The Nightmare Before Christmas Reviews
The Nightmare Before Christmas review
Posted : 11 months, 1 week ago on 24 May 2023 07:490 comments, Reply to this entry
Happy Halloween/Christmas
Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago on 10 November 2022 06:54A lovely story, showing its age a little, and enjoyable.
Poor Jack just wants to do something nice and different. However, it turns bad but things are soon sorted.
Lovely story for Halloween or Christmas.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas review
Posted : 8 years, 2 months ago on 30 January 2016 10:310 comments, Reply to this entry
It's scary and awesome. The songs are great.
Posted : 9 years, 9 months ago on 6 July 2014 07:46The movie focuses on the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon) who is tired of this job and discovers Christmas Town where he takes over Santa (Edward Ivory)'s duties and delivers presents to children.
'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is one of Tim Burton's dark animated movies (as well as 'Corpse Bride'). It's also better and more creative. It's one of the best movies of the year, if not the best!
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The Nightmare Before Christmas review
Posted : 10 years, 2 months ago on 23 February 2014 10:010 comments, Reply to this entry
Review of The Nightmare Before Christmas
Posted : 10 years, 12 months ago on 1 May 2013 10:52Jack Skellington, the hailed leader of Halloweenland wraps up yet another successful Halloween. The entire land loves him, and though Jack receives much adoration, he feels bored with his job, and wants something different. But when Jack accidentally finds himself in Christmastown, his life regains meaning. Loving what he sees, Jack attempts to imitate the holiday, though things go terribly wrong.
I have to say, The Nightmare Before Christmas was much different than I expected. While I assumed this would be a dark musical comedy, there's actually very little humor to be found. You might get a few smiles, and maybe a laugh, but The Nightmare Before Christmas is by no means a comedy. It's spellbinding fantasy, that imitates the classic Disney formula, while becoming a genre all of its own.
The primary strength of this film, comes from the imagination and the visuals. The story line and setting is highly original. While only Halloweenland and Christmastown is ever seen, we are lead to believe that there's other Holiday themed world as well. It makes one wonder what could await in other lands...
As far as the visuals go, this is certainly one of the best looking films I've ever seen. While never overly complex or as technically astounding as modern stopmotion films, The Nightmare Before Christmas boasts a visual style like nothing I've ever seen before. The character designs are brilliant. The landscapes are stunning. The visuals are much of what makes The Nightmare Before Christmas such a famed classic, and that's no surprise.
Halloweenland and it's residents are wonderfully wicked, and often more creepy than actually scary. The slightly twisted nature to the setting here is memorable and enchanting. Christmastown recalls memories from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, while providing a much more cheery color palette.
Unfortunately, Danny Elfman's songs are less than great. In general, they're forgettable and lacking in fun, and the rhyme schemes are often awkward and hard to follow. The lyrics often seem to force words to rhyme, making the songs slightly unpleasant to listen to at times. This is a shame, because there are so many songs in the film. Still, there are still several good ones, including "This is Halloween," "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," and the phenomenal "What's This?"
The cast is nothing too special. Chris Sarandon voices Jack Skellington when talking, while composer and song writer Danny Elfman voices Jack when he's singing. Catherine O'Hara lends a forgettable voice for Sally, the love interest. Ken Page as Oogie Boogie is easily the standout, providing an energetic performance as the main antagonist.
While Danny Elfman's songs in the film left something to be desired, his score is, quite possibly, some of his very best work. With some surprisingly jazzy segments (that sounds so much like Randy Newman's work, it's uncanny), and some great recurring musical themes and Christmas tie-ins, this is an excellent and hugely memorable score from Elfman.
The main selling point may be the visuals, but that doesn't make this film worth seeing for it's other aspects. The story is very original, Elfman's score is great, and the whole production has imagination to spare. The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't as emotionally satisfying or as hilarious as the best of animated films, but the visuals alone makes this worth seeing.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas
Posted : 12 years, 4 months ago on 9 December 2011 05:43Jack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Santa Claus, known to him as "Sandy Claws". Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman who was created by the town's mad scientist, has romantic feelings towards Jack. However, when she is alone, she has a premonition of Jack's Christmas ending badly. When she tries to warn Jack of the imminent disaster, he misinterprets her anxiety to mean that she is worried when given the responsibility to make Jack's Santa costume. Meanwhile, Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to bring Santa to Halloween Town. When he arrives, Jack tells him of his plan that he will take over Christmas this year, much to Santa's protests. After this and against Jack's instructions, and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake.
