Wow. I’m surprised at the reception here for this movie.
We saw it yesterday and the wife and I both loved it. I wasn’t a fan of Nightmare* and kind of went into this with lukewarm expectations. I thought it had heart and soul, and great visuals and songs.
I thought the efficiency of the story telling was excellent. . .like how clearly they showed V&V fall in love with just a few nervous glances, and throwaway gestures (like her lighting his candle).
I liked the songs. I thought Danny Elfman has been going through the motions for a while, and I found this score to be somewhat inspired.
As far as the story goes, I thought it was well done. They threw obstacles in V&V’s way, but not in the typical way. They didn’t have the HUGE MISUNDERSTANDING so that one hates the other one. It was just, “oh, that’s unfortunate that he mistakenly married a dead girl.”
I liked the little worm. He seemed like a send-up of all the blathering sidekicks in every other animated film. . .hey, it was a worm crawling around in a dead girl’s skull. He popped out of her eye socket whenever her eye popped out of her head, which was OFTEN. That’s funny!
The movie had 2 piano solos. When’s the last time you saw that since a Marx brother’s movie?
Also : after Shreks 1 & 2, Shark Tales, and Incredibles, there was a noticeable lack of endless pop-culture references. What a relief
One thing I said to the wife after this movie: it makes “Shrek” look like it was put together by a studio but this looks like it was put together by a person. That’s a complement in my book. (not that I don’t like the Shrek movies, I do).