Written by: Dominick at 3:23 pm
Filed under: Comedy,Drama,Movies,Musicals
Movie Info:
Writers: Tim Burton, Michael McDowell, Caroline Thompson
Director: Henry Selick
Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Edward Ivory, Susan McBride, Debi Durst
Rating: PG
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: October 29, 1993
DVD Release Date: August 26, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $22.99
I know this may sound weird, but I used to hate Halloween. I couldn’t stand the holiday. I think it had to do with the fact that, due to my disability, I couldn’t always do the one thing a kid wants to do on Halloween…trick or treat. Because of that, I associated my negativity of those specific Halloween days to Halloween, as a whole. It wasn’t until I became a parent that I started to truly appreciate this holiday. In fact, back in the 90s, when The Nightmare Before Christmas was released, I was too young to appreciate the film. I knew it involved Halloween in some way, so I just never wanted to see it. Today, I can admit how wrong I was in judging a film by what I believed was its premise.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie by Tim Burton. I think Burton is visionary in his approach to cinema. I liked his interpretation of Sweeney Todd and how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was more on par with the book the movie is based on, as opposed to the equally as good Gene Wilder version. Even going back as far as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, I’ve liked Burton. I don’t think I really even knew who he was back then, but I knew I liked his movies.
The Nightmare Before Christmas started off as a poem that Tim Burton wrote, way back when he was an animator for Disney. He was busy working on hit 80s, Disney animated features like one of my all time favorite Disney movies, The Fox and the Hound and the less than memorable Tron. Burton claims he got the idea from the ever changing Halloween to Christmas decorations in the stores. I can see how that and the Dr. Seuss classic, The Grinch could both have influenced the making of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Whatever it was doesn’t really matter. This movie was brilliant and I’m sad it took me so long to see it.
I’ve found people either love Tim Burton or just don’t get his true genius. I get it. I like his quirky, obscure, artistic nature. I dig it. I’m down with it. I can’t wait to see the future projects he’s working on, including the movie version off Dark Shadows (with Johnny Depp as Barnabas) and his new interpretation of the oft filmed Alice in Wonderland. But, until these films emerge, I have plenty of Tim Burton movies I can enjoy now including, but not limited to, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The Nightmare Before Christmas Plot
While The Nightmare Before Christmas was a commercial and critical success during the early 90s, after its initial VHS distribution, the movie pretty much became a cult classic. Today, The Nightmare Before Christmas has a faithful band of followers akin (though not quite comparable in size) to that of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s not hard to see why, considering this movie is hard to categorize (is it comedy? drama? musical drama? other?), which makes it accessible and attractive to a vast audience.
The Nightmare Before Christmas begins in Halloween Town. This is a place where the entire goal and purpose is coming up with new ways to scare the bejeezus out of people. The leader of town is Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon/speaking, Danny Elfman/singing). Jack is just not satisfied, thinking there is more out there and there is more to life in general than what he sees in Halloween Town. The rest of the town doesn’t “get it”, so Jack makes an active effort to discover that thing, alone.
Jack is never truly alone, though. A rag doll named Sally (Catherine O’Hara), created by the crazy Dr. Finklestein (William Hickey), is in love with him. She believes in Jack and wants to be with him, but Finklestein has other plans for her. In the meantime, Jack manages to stumble into the land of Christmas Town and he becomes enamored with the differences between Halloween and Christmas, immediately deciding that he has to make Halloween Town see how important it is to celebrate Christmas, too.
Initially, the people of Halloween Town don’t get it. They want to understand it, but they just don’t know how. With a group that includes three mischievous teenagers, Lock (Paul Reubens), Shock (Catherine O’Hara), and Barrel (Danny Elfman), a freaky gambling addict, Oogie Boogie (Ken Page), and plenty of corpses…enough to make your head roll, this movie is more than engaging. While this Christmas thing doesn’t exactly make sense to the folks of Halloween Town, it’s pretty clear any attempt at Christmas isn’t going to be overly successful.
As you might imagine, the Christmas idea doesn’t go over exactly the right way. It ends up being a disaster that pretty much ends in Santa being kidnapped and Jack becoming so obsessed with Christmas, he intends to take over the holiday for himself. This movie has a deep yet powerful message to it. It has beauty in it. It has terror in it. It discusses the expectations put on holidays and how we as Americans sort of go through the motions, moving from one holiday to the next without any forethought.
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Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
The Nightmare Before Christmas looks excellent. I’ve been told it never has looked better than it does now (in a standard version). If this impresses you, you’ll want to check out the Blu-Ray, which I’m told makes this look like nothing special! Still, this 1.66:1 aspect ratio (it’s original ratio!) has been digitally enhanced to near perfection. The colors are vibrant. The animation is perfectly imperfect. The contrast is sharp. Designed for 16×9 televisions, The Nightmare Before Christmas in this edition is simply stunning with no visible visual errors to discuss. For an animated film this color palette sure looks realistic!
