Tim Burton laughed when Vanity Fair asked him if he’d ever make a live-action Corpse Bride. If you’ve been hoping to see Emily again, there’s a little encouragement in his answer. How much depends on what you read into four words.
“I keep it open,” Burton said. He explained that he’s seen too many projects change along the way to commit to one in an interview. As for what he might actually make next, he added, “I’m really excited to look for what the next thing is.”
Burton produced the 2005 stop-motion film and co-directed it with Mike Johnson. Burton regular Johnny Depp voiced Victor Van Dort, whose attempt to practice his wedding vows in the woods accidentally lands him a dead bride, Emily (Helena Bonham Carter). In Dread Central’s original review, Andrew Kasch called it “an absolutely gorgeous piece of eye candy,” even if some of its gags felt familiar.
Personally, what I’d love to see Burton revisit is the little universe fans have built around these movies. My favorite way into the fan theory is to follow the dog. In Frankenweenie, young Victor Frankenstein brings his dog Sparky back from the dead. In Corpse Bride, a grown Victor gets the surprise of his life when he recognizes his old dog Scraps, now a skeleton. Take it one death further and you get Jack Skellington in Halloween Town, still hanging out with his ghost dog, Zero. Three movies about the same kid and the same damn dog refusing to stay apart. How great is that?
The movies themselves took a much stranger route. Burton directed the live-action short “Frankenweenie” in 1984 from his own idea and a script by Leonard Ripps. Then came The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993, which Burton dreamed up as a poem and produced. Henry Selick directed it, and Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay. Corpse Bride followed in 2005. Burton finally came back to Sparky in 2012, directing and producing the stop-motion Frankenweenie from John August’s screenplay. Same boy, same dog, a feature-length retelling of his original short.
Sure, the two Victors have different last names, and you could drive yourself nuts trying to get Victorian England and suburban New Holland onto the same timeline. I’d be happy to see Emily in live action, but I’d be even more excited to see Burton make a fourth story that feels like it belongs alongside those three. Give me one scene where a dog recognizes his owner on the other side and I’ll happily spend the next twenty years arguing that it was Sparky.
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