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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS- 1993USA Release: October 29, 1993 (wide) Skellington Productions, Inc., Tim Burton Productions, Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures Rating: USA: PG |
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This is a story that began forming in a young Tim Burton's mind long before he was an adult, and kept expanding, growing, yet getting nowhere long after he was an adult.
To hear Tim (in the Director's Comments) tell it, his story needed friends. Friends who were able to live within each others dreams. Tim happily found two such people. Puppeteer and Stop-motion Animator Henry Selick (CORALINE), and musician Danny Elfman (THE GIFT, CORPSE BRIDE).
Now all stories give us things, but before a story can give it has to be nutured, and to be nutured it needs things.
Tim, Henry, and Danny, word by word, piece by piece, note by note, gave this story what it needed, and soon found others entranced with it.
What the story didn't need was complication. It was a simple story and its charm, what made it breathe and live, was its uncomplicated simplicity.
The story needed that you see, because the main character was so complicated. A huge reason for his complexity was that his life was so simple.
Because it was so simple he grew tired of it.
The he I'm speaking of is the Pumpkin King. He's the king of the town that they call Halloween and this Halloween is the best that there's bean!
With Halloween over he set himself alight, and bathed in the fire he glowed in the night. He leapt into a cauldron of wet some-thing and when he came out he's a Jack Skellington thing (Voiced by) Danny Elfman when he sings. When his song is done, he speaks like Chris Sarandon (THE SENTINEL, FRIGHT NIGHT - 1985, CHILD'S PLAY, FRIGHT NIGHT - 2011).
Yes Jack is bored, yet he's so adored and Halloweentown fawns over him so much.
His fame catches the features of a newly made creature who loves him far more than a touch.
Oh, Jack's sick of the praise! There was nothing amazed about their last Halloween, it's all wasted.
Why he could shit in their soup and they'd all eat his poop and commend him on how nice it tasted.
But...
The folks all mean well and if they're under his spell was his own hand not in its creation?
So he goes for a walk far away from the talk, just as well he could use a vacation.
Bright and early next day while Jack's far away, mayor comes to his home and knocks, a bit manic.
When Jack doesn't answer, mayor falls in disaster, dropping straight down into a panic.
At the same time Jack sees something sublime in the trees all aglow within the day's arc.
A circle of trees and under their leaves, each has a door in their bark.
Jack never knew they were there, who planted them where no one would ever have seen it?
And what does it mean that each tree can be seen with a door made special to fit?
As the sun rises it brings more surprises from the seven trees circled around.
There's a tree with a tree door and what's more when opened it sucks him down into... Christmas Town?
Yep!
Here Jack discovers a holiday unlike anything he's ever seen, existing in a place he never imagined.
It comes alive in the night, like Halloweentown, and its all lit up like Halloweentown, but its still Nothing like Halloween town. It does more than elicit his curiosity it fires his imagination and inspiration.
He must have it! He must bring it back to Halloweentown so all can share it. Why was such a wonderful thing denied to Halloweentown?
Of course, Christmastown was no more denied to Halloweentown than Halloweentown was denied to Christmastown, or dry land was denied to those that prefer to live in the water. The natural beauty of the American continents was no more denied to the conquerors than they denied the beauty of their lands to the unknown American natives who were never aware of them.
Jack Skellington doesn't see it that way. He knows nothing of the people of Christmastown outside of their behavior. He doesn't understand and, because he won't take his time to know them, he doesn't care. His bonds are only with his own in Halloweentown and its those he chooses to enrich with the new land he's "Discovered".
Jack, having always been alone in who he is, even among his own people, is his own worst enemy, capable of sinking to great depths of depression. Yet he's also his own cheerleader, suddenly bringing himself out of his funk by reminding himself that he's right and others are to blame for standing in his way.
Jack has bipolar disorder: manic highs and manic lows and the calm in-betweens are fleeting.
He's not a likable fellow but in his odd way he's ebullient, enthusiastic, and charming. Why he'd give you the shirt off his back - whether you want it or not and if you don't - oh why must you reject his generosity? Why of course! You need to work on your problem!
