Trivia for
Corpse Bride (2005)

photos

board

trailer

details

• The puppets were made from stainless steel armatures covered with silicone skin.
  
  
• The first stop-motion feature to be edited using Apple's Final Cut Pro.
  
  
• This is the first feature to be made with commercial digital still photography cameras (31 Canon EOS-1Ds MARK II SLR cameras with Nikon Lenses) instead of film cameras.
  
  

• The film is dedicated to the memory of Joe Ranft.
  
  
• When Victor plays the piano, he leans back and the nameplate says "Harryhausen", a reference to stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen.
  
  
• The puppets used neither of the industry standards of replaceable heads (like those used on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)) or replaceable mouths (like those used by Aardman Studios in Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)) but instead used precision crafted clockwork heads, adjusted by hidden keys. This allowed for unprecedented subtlety, but was apparently even more painstaking than the already notoriously arduous animation. One animator even reported having recurring nightmares of adjusting his own facial expression in this fashion.
  
  
• The maggot's voice, mannerisms and facial appearance are an impersonation of Peter Lorre.
  
  
• The puppets were 25-28 cm tall and some of the stages were so large that animators could actually fit through the set doors with minimal crouching.
  
  
• This is the first major release of the newly-formed Laika Studios in Portland, Oregon (formerly Vinton Studios) now owned by Phil Knight.
  
  
• At one point, Lord Finnis Everglot mistakenly calls Victor "Vincent", a reference to Tim Burton's first stop-motion animated short.
  
  
• Had a 55-week shoot, during which 109,440 individually animated frames had to be set up and filmed.
  
  
• The skeletons in the underworld perform several of the routines from The Skeleton Dance (1929).
  
  
• Small moving elements, such as candle flames, were photographed in MiniDV.
  
  
• Multiple, identical puppets had to be created so that more scenes could be accomplished in a shorter period of time. In all, fourteen puppets of the Bride and Victor were created, and thirteen were created of Victoria.
  
  
• There is a character named "Elder Gutknecht." Translated from German to English, his name means "Elder Good Servant."
  
  
• In the scene in the woods where the Corpse Bride's arm breaks off, it crawls across the floor towards Victor. This is a nod towards the similar scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), in which Johnny Depp starred.
  
  
• Mr. Bonejangles and his skeleton band are partly inspired by the cartoon The Skeleton Dance (1929) but are also heavily influenced by Cab Calloway and his band as they appeared in rotoscoped form in several Betty Boop cartoons. The piano player wears shades like Ray Charles, and his movements are based on Charles' mannerisms.
  
  
• The phrase "a murder most foul" is taken from William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," in which it is spoken (rather fittingly, considering "Corpse Bride"'s cast of dead characters) by the ghost of Hamlet's dead father.
  
  
• The character BoneJangles is based on the famous dancer Bill Robinson (aka "Bojangles" Robinson).
  
  
• Albert Finney was the leading choice to play Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), but when Tim Burton was attached he nixed the idea because the only big name he wanted in the movie was Johnny Depp, so Burton cast Finney in this movie to apologize. Burton reportedly also offered a role to Sam Neill, who turned it down.
  
  

Related Links