These posters are called a teaser poster and a theatrical poster, as you can see the teaser doesn't give out any information such as the credit block, therefore it just to advertise the film whereas the theatrical poster does. The purpose of this poster is to make the audience of Tim Burton's films aware of the new film that he is releasing.
The poster is a standard sized and portrait, the main colours used within the posters is blacks and blue, giving it a cold feeling which ties in with the film itself, due to the way that there is corpses involved. The film is an animation which follows the quirky style of Tim Burton, the main image in the background is a full moon which has a dark and quirky style that shows through. the main figures are the two main characters within the film. Victor van-dort the main character on the left has the facial expression of being shocked, due to the way if you watch the film you know what has been happening, he never expected to be marrying the corpse bride (right), where as the corpse bride has a smile on her face as he has been waiting for the day to be married ever since she was murdered. Victor is very skinny which suggests that he is just bone, this is contradictory due to the way that he is just as skinny as the decaying body of the corpse bride. Between the two main characters there is the dog that was victors when he was a child, and therefore it suggests that there are many different aspects that suggest that there are more than one type of target audience. the aspect of having an animal in the film even though it is a dead one makes it more of a family/children film, due to the way the deceased are not shown as the typical zombies, they are portrayed as normal people. On the side of the poster there is what looks like two trees which makes it seem as though they are walking into the forest,as well as this it makes the audience feel as if they are within the film therefore attracting more people to watch it.
The text within the posters is quite cursive which adds to the effect of the quirky style within the film, the size of the title is quite small compared to how it could be, but it is situated in between the two trees that are at either side of the poster, it is also in white which stands out against the dark colour palette in the image, It is the same for all the text apart from the credit block which it done with a more sans-serif font, as it is the more important part of the poster and therefore is seen more important due to the professional look of the font. The tagline for the film is 'there's been a grave misunderstanding' which links into the film and therefore makes the audience feel like they are being targeted, the tagline is also a play on words (pun) and therefore makes it more interesting for the audience to look at. The use of upper-case is in the bit where it says about when it is release 'RISING TO THE OCCASION THIS SEPTEMBER' this makes the audience therefore notice it quicker meaning that they can see it at a quick glance, the other use of upper case is at the start of each word in the title. Throughout the posters there is a strong sense of messages portrayed, both visual and verbal in the way in which the images shows victor and the corpse bride holding hands like the normal married couple would do, the sense that it is with a corpse and a living man makes it more of a mystery as to how this came about. the verbal side of the messages is put through the way in which the slogan says that there has been a grave misunderstanding, referring to the fact that the misunderstanding is the fact that victor didn't mean to marry the corpse and then the link between the corpse by the use of a pun in the bit where it says 'grave'. I think that the target audience would be a family audience, due to the way that it is an animation and therefore it has a child target within it. The way in which there is a dog in the middle of them also suggests that it is aimed at families.
The generic conventions shown within the posters shows that it is a fantasy animation. This is through the way in which in day to day life you do not see a corpse and a man married walking down the street this therefore making it a fantasy. tim burton the director adds in another aspect to the fantasy in the way he adds a dark and quirky style into the films that he creates, therefore making it easier to distinguish his films from another at a quick glance of the posters or trailers. In pretty much all of Burton's films stars Johnny Depp and therefore he is being used as a unique selling point due to the way in which burton has his own fan base which could sometimes be due to the way in which he brings Johnny Depp's fan base into his fan base therefore making his a lot bigger than it would be if he constantly used different actors as the main role in every film. Unlike most posters there is no use of critic reviews on the poster, this may be due to the way in which Tim Burton has such a big name for himself that he can advertise without due to the fact that people know what to expect. The tag line is used very effectively due to the way in which it is a pun, therefore making people read it and think that they have to watch it, as it is linked very cleverly to the film itself with the use of a grave referring to the corpse bride. the poster gets attention due to the way that there is a walking corpse that isn't scary, and therefore goes against any stereotype that horror films seem to portray about 'the living dead', due to the fact that you never normally see a nice 'zombie', this therefore will shock the audience and therefore make them quite sceptical of the idea that this could be reality therefore backing up the genre being fantasy. the persuasive techniques within the posters are quite clear, due to the way in which the names of the actors are in bold above who they are the voices for within the film, therefore the actors are being used to persuade people to watch the film due to the way that they are well known and therefore people know what to expect. as well as this there is the use of the directors name above the title saying that its his film 'Tim burtons corpse bride' therefore the viewer of this poster can see that it is his film and no-one else's. from the poster the audience are promised a shocking and fun viewing of the film, due to the way that they say that it was a grave misunderstanding therefore making the audience feel that there is a strong sense of shock in the way in which there is reference to death and then the fun is promised in the way in which that they have a picture of a dog, which if any child looking at the poster would automatically think that it would be fun in the way in which if they have their own dog they know how much fun they could have when taking their dogs for a walk etc, it is therefore making the audience think about daily life.
At the bottom of this poster there is the Warner Bros. logo which shows that they are the production company in which Tim Burton used. as well as this there is the rating 'PG' which according to the BBFC have a few scenes within the film the children are advised not to watch on their own, this means that there could be a high sense of something bad in which the guidelines state they mustn't watch with out supervision. the information within this poster could be seen as important due to the way in which when looking at the poster you can see what rating the film is so you know whether you should go and watch it and also knowing what production company was used you would know if they have a good reputation of making films that are worthwhile watching. the poster would of been placed in the cinema, and therefore when people would be waiting for their films they would read the posters or at least look at them in order to pas the time, and therefore building a higher range of people watching the film therefore making more money, as well as this it could be placed in certain types of magazines therefore making money when people pay for the magazine. It plays a small part of the marketing campaign as the trailer and any other sources of advertisements like radio etc.
In my opinion I think that the poster is good, my reasoning's for this is due to the way the audience can connect to the imagery within it. I think it is effective to the targeting audience due to the way in which the audience can relate to the animal side of things,as well as this I think that the posters are effective due to the way in which the genre is conveyed, through the colours, and the make believe aspects that make it believable to look at the poster and see that it is within the fantasy animation genre.In my opinion I do not think that the film poster is offensive in any way, I think that some people may find the fact that there is a corpse on there to be offensive, but I genuinely don't see a problem with it therefore meaning that I overall believe that this is a good poster.
