Reviews for The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas is an excellent movie that is perfect for Halloween and Christmas. The character design is amazing, The voice cast, animation everything is amazing! The main Character is a very tall and very thin yet elegent skeleton by the name of Jack Skellington.

The movie is about Jack who is the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. Every year he has been praised for his work of scaring and every year has become even more boring. Jack then stumble on to the cheerful town of Christmastown where he becomes obsessed with Christmas. Back in Halloween town everyone is excited about the idea except a ragdoll named Sally.

Characters:
Jack Skellington is the very tall, very thin yet elegent and handsome Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. Sing voice by non other then Danny Elfman who is a musical genius. He created the songs for the movie and has a wonderful singing voice. He is in the band called Oingo Boingo (a wonderful band)

Zero: Is Jack's faithful pet ghost dog. He is very loyal and very lovable.

Sally: The timid, shy and oddly pretty ragdoll the creation of the mad scientist Dr. Finklestein who love's Jack from a far. Her shyness makes up for her bravery yet she is a the most timidest animated character to ever be in a movie.

Oogie Boogie: The villan of the story. A jazz boogie man who is voiced by Ken Page aka Old Deuteronamy from the play CATS. He is a mean and very hungry character yet he has a cool side to him.

Lock, Shock and Barrel: The three henchmen of Oogie Boogie. Lock (Paul Reubens aka PeeWee Herman) and Barrel (Danny Elfman are the boys while Shock (Catherine O'Hara) is the girl. They are cocky, argumentive and funny bunch when it comes to who wants to kidnap Santa.

Mayor: He is the two-faced Mayor of Halloween town. He is nervous worrywort who would probably go into a total break down with out Jack's leadership. He is supposed the comedy releif in the movie.

Warning: For young children from k-possibly 4th grade. This movie might give kids nightmare because of it's dark prospective and image. For fourth graders may be scary for them depending what the person is like. To parents with young children who are very gullible: Please don't let your children do any of the stunts that are done in the movie like when Sally jumps out of the window and then sews herself back togther or when Jack takes his head off. This is a animated movie and you live in reality so try to explain.

From clay animation this movie is definately is a great movie of creativity and animation.

Jack the Pumpkin King is the ruler of Halloweentown, a realm of scary spooks and creepy-crawlies whose sole purpose is to get Halloween ready for the world every year. But after years of success, Jack's getting bored with the whole affair and feels there's something missing in his life. So, when he stumbles across a strange door that leads him to someplace called Christmastown, he comes up with the brilliant idea of borrowing the holiday for a while. Of course, Jack makes a few adjustments here and there, including the replacement of "Sandy Claws" with, well, himself. Can the winsome rag-doll Sally make him see the error of his ways in time? Will Santa escape the clutches of the gruesome Oogie Boogie? And will the world survive the implementation of Jack's version of a Merry Christmas?

How do I love this movie? Let me count the ways. First, there's the look of the picture, which simply can't be mistaken for anything but pure Tim Burton. It's dark and creepy and absolutely gorgeous, from the famous curlicue hill to a Halloweentown full of charmingly personable ghoulies. The animation is top-notch and the effects downright right marvelous. I'm still trying to figure out how that paper snowflake scene worked. Secondly, there's the story, which is very wicked and very clever and not in the least bit worried about making any focus groups happy. There's something about a big-eyed little munchkin freaking out while a giant snake devours the family Christmas tree that just makes me smile. Thirdly, Mr. Burton showed his usual excellent taste in letting Danny Elfman tackle the score and musical numbers, which include angstful soliloquies, nasty kidnapping plots, and a breathtaking tribute to the joys of Christmas. Instead of mocking the animated musical genre, which could so easily have been done, the film instead incorporates the structure to terrific effect.

Finally we have the characters, characters that would make you faint if you saw them in real life, but can be accepted here as dashing heroes and soulful heroines. Jack is my favorite, a dapper stick-figure skeleton who becomes inspired by the idea of Christmas, but gets a bit muddled in the actual execution. Then there's Sally, the patchwork girl who loves Jack with all her heart, Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of gleefully nasty little brats, the Mayor, a politician who literally has two faces, Oogie Boogie, the sinister villain of the piece, and, of course, Jack's faithful ghost dog, Zero. Every character is designed to fit one of the three main settings of the film, different styles for each locale, so it's easy to see who should or shouldn't belong in each place. The best decision the designers made was not making anybody look normal, not even the people in the "real" world, so the movie exists in its own neat little self-contained universe.