The Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Tim Burton’s work, Henry Selick’s 1993 movie, is a masterpiece. Roger Moore said in his review, “A work of grand visual wit, clever songs, funny gags and genuine pathos, it is perhaps the greatest stop-motion animated film ever, a painstaking style of model animation that computers have all but completely done away with.”

Despite it has a home in many DVD collection, Disney has made sure that it has a higher status inside this culture, transferring the original film to 3D and re-releasing it every Halloween as a new holiday tradition – a scary night reminder that Christmas is coming, Jack Skellington’s work is cut out for him.

Skellington, voiced by Chris Sarandon, is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, a skeletal phantom who looks right amongst the mad scientists, corpses and stuff that go out in the night. He has a ghost dog, Zero, and plenty of friends and neighbors. There’s a girl, a pieced-together corpse, Sally (Catherine O’Hara), who loves Jack and doesn’t like her creator (William Hickey).

However, Jack is too egotistical to notice Sally. Because even though he is loved at home, he’s bored with the constant scares. When he walks into Christmas Town, he thinks he’s found something to help him with this sadness. Jack will take over the job of “Sandy Claws” and deliver Halloween Town toys to every child all over the world. Moore asked, “What, kids don't want spiders in their stockings?”

If you’re thinking “Bad idea,” you don’t know anything yet. Moore said, “Start with the trio of evil little Munchkins, Lock (Paul Reubens), Shock (O’Hara) and Barrel (Danny Elfman), Jack sends to get the jolly fat Santa out of the way.”

“Kidnap the Sandy Claws,” they sing, for this is a musical. “Beat him with a stick. Lock him up for 90 years, see what makes him tick.”

Danny Elfman did the music and sings Jack Skellington’s songs as well. Moore credited, “The tunes are cute if mostly forgettable.” The story, based on a poem written by Burton, is simple, paying tribute more to classic horror movies of the 1930s than classic fairy tales.

Moore said, “It's the look of the film that sticks with you, the scary-cute stop-motion puppets, the gray on black backgrounds, and the fully realized world of holiday "towns," each existing to serve the needs of its "king," be he the Pumpkin King, Santa or the Easter Bunny.”

The addition of 3D doesn’t add a lot to this – the odd ghost, Jack-o-Lantern or other object jumps off the screen (and mostly in the credits). Moore said, “It does add the illusion of depth of field and make the characters pop out a little more. If you have it at home, the cinematic experience is not novel enough to warrant the premium 3D ticket price for funny 3D glasses.”

However, Disney was right about this much – “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is good enough to deserve becoming a holiday tradition. Pick it up as DVD rental or buy it. If you have kids, there are worse things they could find in other shows and movies than Jack Skellington.

All of these years later, I still can’t decide if this movie is meant to be watched around Halloween or Christmas time. I think it all depends on the person because it fits for both holidays. This is another one of my all time favorite Halloween/Christmas movies. Everyone should see this movie, especially if they love Tim Burton. I seriously think everyone will love it once they have seen it. See it if you haven’t.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope that everyone had a good Christmas day. I know that I posted this review up late, but I had a family emergency that caused me to be out of the house for a good majority of the day. However, I bet everyone got some good presents this year.

Stay tuned later when I upload another “Studio Ghibli Month” review.