The stars were thin on the ground for Monday’s Corpse Bride premiere, but when you count director Tim Burton and voice talent Helena Bonham-Carter and Christopher Lee among the audience, the fact that Liberty X didn’t turn up rather palls in comparison.
The night really belonged to the animators, with character designer Carlos Grangel beaming delightedly as he discussed the finer points of drawing up characters on the back of cereal packets. Bonham-Carter was briskly un-starry in her praise of the production team. “I’m glad all the animators and the people who’ve been slaving away are here because they deserve the reception,” she said. “I’m only the tip of the iceburg. The whole celebrity thing has got bigger and out of hand.”
Co-director Mike Johnson was full of praise for his partnership with Burton: “We both jumped on it and gave it everything we got,” he said. “There were no clear-cut boundaries as to who was doing what, we just passed it back and forth and it was an open collaboration. Tim gave me the time and space to develop ideas and then he would refine those and steer it one way or another.”
Three square feet of the carpet rocketed in value when Tim Burton grabbed Christopher Lee – this is his third Burton film - for a hug and thanked him for coming.
“I’m working with two people who are personal friends and that doesn’t always work,” said Lee once he’d untangled himself. “But Bonny’s a very good friend and I think he (Burton) is number one. He’s fantastic, an actor’s dream. All the support and enthusiasm, the appreciation, it’s everything you get from behind the camera and the same thing applies to Bonny.”
Meanwhile Burton declared he’d be taking a break from directing for a while after his busy summer, but took a moment to describe Corpse Bride’s romantic side. “We’d created a triangle so you could understand and feel for each of the characters,” said the man with the bluest glasses in film. “That was important to me in the love story so you represent what relationships are, so there’s passion and hope and some sadness, some bitter-sweet quality.”