The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) User Reviews (646)

One of the most memorable holiday classics of all time. A visual masterpiece. ***1/2 out of ****.

[Movie-12 · 9/10 · 14 March 2000]

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS / (1993) ***1/2

Starring the voices of: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, Ken Page, Ed Ivory, and William Hickey Directed by Henry Celiac. Written by Michael McDowell. Running time: 76 minutes. Rated PG (for horrific images and some animated violence).

Tim Burton seems like the only being on the planet who could come with characters such as the ones found in "The Nightmare Before Christmas." The feature is literally a tale likely to be found in a child's dreams. It creates a world of its own, inhabiting unforgettable characters and events that should be shared with generations. This film is a visual masterpiece; a movie that deserves to be a holiday favorite for some time to come.

The atmosphere director Henry Celiac captures in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is truly breathtaking. The cities and setting in which these characters live are visually perplexing, yet descriptive and develop the production's mood perfectly. We, as audiences starving for originality and imagination, are able to enter a scope so believable and unrelentingly convincing we lust for every last minute of it.

The movie's protagonist is Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of the holiday town of Halloween. Jack is the role model for much of the cities population. The only problem is that Jack has been around for ages, parked in a town where every single year builds up for a conventional holiday, Halloween. This character has grown depressed and saddened by the routine living style he inhabits. We learn of his passion for new events and a and new life through a musical number that is both effective and engaging.

Later on that vary night, Jack wonders off into a nearby woods and stumbles upon an area surrounded with magical doors leading to specific holiday worlds. Jack, blooming with curiosity, enters Christmas town: a joyful, happy place with snow, glitter, children singing, and colorful lights decorating the village in its entirety. Jack is mystified by the glamorous atmosphere, and rushes home to tell the Town of Halloween about his adventures.

We realize the internalconflict is Jack's boredom of routine. This becomes more complex when he tries to figure out the meaning of Christmas. The external problem comes later in the plot, where we predict an uneasy disaster upcoming due to his intentions of recreating Christmas in Halloween style.

Other key characters are Sally, the puppet-like creation of an angry professor, the city's Mayor who has a head for both his good and bad personality, the Oggie Boogie, the film's villain who is everything we ever dreamed of regarding a diabolical animated bad guy, and the inevitable character of Santa Clause.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is not necessarily a children's movie, it might be too strange or fanatical for the very young. It is certainly a musical production, and at times, I felt that the songs replaced essential development. However, the musical numbers are challenging and memorable, containing passion and emotion. The picture is a walk into the mind of some of the most wildly imaginative filmmakers of our time. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is titled wonderfully, although the film is truly not a nightmare, but a dream--a dream brought to life on the big screen.

Brought to you by Touchstone Pictures.

Finally Decided to Watch It

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 7 September 2017]

This is certainly a pleasant surprise. Tim Burton, purveyor of the wacko, has created, along with his amazing team, a real classic work. Seldom does a film bank on so much originality, from the incredible creation of Halloween Town, with its denizens, marvelous in their diversity and variety, to a really interesting plot. The character of Jack Skellington is a scene-stealer. Considering he pretty much a stick with a round, skeletal head, he has amazing expression and energy. He is an artist and a rebel, dissatisfied with the continuing shortsightedness of his frightening peers. When his world opens up through an accidental fall into another town, paralleling his own, he tries to bring Christmas back with him. The problem is that he really doesn't understand the concept well enough. He mixes his own social foundation with an alien one and the results are hilarious. Wonderful to look at with some of the finest animation you will ever see, each moment carefully scripted and produced.

Artfully combines two very different holidays

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 19 October 2010]

Who would ever think that a musical about the overlap between Halloween and Christmas would work? However, it does work with the songs not exactly being Christmas - or Halloween - classics, but fitting the dark mood of this film perfectly.

The movie opens with Jack Skellington, AKA the Pumpkin King, facing an identity crisis of sorts. Halloween has just ended in his hometown of Halloween Town, and he has been receiving kudos from everyone in town for making this year's Halloween the scariest ever. But Jack is seeking purpose in his life, and scaring people to death once a year just isn't doing it for him anymore. He takes a walk in the woods and he discovers a group of trees each with doors and different symbols on each door. He opens the door with the tree symbol on it, and finds himself in Christmas Town. While there, he is fascinated by the contrast of Christmas Town with his own world. Jack returns home, along with a sampling of trinkets from Christmas Town, to contemplate the meaning of what he has found there. Ultimately he decides that this year, Halloween Town is going to take charge of Christmas. Jack has also decided that he will replace "Sandy Claws" on his yearly sleigh ride, delivering presents to all of the children of the world. All of the citizens of Halloween Town are enthused by the idea except Sally, a creation of Halloween Town's mad scientist, who coincidentally is also looking for something new in her life. She alone sees the danger of Halloween Town hijacking the Christmas holiday.

