The imaginative vision of Tim Burton is again brought to life on the big screen, this time in animated form. His fascination with the macabre is plain to see, although Corpse Bride will delight both young and adult audiences, gearing up for Halloween.

A film in which death is an integral feature would be easy to classify as "dark," yet this is essentially an old-fashioned love story, with an unconventional slant. Everything you'd expect from a Burton movie is present - a collection of weird and wonderful characters and a surreal environment, powered by the kind of imagination few directors possess. Anchoring it all is a bold and lively score from long time collaborator Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs.

Set in Victorian times and based on an old Russian folk tale, the film focuses on two distinctly different worlds - the drab, dreary and depressing land of the living, inhabited by dour individuals with nothing in their hearts but self-interest, contrasting with the land of the dead, a vibrant, colourful portrayal of the afterlife. where skeletons, deadly spiders and the deceased habitually party and dance to Thirties-style jazz music.

At the centre of it all is Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp), a shy young bachelor, who finds himself at the sharp end of a love triangle that he would never have imagined in his wildest nightmares. His nouveau riche parents, fish merchants Nell (Tracey Ullman) and William (Paul Whitehouse) hope to increase their standing in society by ingratiating their son into the aristocracy whether he likes it or not.

They arrange for him to be married to Victoria (Emily Watson), the daughter of the once rich, but now penniless, Finnis (Albert Finney) and Maudeline Everglot (Joanna Lumley). This unpleasant couple has never had much time for their daughter, but as the family safe is filled only with dusty cobwebs they see her marriage to Victor as their last chance.

When Victor and Victoria meet for the first time both begin to cast aside their doubts and believe romance may blossom after all. But things don't go according to plan. Victor's nerves get the better of him during a wedding rehearsal, leading unsympathetic Pastor Gauswells (Christopher Lee) to order him outside until he learns his vows correctly.

Victor wanders into the forest where he begins to recite the vows perfectly, completing the ritual by placing the wedding ring on what he thinks is a tree root. But the root is, in fact, the hand of the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) and up she rises from the ground, wedding dress and veil flailing in the wind, ready at last to claim her man. Murdered before her own wedding night, the Bride has been waiting for her true love to return to her, a role Victor has unwittingly just fulfilled.

She declares her undying love for him and, before he can escape her bony clutches, he is whisked away into the mysterious and, at times, frightening land of the dead, where he wrestles with his guilt over the "misunderstanding," but remains determined to return to Victoria before she is married off to the devious Bitten Barkis (Richard E Grant) and lost to him forever.

Filmed almost entirely using stop-motion animation techniques, Corpse Bride is a triumph for the team of animators and co-directors Burton and Mike Johnson. The writing team of John August, Pamela Pettler and Caroline Thompson also keep their side of the bargain with a script that is both funny and touching.