As if it was possible to expect anything else from a movie with Tim Burton’s name attached, Corpse Bride is a bizarre and completely entertaining film with a premise that is way out of left field. Stop motion animation brings this one to life, and it’s odd when the older technology brings more charm than the fancy special effects of current Hollywood. There’s a personal touch that crafts Corpse Bride, and that’s what makes this so much fun to watch.

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Flawless video is hard to achieve, and Corpse Bride is one of the few to attain it. This reference quality disc is a must with any HD DVD. The dim hues of the “real world” and the colorful, saturated land of the dead both look remarkable. Every small detail on the miniature sets is visible with unbelievable clarity. Sharpness is matched only by CG animated efforts like Shrek, and there are no artifacts or grain to annoy the viewer.

Dolby Digital Plus is the chosen audio format, and the numerous musical numbers use it to their fullest. Singing and various noise can be heard from multiple directions. There’s a clean bass line under it all. Non-musical scenes ensure the positional sound remains active with accurate representation of the on-screen visuals.

As expected, all extras are culled from the SD DVD release. They’re split into numerous sections, yet should be considered one extended documentary. Seven mini-featurettes run around 40 minutes total.

There are some superb looks at the animators and the process they went through in creating this. Composer Danny Elfman discusses his score, the voice actors have a chance to speak out of character, Tim Burton discusses the separate color styles used, and there’s a split screen look at the voice actors performing along with the finished scene. An interesting piece on the creation of the puppets caps this nicely crammed feature set.

It’s no surprise to see a Ray Harryhausen reference in the film. Note the name plate of the skeleton's piano maker. Stop motion skeletons could be a reference in and of themselves.