While the Grinch tried to destroy Christmas and came away with a true understanding of the meaning of the holiday, Jack Skellington, with the best of intentions, is on the road to ruin Christmas. In preparation for the big event, he enlists the townspeople to help make toys, and they just can't get the hang of making or doing anything that is not designed to terrify. In fact, when Jack makes his Christmas ride and the town hears on the radio of the terror Jack is causing, they actually see this as a sign of success. To them, horror equals happiness.

Like most good films designed for all age groups, the movie is actually weaving a tale on two levels. The story itself is very straightforward so that children can easily follow it. On a second level, there is deft humor and one-liners that are obviously aimed at adults, such as the mayor's plea to Jack -"I'm only an elected official here! I can't make decisions!" Or when the scientist who created Sally gets tired of her running away and builds a new creation to replace her. This one turns out to be just a female version of the mad scientist himself to which he has endowed half of his own brain. His conclusion is "You will be a decided improvement over that treacherous Sally. We'll have conversations worth having." You'll see quite a bit of similarity between the style of art design here and that done in some of Tim Burton's other films, such as "Beetlejuice". You'll also probably recognize Danny Elfman's style of score that has come to decorate so many of Burton's other films. I highly recommend this film as great entertainment for the whole family.

A mix of magic, darkness, Halloween, Christmas, the jolly guy, and an interesting skeleton you have a masterpiece

[Smells_Like_Cheese · 10/10 · 19 July 2002]

Nightmare Before Christmas is such a classic movie that will always hold a special place in my heart, even if the new emo generation is claiming hold of it, they do realize that this film was made years before, right? Moving on, this is one of my favorite movies of all time, it's a wonderful and charming movie that is original, funny, and moving. I think the reason this movie still stands the test of time is because this was a personal treasure of Tim Burton's. You can tell the love that was put into this film, it's incredible the way that it was made and the soundtrack is one of the best albums of all time. All the characters are lovable and a pleasure to watch as they bring this dark comedic tale to life.

Halloween Town is a dream world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves, and witches. Jack Skellington leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forest outside the town center, he accidentally opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his understanding of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. He reluctantly decides to play along and announces that they will take over Christmas. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman who is created by the town's mad scientist, begins to feel a romantic attraction towards Jack. However, she alone fears that his plans will become disastrous. Christmas Eve he begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts: shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, only terrify the recipients. Realizing what damage he did Jack attempts to fix what he has done, but has to make sure to make Santa safe and happy again.

People who do not enjoy this movie, I don't understand how you could not honestly. It's such a charming movie and very unforgettable, I was 10 years old when I first saw this in the theater in 1995, I still watch it every year for Halloween and even Christmas. My sister and I are grown women, but if I slip in the soundtrack, we become kids again and start singing to The Boogey Song. I do admit that Spencer's Gifts and Hot Topic have over blown on the Nightmare Before Christmas memorabilia, but everyone wants something from this movie because it's just that memorable and you can't help but fall in love with it. It's positively magical, Jack Skeleton is awesome and can steal any holiday any time, I loved his ideas personally, Easter is next!

10/10

Wonderfully imaginative animation, fun & intelligent songs make for a great family film for all but the youngest children

[bob the moo · 2 November 2004]

Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King – the creative genius behind the holiday of Halloween, designing each year to be scarier and more horrible than the one before. However deep inside he longs for more than the horror and scares of Halloween Town, a longing he cannot understand until he stumbles into Christmas Town and sees happiness and cheer the likes of which has evaded him all these years. Having finally worked out what Christmas is all about, Jack decides to kidnap Santa and make himself the new king of Christmas Town so that he can have the happiness of Christmas all the time. But the others in the towns realize the significant consequences that this disruption of the norm will have as Jack's evil nature proves harder to overcome than he thought.

With Pixar currently dominating the world of 'animations that please both children and adults' it is easy to forget that over a decade ago Tim Burton delivered this delightful family film to the cinema using a much more traditional animation and a huge amount of imagination. The basic plot is a great little fantasy fairytale with a very dark heart to it that make it much more enjoyable for having that edge. Too often kids films (especially at the time and animated) are soaked in a sweet sentiment that simply forgets that kids are not stupid and indeed often prefer a bit of darkness in the story. The only downside of this darkness is that younger children might not 'get it' and just end up being scared by the Halloween images and imaginative images. Despite this the material will play equally well to adults and children because it neither panders to nor excludes one group over the other at any time. Regardless of the material, the film still manages to come off as charming and enjoyable thanks to a well-written script that never plays for the basic laugh or easy sentiment. Some viewers may come to this with Pixar in their minds and bemoan it for not being hilariously funny from start to finish, but they are missing the point and

The songs reflect this approach and are very clever throughout; whether it is the sorrowful longing of Jack at the start or the Cab Calloway-inspired song from Oogie Boogie Man, generally they are inventive and fun. The same praise can be laid at the door of the stop-motion animation, which is inventive and fun to look at from start to finish. All the characters have a great deal of effort put in and they add to the dark feel of the film. The voice cast may not feature a load of well-known voices in the same way as Pixar films generally do, but they still do a great job. Sarandon and Elfman combine to do a good job with Jack; Page is fun as Oogie Boogie; O'Hara is good as Sally despite not having as fun a character to work with but for my money it is Hickey (as Dr Finklestein) and Shadix (Mayor) that make the biggest impression, mainly due to having the most enjoyable characters.

