The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG)
Posted by Hunter on Sat, 10 Mar 2007.
Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens
Stop Animation is a dying art, losing out to the world of computer wizardry, but Tim Burton’s masterpiece “Nightmare Before Christmas” still holds out with it’s charm and genius. Jack Skellington (played by Chris Sarandon) is the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, who by accident discovers Christmastown.
Jack is stunned by what he sees, and rushes back to Halloweentown to try to persuade his ghostly dog Zero, his good friend Sally the Ragdoll (Catherine O'Hara), the two-faced Mayor (Glenn Shadix), the mean Oogie Boogie (Ken Page) and the other bizarre but fantastic inhabitants, to try something similar.
A town meeting is called, and Jack tries to explain the concept that he’s discovered, and produces one of the funniest scenes of the film, which is quite frankly, priceless. With no frame of reference the idea is totally lost on them, but undeterred, Jack is intent on taking his version of Christmas to Christmastown. To do this he gets his friends to make toys and gifts, and in true parody style, recruits a bunch of skeletal reindeer to transport him and the sleigh packed full of “gifts”, with Zero being in the Rudolph role due to his bright red nose to deliver his vision.
The voice acting is superb, and Danny Elfman’s score is spot on (with Elfman himself providing Jack Skellington’s singing voice). It may look dated compared to some newer animation styles but you have to remember stop-motion animation is one of the most difficult and time-consuming methods of making a film (one reason why Aardman Animations are going it alone). On average it takes a week to produce a couple of minutes of film if they are extremely lucky and everything is running smoothly and at top speed. With that in mind you can’t help but watch this film in awe.