Review: The Nightmare Before Christmas
“This is Halloween, everyone hail to the Pumpkin King!” These words should instantly make anybody think of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” released in 1993. This Halloween classic made $76 million in the box office, becoming the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the first stop motion picture to be fully converted into 3D.
In the world of Halloween Town, the inhabitants range from witches to vampires to a clown who takes off his face. None of these creatures compare to Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, a tall singing skeleton, who is in charge of Halloween. When Jack wanders away from the town in search of what he feels is missing from Halloween, he stumbles upon a strange, white and cold place called Christmas Town. After seeing the joys of Christmas, he tries to bring Christmas to Halloween Town. Due to the nature of the inhabitants, things do not go as planned.
Of course, with Tim Burton producing the movie, one would expect the animation and style to be unique and a little dark. This movie delivers on that dark style Burton is known for above and beyond with the dark setting of Halloween Town and the innocently gruesome scenes thrown in here and there. The unique characters also add a charming and lively effect to the film. Although the visuals and characters are great, the aspect that really makes the movie complete is the soundtrack. With a total of 21 songs, the amazing soundtrack sets the mood throughout the whole movie.
In my opinion, this is the best Halloween, if not the best holiday themed, movie of all time. The combination of the animation with the characters and soundtrack makes “The Nightmare Before Christmas” the perfect Halloween movie.
Overall score: 5 anchors
