The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is a stop-action animated musical film about the inhabitants of Halloween Town who take over Christmas one year, directed by stop-motion animator Henry Selick. The film is loosely based on drawings and a poem by Tim Burton, and he served as co-producer, though he did not write or direct the film as is sometimes believed.

The film was released by Touchstone Pictures, a film studio owned by the Walt Disney Company.

Synopsis

The Nightmare Before Christmas takes place in a world in which all holidays are created and organized by the inhabitants of different towns. There is a Halloween town, a Christmas town, an Easter town and so on.

The story follows the adventures of Jack Skellington, the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, where the residents annually prepare Halloween for the mortal world. Jack suffers from depression as a result of having to prepare the same holiday year after year, and longs for something else. This "something else" takes the form of Christmas, which he discovers in Christmas Town while wandering in the woods. Upon entering Christmas Town he is immediately enlivened, and longs to "have" Christmas for himself. Jack convinces the other residents of Halloween Town to "make Christmas," but they don't understand the holiday and create all sorts of monstrous toys to scare children. Sally, Jack's admirer, has a premonition and feels a sense of foreboding, thus, attempts to dissuade Jack from his plan. Jack, however, ignores her, and has Santa Claus kidnapped so that he might take his place on December 25th. On Christmas, Jack wreaks havoc all over the world, blissfully unaware of how terribly wrong his version of Christmas cheer is. Eventually his sleigh is shot out of the sky by the US military, which prompts a moment of reflection. In the end, realizing the horror he has unleashed, he manages to return to Halloween Town in time to free Santa Claus and set things right. A sub plot involves the capture and torture of Santa Claus at the hands of the mysterious Oogie Boogie.

Legacy

When the movie originally was released it failed to live up to expectations and was considered a flop. However, when it was released on video, a new audience began to discover it and slowly it began to grow a cult following. Today, Nightmare before Christmas has become a beloved and respected classic and is highly regarded as one of the finest achievements ever made utilizing this medium. The same studio that produced Nightmare later created another stop motion movie based on the Roald Dahl book, James and the Giant Peach (1996), though it did not receive the same amount of success.

In 2005, Tim Burton returned to the media of stop motion with his new film, Corpse Bride.

Currently, 'Nightmare Before Christmas' has become one of the most sucessful franchises in terms of selling merchandise, and the film has developed a group of very dedicated collectors. Much of the original merchandise has become highly collectible and rare. Unfortunately, in the past few years many retail stores like 'Hot Topic' have obtained the rights to sell products and have flooded the market with cheap and uninspired merchandise. Today you are more likely to see a gothic teen wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas shirt rather than a true fan, and the core group of original fans have grown to resent the gothic community for stealing their movie.

Technical data

• Title: The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Directed by: Henry Selick
• Written by: Caroline Thompson and Michael McDowell
• Music by: Danny Elfman
• Released on: October 13 1993
• American picture
• Specifications: Technicolor, 35 mm 1.66:1 (colours, Dolby digital sound)
• Genre: animation, fantasy, satire, musical
• Runtime: 76 minutes
• MPAA rating: PG

Starfield Creations

Cast (voices)

• Chris Sarandon: Jack Skellington (speaking)
• Danny Elfman: Jack Skellington (singing), Barrel, The Clown
• Catherine O'Hara: Sally, Shock
• William Hickey: Dr. Finklestein
• Glenn Shadix: Mayor
• Paul Reubens: Lock

On the soundtrack album, Patrick Stewart voices the opening narrative poem. A second poem, also read by Stewart, is included before the "End Credits" music; in this passage, Santa Claus describes a visit he made to Halloween Town many years after the events of the film.

Disney theme parks

For the past five years, the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in California and Japan have received a Nightmare Before Christmas themed overlay for their Haunted Mansion attractions. The attractions are closed in October each year for themes to be completely overhauled, and open until January of the next year.

Video games

A video game based on the original movie was released in 2005. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is an action/adventure game developed by Capcom from Japan for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox systems. Intended to be a sequel to the movie, the game features the return of all the well-known characters in a new story with upgraded versions of the movie's songs. In the story, Jack leaves Halloween Town to satisfy his curiosity, but during his absence, Oogie Boogie is reconstructed and by the time Jack returns he has taken over Halloween Town. Now Jack has to stop Oogie Boogie's evil plans. The game features controls similar to Devil May Cry. The game features a weapon known as a 'Soul Robber'. In the game you get other costumes such as "Pumpkin King," and "Santa Jack".

A GBA game, "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" came out in fall 2005. The opposite of the Playstation and Xbox versions, the GBA game works as a prequel to the movie. The Pumpkin King is a side-scrolling action platformer in which you'll control Jack Skellington and use a number of different weapons to fight enemies and traverse obstacles. The side-scrolling adventure game centers around the first time Jack faced off against his nemesis, Oogie Boogie, to eventually become the Pumpkin King. The game's plot will kick off with the invasion of some unusual bugs in Halloween Town. Jack soon discovers that these nasty insects are under the control of Oogie Boogie, who's looking to take over Halloween himself. With these creepy wheels set in motion, it will be up to Jack and his friends--including characters such as Zero, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, and others--to both stop Oogie and save Halloween.

Halloween Town also appears as one of the worlds in the Square Enix/Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series (in fact, it was the movie's first official video game appearance). In this game, Jack tries to create an artificial heart so he can control the Heartless for use in his "Heartless Halloween," but the plan goes awry when Oogie Boogie (who was one of the Disney villains allied with Maleficent) steals the heart, ingests it, and tries to use it to control the Heartless for his own purposes. Jack then teams up with Sora and the others to stop Oogie Boogie's plans. Jack can also join Sora's party whenever they are in Halloween Town. Kingdom Hearts 2 follows the movie plot, where Jack tries to take over Santa Claus' place on Christmas.

External links

• The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website for the game (Japanese)
• HalloweenTown.org - Nightmare Before Christmas Fansite
• NBC.net - Pumpkin Patch - another fansite
• Nightmare Before Christmas - original poem by Tim Burton

fr:L'Étrange Noël de Monsieur Jack is:Martröð á Jólanótt it:Nightmare Before Christmas nl:The Nightmare Before Christmas ja:ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス sv:The Nightmare Before Christmas