The Nightmare Before Christmas


Voices of: Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara
Directed by: Henry Selick
Rating: PG
Genre: Children
1993

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: In the world of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington (Danny Elfman) is the pumpkin King. However, he grows tired of doing the same old routine every year. He finds inspiration when he stumbles on Christmastown, and decides to incorporate some of those ideas into his own world. As he becomes more and more obsessed with the idea, he threatens to accidentally ruin Christmas for everyone!

Review:

Tim: This is a strange, original, and not typical movie. However, would you expect anything less from Tim Burton, the man behind such movies as Edward Scissorhands and the first two Batman movies? He brings his creepy genius to the animated front. It is actually nice and refreshing to have something different from the typical Christmas film. The Nightmore Before Christmas definitely accomplishes this feat, mixing Halloween and Christmas together (actually very interesting to see).

Unfortunately, there are also many flaws to this movie. For example, there is not a great amount of substance to this film. It dazzles the first few minutes, but quickly loses its charm. To make matters worse, the songs (written by Danny Elfman) are awful and grate on the nerves. At times it took all my strength to simply continue watching, waiting for the relief of a song reaching its conclusion.

I remember seeing this film in theatres when I was 11 years old. I wasn't too big of a fan then and still am not now. Actually, there's quite a bit here that could actually scare the pants off of many children (although I personally wasn't scared back then, I just didn't like the film). The heroine of the movie has her body parts sewn on, so every so often, an arm or leg falls off and she has to sew it back on. Real funny stuff...

While this film offers something different from the typical holiday fare, I think a large part of the problem is that the movie is too Halloweenish for Christmas, and too Christmasy for Halloween. That leaves it in an awkward limbo state between the two very different holidays. Regardless of how you look at it, this is a mediocre film at best.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6
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Final Rating: -


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Batman Returns, James and the Giant Peach