Because he keeps his people of Halloweentown at a distance, they only see his fame and celebrity hood. None of them - not even the mayor (Glenn Shadix: NIGHTLIFE, BEETLEJUICE, SLEEPWALKERS, DEMOLITION MAN, PLANET OF THE APES [2001]) - are allowed into his private circle. And the only one within that circle is Jack himself.
Because Halloweentown embraces the fun aspects of Horror fiction ...
Mayor: "The award for most bloodletting in a single night goes to..."
there is, of course, the mad scientist Dr. Finklestein (William Hickey: THE SENTINEL, A STRANGER IS WATCHING, THE NAME OF THE ROSE, PUPPET MASTER - 1989, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, KNOCKING ON DEATH'S DOOR). Dr. Finklestein recently created his Sally creature, who he treats like a child: His child. Because he's also consumed with madness, he created Sally as a full grown adult, and adults generally don't like being treated as children: Especially by other adults and specifically by parent figures.
So Sally (Catherine O'Hara: WITCH'S NIGHT OUT, ROCK & RULE, BEETLEJUICE, A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, CHICKEN LITTLE, MONSTER HOUSE, A MONSTER IN PARIS, FRANKENWEENIE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY [2019]) wants to go out of the great laboratory on the hill and among the people of Halloweentown. Dr. Finklestein thinks she's much too young and isn't ready for the world. Sally, knowing little of consequences, poisons Dr. Finklestein's food and escapes into the night, where she promptly falls in love with the most famous person in town, Jack.
Jack, however doesn't know of Sally's affection. Why would he? The whole town loves him. No, what Jack wants is to understand how Christmastown exists, works, and why it intrigues him. Of course, he can't be bothered with simply going back to Christmastown, meeting and making friends with the natives, and learning of their ways.
Learn from those who kept the magic of Christmastown away from the people of Halloweentown? Preposterous!
They deprived Halloweentown of their culture, making them both the oppressor and the enemy. In fact, we are going to kidnap Sandy Claws (as Jack hears the name) and keep him prisoner while I, Jack, steal his holiday from him!
Jack never once considers the reverse: that the folks of Halloweentown have kept their own magic away from the citizens of the other 6 trees of Holidays. Jack ignores reality to create a fantasy where he is the hero who is going to rob "Sandy Claw" of Christmas for one night. Only in this way will he understand. We already see the obvious disaster looming. Jack knows only the surface of Christmastown and doesn't bother to look beneath it, so everything he learns and thinks is filtered through his experiences in Halloweentown.
He is without empathy.
As young and simple as Sally is, she is also too new to life and Halloweentown to have those experiences and form a bias, so like a child she readily sees the catastrophe that her beloved Jack is about to bring down upon himself and the delightfully dark denizens of Halloweentown: citizens who, in their own kind of innocence, cannot conceive of their beloved Pumpkin King being anything other than correct.
As always there are those who are experienced, aware, and biding their time, ever lurking in the shadows. These are the ones who choose to make themselves outcasts from their people yet desire to rule and destroy them.
This one is Oogie Boogie (Ken Page). Oogie Boogie is a burlap-skinned creature who lives below ground in an ultra violet blacklight world where all materials glow in fluorescent colors. Through his spies, three children of Halloweentown who have no idea that the jovial and happy Oogie Boogie is an evil trap waiting to spring, he hears about Jack's altogether likely self-destructive plan and sets into motion his own design to make sure that Jack will never recover from it.
All of this is presented with such an undead spirit of joie de vivre it's a shame to point out the...
!!!UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT!!!:
But it's even more unfair that near the end of the last millennium it was still happening. To know what I'm talking about, go to the URCA, then check out URCA/1990s/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas.
Beware though! the UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT has SPOILERS!
Overall, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS remains a family favorite and, like many Horror movie monsters, and thanks to the many convention appearances of Ken Page, even Oogie Boogie has become a favorite of children.
Four Shriek Girls
This review copyright 2023 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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