Jack Bennett An ambitious stop motion film which sees Jack the Pumpkin King journey from his native Hallowe'en Town to the neighbouring Christmas Town. When he attempts to bring the joy of the festive season to his horror-happy friends, they love it ... only because they've got the wrong end of the stick.The 76-minute film sees Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King in charge of the annual celebrations in his native Hallowe'en Town, lose motivation to do the same thing year after year. Stumbling across the neighbouring Christmas Town one evening, he attempts to introduce his old friends to his finding of presents, decorating trees and Santa Claus ... only for them to taint his explanations with their Hallowe'en-saturated imaginations. In the end, he gives them what they want to hear to the detriment of the habitants of Christmas Town, Santa Claus and Jack himself.Originally intended as a 30-minute Christmas TV special or a short film adaptation of a three-page poem written by Tim Burton, executives felt it was "too weird" for Disney to make and so it was shelved. After Burton's successes with Beetlejuice and Batman, the studio agreed to make it into a feature-length stop motion with Henry Sellick directing given Burton's commitments to the new Batman Returns at the time. At one stage, the team knew the story but not in its entirety - all eleven songs in the film were written before a word of the screenplay was on the page.Once you say it's a Tim Burton film, people know what to expect - a loner main character, twisted architecture and bizarre character design. All of the above are in abundance in a film some might say this is the most Tim Burton film ever made, despite him not being in the director's chair; he's credited as a producer instead. It's hard not to think of The Nightmare Before Christmas as the most surreal of Burton's films given the almost boundless potential afforded to the production team of building a miniature world with all the gravity-defying structures and unfeasible character design instead of creating it all at a 1:1 scale.It's not going to be a film for everyone (I showed it to people at uni and most of them hated it) but it's built a cult following in the 24 years since it came out to give it the wider audience it never had upon its initial limited release. One gripe is that some of the lyrics in the slower songs are thrown in to get the point across rather than making it a song that flows. That said, it's still a film guaranteed to put a smile on your face from the first viewing for the story to the latest for the amazingly attentive details hidden in the corners of every frame.Best Quote: "Just because I cannot see it, doesn't mean I can't believe it!"

jasonistheking Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the story of Jack Skellington (voiced by Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon) as he becomes disillusioned with his role as the Pumpkin King and wants more out of life. This is a tale that everyone can understand in that many times throughout life, people are simply not as satisfied with where they are. Jack is joined by the rest of Halloweentown in his quest to introduce Christmas to the residents. The residents blindly follow Jack's lead with the exception of Sally (voiced by Catherine O'Hara). Throughout the film, Sally tries to get Jack to follow his normal path, as Christmas is already being handled by the residents of Christmastown. Each character in Christmas town is themed after a different aspect of fear, and they tend to blend together well. As fishmen, vampires, and even a clown with a tear away face group up, each has their own part to play in the film. Because this is a claymation style musical, music and sound is everything to the plot, and it is done in a way that gets the songs stuck in your head so that you will find yourself singing along during any viewing after the first. This is because of Danny Elfman who wrote the score. The score itself fits a Tim Burton film and likely is because they have worked together many times in the past. During The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is impossible to ignore the similarities between this and Betelgeuse not only because of the team up of Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, and Glen Shadix (The Mayor of HalloweenTown), but also because there are subtle nods in the animated film as well. During one scene with the main antagonist, Oogie Boogie, there are a pair of dice that landed on snake eyes. Out of the holes in the one die slithers a snake that looks remarkably like a miniature sand snake from Betelgeuse. This quick nod along with Jack dressed in a black and white pinstripe and coupled with the score that is reminiscent of Betelgeuse is enough to instantly bring back thoughts of both movies. The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't entirely without fault, however. There are times where you can visibly see the wires holding certain bats or other props in place, however the use of light is such that is tends to mask the majority of the flaws. In some cases, you have to look hard to see them, even if you are told they are there. The motif of fear is presented at the forefront, which makes sense given that the main setting is Halloweentown. This does present itself in Jack as well. Jack isn't simply discontent with his position in life, he comes off as being afraid that being the King of Halloween is all he will amount to in life. I believe that is his impetus to find a new passion. Overall, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fun-hearted musical about a guy just trying to chase a dream. With a solid score of musical numbers and an art style that isn't often seen in cinema, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a great family movie that is fun to watch at any time of the year.