Christmas Eve arrives and Jack prepares to embark into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally tries to stop him by releasing fog juice, but Jack is inspired by Zero's glowing nose and orders the ghost dog to lead the team. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an impostor attempting to impersonate Santa. The army is alerted, and, using searchlights to spot him, they open fire on him with artillery. Jack believes at first that the shells are merely fireworks, set off to thank him; by the time he realizes the truth, it is too late. The sleigh is shot down and Jack is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash, landing in a cemetery, where Zero is seen finishing up reassembling Jack. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan and the damage it caused, he realizes that his Christmas adventure has helped him to rediscover his love for scaring people. Having come up with new ideas for next Halloween and wanting to "set things right", he rushes back to Halloween Town.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but fails and is also captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the Oogie's lair and frees both Santa and Sally just before Oogie can drop them into a fire pit. Jack then confronts Oogie, who sets off several lethal traps, which Jack nimbly avoids. Oogie tries to escape, but Jack uses a single loose thread hanging from the bogeyman's sewn rag structure to rip him open, exposing the bugs that he is made of. He falls apart, and most of his bugs fall into the fire pit. The last one is squashed by Santa, who then reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver his presents to the children of the world. Jack asks Sally how she got into Oogie's lair in the first place and he realises that she was trying to help Jack because she has feelings for him. When Jack and Sally return to Halloween Town, the citizens rejoice that Jack is alive. Moments later, Santa is seen in the sky, making snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack. The townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack follows Sally out into the graveyard after seeing the Doctor with his new creation. Jack and Sally sing a romantic song together and then share a passionate kiss on top of the spiral hill in the graveyard. Zero watches them from afar before flying into the night sky forming a bright star shape and ending the film.
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A very good movie
Posted : 13 years, 2 months ago on 2 February 2011 12:150 comments, Reply to this entry
A masterpiece with both darkness and magic...
Posted : 14 years, 2 months ago on 31 January 2010 09:01The voice acting was superb from Chris Sarandon because he made us all feel sorry for Jack and yet made us not feel sorry for Jack because he was wrecking a world tradition that everybody loves. Music composer Danny Elfmans singing voice for Jack was simply amazing. His voice is a really good talent for both music and for singing too. I liked Catherine O Hara in this film too because she made Sally in my opinion the most powerful character in the whole film. This film shows true colour of what is more important in this world: Halloween or Christmas.
This film was really well directed by Henry Selick but would have been even better if Tim Burton himself directed it. But Tim Burton did most of this film. He produced it, thought of the story and all the characters too but he didnt write this film. The screenplay was really good because there were a lot of lines that mixed between Halloween and Christmas which was really great and was the whole point of the story.
This film is my 4th favourite Tim Burton film after Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street and Big Fish but I do still love this film a lot. This is just a delight to watch around Halloween and around Christmas. It is a very unusual family film but it has the moving abilities to have its rightful place as a beautiful family film for everyone to enjoy. Masterpiece!! Without a doubt one of most fun and eventful animated films of all time.
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Enchanting holiday romp with something for all
Posted : 14 years, 4 months ago on 10 December 2009 07:24
A 75-minute charmer of a motion picture that transcends age, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas should be part of every household's annual Christmas traditions. Everything that movie-goers expect from Burton's fantastical imagination is presented here in stop-motion form: it's bursting with visual majesty, populated with lovably morbid characters, and filled with charming Danny Elfman compositions. It's an enduring holiday classic that bears the esteemed title of the first feature-length stop-motion animation picture, bringing the age-old technique into the mainstream and paving the way for other stop-motion gems like Chicken Run and James and the Giant Peach. An iconic cult classic that continues to captivate audiences year after year, 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas captures the distinct Christmas flavour and perfectly blends it with the maudlin imagination of childhood.