The audio for The Nightmare Before Christmas is great. It can’t compare to that on the Blu-Ray, but most standard editions cannot compete with Blu-Ray on any level. The English DTS 5.1 surround track makes excellent use of the speakers. The music, which this film is quite heavy with, sounded as clear as a bell. The dialogue comes through clearly, as well. I didn’t volume toggle. I just sat back and enjoyed the music to my ears.
There are additional tracks available in Dolby Digital 5.1. These are in English, Spanish and French. Subtitles are available in all three languages, making this DVD available to the hearing impaired.
Visual:
Audio:
Bonus Features:
This is what fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas want to know about more than anything. Yes, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a two disc special edition. Some of the bonuses are brand spankin’ new and some of them are from the last DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There is a third disc side, which contains the digital copy version of The Nightmare Before Christmas. You can check that out and consider it as the very last of the bonus features. It’s just another way to watch your movie, only this time you can do it on your computer!
The Nightmare Before Christmas starts this two-disc bonus section off on the very first disc. While the previous release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, from 2000, had a comprehensive set of bonuses, this just adds to what is already available. Fans will want to get rid of their old copy (eBay or Amazon should work!) and pick up this edition (or the Blu-Ray) instead.
The first disc features a brand new audio commentary. This is done by writer/producer Tim Burton, director Henry Selick, and Danny Elfman who did various voices (including Jack’s singing voice) and the score for the movie. This commentary could have been better had the three filmed it together. That’s the only downside to this commentary. Otherwise, it’s pretty rockin! There is plenty of extra information that is added to the commentary. You get to hear Danny Elfman at his best (singing). Burton is more than willing to provide his thoughts and he’s always very entertaining when he does.
There is a six-part making of feature for The Nightmare Before Christmas. This is a comprehensive making of featurette looking at everything from the cast to production, the music and more. At close to a half an hour worth of footage, this was one of my favorite parts of the bonus section. If you’re interested in film making and all that goes into it, as I am, you’ll find this featurette highly worthy of your time!
I love the next featurette, simply because it’s just so creative. Christopher Lee narrates the original The Nightmare Before Christmas poem that the movie is based upon. This was Tim Burton’s original vision for the movie. While it only features Jack, his skele-dog, Zero, and Santa, it’s nice to get into the mind of Burton and find out what inspired him to make this film. There is even some minor animation to make this story a bit more engaging. Fans will love it!
The Nightmare Before Christmas goes to the theme park. When you check out the featurette “What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour”, be prepared to get thrills and chills. Okay, not really but if you go on the actual ride, you might be frightfully scared. The ride combines The Nightmare Before Christmas with a haunted mansion and replicates the sets from the movie to make the ride more realistic.
Moving on to Disc Two, the developers of this DVD don’t even pause. Things start out with two Tim Burton original shorts. There is Vincent, which runs for a little over five minutes, and the nearly half hour long, Frankenweenie. For those who don’t know, the latter is set to be a full length film, coming out in the next few years. As for the short, it features Daniel Stern, Shelley Duvall and Sofia Coppola. Vincent is also entertaining and has that Tim Burton feel to it that made many of his early movies so popular.
The featurette “World of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas” looks at the worlds explored in The Nightmare Before Christmas. There is Halloween Town, Christmas Town and the Real World, where humans live and exist. With moments of animation and conceptual art, it’s easy to see how structured this movie was and how much work went into developing this project. Overall, this is another excellent bonus.
Finally, there are a series of deleted scenes, a storyboard-to film comparison feature, original posters and original trailers for the film. All in all, a very nice set of bonuses is included here.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a truly enjoyable movie. I had never seen it before watching this, but I can highly recommend purchasing this 2-Disc Collector’s Edition. With a digitally remastered quality, The Nightmare Before Christmas has never looked better. Sure, some of the bonuses have been recycled, but there are also some new features, including a new commentary, that makes double dipping worth while. Go out and get The Nightmare Before Christmas in its 2-Disc Collector’s Edition right away! You won’t regret your purchase.
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Technorati Tags: The Nightmare Before Christmas, 2-Disc, Collector’s Edition, DVD Review, Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Tim Burton, Musical, Halloween
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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Dominick Evans is in his late 20's. He spends his days working as a full time writer/editor and a part time musician/composer. His passions in life include music, directing films, watching movies, reading books, watching sports, wheelchair football, politics and spending time with his family (fiancée Ashtyn, son Robert, and shih-tzu Oliver). Other interests include being an advocate for the disability and GLBT communities.
