Well, everyone, today, we review an animated film that was released a little over 30 years ago. What’s more is that it has gained popularity over the years, and seems to be a fan among many movie fans, especially those who like spooky holidays like Halloween. Not to mention that it was directed by Henry Selick, and produced by popular movie director, and producer Tim Burton. Presenting to you all my review of the one, and only The Nightmare Before Christmas! Oh, and happy Halloween! Wow, perfect timing to review a film like this one, eh? Well, let’s get started!
Plot: Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon speaking, and Danny Elfman singing), the Pumpkin King of the fictional Halloween Town, has grown weary of doing the same old things for his town, and people for the past many years. But when he discovers Christmas Town, he decides to attempt incorporating elements of Christmas into his town, and its citizens? Will that plan work out for the best, or will it backfire in the end?
Now, as of last year, The Nightmare Before Christmas was evidently selected in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, significantly, or aesthetically significant”. That being said, is The Nightmare Before Christmas that great of a film, or is it a little overrated? Well, let me put it to you all this way! The premise is undoubtedly creative. I mean having lands like Halloween Town, or Christmas Town, and places like that that represent the different holidays of the year was a really cool idea. Granted, and this is not so much docking the film down as it is just maybe personal preference, it might have been nice to see maybe some other worlds explored like perhaps Thanksgiving Town, or Easter Town, or maybe some places like that. Even so, for what we got, the world building was very good. Some of the musical numbers, like “This Is Halloween”, “Making Christmas”, and “What’s This?”, and some of those numbers were very good. And yeah, who might not like main character Jack Skellington being called The Pumpkin King, and his head being shaped like a pumpkin, but with a different color? The designs of some of the other characters were very good too. As for the score by Danny Elfman, also very good. And yeah, let’s take a moment to appreciate how well he did with providing the singing voice for Jack Skellington for any of the numbers he sang. Honestly, I wonder if sometimes, it might have been a little too much work for him at times. You got me! Additionally, like with other stop motion animated films that have been directed by Tim Burton especially following this one, the animation was very good. Truth be told, it ended up being really good at times, especially during a couple of the numbers that Jack Skellington sang. As a result, some of the animation, and some of the movements with objects, or even characters, seemed a little more crisp, and smoother than in your typical stop motion animated movie. The characters them were also very likable, especially Jack Skellington, Sally, the Santa Clausd character that was in this film, and even the villain Oogie Boogie. I mean somehow, even though that villain doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, any scene with him somehow ends up being very memorable anyway. Finally, for positives, there were some very good lessons to take away from this film, especially the reminder of listening to others when it’s good advice, and lessons like that.
Still, I don’t this film deserves a spot with films like Star Wars, Oklahoma!, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, The Lion King, and some of those films as being one of the best of the best. Don’t get me wrong, again, The Nightmare Before Christmas has a creative premise, has likable characters, has some memorable musical numbers, and things like that. Still, there are downsides to this film. One is that the film can be a little too dark, and creepy at times for a children’s/family film. Okay, I get that has almost always been a style for a director, or a producer like Tim Burton. Still, in films like this one, he could potentially go a little too far in that aspect at times, most notably with a string of scenes that occur around the middle to end of this film. In addition to this, some of the people of Halloween Town, especially the kids, ended up acting a little too mean, and cruel at times. I don’t know, it just seems to make this film a little mean-spirited at times, you know? Which, this leads me to another negative for this film. That being that though some of the characters, especially the main ones, that were likable, there were others that felt just the opposite. I mean yeah, I get that often you have to have characters that you love to hate, and things like that. Even so, a couple of those characters somehow seemed to be a little too much love to hate. There might be a better way for me to say that, but I’ll go with that for now. Finally, some of the characters, save ones like Sally, and Jack, to a degree, don’t seem to have too big of character arcs. Oh well!
And that’s my review for The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s still a good film, make no mistake. But to call it a full-on classic film, I’m not sure that’s not quite the term I would use for this film. Just saying! I would say that if you still want to see a popular Halloween-themed film, you can’t go wrong with it. Again, the good most certainly outweighs the bad for this film by far, particularly because of some catchy songs, good main characters, and things like that. So, for these reasons, and more, I would still recommend it. That said, see The Nightmare Before Christmas, and see what you think!
Final Grade: B
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 