Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Victor choose to marry Emily because he genuinely felt something for her, because he was moved by her sadness and loneliness and wanted to help her be happy, because he just learned that Victoria was going to marry another man and decided to settle for the second-best choice, or because the aforementioned reveal made him cross the Despair Event Horizon and drove him to suicide? Or was it a combination of some of or all of the above?
Awesome Music: It comes with the territory when you have Danny Elfman producing the soundtrack. "Remains of the Day" and "The Wedding Song" are good examples.
"Victor's Piano Solo" and "The Piano Duet" are two lovely pieces of music.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: One possible interpretation is that the dead are lost souls in purgatory, explaining Emily being redeemed in the end.
Hollywood Homely: Victoria apparently has 'the face of an otter' and is a disgrace to her family. Ironically, Victoria's one of the most HUMAN-looking of the puppets in this production. Most likely, her parents say this just because they are assholes who need someone to look down on.
Misaimed Fandom: The Victor/Emily contingent of the fandom conveniently ignores the fact that, had this pairing come to pass (at least as the characters originally intended), it would've made almost everyone involved miserable. Victor would have to kill himself and leave everything he knows behind, Emily would feel awful about forcing the man she loves to commit suicide, Victoria would be trapped in a loveless marriage to Barkis and would likely be murdered shortly after, the Van Dorts would lose their son, and the Everglots would go bankrupt and probably lose their daughter in fairly short order. The only one who would've even remotely benefitted would be Barkis, whose crimes would've remained completely unexposed, and even then, he would have failed to gain any wealth from his marriage to Victoria.
Moral Event Horizon: Lord Barkis Bittern crossed the line a long time ago after he murdered Emily in cold blood to steal her dowry.
Narm Charm: "Hopscotch" is a rather silly word to use when someone decides to return to the land of the dead after visiting the land of the living, and Emily even sounds like she stifles a giggle when first saying it. When she says it again in a later scene where she's supposed to look frightening, it detracts little (if anything) from the effectiveness of Emily's Death Glare in said scene.
Older Than They Think: The tale of a nervous young groom who accidentally marries a corpse is actually a Russian Jewish folktale dating back to around the 1880's.
One True Threesome: Victor/Emily/Victoria is certainly one way of resolving the dilemma.
Special Effect Failure: A brief shot after Emily appears in "The Wedding Song" shows Victor flanked by Mayhew and another corpse. The latter hasn't been edited in post to remember the replacement-animation seam along the top of his head.
Squick: Despite being directed by Tim Burton, this is ultimately a family film and doesn't contain anything too disgusting or disturbing for kids. Some parts of the movie do tend to skirt the line, though, such as the man who splits in half and exposes his organs.
Ugly Cute: Emily is a rotting corpse, with an eye that tends to fall out, limbs that detach, with very visible bones sticking out through her skin. But in a grotesque way, she's beautiful.
Emily. She was killed by the man she fell in love with, then she's rejected by her new (unwilling) husband, and THEN she ends up letting him go although he was ready to join her in the afterlife. Damn, she really needs a hug.
To be honest, all three of the leads have their Woobie moments. Almost all of which are caused by Barkis, one way or another. Victor in particular is definitely a Woobie — the animators on the film stated in an interview that they endeavored to make Victor as pathetic as possible.
Victoria was raised by Abusive Parents who see her as nothing more than an object to restore their wealth, she bonds with Victor only for him to go missing when he accidentally proposes to Emily, she's thought of as insane and locked up in her room when she tries to tell everyone the truth and her parents engage her to Lord Barkis against her will, where she most certainly would have ended up just like Emily.
