Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

image for Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

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Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 11 (scary scenes, violence, dark themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
  • a review of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 28 October 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to scary scenes, violence and dark themes.
Children aged 9–11 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes, violence and dark themes.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Scary scenes, mild themes
Length: 77 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Set in the 1800s, Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) has been pressured into an arranged marriage with Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson) to improve their social status. Victoria’s once-wealthy family has fallen on hard times, reluctantly agreeing to the union as a desperate attempt to restore their fortune.

After a series of mishaps, the awkward and shy Victor flees the wedding rehearsal, deep into the woods. While practicing his vows, he realises he has fallen for Victoria and is determined to get everything right. However, when he slips the ring onto what he thinks is a tree branch, it turns out to be the skeletal finger of Emily (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter); a corpse bride who believes he just married her.

Caught between the living woman he was supposed to marry and the one he has accidentally married, Victor must navigate the macabre underworld and discover where his heart truly lies.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Life and Death; Marriage; Family dynamics; Loss; Grief; Classism; Femicide.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Slapstick-style violence is quite prevalent throughout the entire film, as it is quite macabre in nature.
  • Victor trips and sets Victoria’s mother’s skirt on fire by accident.
  • It is shown that Emily was murdered by a man who had been betrothed to her, in order to steal her family wealth.
  • Victor is verbally berated several times by his and Victoria’s parents.
  • Emily’s friends degrade Victoria in order to cheer her up, inferring that Victoria is silly, clueless and not as good as Emily.
  • A character has a heavy coughing fit and falls off the top of a carriage, dead.
  • Several characters are stabbed or gravely injured in other ways, but they do not die or react as they are already corpses.
  • Victoria is held at knifepoint by a male character, while he claims that she is his wife and he is entitled to her.
  • There is a violent sword fight where a character is attempting to kill Victor.
  • A character accidentally drinks poison and dies, before several other characters descend on him while he screams in fear.
  • Victor attempts to take his own life to be with Emily by drinking poison, but she stops him.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • This film is generally quite dark and macabre, with many scary-looking characters and references to death. There are several scenes in which there is a scary atmosphere, with loud swells of music and crashing thunder.
  • In several scenes, Emily loses parts of her body in a comedic manner.
  • A scary-looking, skeletal, zombie-like figure claws herself out of a grave, chasing Victor through the forest.
  • Several characters are shown as various scary-looking, corpse-like creatures with significant injuries, including skeletons, severed heads and a pirate with a gunshot wound.
  • A maggot pops Emily’s eye out of the socket to speak.
  • A character has several knives and blades stuck into him.
  • The head of a dead fish is cut off.
  • Barrels full of disembodied hands are shown.
  • A person splits themselves in half, down the middle, showing their organs.
  • A crow is grabbed and squeezed hard, until an egg pops out.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • The above-mentioned scenes and images are likely to scare or disturb children in this age group.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Emily saves Victor from death, before turning into a cloud of butterflies and passing on. While this scene is not necessarily disturbing, it is highly emotional and may distress particularly sensitive children.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Victor says, “With this hand, I will cup your… oh no!” with a hand gesture making breasts.
  • Emily flirts with Victor throughout the film.
  • A male character grabs a female character, dipping her romantically and leaning in for a kiss.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • A character is shown smoking a pipe, which is presumably his cause of death.
  • Several characters are shown drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages recreationally.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Damn
  • There are several instances of characters using berating language, including: “fool”, “ninny”, and “bat”.

In a nutshell

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is a very typical Tim Burton film; dark, gothic and funny. The stop-motion animation is quite charming and visually appealing. However, due to the scary scenes and violence, the film is not recommended for children under the age of 9, and parental guidance is recommended to 11, due to the themes of death and femicide.

The main messages from this movie are that being true to yourself is what gives life meaning; and that love conquers all.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Love
  • Selflessness
  • Freedom to be yourself.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Emily is murdered by her fiancé. Parents may want to be aware of this content, and discuss the normalisation of gender-related violence in this film.
  • Arranged marriage is a key point of interest in this film. While it worked out for Victor and Victoria, this is often not the case in real life. Parents may want to discuss this with their children.
  • When Victor is embarrassed at the wedding rehearsal, he flees. Do you think that there is something he could have done instead?
  • When Emily finds out that Victor is in love with Victoria, she traps him in the underworld so he won’t leave her. Do you think this was okay of her to do?
  • The characters lie to each other throughout the film. Parents may want to discuss the importance of honesty and open communication in relationships.