"Corpse Bride" is yet another exquisitely beautiful Tim Burton creation with witty, dark humor. The color palette is deeper than Burton's previous claymation feature, "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but because it's a Tim Burton film, they're very muted. The character design reminds me a little bit of "Triplets of Bellville," but is, nonetheless, devilishly unique and inspired. The world of the dead, where people are in varying degrees of decomposition and their surroundings and structures are moldy and worn, especially shows Burton's creativity and imagination at work. The images onscreen are so gorgeous that sometimes it looks like a CGI movie. Most of the humor is visual – like the knife on a dead character being pulled out and used during a fight scene; or the dead bride's conscience being revealed as a maggot living in her hollow skull. The voice acting by Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Emily Watson amongst others, overall, is noticeably good. I'm not a fan of musical numbers, but they're not very distracting. The story is simple enough and doesn't get in the way of the visuals.

The response from critics so far has been great, with a few already proclaiming this to be the sure-fire winner of next year's Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. I wonder if they’ve seen "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" yet. Both will most likely compete for that prize. They’re both very good films. Personally, while "Corpse Bride" has more unique visuals, I think "Wallace & Gromit" has a better story, more laughs per minute, better pacing, and is, ultimately, a better film. We'll see how critics and audiences react to the film within the next month.

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Other Toronto International Film Festival Articles:
• Toronto Film Fest: "Flightplan" with Jodie Foster and "Shopgirl" with Steve Martin
• Toronto Film Fest: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"