross the boundaries between life and death and manage to fit in a few song-and-dance numbers along the way. Although it was outperformed by Wallace & Gromit, this still scared up a lot of good business at the box office.

Dead Cool

At the heart of the story is the conflict between the living and the dead tackled in the featurette Inside The Two Worlds. Burton clarifies that "the world of the living is actually much more dead than the world of the dead which is much more alive". Got it? To elaborate, Carlos Grangel is among the team of designers who explain the "Victorian propriety" above ground and the jazz club ambience of the underworld. Composer Danny Elfman picks up on this in a separate discussion of music where he also reveals that singing as Bonejangles left him hoarse.

In The Breath Of Life featurette, Burton reveals that Corpse Bride was ten years in the making and credits his team of animators with finally realising his vision. We get to see co-director Mike Johnson on set - as Burton puts it, "slugging it out in the trenches" - overseeing every tiny movement of the puppets. While this work obviously requires the patience of a saint, Depp points out that it's also "super fascinating" to watch the scenes as they slowly take shape. Indeed it is.

Not to be outshone by his wingman, Burton gets his share of gushing adoration in Dark Vs Light. As the title suggests, this featurette examines the director's ability to balance comedy and creepiness with enviable precision. But again it's the animators who did most of the sweating, which is evidenced in Making Puppets Tick. Younger viewers may be mildly disturbed by seeing the likes of Victor and Corpse Bride being dissected to reveal intricate and delicately crafted machinery that would make even a Swiss watchmaker gape in amazement.

Out Of The Box

Of course the stars who lent their voices to the puppets also get a moment to shine. Bonham-Carter assures us that being locked inside a sound booth encourages "pure acting" and Depp seconds this when he talks about a feeling of "great spontaneity" that occurs within this bubble-like environment. All of the supporting players (including Emily Watson, Albert Finney, and Paul Whitehouse) offer their insights while a separate reel - comparing excerpts from the film with footage from the recording studio - catches the actors ‘in the moment'.

Wrapping up the bonus menu is a gallery of pre-production designs and a music only audio track. Sadly there is no commentary or fun features for the kids, but this DVD does offer a methodical and jaw-dropping autopsy of Corpse Bride.

EXTRA FEATURES