Ironically, this
is my favorite of all Christmas cartoons, there can be arguments whether this
classifies as a Christmas movie, but to me it does. I cherish every moment
spent watching this movie—it’s my all-time Christmas recipe for a merry
holiday. Leave it to the team at Halloween Town to make jingle bells sound
eerie and horrific.
Based on a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a musical fantasy horror stop-motion animation directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Coraline (2009)).
The movie follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who has grown bored of doing the same thing year after year. During a lonely stroll, he stumbles upon Christmas Town, where he’s captivated by the joy and warmth of the holiday. Inspired, he decides to give Santa Claus a "vacation" by kidnapping him and bringing Christmas to Halloween Town—only with a spooky twist.
Since much of the movie is told through songs, Jack’s speaking voice was provided by Chris Sarandon, while Danny Elfman, the film’s composer, handled Jack’s singing parts. The voice casting in this movie is just amazing.
My challenge with this animation is that the plot was basic and some aspects of it feels underdeveloped, and lacking depth. The way things unfolded made everything seem rushed, and I never fully got to appreciate this masterpiece until I was older. As a child, I enjoyed the gothic animation, but struggled with the plot, because it is not rich or have the needed complexity for me to grasp the fun and irony in the story.
Due to Burton’s busy schedule working on Batman Returns, he couldn’t direct the film, so Henry Selick stepped in to take the helm. The production involved constructing 227 puppets, with Jack alone having nearly 400 interchangeable heads to capture his speech and expressions.
Disney originally planned to make this a 30-minute TV special but later decided to turn it into a full-length animated film. However, instead of releasing it under the Walt Disney brand, they put it out through Touchstone Pictures, fearing that its dark horror elements wouldn’t sit well with Disney’s traditional audience. Despite those concerns, The Nightmare Before Christmas became a critical and commercial success. Over the years, Burton has had to convince Disney to drop the idea of a sequel whenever the topic resurfaces.
As mentioned
earlier, The Nightmare Before Christmas was a critical success, holding a 96%
rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earning over $75 million at the box office
against an $18 million budget. Due to its widespread popularity, Disney later
reissued the film in Disney Digital 3-D, making it the first stop-motion
animated feature to be fully converted into 3D.
This is a Christmas classic like no other—where Santa comes to the rescue, and Jack Skellington and the Halloween Town crew are always ready to welcome you. Just be sure to steer clear of Oogie Boogie, and definitely grab a copy of the DVD.
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