“The Nightmare Before Christmas” Review
With breathtaking imagery and memorable characters, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” has a love for both Halloween and Christmas that makes it an all-time classic.
It’s hard to find a film that is as beloved around Halloween as “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” a film that is watched on two holidays instead of just one. Both October 31st and December 25th just don’t seem complete without watching the adventures of Jack Skellington, Sally and Oogie Boogie. With a simple story and unique visuals, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” has become a timeless treasure and is now one of my favorite films for both the season of frights and the season of peace.
Set in a world where every holiday has its own town, Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon with singing done by Danny Elfman) is the king of “Halloween Town” and has grown tired of scaring people. He wants something more in his life. When he discovers “Christmas Town,” he becomes excited and falls in love with the holiday to the point where he decides to take over.
He kidnaps Santa Claus (voiced by Ed Ivory), works with a mad scientist (voiced by William Hickey) to create reindeer and musters his friends, including his love interest Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) to make their own Christmas.
When I first saw “The Nightmare Before Christmas,“ I didn’t fully appreciate it. I thought it was okay but I didn’t see why it was so iconic. Then I watched a video detailing how it’s the simplicity of the story that makes it good. That’s when it clicked in my mind.
What I love about the film is what I love in other animated films like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or “Fantasia.” The film doesn’t appeal to me in a logical way as much as in an emotional way. Why are there all of these worlds for holidays? How can Jack see if he has no eyes? How can he even sing with no lips? None of these questions are answered because you are too busy being sucked into the story and how identifiable it is.
Jack’s goals are incredibly relatable. He’s tired of doing the same thing every year and wants a change. And when he discovers Christmas, his excitement becomes our excitement. Whenever he sings “What’s This,” I always get overjoyed as he jumps around discovering Christmas trees and snow.
Sally, a creature similar to Frankenstein’s monster, also seeks freedom from her creator and wants to tell Jack how she feels about him. However, when she experiences a premonition that Jack’s Christmas will end in disaster, she tries to stop his celebration. What I love the most about her is that she too desires something more in her life, but it’s a lot more realistic than stealing a holiday.
While not the first film to use stop-motion animation (the technique was first invented in 1898), “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was definitely the first to use stop-motion for more than just short films or special effects. Henry Selick’s direction is incredibly fluid compared to other stop-motion of the time and not once do I think that these creatures are lifeless puppets.
Much like “Poltergeist'', people are split as to whether it’s a Henry Selick film or a Tim Burton film. While, like Spielberg in “Poltergeist,” Burton’s style is all over this film since he produced and wrote the original story, this film couldn’t have been made without the expert work by Henry Selick. Burton had done some stop motion like his short film “Vincent” but Sellick’s work gave birth to a modern slew of wonderful films like “Chicken Run,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Paranorman,” “Kubo and the Two Strings” and “Missing Link.”
Jack’s enthusiasm when he discovers Christmas is absolutely infectious.
Sellick and Burton would reunite as director and producer to make the stop-motion film “James and the Giant Peach” and Burton would go on to co-direct “Corpse Bride.” Sellick would make “Coraline.”
Together, the two made a visually stunning environment that embraces the gothic imagery of Halloween while also having the wonder of Christmas. From the hill that curves downward to Jack having a ghost dog named Zero (voiced by Frank Welker), the film’s overall aesthetic has been burned into my mind.
But despite the hard work of Burton and Selick, I think the film truly rests on the shoulders of composer Danny Elfman. While Elfman has received critical acclaim for his music on most of Burton’s filmography and other incredible scores, this film is where he shines the brightest. Not only does he compose the score, but he wrote all of the songs and provided the singing voice of Jack Skellington.
Songs like “What’s This,” “Making Christmas,” “Kidnap The Sandy Claws,” “Oogie Boogie’s Song” and, of course, “This is Halloween” are so iconic that even people who haven’t seen the film know them. The fact that Danny Elfman still hasn’t received an Oscar after all of his amazing work is incredibly insulting. But we still have this iconic music.
What makes the film so fantastic is how the simple storytelling has made it last for so long. Not only is the world of the film imaginative, but everything about this film is easy to grasp. The world building is basic but intriguing. The characters have simple motivations, but so much personality to them. And the story may be easy to follow at face value but leads to a surprisingly mature moral.
Instead of Jack’s Christmas going according to plan, everyone is understandably terrified of Jack’s horror themed Christmas and he ends up getting shot down by the military. However, Jack isn’t sad for very long. He gave it his best and he now has reaffirmed faith in Halloween. It’s pretty bold for a film to say to children “things aren’t always going to work out and you’re just going to have to cope with it.”
So, he ends up rescuing Santa Claus and Sally from the villainous Oogie Boogie (voiced by Ken Page) and saves Christmas with a new outlook on his own life and a blossoming romance with Sally.
Unlike so many other children’s films, which tried to appeal to adult audiences by having moments of adult humor, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a film that never tries that. There’s no double entendres. No modern references. Everything about the film is timeless. This is a film that really young children can watch and adults can watch and be equally drawn in.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” may not be a deeply complex story but it doesn't need to be. It’s an imaginative tale that has stood the test of time. I watched it around Halloween and, come Christmas, I’ll be watching it again.
