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Poster (c) Touchstone Pictures
Tim Burton must have had one messed up childhood. All of his films have something magical, but have some sort of an evil undershadow. It’s most evident in his first short film “Vincent”, but you can see it in The Nightmare Before Christmas, a sweet, short musical that’s a palpable story wrapped in a kid’s film. If you’ve seen claymation before, which you probably have in films like Chicken Run, you can know the potential and the hard work that this type of animation has. Although the sets are obviously miniature, you wonder, “How did they do that?” It’s the best claymation I have seen.
The story is also very imaginative; nothing like this has ever been done, and nothing like this will ever be done again. Although Burton has gone astray from wondrous worlds in recent movies like Planet of the Apes, this is his niche: creating fantasy worlds where anything can happen. Of course, he didn’t direct, but his name is still connected to the title. Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town in Burton’s world. He’s the world’s top scarer, but gets bored with the Halloween routine. Taking a walk with his ghost dog Zero, he wanders into a forest with different doors, one for each holiday. Jack walks into one, and goes into Christmas Town. He finds what he’s been missing, and tries to bring some of the spirit to Halloween Town, but doesn’t quite grasp the concept.
Another plus is that Danny Elfman’s involved with it. Not only did he write the score and the songs, but he also provides the beautiful singing voice for Jack (the speaking voice for him is Chris Sarandon). The songs are memorable, and all of them are different. Some are tender love songs, and some are excitable, playful songs. Unlike other musicals, the songs actually make sense in the context of the movie. It couldn’t survive without the songs, while in most musicals, it could just as well be a regular movie. The songs explain what’s happening (such in Jack’s “What’s This?”), and give depth to the characters.
Lots of voice over talent was needed, and lots of voice over talent they got. Although the audio and visual didn’t always match up (it’s impossible to do in movies like this), all of the voices did sound like they were coming out of the characters’ mouths. Sarandon is a good actor, while, as I said before, Elfman has a great voice. Catherine O’Hara is Sally; a person created by an evil scientist, and was cast in a wasted role quicker than you can say, “Jennifer Aniston”. If a little more depth was added to her character, it would have been nice.
The characters were painstakingly created. A special feature on the DVD shows that each character has over 200 heads, and there are 24 frames a second, and since it takes one week for one minute of film, it took over a year for the animation alone. Although they obviously are fake, all of the characters looked believable. Also, I had a thought for most of the movie: “How did this work?” The cinematography was better than most live action films, and I don’t really see how it could be this great for such a small set. However, the set leads me onto my main complaint for the movie.
The color was very bland. Of course, it had to be dark in Halloween Town, but if more orange had been added to the black and grey, it would have been more effective. Henry Selick, the director, said on the commentary that they wanted the contrast between Halloween Town and Christmas Town to be great, but it’s too bland.
There were a few cell-animations, and others. One of the special effects I liked was the Oogie Boogie monster (who sounded like Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors). He looked like a giant paper bag, but when we find out about the end of him, the effects were great. Overall, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a visually stunning film that won’t leave you disappointed.
Rated PG for ghoulish themes.
Review Date: May 31, 2003