“Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” is an entertaining animated holiday film. Dark in a manner that Tim Burton, Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson can imagine for an ambitious stop-motion animated film which took America by storm in the early ’90s and is still popular today.
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TITLE: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
FILM YEAR: 1993
DURATION: 86 Minutes
COMPANY: Touchstone Pictures
Based on a story and characters by Tim Burton
Directed by Henry Selick
Adaptation by Michael McDowell
Screenplay by Caroline Thompson
Producer: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi, Don Hahn
Associate Producer: Danny Elfman, Jill Jacobs, Diane Minter Lewis, Philip Lofaro
Co-Producer: Kathleen Gavin
Music: Danny Elfman
Cinematography: Pete Kozachik
Edited by Stan Webb
Casting by Marty Gail Artz, Barbara Cohen
Art Direction by Deane Taylor
Starring:
Danny Elfman as the singing voice of Jack Skellington
Chris Sarandon as voice of Jack Selington
Catherine O’Hara as Sally/Shock
William Hickey as Dr. Finkelstein
Glenn Shadix as Mayor
Paul Reubens as Lock
Ken Page as Oogie Boogie
Edward Ivory as Santa
Susan McBride as Big Witch/W.W.D.
For day 37, it’s going to surprise some people, a Christmas film that I’ve never watched in its entirety and that’s “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Shocking, considering I had the VHS, the DVD, the Blu-ray and now on digital.
And it may be surprising because I’m a Tim Burton fan and also a big fan of Danny Elfman’s music (solo, as a musician and of course, with OINGO BOINGO).
But why did it take me so long to watch this? Well, this is because of the large backlog of films I’ve yet to watch. Trust me! It’s huge! And I have passed up this film not evening thinking about it until I did a search of what films I had with “Christmas” that is not a holiday telefilm and surprisingly “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” came up.
So, nearly 30 years, I’m finally watching this film, which is based on a 1982 poem written by Tim Burton when he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Productions.
Bare in mind, this is a Walt Disney film but because they felt it was too dark, they released the film under the Touchstone Pictures label until 2006 when Walt Disney Pictures released it under their label. The film celebrated it’s 30th anniversary release as the film was released in theaters across the US and Canada, making over a million dollars over the first weekend.
A testament to the popularity of the film which I was full aware of but somehow forgot about watching it completely until today.
The film is directed by Henry Selick (“Coraline”, “James and the Giant Peach”, “Wendell & Wild”) and adaptation by the late Michael McDowell (“Beetlejuice”, “Tales form the Darkside”) and screenplay by Caroline Thompson (“Edward Scissorhands”, “The Addams Family”, “City of Ember”).
The story centers around Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King who is known for being the King of Halloween Town. But Jack is becoming bored of Halloween and wants to experience something new. So, as he ventures out, he ends up walking into a wooden area which a few doors have doors to take you to various areas for holiday seasons and happens to find himself in Christmas Town ran by Santa Claus (which Jack thinks his name is “Sandy Claws”) and discovering a new atmosphere that he now wants to take over.
So, Jack comes up with an idea to kidnap Santa Claus, so he can take over Christmas Town and tries to get those in Halloween Town to buy into his idea of taking over Christmas.
Meanwhile, there is a side story of Sally, a creation of local mad scientist, Doctor Finkelstein. She secretly loves Jack but one day, she has a vision of a burning Christmas Tree. What is that vision all about?
For the most part, “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” was no doubt a technical milestone when it comes to stop-motion animated film for its time. It’s also a musical that incorporates a lot of songs including the famous “This is Halloween” (which I have to add that the soundtrack for the film featured “Star Trek: The Next Generation” actor, Patrick Stewart as narrator).
Overall, “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” is an entertaining animated holiday film. Dark in a manner that Tim Burton, Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson can imagine for an ambitious stop-motion animated film which took America by storm in the early ’90s and is still popular today.