The story is based on a simple premise: each main holiday season has a town (Easter Town, Christmas Time, Halloween Town, etc.), and none of these towns knows of each other or their respective festivities. Jack Skellington (voiced by Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon), known as the "Pumpkin King," resides in Halloween Town, but upon completion of the same old annual Halloween routine for the umpteenth time, he grows bored and disillusioned about his own holiday, finding it unfulfilling. After Halloween night, Jack strolls into the woods and stumbles upon a door leading to Christmas Town, with its cheerful atmosphere and bright colours. Jack is so taken by the concept of Christmas that he takes it upon himself to take over Santa's duties for the year, bringing the idea to Halloween Town to share with his fellow townsfolk.
Following a brisk prologue by Patrick Stewart, the film's imaginative world is established in the first big song, This is Halloween, which efficiently introduces Halloween Town in an energetic, sumptuous musical feast for the senses. The Nightmare Before Christmas contains some of the most ornately detailed and expertly captured shots in the history of stop-motion and of the animation medium as a whole. There's so much eloquence to the film's visual "voice," and each frame is so rich with an almost immeasurable amount of creativity that there's always something eye-catching to keep your interest. Burton's shooting schedule for 1992's Batman Returns conflicted with the long, arduous three-year production for The Nightmare Before Christmas, so he hired stop-motion veteran Henry Selick to oversee directorial duties. Burton may have receded to producer status, but every frame resonates with that distinctive Burton sensibility. As one watches the film and marvels at the visual splendour, one can't help but admire the extraordinary, painstaking way Selick and his team bring Burton's eccentric vision to life.
As it turns out, holiday commercialism is to thank for this film's existence. The Nightmare Before Christmas started as a poem by Burton in 1982, inspired by the sight of a store replacing their Halloween display with Christmas merchandise. The jarring contrast between Halloween and Christmas was all it took to motivate Burton to write the tale of Halloween Town and Christmas Town; two phantasmagorical towns characterised by different colour schemes, attitudes and iconography. (Funnily enough, this movie's iconography is now synonymous with Halloween and is exploited annually during the spooky season.) The Nightmare Before Christmas also showcases one of Burton's primary visual influences: German expressionism. The dark, foreboding sets, high-contrast lighting, and stark angles harken back to German films of the silent era, such as Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Scripted by regular Burton collaborator Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands), The Nightmare Before Christmas is vehemently a musical, telling most of its story through songs. As this is a Tim Burton movie, frequent collaborator Danny Elfman provides the songs and background music, and he performs as Jack Skellington's singing voice. The music and visuals of The Nightmare Before Christmas are inseparable, with both contributing tremendous flavour to the production. Elfman's first-rate compositions support the visuals in grand style, whether it's a tender moment, a celebratory scene, or a frightening sequence. Fortunately, the songs are both memorable and catchy, and you will likely find yourself singing along to the likes of This is Halloween or Making Christmas. Elfman's singing voice is immaculate for Jack, and you would never guess that Chris Sarandon voices the Pumpkin King during the non-musical dialogue scenes. Another well-achieved role is Catherine O'Hara's honest and sweet Sally, a Frankenstein's monster-like doll who was stitched together by her domineering creator and who yearns to escape from captivity. She serves as Jack's love interest and has a bad feeling about taking over Christmas, and she shows the most human of emotion in Halloween Town.
Parents wondering if The Nightmare Before Christmas is suitable for their children should know that the frightening aspects of the picture are nicely blunted by the tender humour and Elfman's lovely music. Jack Skellington is not the frightful bag of bones that one would assume him to be - he's just a misunderstood hero who's as innately human as any live-action character. There are so many enchanting sights and sounds to behold within this wonderful film that there's not enough room for anxiety and fright. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a delightful holiday romp with something to offer everyone. For the children, it's a fantasy that celebrates two exciting holidays. For adolescents and adults, it's an opportunity to experience good, hearty entertainment while marvelling at the achievements of this team of animators at the top of their game.
9.3/10
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