What’s This?
I apologize for posting two Tim Burton related Throwback Thursday topics in a row, but with Halloween right around the corner, you really can’t blame me. Also, The Nightmare Before Christmas celebrates its twenty fifth anniversary on October 29th of this year, so it’s a perfect time to highlight this wonderful classic.
For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it’s the story of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town who, despite loving Halloween, has “grown so tired of the same old thing” as he states in Jack’s Lament (more on the music later). He manages to find himself in Christmas Town and upon returning to Halloween Town, decides that he and his citizens will take over Christmas that year. Things go terribly, terribly wrong, and Jack has to save Santa Claus from the dastardly Oogie Boogie so that Christmas can be fixed.
I’ll admit that I didn’t actually watch The Nightmare Before Christmas until just a few years ago when my son fell in love with the film. After multiple viewings I, too, became a huge fan of the film. The story features a sweet romance between Jack and Sally, and the other characters in the film, particularly Oogie Boogie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, and Zero, were wonderful.
The film has some very light scares for youngsters and is the perfect film to introduce children to the world of Tim Burton. Burton produced the film, allowing Henry Selick to direct. Burton developed the concept for the story around a decade prior to production. It started as a poem and eventually morphed into Selick’s film. It featured the voice talents of Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Danny Elfman as Jack’s singing voice, Catherine O’Hara as Sally, and Ken Page as Oogie Boogie. Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), O’Hara, and Elfman joined forces to portray the evil trio of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, respectively, as well.
Danny Elfman also took the reins on the film’s music. Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) provided narration for the prologue and epilogue. The film featured a number of songs that have become very popular on their own including the aforementioned Jack’s Lament, This Is Halloween, Making Christmas, and my personal favorite, Kidnap The Sandy Claws.
The music was so popular that in 2008 Disney released an album of covers of the music from the film. Marilyn Manson, Korn, Flyleaf, and The All-American Rejects are just a few of the artists that covered songs for the album. The album is called Nightmare Revisited. I own a copy of it and highly recommend it to anyone that loves the film or any of the artists involved with the project.
One unique aspect of this film is that it can be viewed as both a Halloween film and as a Christmas movie. My son and I basically watch it once a week from the beginning of September to Christmas Eve every year. We love this film that much.
If you’ve never seen this film, be sure to do so as soon as possible. I regret not watching this film earlier than I did but am glad that I finally broke down and watched it. Every year during Halloween and Christmas, there is plenty of paraphernalia to collect featuring characters from the film. This year, a number of stores have exclusive collectibles celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary. Walgreen’s always has some excellent exclusives and this year they have Funko Mystery Minis featuring characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I hope you enjoyed this brief look at one of my favorite films. Let me know in the comments if you agree (or disagree) with me. Also, let me know if there’s a specific film in the horror vein that you’d like me to review in an upcoming post.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll be posting again real soon!
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