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Burton sparked to the premise, and that kicked off a long development slog. Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) and Pamela Pettler (the upcoming Monster House) did script work; final stitch-ups were done by John August, who adapted Burton's version of Chocolate Factory. By fall of 2002, Burton had tapped Mike Johnson (who'd shown Burtonian spirit with a stop-motion short called The Devil Went Down to Georgia) to set up filming in East London.

The 12- to 18-inch-tall figures that Johnson and roughly 20 animators spent 11 months choreographing, one frame at a time, represent something new in poseable-puppet technology. Instead of having premolded faces that pop on and off for a limited number of expressions, they've got watchwork engineering inside their heads that can be accessed through teeny holes in the ears and the hair. Insert a key in these hidden spots, turn it, and the puppets' facial expressions change in tiny, subtle ways. The trade-off? The work is incredibly tedious. ''It takes its toll,'' says codirector Johnson. ''There are a lot of physical demands, standing all day and reaching over sets to twist these puppets around.'' One animator even found himself having dreams that he was posing himself in a movie of his own life.

Burton didn't exactly have a restful time of it either, since he wound up codirecting Corpse at the same time he was shooting Chocolate Factory. (The schedule overlap proved useful in corralling some of the same actors to work on both films, including Depp, Bonham Carter, and Christopher Lee.) ''You couldn't do it with two live-action films, that's for sure,'' Burton says. ''I don't know if I'd do it again, but I liked it. Mike [Johnson] was there on the day-to-day deal — you know, slugging it out in the trenches. I was able to take more of an overview, which was very beneficial. I think it's kind of why I got out of animation, in a certain way. It's a very tunnel-visioned process. You can get so into it, you start to lose your objectivity.''

One thing that Burton, the animators, and the writers were especially concerned about was making sure not to push the creepy factor too far. Says August: ''It's unusual to have an animated movie that deals with murder and death and dark themes. But we were always mindful of making sure kids will be able to watch it. We test-screened it with kids, and they loved it the way they love Halloween. It has a sense of safe darkness to it.''

For Burton, it's kids, not parents, who should decide if they're ready for his jokey-spooky visions. ''Adults forget that kids are like anybody,'' he says. ''They're the best judge to know whether they can take something or not. People thought Nightmare was too scary for kids, and kids loved it.'' So here's a litmus test. Real maggots? Gross. Snarky little singing maggot who sounds like Peter Lorre and pops cheerily out of the Corpse Bride's empty eye socket? That's junior's call.


Posted Sep 16, 2005 | Published in issue #841 Sep 23, 2005 | Order Article Reprints
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