THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Holidays exist because they’re meant to be moments where we find joy in our lives. While that is a good thing, it’s best for them to not intertwine.
PLOT
The Nightmare Before Christmas follows Jack Skellington, a live skeleton who is called the ‘Pumpkin King’ by the citizens of the fictional world of Halloween Town, where monsters celebrate the infamous holiday. When he grows tired of the annual routine, he chooses have a walk in the woods with his pet dog ghost Zero (Frank Welker). For the first time, he would find a circled group of trees containing doorways of towns celebrating different holidays. He stumbles into the door that takes him to Christmas Town. In awe of the discovery, he shares what he saw to all of Halloween Town. However, he makes the mistake in comparing it the idea of Christmas with Halloween’s ideas. With overnight studying and experimenting that accomplish nothing, Jack would make the reckless decision to take over Christmas, believing he can improve it. As he assigns every resident to a Christmas themed job, a feminine creation named Sally, made by the controlling Doctor Finkelstein (William Hickey), cares about Jack and has a vision that his plans will backfire. She does share that all he’s doing is a bad idea, but his excitement over the other holiday makes him ignore her. The trick-or-treating trio of Lock, Shock & Barrel get tasked to bring Santa Claus, who is mistakenly named by Jack as Sandy Claws, to Halloween Town. When they succeed via abduction, Jack declares taking his place in delivering presents to the human children this time. He allows the trick or treaters to keep him safe, but little does he know they would take him to his rival, the gambling boogeyman Oogie Boogie who intends to play a game with Santa’s life. Sally does try to stop Jack from leaving by creating a fog, but that gets foiled when Zero has a glowing nose bright enough to light the way. Still wanting to do the right thing, she tries to rescue Santa from Oogie, with the hopes to have his help in stopping Jack from ruining the holiday. It would backfire on her end when she gets captured by Boogie as well. In the human world, Jack’s Christmas takeover would go awry as Sally expected when every child is terrified of every gift he gives them. This causes military forces to shoot him down, causing him to crash into a cemetery, making everyone in Halloween Town mistake him to die. Jack would realize he made a mistake but although he admits the new scaring methods reignited his love for Halloween, he plans to act fast in making things right. He does just that when freeing Sally & Santa from Oogie, killing his rival in the process. As Jack apologizes to Mr. Claus for his actions, the latter assures the Pumpkin King he can still save Christmas, which he does by replacing his gifts with genuine ones overnight. Jack & Sally would return to town, which would leave the citizens in joy. Santa would spread the holiday love to Halloween Town by spreading snowfall to it, fulfilling Jack’s dream to bring the holiday spirit to his domain. The film would end with Skellington and Sally declaring their love for each other. THOUGHTS
I don’t recall watching this film during a particular holiday, but I remember enjoying as much as I do now. It’s been part of my annual ever since my first viewing and I believe it gets better with every viewing. Stop motion animation is no easy feat, which is why every frame is essentially beautiful in their own way. With every second that passes by, you’re in awe with the whole setting and each design given for every character. From the second you start hearing Danny Elfman’s compelling score and transition to the catchy “This is Halloween”, you know you’re in for an experience much different from past films under the branch of Walt Disney Pictures. The reason I think it holds up so well from the Renaissance Era is due to how Director Henry Selick & Producer Tim Burton are able to bring things full circle in telling viewers to encourage making a change in life, but take notice how it can affect others. It is always good to make a change because it makes you more diverse than before, but thinking about others in advance is important because they won’t all be comfortable on how choose to act on change. We like Jack so much because Chris Sarandon displays from his voice he’s one who’s deeply curious and wants to try new things. Hearing “Jack’s Lament”, which his songs were performed by Elfman himself, he’s someone who lost his mojo and the discovery of Christmas Town gave it new energy, hence the purpose of “What’s This?”