It’s the wedding rehearsal day. Victor’s parents have an opportunity to join their family to the ancient Everglot line. As his mother and father bundle into the coach, they look nervously at their son.
At the Everglot manor, Finis, short and fat, stands next to his wife Maudeline, smarting with the necessary humiliation of marrying their daughter to the fishmongers’ son. But they are a hair’s-breadth from the poorhouse and the Van Dorts are their way out. Everything must go according to plan!
km od začátku : 0011
The Wedding Rehearsal
Victor and Victoria stand in front of the Pastor Galswells. They have to rehearse for their big day, but Victor stammers his vow and ruins the whole procedure.
“With this candle, I will light your way in darkness”, Galswells intones, but Victor muddles his lines and blows out his candle. His performance goes from bad to worse and he leaves with the pastor’s command ringing in his ears: ‘Young man, learn your vows!’
km od začátku : 0016
The Vows
Poor nervous Victor sits just outside the town practicing his vows, listening to the Town Crier describing the disastrous rehearsal to everyone. Despondent, he wanders into the forest and, just as he is starting to get his vows right, places the ring on a stick shaped like a spindly finger and says the words:
“With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way in darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine."
The Earth shakes, the ground cracks, and an awful beauty rises before him:
‘I do!’ she whispers.
km od začátku : 0031
The Land of the Dead
Victor comes to understand what has happened - Emily believes that the vows were for her, and they are to be married, which will let her achieve peace at last. Poor Victor can only think to run, and as he bolts through the topsy-turvy, candy-coloured Land of the Dead, he is pursued by Emily. When his new bride catches up with him, they sit on a bench together and Emily produces her wedding present - Victor’s old dog Scraps, in skeletal form!
km od začátku : 0032
"Hear ye! Hear Ye"
‘Hear ye! Hear Ye! Victor seen in the arms of an unknown woman’ the Town Crier cries. Back in the Everglot manor, Finis and Maudeline quiver with rage. Just then, Lord Barkis appears, the picture of gallantry. He offers his sympathies and promises to provide the Everglots with anything they might need.
km od začátku : 0043
“I’m his wife!”
As Victor and Emily ascend to the Land of the Living, Victor tells Emily to wait for him in the woods and runs to Victoria. Climbing up through her bedroom window, the couple embrace, safe until the ghostly presence of Emily looms in the window.
“I’m his wife!” Emily declares in a rage, before dragging poor Victor back to the Land of the Dead.
Victoria in desperation runs through the pouring rain to the church. She bangs on the door and demands to be let in. Pastor Galswells opens the door and listens to her question in horror.
“Can the living marry the dead?”
Thunder claps and the Pastor starts back.
“Please, it’s Victor, he’s married to a corpse. He has a Corpse Bride!”
Pastor Galswells tells Victoria that he knows what to do, but he leads her back to the Everglot manor. Maudeline opens the door and listens to the story in horror. She grasps Victoria and has the servants drag her to her room.
“Seal the doors and bar the windows! See to it that she doesn’t escape again!”
km od začátku : 0052
Preparations
After the fiasco at the church, Lord Barkis speaks with Victoria’s parents. He ladles on the charm, promising to lavish her with riches befit for royalty. Maudeline sighs and exclaims what a shame it is Lord Barkis is married. The lord looks down ruefully and admits that he is unmarried, that he was betrothed once but tragedy took her from him.
The Everglots’ eyes light up, and they march up to Victoria’s room. There will be a marriage after all! She will marry Lord Barkis tomorrow - according to plan!
km od začátku : 0061
“I’ll do it.”
Friendship blooms between Victor and Emily as they sit at her piano and play a duet. Later, Victor heads to the tavern, when Mayhew, the newly dead Van Dort coachman, arrives. He tells Victor of Victoria’s marriage. Dejected, Victor goes to Emily who is visiting the Elder Gutknecht.
The Elder Gutknecht is concerned, he reminds Emily that to marry Victor, he too must be dead, and that during the wedding ceremony, he must repeat his vows in the Land of the Living, drink a poisonous draught, the Wine of Ages, and so join his wife in death.
Emily feels she cannot ask him such a thing, even if it means she will not find peace. Victor, who is hiding just outside the room steels himself and declares: “I’ll do it.”
km od začátku : 0066
The Bride and Groom
Victor and Emily address the dead. They tell them they are to be married and that the ceremony is to be held upstairs in the Land of the Living.
A wedding! A wedding! The whole Land of the Dead erupts into song, celebrating the happiness of the bride and groom to be. The soldiers march, an odd cake is baked, and Black Widow and her spider friends repair Victor’s torn clothes so that he may look presentable. All the preparations are made for the big event!
Maggot weeps with joy and Victor looks on in wonder as Emily descends a staircase, she is a vision of beauty, bathed in moonlight. The bride is here, here comes the bride!
km od začátku : 0072
The Wedding
The wedding party troop up the hill to the old church. Pastor Galswells makes a feeble attempt to stop them, but they merrily push past him. At the altar, Elder Gutknecht sets down a silver goblet filled with the Wine of Ages.
The couple make their vow, each repeating the fateful words.
“With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way in darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine."
But just as Victor lifts the cup to his lips, Emily sees Victoria in the corner. She looks down and sighs, realising what must be. Turning to Victor, she stops him.
“I was a bride,” she says, tears in her eyes, “But now I’ve stolen one from someone else. I love you Victor, but you’re not mine.”
Victoria comes to join the pair and Emily clasps Victor and Victoria’s hands together.
km od začátku : 0076
The Battle
Just as Victor and Victoria’s hands clasp, Lord Barkis struts in, he has come to claim his wife! Then, he spots Emily:
‘But.. but, I left you!” he stammers.
“Left me for dead!” Emily counters.
The wedding party gasps! Realising he is in a corner, Barkis grabs a sword and puts it to Victoria’s neck. As he backs out of the church with his hostage, Scraps bites his ankle and Victor runs at him with a fork. A thrilling fight begins, sword clashing with fork, back and forth across the church floor, through and under the pews, until Barkis is finally beaten.
He retreats to the altar, where he grasps the chalice holding the Wine of Ages. His voice dripping with irony, he proposes a toast to the couple. The guests look on wide-eyed as he downs the poisonous liquor and struts out of the church.
But just before he reaches the door, he convulses, his face turns blue and he expires. Lord Barkis is at the mercy of the vengeful dead.
km od začátku : 0084
The Promise
Victor and Victoria are safe and in each other’s arms, next to them Emily smiles and turns to leave.
“Wait!” calls Victor, “I made you a promise”.
“You kept your promise” Emily says, as she removes her gold wedding ring and places it in Victor’s palm, “You set me free, and now I can do the same for you.”
Emily walks to the doors of the church, for a moment she savours the moonlight, looks back once more, and then steps into the night. Her corporeal form is transformed into a flutter of butterflies, and she drifts up to the moon.
