The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Originally The Nightmare Before Christmas was to be directed by Tim Burton, who came up with the story and characters from a peom he wrote. As a result from scheduling conflicts and a lack of time due to another project (Batman Returns) he had to have his friend from when he worked at Disney, Henry Selick (who would later go on to direct James and the Giant Peach and Coraline) take over the position. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas film in the vein of other stop motion classics like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town but the similarities end there. The opening sequence is enough to tell you that. The film opens with the stop motion equivalent of a haunted house ride, throwing bats, ghosts, witches, and all sorts of creatures at you as they all sing the music of Danny Elfman in a horrifyingly wonderful display. At the time of release it was the first major all stop-motion film in decades and it was miles ahead of its predecessors in both technique and capabilities. The characters display a wide variety of physical animations and expressions that are meticulous and fascinating to look at. The entire film, especially the scenes in Halloween Town, is so carefully stylized resembling extreme Gothic sets such as those from German expressionistic films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

The story follows Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King of Halloween, as he laments something lacking in his life. He has grown bored with his holiday and wants something new. He stumbles upon a door in a forest that leads to Christmas Town and, after much obsessing over what he witnessed, decides that he wants it. The only problem is that none of the other Halloween citizens understand what Christmas means (they only understand tricks and pranks). So Jack hijacks Christmas by capturing Santa Claus and replacing him, thus deforming the holiday into something else entirely.

The film is a marvelous display of colors and locations that are visually stunning to look at. The characters are interesting in both design and personality but most importantly, the music is terrific. The score and all the musical numbers are by Danny Elfman (though it has his obvious sound), and it is his strongest work since the 1989 Batman score. There are several memorable songs in the film, but the most memorable is probably “What’s This?” In this scene, Jack explores Christmas Town in all its glory and the musical number captures the essence of curiosity and wonder all at the same time. It is interesting to note that Danny Elfman provides the singing voice for Jack, yet Chris Sarandon does all his spoken dialogue. The film is only 76 minutes long and there are ten songs so it seems unnecessary for Jack’s roughly ten spoken sentences to have required another voice actor, but this is more of an odd than a negative aspect of the film.

My only real complaint (and it is minor, despite how important it may seem) is the villain and ending. Without spoiling anything, the villain of the film is Oogie Boogie aka The Boogie Man (Ken Page). He gets a hold of Santa, making Jack the one who has to save him. The problem with this is that obviously the only reason for it is so Jack may further redeem himself from the great sin he commits in the film; let the story end with him as a hero. I think this is a bit of a copout, since learning his lesson should have been more than enough. There’s also a romance between Jack and the man-made girl Sally (whose part is sung and spoken by Catherine O’hara), but it is pretty inconsequential and is resolved very quickly. These complaints aside, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a terrific animated musical and one that earns its place as a Christmas classic. It’s an easy film to watch again and again; the songs are memorable, the animation is great, and the story is interesting.