#also this'll give you all some hints for the next part of my au HEHEH

[love-toxin]

So sorry to ask, but... what exactly is corpse bride?

OHO!!!!!! im so glad you asked >:)) it's one of my favourite childhood movies!!!! I'll put this plot summary under the cut bc im too excited to infodump :,)

I've watched it like a million times, its a tim burton film from 2005 shot entirely with stop motion figures, a lot like NBC! it's got both musical numbers and spoken parts (tears to shed and remains of the day SLAPS if you get a chance to listen to them on spotify or youtube, although the whole soundtrack is really really good--it's directed by danny elfman!)

the plot centers around a man named Victor Van Dort living in a victorian-era village who is the son of a pair of new money fishmarket owners, and has been arranged into a marriage with the daughter of old money aristocrats named Victoria Everglot. although her parents agreed to the marriage primarily for financial reasons because they've found themselves destitute, Victor's in-laws not only openly detest him for his meek personality but they also have a very low opinion of Victoria, as well as being distasteful of having to rely on the wealth of a commoner family to save them from the poorhouse. throw in the fact that the bride and groom haven't met until then but he falls in love almost immediately, as well as the appearance of a passing Lord Barkis Bittern at their home who watches the proceedings, and Victor messes up the rehearsal so badly that he leaves into the woods to go practice his vows so he can hopefully impress his new family, and his new wife. but while he's there, practicing out loud and bemoaning his nerves because he only does them well when he's alone, he ends up putting the ring on a branch-like root and unknowingly summons a corpse out of the ground, who chases after him before pulling him into the underworld with her.

and surprise! when he wakes up after fainting from the shock, he discovers that the branch wasn't a branch at all, but the outstretched hand of a bride-to-be that had been murdered by her fiancé and had her fortune stolen under that tree years before, and has been waiting for her true love to come along and marry her. although a bit naive, she's very sweet and innocent and is so excited to be wed to her new husband, showing off her ring to prove their bond while the other corpses congratulate them and start planning the wedding--she even gives him a wedding present, which is the skeleton of his deceased dog that comes together to play with him again. Victor finds the "downstairs" to be surprisingly bright and colourful and totally unlike the gray, lifeless expanse of the living world, but with such a weak constitution he's totally in shock and insistent on going back home and returning to his living fiancé, to the point that he ends up tricking his corpse bride, Emily, into taking him up so she can meet his parents before their supposed wedding. but instead, he sneaks away once they come up to go see Victoria in secret, who has been worried about his disappearance, and explains what's happened to him while also confessing his love right up until Emily finds them together and jealously drags Victor back down to the underworld. feeling betrayed and hurt at having her heart broken again, she mourns her failed marriage and the fact that it's been ruined because she's dead, and Victor would prefer a woman that's alive even though her friends remind her that she's so talented and has a lovely personality.

while this is all happening, Victoria is trying to convince her family that Victor needs to be rescued and even escapes being locked in her room to head for the church for guidance, only to be taken back by the minister as everyone deems her unreasonable due to hysteria. at this moment, Lord Barkis steps in to comfort her parents and ends up convincing them to let him marry Victoria, with promises that he'll be lavishing her with wealth--but what they don't know is that he's already plotting her death, so he can steal all her family's riches and take her dowry once she's gone. at the same time, while Victor's parents are searching for him, their driver Mayhew ends up dying from a smoking-induced coughing fit and shows up in the downstairs, for him to meet up with Victor and let him know that Victoria has moved on and is getting married to someone else.

and, feeling guilty over the fact that he tricked her, Victor has come back to Emily to apologize and they share in one of their interests, which is playing the piano. upon hearing the news of Victoria's new union, Victor is hurt at losing her but more at ease with the thought of marrying Emily and decides to do so properly--but she soon realizes that in order to do so, Victor has to repeat his vows in the living world and drink poison in order to die, which Emily feels too guilty about asking of him to even try. luckily Victor has overheard, though, and agrees to the terms, and the two of them joined by the undead wedding party bring their festivities upstairs to commence with the marriage. by this time, Victoria has been unwillingly married off to Lord Barkis and is completely depressed, but the reception is crashed by the dead as they flood through the village and cause a panic, to all but the people who soon recognize their deceased family members and lovers and friends and are reunited. abandoned by their own wedding party, a disheveled Lord Barkis insists on Victoria taking all of her family's riches from their coffers so they can steal away from the overrun town--but he becomes furious when she reveals that her family is practically impoverished, and that his perceived wealth was the reason her parents were so eager to marry her off. Victoria storms off to follow the wedding party and slips into the church where Victor is being married. she watches the ceremony, but just as he's about to drink the poison and commit to his undead bride, Emily spots Victoria and stops him from doing so. realizing that the two of them are in love, she can't bring herself to split them apart and gives up her wedding so that they can be together, because she doesn't want to take someone that wasn't meant to be hers.

however, just as Victor and Victoria are reunited, Lord Barkis crashes the wedding and demands Victoria be returned to him, only for he and Emily to recognize each other--she realizes that he was the fiancé that had taken all she had and left her for dead, and a fight between himself and Victor ensues as he stops him from kidnapping Victoria (also because the dead can't get involved or commit murder while they are obeying the rules of the living in their world). Barkis tries to kill Victor by stabbing him but is intercepted by Emily who takes the blow, and turns his sword on him and orders him to leave--but before he does, he takes the immunity he has against the angered crowd of undead to propose a mocking toast against his former fiancé on her failed love, not realizing that the wine he's drinking is poisoned. he dies on the spot, the dead drag him back into the underworld to torture their new arrival on behalf of Emily, and the corpse bride returns her ring to Victor to marry his true love and is set free, her body turning into a cloud of blue butterflies that flutter away towards the moon.