Movie_Muse_Reviews With its pioneering use of stop-motion animation, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" will always have its hard-earned place in the annals of film animation history. Conceptually birthed by gothic master Tim Burton and brought to life with the most incredible vision and detail by Henry Selick, it stands as an incredible marriage of creative energy and top-notch artistry.Released in 1993, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" actually predates the collaboration that truly saved Walt Disney Pictures - Pixar's "Toy Story." Both films were groundbreaking in their own right - "Nightmare" for stop-motion and "Toy Story" for computer-generated animation - though as the latter became mainstream, the former continues to be underrated, even today. Regardless, both films show the world-building ingenuity that we've come to expect from animated films in the 21st century.What helps keep "Nightmare" timeless and relevant, however, is that it's steeped in holiday spirit. Halloween and Christmas are two holidays that evoke their own special, unique energy and Burton's story pounces on marrying their two wildly different aesthetics. It's Selick of course, who really sees (and seizes) this opportunity in bringing Halloween Town to life with aplomb.Of the film's many vivid components, however, its story doesn't hold up as well nearly 25 years later. Fortunately, at an unusually brisk 76-minute runtime (likely due to stop-motion's time-consuming nature) it doesn't need to. The film can afford to survive on its whimsy, artistic sight gags and inventive musical numbers. That said, it's not among the more emotionally compelling holiday-themed films either. Yet anyone who has ever been in position to be jealous of Christmas or idyllic depictions of Christmas celebrations might identify with Pumpkin King Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon, singing vocals by Danny Elfman) and his longing to do something different and truly extraordinary. Or if not Jack, then Sally (Catherine O'Hara), a Frankensteinian creation longing to serve her own desires for once, not just that of her maker, the Evil Scientist (William Hickey). Helping us better acquaint ourselves with these characters are Elfman's songs. Although most of them do serve an expository purpose, a few take a moment to bring us closer to Jack and Sally.The musical nature of "Nightmare" shows the film's ambition. It's hard enough to make a film requiring this much detail, let alone set it all to music. Elfman and Burton have been a perfect pair throughout their respective careers; Elfman simply gets the fantastical gothic tone Burton has made his career on. His songs are a great match for the material, even if you can't recall how most of them go in the same way you can the songs of the traditional animation musicals of that time period.In family entertainment, story generally proves to be most important. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a remarkable exception, getting by on its tone, visual effects, creative world-building and the Halloween and Christmas spirit. At times when it feels like a glorified animated short film, best to just remember all the ground it broke as the first mainstream and widely successful stop-motion animated feature.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is an American animated musical from 1993, so this pretty short film (75 minutes) has its 25th anniversary soon and it is the first full feature film directed by Henry Selick that younger audiences today know rather for Coraline than for this one here. It was nominated for an Oscar in the visual effects category, which is a rather rare achievement for a non live-action film (lost to Jurassic Park). And composer Danny Elfman was nominated for a Golden Globe for his score. I know him very well for his composing, but I was genuinely baffled by his amazing singing voice for the main character here. Great job. The script is (to some extent) by Tim Burton and if you have seen other stuff from him, you won't be surprised one bit. So this is a film that combines horror, animation, comedy and musical and that must be a pretty unique achievement. While I don't necessarily agree with the truly high rating here on IMDb, I would still say that it was a good watch overall. The fun perspective may be in the center of it all I guess, even if without a doubt a more creepy film than Coraline for the most part for example. So horror animation indeed.As for the story, horror is always difficult to combine with the spirit of Christmas. Even the classics like Grinch stuff etc. are hardly truly scary. And most filmmakers trying to combine these two have at best delivered something that could be considered a good guilty pleasure watch, but not a truly great film. Here they came pretty close. The fact how short the film is shows at times when we see for example how the villains are depicted left me a bit unimpressed. Sally's creator Finklestein was still somewhat decent and funny most of the time, even if severely underused, but the torturer near the end was pretty much completely forgettable to me. Nonetheless, one of the film's biggest strengths is the attention to detail. There are so so many characters visible in here that we find out almost nothing about, but they are interesting on a level where they could have deserved their own movie. As for the romance part, it was okay. It felt a bit rushed at times too and I would not call it a defining animation romance, but still it worked out fine and the last shot was kinda cute.The two central characters worked out nicely too all in all. The fact that Jack may not have been too interesting in looks, was more than made up by his singing parts. I would also like to add that his affection for Christmas is interesting to me as we may see his world as scary and creepy, but it's normal for everybody who lives there. That includes the funny two-faced mayor. The abnormal aspect is getting warmth, harmony and gifts in there. The thing we see as normal. And when the worlds collide, nothing is normal anymore (the police call scene e.g.). These worlds shall not be intertwined for the sake of everybody living in them. Pay attention to how adult human's faces are never seen in here. Santa doesn't count as he's Santa and not a human. Overall, I give this film a thumbs-down. It managed for the animation genre to be an unlikely success story with an approach/subject that has little to do with what you'd expect for Christmas. In one way or another like Die Hard. What else could I add? I think that is basically all. I think the style and animation will scare some away, but if you aren't one of them, then I believe you are in for a treat. It was a good film and I recommend checking it out. A bit of a shame it took me almost a quarter of a century to finally check it out. I also think that it is worth seeing more on a big screen than a small screen, so if you haven't seen it so far, wait for 2018 and make sure you catch a viewing when it may return to theaters as a 25th anniversary tribute. In any case, see it.