Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Rough Draft Response Essay #3)

            Our society is fixated with entertainment as it brings culture from different countries around the world.  One part of entertainment, I believe, no one can go without watching and that is movies.  Movies are the highlight of television and the entertainment world.  I chose to pick “Corpse Bride” by Tim Burton; he’s made quite a few movies in his career.  Some of his nuterous work have been Frankenweenie, Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Beetlejuice, and many more.

Corpse Bride is an animated and humorous movie, which the target demographic is a younger audience.  It can be a little frightening for some children because the nature of the characters.  In this Tim Burton movie, he uses people’s curiosity of the dead and the after life to tell us a story of a man, Victor, having an arranged wedding with a woman, Victoria in attempt to save her parents from the poor house.  The day of the rehearsal Victor kept on forgetting his vowels so in embarrassment, he walks into the forest trying to remember.  As he walks further, he says his vowels correctly and not knowing, he put the ring on what looked like a branch.  Of course, it wasn’t.  It was actually a corpse who was buried under an old oak tree.  She says, “I do,” and she takes him under the “real world” where people that have died live together.  He founds out that she was swept off her feet by a newcomer in town and her father didn’t approve.  So, they planned to meet in the woods to run away together and she woke up dead and all her jewelry was gone. Victor suggested to visit his parents but ended up lying to the corpse bride, Emily, in which he actually visited Victoria.  Victoria’s parents thought his scandal of Victor running away couldn’t happen so a newcomer came the previous day and he suggested to be married to Victoria.  They agreed.  In the end, Emily figures out that Victor would have to be dead in order for them to be married.  He agrees to do it because Victoria got married to the newcomer and they planned their wedding “upstairs” in the land of the living.  They go up and the dead reunite with their living relatives.  Everyone gathers at the church where Victor and Emily are getting married.  Victoria sees many people walking to the church so she follows and stands behind a pillar looking at the back of Victor.  As he’s about the drink the poison to end his life, Emily stops him and says, “I had my chance at love and now it’s your turn.”  Now, Victoria’s husband, Lord Barkis, comes into the church and Emily recognizes him as her murderer.  Everyone is shocked and wants to get revenge.  He gets in a sword fight with Victor and he eventually drinks the poison.  He poisons himself and then the dead are able to get their revenge.

One narrative that comes to my mind is how in the beginning of the movie Victor is drawing a butterfly.  Throughout the movie, this butterfly is seen quite a few times.  The meaning of the butterfly is about being free.  As the movie reaches the end, Emily, the corpse bride, walks out of the church and with the moonlight shining down on her, she turns into many butterflies meaning she’s free from heartbreak and able to move on.

NOTE: I’m going to most likely cut down part of my “brief” description of the movie.

I’m planning:

·      On to connect the curiosity of the dead with the “All Soul Parade” that happens here in Tucson in November.

·      In the movie there is a lot of crows in the forest and the “underworld”, so try to analyzing why that is

·      Promoting the harmful or beneficial views of the movie

·      Why this movie is part of popular culture (fascination of the dead and afterlife of when someone dies)

·      Possibly how humans react being heartbroken

I’m going to watch the movie again so I understand it a little more.  So, there’ll probably be more things I can analyze.

Individual Targeting Through Advertisments

Companies that target an individual consumer through advertisements are a little scary to think about.  I believe that companies don’t have a right to break consumers’ privacy.  I don’t want companies knowing exactly which websites I’m viewing on the Internet, including Google or a link to another website from a social media website.  I feel that I can’t go unnoticed without some company targeting me for advertisements and try to get me on board with buying their products.

However, advertisement tracking makes life easier and more convenient for a consumer to purchase products online.  It provides a bigger picture of the Internet and the advertising for a certain company.  For instance, I was on Facebook a few days ago.  An advertisement was featuring Urban Decay (a makeup brand) that everything online was 20% off.  Since I’m interested in their product, I browsed their website.  I was hesitant about buying something even though I really wanted it.  Later that day, I went on Facebook again, and clicked on a link that led me to another website.  When I got to the website, I was astonished to see a banner advertisement of Urban Decay’s 20% off of everything deal.  As I watched the Wall Street Journal’s “What They Know” video, it all made sense to me how these advertisements were specifically targeting me.  They figured out that I had previously looked at Urban Decay’s website.  Previous to watching this video, I was clueless what cookies were and how they worked.  By watching the video, I now understand about third-party cookies and how they play a part in the advertising world.  In that case, it was interesting for me to notice how advertisements on social media websites and others are all connected together.

In a generation with technology all around us, both of my points contradict each other but are somewhat useful.  As we were talking about in class, most people know about Internet tracking and companies advertising their products online.  Most parents only say to be careful of what you put online.  But, only some people will go in depth of both the Internet tracking and an advertisement individually targeting a person.  Individually targeting a person through advertisements is essentially making them aware of their surroundings on the computer.

Dawn Hand Renewal with Olay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qexiyiUqu4

This advertisement is of the Dawn Hand Renewal Dish Soap with Olay Beauty.  This product locks in natural moisture to your hands when washing the dishes.  In the first few seconds of the commercial, a purple sponge is speaking with an accent and keeps me smiling.  This commercial is also hilarious as I laughed when I figured out that the sponge is the narrator.

My initial response to the commercial was “I wonder if it actually works, and will it keep my hands moisturized?”  I really like their slogan; ”Dawn does more so it is not a chore.”  It really fits as their products focuses on as you can say, “more than one use” for it.  To me, this advertisement is selling the product by:  if a person uses it, he or she will not have to use lotion or moisturizer.  The product already contains it.  A person’s hands will be model ready, meaning your hands look delicate after using it.

This advertisement is persuasive as it because this commercial makes me feel the need to have this product.  It also helps eliminate the need to lotion your hands.  As a society, we are always on the go.  We are going everywhere from work, to school, appointments, etc.  Our time is so limited that we feel that this product will help in eliminate moisturizing our hands after washing the dishes and have more time management for other things in our daily lives.  This Dawn product serves in our culture by keeping our bodies beautiful and having soft hands.