Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called … Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, “some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen.” –Jim Emerson
Customer Review: New Special Edition coming out on August 26
Just a note to let everyone know that this “out of print” DVD is going to be re-released as a 2 disc special edition on August 26, if you don’t want to pay a high price for a used copy for edition.
Customer Review: A TIMELESS CLASSIC
Every so often a movie comes around that from the first time you see it, it grabs you and you instantly know it’s going to be a classic. ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is absolutly one of those movies!!!
T.N.B.C. is a 1993 stop-motion, animated musical created and written by Tim Burton, directed by Henry Selick, and scored by Danny Elfman.
Our story starts off with a very memorable musical introduction to ‘Halloween Town’, one of the many ‘holiday worlds’. We are then introduced to Jack Skellington, the ruler of Halloween town and said to be the scariest being in the world. Then we meet Sally, a Frankenstein-type of rag-doll who seems to have a crush of sorts on Jack. After Halloween festivities, Jack grows bored of his day-to-day life. As he is wandering in the forest one day, he comes to a group of trees that have very unique markings. As jack is inspecting one, he accidently falls in, and finds himself in ‘Christmas Land’. Jack is amazed at what he sees, and immediatly begins a plan to combine the holidays…Unfortunatly to a near disasterous consequence.
T.N.B.C. was inspired by shorts like ‘Rudolph’ and ‘The Grinch’ with a Halloween twist, and Burton put the skeleton(no pun intended)of the story together while working as an animator for Disney. The movie had a very difficult production. It took over 3-years to complete, and needed many different scale-models of characters and the town itself. This was the first time that a feature production has this much stop-motion.
The acting is relative. Being a stop-motion animated movie, the acting is done vocally. Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Cathrine O’Hara, Glen Shadix, and Ken Page give great peformances.
Danny Elfman wrote the score to the film and was nominated for a 1993 Golden Globe. The film’s music is very ‘emotive’ and an instant classic. Right from the first note of ‘This is Halloween’, the music compliments the story perfectly. ‘This is Halloween’ has alot of identity to it, and works as an introduction and a ‘hook’ to keep you watching; It is VERY sucsessfull.
The editing is perfect. The movie is 76 min. and moves at a good pace, and the musicals never go on to long(although it wouldn’t be a problem because the score is great).
T.N.B.C. is just one of those movies that instantly shines and becomes unforgetable. From the first I saw it, I new people would still be watching it and talking about it years after the release. When the movie was first released, The execs. at Disney were concerned that the film might be to ‘dark’ for young children(given that ‘Oogie Boogie’ kidnaps and tortures Santa)but the movie doesn’t ‘push the envelope’ far enough to cause concern. I bought this for my niece’s 2nd birthday, and she watched it 3 times as soon as I gave it to her; this movie is perfect for introducing your children to scary movies!!!
This is a timeless classic and a must have for children and adults alike(almost like ‘A Christmas Story’)!
My Amazon Bro Mike Lidell has informed me that this will be re-released with additional bonus features in August!! My biggest question is how can a movie like this go out-of-print??
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