One of the most terrifyingly brilliant children's movies of all time,
The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the story of Christmas like never before. The story begins with a dark and horrifying song about Halloween in Halloween Town. Our protagonist, Jack Skellington (Danny Elfman), or The Pumpkin King as the town calls him, gives the town a huge show every Halloween. They plan all year for this event because in Halloween Town, there are no other holidays. However, soon Jack becomes tired of celebrating the same holiday every year. He uncovers the world of Christmas Town in a group of doors leading to other holidays, and decides he wants to celebrate Christmas in Halloween Town. The town is very excited, besides the fact that they have no idea how to be "jolly," and begin preparations. Sally (Catherine O'Hara), a rag doll who loves Jack, seems to be the only one who realizes that this is a terrible idea (She also tries to poison her father daily. Cute.) Jack then orders Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the best trick-or-treaters in the town, to go bring Santa Clause back to Halloween Town. However, because of their mischievous ways, they bring him back to Oogie Boogie, a boogie man with a major gambling problem (watch and learn kids?). Christmas Eve finally rolls around and despite Sally's attempts to stop Jack, he still flies off into the night in a coffin pulled by ghostly skeleton reindeer while throwing evil presents all over the world. Jack is quickly shot down by the military, and Sally is captured by Mr. Boogie. Jack quickly remembers his Halloween spirit, and comes back. After a quick battle with Boogie, Jack rescues Sally and Santa and makes everything right.
This film was so revolutionary at first because it was filmed in stop motion, which takes a very long time to film. Stop motion animation is a filming technique in which objects are moved in very slow increments and individually photographed so it appears that they are moving. Henry Selick, the director of this film, is known for his stop-motion films. Nightmare was Selick's stop-motion debut, but he followed this up with James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. Even though the animation may not be very fluent at times, it gives the character's a very real feel. In my opinion, all the objects look more authentic than computer or hand drawn animation.
The creativity in this film is absolutely superb. It is based on the three page poem that Tim Burton wrote while he worked for Disney in the 1980's. I especially like the character development. For example, the Mayor of Halloween Town has a head that swivels between a Happy face and an Angry face. This shows the two sides of the Mayor. Also the simple fact that Jack's character, although introduced to nothing else, wants to break away and be different. He wants change in his community even though no one else even understands the concept. I think the forrest of doors is significant because if Jack wanted change, all he had to do was go for a quick walk and look for it. Everyone else in the town is content with their lives in Halloween Town.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderfully dark movie that persons of all ages can enjoy. 75% of the movie is music and despite the scary look of it, it is a warm-hearted movie. It is personally one of my favorite Christmas movies ever.
