Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Rated: PG
Features the voices of: Danny Elfman (Jack Skellington-singing, Barrel and Clown with Tearaway Face), Chris Sarandon (Jack Skellington-voice), Catherine O'Hara (Sally and Shock), William Hickey (Dr. Finklestein), Paul Reubens (Lock)


Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all time favorite movies. At the time this movie came out a lot of people I knew, wouldn't take their kids to see it. Saying it was to scary or too grown up. Of course that is their choice but I think a lot of kids were missing out. A lot of older kids (8 and up) I know really appreciate an animated movie that isn't sickly sweet.

There are two main stories in this movie. In the first it seems that Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloweentown is not a happy man. Sure everyone loves him and he is the scariest guy in town, but that isn't enough, he wants something different. So while off on a walk in the forest he comes upon some trees with different shaped doorways in them. Each shape represents a different holiday. When Jack stumbles into Christmastown he is uplifted by the joy he finds there. Now Jack has a plan, he wants to do Christmas instead of Halloween now. So he gets some local ghouls to go and kidnap 'Sandy Claws' and he sets the town to working on making toys for Jack to distribute on Christmas. As the Jack's friend Sally predicts, something will go wrong. The toys delivered to Christmastown are horrible and scary to the residents and everyone is unhappy, 'Sandy Claws' accidentally gets delivered to Oggie Boggie, a craps playing bag of bugs, who wants to kill 'Sandy', and Jack is now a wanted man.

In the second smaller story we see Sally, a sad rag-doll slave to the 'open-minded' scientist Dr. Finklestein. Sally wants more out of life and she wants Jack to love her. She warns Jack about trying to take over Christmas. She knows it will turn out bad, but Jack wont listen. In the end she must help Jack save 'Sandy Claws' and try to fix the mess that has been made.


The movie is only 75 minutes which may seem short but since the movie was done with stop motion animation it really is a remarkable length. For those who do not know, stop motion animation is made with models and puppets on sets. The each fraction of a movement has to be shot, the items moved miniscule amounts shot again and so on. (It took 14 people a full week to get 1 minute of film.)

The combination of Tim Button's visuals and Danny Elfman's music is fabulous as always. The songs fit perfectly with the action and storyline so I felt none of the annoyance that I get in a lot of traditional Disney movies. There is plenty for adults and kids to enjoy in this movie. The story, which began as a poem and some sketches, comes to life beautifully in this movie and it is absolutely worth a watch.

If you like this one you might also want to check out: Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow or James and the Giant Peach.

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This has been part of the My Kid's Favorite Media writeoff.

Other participants include: adjensen * ali78 * bearysweet * blackcat2 * bops_mom * clpurser * cripper * dearladyb*
deaser26 *debbie26* destinys-child * *dgturtle2* donnie013 * eplovejoy * fallyn96 * jo.com * kcfemme * khahn86351 * kimzstuffz* KMINER * kurt_g * ledomaine * lisaw1215 * lorinsilver *marytara (HOSTESS) * melissasrn * mellkinwa (ME)* micheich * mkmama42 * mommykim * mtbat * Photogirl814 * quasar * shantel575 * sloving * social14 * staceys1 * Tammyinmiami *
westerbear * willeftk * 77chelle


You can learn more about the write-off and its participants by visiting the following website:
http://marytara.iSPARKL.com .


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening