"The Nightmare Before Christmas" Review

By Christopher Campbell

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” stands the test of time as one of the most visually appealing films.

Jack Skellington is the bony citizen of Halloweentown: a place filled with horror characters like vampires, a werewolf, and even a slow guy with an ax in his head. Jack is well-known for putting on a good show for Halloween, which is the only holiday anyone there knows about.

The story starts as Halloween night closes. Jack is starting to feel dissatisfied with the way things are going. Yes, people there are praising him, but he feels that everything is getting redundant. He has been doing the same thing for years, and he feels that he needs a change.

As the night closes, he wanders off into the woods until the next morning when he comes to a group of very interesting trees. Each one of them has a symbol representing a different holiday. Each symbol also has a knob to open up as a doorway. The one that catches his eye is a painting of a Christmas tree. He turns the knob, opens the door and gets sucked into the enormous void it leads to.

He lands in the snowy, white hills of Christmastown. This place is the exact opposite of Halloweentown. Rather than everything being dark, scary and depressing, it is bright, jubilant and joyful.

Jack wants the citizens at Halloweentown to know about this holiday. While they do not understand why he is so excited at first, he eventually convinces them that they should run Christmas that year.

Without revealing anything, Jack finds out that Halloween characters taking over Christmas is not a good idea.

This is one of my favorite animated films to this day. It is the first full-length feature film to be made using stop-motion animation. This means that every character you see on screen is actually a figure or a doll that has been crafted. Every single frame is simply a picture of that model, and the movie is made up of thousands of these photos.

The result is something that is more visually impressive than any CGI animated movie out right now. Paradoxically, even though it is obvious that everything is fake, this style of animation adds a sense of realism. Furthermore, the thought of how it was made and the amount of work hours spent on it makes this film even more amazing.

The most beautifully done scene is the second song in which Jack is dancing somberly through a moonlit graveyard. The character design makes his fluid, stringy movements very interesting. Equally amazing is how the movements, facial features and mouth match perfectly to the music. During the song, he climbs with his long, bony legs to the top of an odd shaped hill sitting directly in front of the enormous moon. He removes head (it’s not gruesome, don’t worry), and holds it out singing the song as all of this is happening.

The music in this movie is all very catchy. Danny Elfman, who has worked on a lot of Tim Burton’s movies as well as “The Simpsons,” did all of the music to it. He is the one who wrote the songs and the score. He also sang all the parts of Jack. After watching this movie, I always end up humming or whistling some of the songs.

A weak point that other critics have talked about is the fact that the story is not very good. As I watched it last time, I had this in mind. I thought maybe it is not that the story is bad, but that it is simple. While that is partly true, I can definitely see what those critics were talking about.

Near the middle of the film, I realized that the pacing was a little slow. The reason for this is because while the music is still very good and entertaining, it lacks any major conflict. When Jack tries to explain Christmas to the Halloweentown citizens, they do not understand. However, he quickly figures out a way to convince them, and when he says that they will take overtake Christmas, they simply run with it.

The only one who opposes this plan is Sally, who is the most pointless character in the story. She is a rag-doll-looking character. She was created by a scientist who appears to use her as a servant. However, she does not want to live this kind of lifestyle, so she constantly finds ways to poison the scientist or put him to sleep so she can sneak out.

Sally’s story, though interesting, is not very relevant to the rest of the movie. She was pretty much put in there as a love interest to Jack. However, they do not communicate with each other any more than with other characters, and as the movie closes, they end up together.

She is also the only opposition to Jack’s plan to take over Christmas. She has a premonition before he announces his plan that something bad is going to happen. As she tries to explain it to him, he either blows it off or comically thinks she is talking about something else.

The Boogie Man, the main villain, is also not very relevant to the story. He is a walking, talking, singing bed sheet filled with bugs. While Jack is preparing to take over Christmas, he tells some children, who are always up to no good, to capture Santa Claus. Jack’s intention is to give Santa a holiday, but the kids give him to the Boogie Man who is going to do something cruel to him.

Though he is not very relevant, he is a very entertaining villain. He is flamboyant and mean. When he is introduced, he sings in his gospel-sounding voice about how he is not going to be nice to Santa Claus. This is actually one of my favorite songs in the movie.

Although the story has its flaws, I do like the overall message that it presents. Before watching it the last time, I thought that this aspect was not very good. I thought it was that people should never try to change their lives. This time around, I realized it is really about being true to yourself. If you are not satisfied with what is going on, you can always try something new. However, it is also important to remember who you are and where you came from. It is also good to adopt aspects of other cultures, but it is wrong to try to change them according to your own.

I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars. Yes, it does have its problems. However, the visual aspect is amazing, the story has a good message and the music is enjoyable. Furthermore, the nostalgic value that this gives me adds some extra points. It is a movie I try to watch at least once a year around the Halloween season.

Content: Rated PG. There are some disturbing shots but nothing super gruesome. There is one--maybe two--instances of a religious vulgarity.