There are films that come out of nowhere to sweep you off your feet.

Even though you know their creator(s) and what they are capable of.

Still.

Big little miracles that ever grow in you in weird and wonderful ways.

Like this dark, romantic comedy of misunderstandings.

Not the pop culture staple The Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Henry Selick,as he was simultaneously busy with Batman Returns) is, Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride is still unmistakably his and still a masterpiece. His 12th feature film and his first stop motion animation as a (co)director, it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and features prominently in the Design Museum’s brilliant exhibition The World of Tim Burton, which just got extended to May.

Oscar nominated for Best Animated film, it is a marvel of the art of stop motion, as it used innovative techniques to bring its story to (cinematic) life. Using neither of the industry standards of replaceable heads or replaceable mouths for its unusually tall (23-28 cm) puppets, but instead precision crafted clockwork heads, painstakingly adjusted by hidden keys, it achieved unprecedented, haunting subtlety.

Above all however, this is one of those films that come out of nowhere

to sweep us off our feet.

A big little miracle.

Tickets @ https://sydenhamarts.seatlab.com/events/27-03-2025-19-30-film-corpse-bride