Halloween is long overdue, but Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas still reigns throughout the holidays.
This stop motion film tells about the Pumpkin King, famously known as Jack Skellington, in Halloween Town who finds something more to life than just ghouls, vampires, monsters, and scaring people. Upon discovering Christmas Town, Jack dedicates his time in emulating Santa Claus and adding his own twist on the holiday. The citizens of Halloween Town are baffled by his obsession, but go through with his plans to take over Christmas. Trouble making children ruin his plans as they put Santa Claus in a bad place with Oogie Boogie. When Sally sees a vision that Christmas will be a disaster, she tries to warn Jack. Still, Jack carries on with his plans, confident that his twist on Christmas will be successful.
Tim Burton’s originality in story and art visuals proved to be revolutionary during the time of the movie’s release. Burton himself is widely known to incorporate a sense of darkness into his films, Nightmare being one amongst Disney’s darkest movies for children.
Burton says that he was inspired from the animation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In some aspects of the plot, the film is somewhat similar to the Dr. Seuss’s story about Christmas, in which both deal with a source virtually opposite of the holiday’s jolliness. However, differences in art and story override the similarities. Burton’s vision was extensively brought out by the film’s character artwork. The characters also exhibited Burton’s notable dark and whimsy style, such as dark colors, worn out faces, and lanky structure. The film has also won awards for its original score, composed by Danny Elfman. Famous tracks include, “This is Halloween”, “What’s This?”, and “Sally’s Song”. In the soundtrack’s re-release, artists such as Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and many others did covers for these original favorites.
Burton’s visions prove to be extraordinary as he continued to bring his visions to life by producing other films, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and a similar one called Corpse Bride.
