The Nightmare Before Christmas

Released in 1993, but destined to be remembered as a classic for much much longer, The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those films that I find myself invariably returning to again and again. Although ostensibly a movie for all ages, it is at turns both cute but also a little shocking; the kind of experience whose humor brings out guilty sort of chuckles to older viewers who will get the subtleties that the little ones won't. Recently I've been wondering just what is the message it wants to convey and why is it that it appeals to us.

The story to this film is quite simple, and at only 75 minutes a very fast watch. The focus of the tale is Jack Skellington, a leader and icon of a mysterious place known as Halloween Town where all the inhabitants are obsessed with, what else? Halloween. Though he is idolized by the people of his village, Jack is feeling depressed and uninspired. Taking a walk one day he finds a portal to another magical town, Christmas Town.

Jack is immediately taken with how different it is from what he knows. Entranced by the idea of being a part of it, he recruits the citizens of Halloween Town to help him make Christmas this year. Disaster of course ensues as the denizens of Halloween Town are unable to be anything but creepy and weird. One somewhat risque moment has some parents asking their child what Santa brought him, only to be horrified when they see him pull a small severed head from the box (this scene was shown repeatedly on tv commercials during the original theatrical release, probably as a fore-warning to parents of just what levels the film goes to so they wouldn't be alarmed when they brought junior to see it).

As for Jack himself, he ends up having Santa Claus kidnapped so that he can replace him on his midnight ride and deliver the presents, that is until the police get word of a "Santa Imposter" and shoot him down. This all leaves Jack in a position where he knows he must fix things by getting back the real Santa who unfortunately has been taken to the "no good" Oogie Boogie and won't release him without a fight.

The movie uses stop-motion animation, which is a very long, painstaking process but has also become very endured by aficienados of animation and film. Such fans seem to understand the level and amount of work involved and I believe tend to view such projects as labors of love by the artists who make them. Nightmare makes an excellent example of this as the movie features dozens of inventive creatures living in Halloween Town (in particular Sally, the Mayor, and especially Oogie Boogie show a lot of ingenuity).

The music is a lot of fun as well. Danny Elfman, long known for his haunting and mischeivous melodies (he's scored many of Burton's other films and created the Simpson's main theme as well), here provides the singing voice of Jack and very much steals the show this time round. With Nightmare we have songs that are memorable and fetching and catchy enough that hearing them once is all it takes to instantly recall them if heard again.

As mentioned before, the story to this film is quite simple, but it is however also laced with a very clever extended metaphor. It acts as a sort of parable for a certain type of people, not necessarily Goths but kind of like the kids many of us went to school with who were dark loners and outsiders. It's a trait that's been often said resembles Tim Burton himself and a thread common to most of his works is characters like this.

When the residents of Halloween Town try to make Christmas they get it all wrong and their attempts are so pathetic to us in the audience that it's actually laughable at those times when it's not mortifying. It all reflects an inability of those who are strange and socially awkward to even fit in, let alone be warm or tender. All this depite how much they want to, or try as they might.

I suppose when it comes down to it, some people out there are just Halloween people. Often times they're the ones you see carrying Nightmare Before Christmas bags around cause in the end this really just is a movie that speaks to and understands them.