The Nightmare Before Christmas

A ghoulish tale with wicked humour & stunning animation.

MPAA Rating: PG

IMDB Rating: 8.0 / 10

Release Date: 10/29/1993

Length: 76 min

Tags: family, fantasy, animation, musical

Director: Henry Selick

Writers:

Tim Burton

Michael McDowell

and 1 more credit

Cast:

Jack Skellington - Singing Voice

(Danny Elfman)

Barrel

(Chris Sarandon)

Clown with the Tear Away Face

(Catherine O'Hara)

Jack Skellington

(William Hickey)

Sally

(Glenn Shadix)

Shock

(Paul Reubens)

Dr. Finklestein

(Ken Page)

Mayor

(Edward Ivory)

Lock

(Susan McBride)

Oogie Boogie

(Debi Durst)

Santa

(Greg Proops)

Big Witch

(Kerry Katz)

Corpse Kid

(Randy Crenshaw)

Corpse Mom

(Sherwood Ball)

Harlequin Demon

(Carmen Twillie)

Editor Review

The age-old debate rages on; is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween film or a Christmas one.
But whether a Halloween one featuring Santa Claus, or a Christmas one featuring a skeleton and a host of other ghosts, ghouls and various spooky creatures, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a unique and wildly entertaining film.

Using stop motion, the film tells of Halloween Town, with every variation of witch, werewolf and spook as residents. More particularly, this is the story of Jack Skellington, a tall and sickly thin skeleton who is the town's resident Pumpkin King; the Halloween celebrations organiser. But after years of the same routine, he becomes fascinated by the strange idea of Christmas and especially of the man in red, here called "Sandy Claws".

Primarily in black and white, with only a muted splattering of colour throughout, there is also a love interest in Sally, a rag-doll woman created by the town's mad scientist, a ghost dog called Zero and the captivating song "What's This?" when Jack first discovers the wonder of Christmas Town. What can't be forgotten either is that this film is also a musical, with a fantastical score by Danny Elfman, who also takes the role of Jack's singing voice. Even those who aren't charmed by musicals (myself included) will embrace it easily.

Nightmare is a typical representation of what to expect from the Tim Burton camp, who produced and co-wrote the film. The darkness, the sense of humour and the off-kilter tone are Burton to the core. Although the film is often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, the film is actually directed by Henry Selick. Burton has denied any sequels of the movie to be made, as it is sacred ground for him, but has employed the same stop motion technique in his later feature, The Corpse Bride, which again features Johnny Depp in the lead role, which seemingly every Burton film does. James and the Giant Peach, the Roald Dahl adaptation, uses the same techniques, and again has Selick at the helm with Burton producing.

Both commercially and critically acclaimed, The Nightmare Before Christmas is truly special and will have children and parents alike mesmerised.

Fun Fact:

The Nightmare Before Christmas is originally based on a poem that Burton wrote while an animator at Disney in the early 1980's.