. Of course he misinterpreted the whole meaning of Christmas because the whole point of the takeover was his way to find new ways to scare people, which is the whole reason of his existence. He did learn the hard way that some things are better left alone, but there is a bright side that no child was harmed from his actions and he did realize he messed up. And while things didn’t go as planned for anyone, he understood you don’t have to know the meaning of the holiday because embracing it is enough. While Jack is the reason we’re all onboard with this story, he’s not the only character we’re interested in. For sure, we all gotta bad for Santa himself since Ed Ivory portrays him as one who is in shock of the change he wasn’t prepared for, but was still able to remain humble enough to not fear for the worst or pray for it on others. Of course he had to be the one to save Christmas overnight because it’s his holiday and only he can make miracles for such an occasion. Resuming back to Halloween Town, the residents there were the most colorful that you can’t help wonder to see how the rest of the town functions. The Mayor was so interesting because Glenn Shadix shows him as one who is right behind Jack in being passionate about their holiday and desire topping themselves with their talents. The difference he has from his friend is that he is more comfortable being directed how to organize events. If he doesn’t have that, his worry will never end, which is why their friendship is so important. I’m sure that a lot of people who saw this movie were also awestruck with the character Sally. Catherine O’Hara makes her stand out so much as she portrays her to be the kindest in town. She loves Jack so much because she relates on wanting a change. The difference she has from him is that she actually tries to think it over unlike him. The only thing she wants to change for sure is no longer being controlled by her maker Dr. Finkelstein. Whatever happens after that, she’ll be fine with it. Jack ends up loving her back because he appreciates how she had his back and was willing to be the most truthful towards him, which defends why he chooses to pursue her at the very end. Like a lot of Disney produced films, you know there has to be a villain everyone will remember. We get just that with the embodiment of Oogie Boogie. Ken Page succeeds in making him flamboyantly vile of a character, due to how he enjoys toying with whoever he identifies as prey, which his song embraces from beginning to end. And Jack doesn’t like him for that exact reason. The big difference everyone has apart from Oogie is that they never kill, only scare. If you weren’t disgusted of him alone for being a big sack, you would definitely feel such when seeing he is filled with a horde of bugs that die in Jack’s hands. The trio of Lock, Shock & Barrel hung out with him for so long because they were in awe to see a rule breaker. But in the end, they knew Jack was the better man for his morals, hence directing the Mayor where he was. This film will go down as immortal entertainment, but even something as good as this has moments that still have me scratching my head to this day. Going from the top, why did it take for someone in Halloween Town or the other holiday themed towns to find the doorways? It’s kinda crazy how they live so simple and choose not to explore like Jack did. I even found it weird during the song “What’s This?” when Jack takes 40 seconds to figure out what snowballs are. That does reveal Halloweentown never experienced snow until the end of the film, but it’s crazy to believe he figured out the word so fast. And let’s be honest, is it really smart for Finklestein to let Sally continue cooking for him when she poisons him just so she can go out? It’s like he’s asking for an excuse to go to sleep or make another woman for himself. He also could’ve went to his assistant Igor instead, yet he chooses to put himself in that predicament unknowingly/ridiculously. Sally’s even lucky when he didn’t notice she swapped spoons. But then again, anyone would miss it since a continuity error struck upon this scene; By the time we back up to see her use what’s supposed to be the wholed spoon, it’s instead the same wooden spoon she dropped before. I hate noticing this stuff and it drives me crazy no one noticed this at the time. It was a bold move for the humans to consider executing Jack for his actions, but why was that the first choice? Even if he’s unleashing some monsters, I don’t think it would hurt to arrest him and wonder why he was doing it. Since they acted so fast in shooting him down, it’s another surprise on how they couldn’t find the sleigh before Jack left. And let’s be honest, why didn’t Santa try to escape if he can fly off of touching his nose? There had to have been at least one instance for him to reach, like when Sally tried to free him. Ignore this, then you’ll still love this movie for what it is. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a holiday classic for being an unlikely crossover compared to anything we’ve ever seen. Whichever holiday you prefer, this film is totally worth the watch.
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