(16 votes, average: 4.13 out of 5)
Loading …Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents The Nightmare Before Christmas movie review a 1993 film starring Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon and directed by Henry Selick Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween — but alas, they can’t get it quite right. For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called … Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, “some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen.” –Jim Emerson
Comment by Kids Movie Review
# January 2, 2007,
This movie definitely shows that Tim Burton’s mind is overflowing with an ocean of awesome imagination and great creativity. This was my Christmas present, and I wanted to get a taste of Tim Burton animated movies, since I haven’t seen Corpse Bride yet, and the only Tim Burton movies I ever saw before watching this movie was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sleepy Hollow. This movie is the best stop-motion animation I’ve EVER seen so far. It’s WAY better than the Wallace and Gromit movie, which is pretty kiddie, and the characters are just pretty silly-looking. But The Nightmare Before Christmas is a great movie, with awesome, fun songs, such as This is Halloween, and What’s This? which both got stuck in my head. The movie’s flowing with life, music, and a great, child-like feeling. Yes, I do like goth stuff, but I don’t see this movie as a goth movie. I see it as a great family quality movie that nearly everyone will enjoy watching.
Jack Skellington is the graceful, skinny skeleton who’s the King of the Pumpkin Patch, who gets tired of Halloween and yearns for something new. Then, voila! Jack discovers Christmas as he walks through the forest one day with his adorable ghost dog, Zero (who is kind of like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeet, since he has a glowing pumpkin nose). He spreads the news of Christmas to the citizens of Halloweentown, and plans to dress up as “Sandy Claws” and deliver presents to the good little boys and girls. He is my favorite character of the movie (so is Sally, who’s a very sensitive and clever rag doll), because he’s so lively. One of my favorite parts of the movie was at the beginning, when the “This is Halloween” is drawing to an end, the scarecrow with a pumpkin head grabs a flaming torch, stuffs it down his throat, dances on the wooden horse’s back as he burns, and leaps into the air and does a somersault before falling into the fountain of green water, emerging as the graceful Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington. That was a great part of the movie. I also thought it was extremely creative to make the mayor a two-faced politician, one side of his head is happy, the other side of his head is frowning. Sally’s also a great character, and she’s very clever at getting away from Dr. Fikelstein, and quite romantic and caring. Even though my friends thinks she’s really ugly, I think she is pretty, if you ignore all the stitches.
I really enjoyed watching the bonus features, except the making of the nightmare before christmas did get kind of boring. Vincent was my favorite of the two Tim Burton’s early films. The music when Vincent played his recorder at the beginning was very melancholy, but simple and gorgeous at the same time.
I’m very pleased that I got this DVD for Christmas, and it’s just a great Christmas movie. I feel SOOOOO honored that this movie came out the year I was born! I really, really, really hope that Tim Burton will make more stop-motion movies, because I really hate all the stupid computer animated movies that are playing right now, especially that stupid Chicken Little. I hope stop-motion won’t become a lost art, the way hand-drawn animation is now becoming (BOO_HOO!), and Tim Burton had better not make any computer animated movies! It’s just not his style. The Nightmare Before Christmas outshines all of the computer-animated movies, like the way the brightness of the Christmas door outshines all of the other holiday doors, attracting Jack Skellington to open it and look what’s behind it.
-Jo W.
Comment by D. McAllister “MRD”
# January 2, 2007,
im Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS is a masterpiece. There’s simply no other way to describe it. The story, the music and the animation combine to present probably the most original and unique Christmas tale since the original animated HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS.
The movie nicely showcases the vocal talents of Chris Sarandon (THE PRINCESS BRIDE), Catherine O’Hara (HOME ALONE I and II) and, of course Danny Elfman. Elfman’s score for the movie is also masterful.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS is a terrific tie that connects the fall seasons, from Halloween to Christmas and promises to be a holiday standard for decades to come. You will also enjoy the many special features, including FRANKENWEENIE and VINCENT, two Tim Burton shorts, that are included on this DVD.
THE HORSEMAN
Comment by bridget. “unexplained robot”
# January 2, 2007,
The Nightmare Before Christmas is nearly 11 years old.? Eleven years!? When I realized that fact,?my jaw dropped so hard and so fast that I put a nice dent in my hardwood floors.? I assume this Special Edition DVD was released as a 10th Anniversary edition, but I can’t recall ever hearing anything of the sort.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the story of Jack Skellington, the King of Halloween.? Jack has grown tired of the Halloween routine, year after year, and wishes for something new.? His wish is granted as he finds his way to Christmas Town.? Jack is instantly captivated by Christmas and embarks on a journey to do it himself, complete with “Sandy Claws” costume.
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Our heroine, Sally, is?a animated ragdoll that was created by the cynical and jealous Professor Farnsworth.? Sally is desperately in love with Jack but is convinced that they will never be together.? One night she sees a vision that Jack’s Christmas will be a disaster and tries to stop him, to no avail.
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The star of this movie are none of the characters; the star is the incredible stop-motion animation that?hasn’t aged a day of it’s 11 years.? You can watch the film as probably intended, as a whimsical fantasy and love story and enjoy it thoroughly.? You can also watch it as an amazing work of art and study the handicraft and work that went in to each of the scenes (24 separate posed frames for each single second of film).?
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The extras included on this edition of the DVD are rather pleasing.? There is one “Making Of” documentary that is nearly 30 minutes long, dozens of character and set designs, amusing test shots of early character models and the normal trailers that you get with any disc.? The real bonus?is the inclusion Tim Burton’s early films “Vincent” and “Frankenweenie”.? “Vincent” is a very short poetic tale about a boy who believes he is Vincent Price (being narrated by the man himself is icing on the cake).? This is done in the stop-motion animation style of Nightmare.? The second film, “Frankenweenie” is over 30 minutes of live action.? It stars Daniel Stern and Barrett Oliver (Bastian from The Neverending Story) as his son who brings his dead dog back to life after seeing an experiment in his Biology class.? These two short films are as entertaining and funny as Nightmare itself.
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In short, this DVD edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas is well worth your money.? Even if you’ve never seen the film.? Even if you already own the VHS.? Even if you’ve seen it 100 times.? (…)