Corpse Bride

        The way in which environments are represented in animations can have a big impact on the overall tone and atmosphere of the piece. The colours, textures and ways that shots are framed can communicate as much about the mood of a scene as character movements, which makes the environment a powerful tool in communicating with the audience.

 

        In Tim Burton's Corpse Bride there is a distinct contrast between the environments for the land of the living and the land of the dead. While the audience may expect the former to be vibrant and the latter to be drab, these expectations are in fact inverted. The film begins (in the land of the living) with a distinctly grey colour palette (not quite black & white and not quite sepia), the only colours being extremely muted, such as reds, mauves and burgundies, which do not stand out from the surroundings. It is not only the colour palette which is muted, but the entire town is devoid of texture; the surfaces are all flat and characterless. Even the forest, an environment which should be haphazard, chaotic and natural, is oddly ordered and regimented; tress grow in parallel lines with short spiky branches which conform to the repressed and restrained, stereotypically Victorian atmosphere of the land of the living.

 

 

        The land of the dead on the other hand is alive with colour. The sets are lit with bright, almost neon, pinks and greens, which contrast brilliantly with the vivid blue skin of the characters which inhabit this landscape (that is, the characters which have skin). The jazzy colour scheme is further enhanced by the Dutch tilt camera angles, which are mirrored in the off kilter structures of the underworld. Whereas in the land of the living, everything is perfectly parallel and perpendicular, the buildings, staircases and furniture (much of which seems to be constructed from coffins) of the land of the dead leans and curves in a more familiar, 'Burtonesque' style. The overall effect is of a more relaxed and welcoming world, of a welcome escape from the oppression and misery of the land of the living. Showing death as a release is certainly an odd view to take in a child friendly film.

 

 

        The differing moods of the two worlds are perhaps best illustrated by these two clips, which offer the first glimpses the audience has of the lands of the living and dead, acting as important introductions, and setting the tone for the rest of the film.