Overall this is a very short but very enjoyable film that will please both children and adults at the same time (with the same material) and never ignores or panders to one side of the audience over the other. Both groups will appreciate the dark fairytale, the clever songs, the darkly imaginative animation and the comic sense of humour, making this a family film that deserves to be remembered even as kids movie get smarter and fancier.

Burton's "Nightmare" is a dream come true

[dee.reid · 10/10 · 10 December 2004]

By 1993, director Tim Burton was such a successful filmmaker in Hollywood that he was able to return to one of his most beloved early projects, "The Nightmare Before Christmas." It's certainly an inspired movie, as it is also very weird, and when I say "weird," I mean it's distinctly Burton.

Even though it was directed with enough competency by Henry Selick, this groundbreaking stop-motion animation film is Burton all the way, as it contains ample "esque" qualities that make this "Nightmare" uniquely his vision.

As the film opens in the twisted, "Burton"-esque village of "Halloweentown," Jack Skellington, who is dually voiced by Chris Sarandon and longtime Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, is celebrating another "horrible" Halloween. You'll be shocked and amazed at some of the town's inhabitants, who include jazz-playing zombies, Four Tenor-like vampires, a wolf man, and a wheelchair-bound scientist who occasionally opens up his cranium to (literally) scratch his brain; his creation, a Frankenstein-like scarecrow named Sally (Catherine O'Hara), yearns for contact with others and is quite fond of Jack Skellington.

But Jack's quickly growing tired of the same old routine year after year, and because he's so downtrodden with boredom, he ventures into the dark forest outside the town's borders, and accidentally stumbles onto the wondrous, jolly world of "Christmastown." Enticed by its splendor, he decides to bring back his discovery to the residents of Halloweentown, who of which are just as shocked by Christmas as he is. Jack gets the brilliant idea to pose as Santa Claus but hires three mischief-makers to kidnap the real Santa so he can share his own, misguided vision of Christmas with an unprepared world.

Painstakingly and meticulously crafted, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a beautiful and wonderful film from start to finish. The most famous image of this film is the cover art, which features Skellington eerily silhouetted against a full moon while he stands atop a coiled hill that overlooks a desolate graveyard.

Burton is such a wonderful director, who had already brought us one unique "esque" vision after the other, especially with the first two "Batman" films and "Edward Scissorhands" behind him as of '93 when "Nightmare" was made.

10/10

One of the best films of 1993, highly re-watchable

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 14 December 2003]

I was a kid when I first saw Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, but I wasn't scared by it in the slightest - this world is one entirely of the imagination, and in a sense saying that the film is scary for younger children is something of a compliment. 'Nightmare' is both a horror film and a musical, and fantasy and a suspense film, and like most Burton effort, comedy is thrown in at just the right moments.

With Henry Selick as director and Michael McDowell & Caroline Thompson as the screenwriters, Burton has fashioned the worlds of Halloween-town and Christmas-town as real originals, working on the cliches that are in each holiday and surrounding the worlds with a host of terrific and terrifying characters. While Halloween-town has a mayor (appropriately with two faces, one smiling one distressed), the real leader is Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon voices with a great Danny Elfman as the singing Jack) who orchestrates Halloween every year for its citizens. But he's grown weary over the years, and after stumbling upon Christmas-town, loaded with good will towards men and a large man in a red suit, he gets his town riled up to overtake the joyous holiday. Despite one protest by Sally (an amazing Catherine O'Hara), the doll-girl who loves him, the town goes on creating Jack's vision. The results are hilarious and, indeed, spellbinding.

Much credit is given to Burton and Selick for their work on the film, but a lot should also be attributed to Denise Di Novi (co-producer and co-designer), Rick Heinrichs (visual consultant), Pete Kozachik (D.P.), and of course Danny Elfman for his perfectly fitting score and song creations. Along with the talented voice actors, Nightmare Before Christmas ends up a triumph of artistic ingenuity. Some could construe it as too weird or too stylish, but for the cult audience it has garnered over the past ten years it remains of of Burton's finest accomplishments. A+

A true must see for all Halloween fans

[CheshireCatsGrin · 10/10 · 12 December 2004]

I am not a big Tim Burton fan, but this movie is in my top 3 of all time. Perhaps the fact that Halloween is my favorite holiday influenced my opinion, but I doubt it. The more I hear and read about this movie, the more I love it.

Based on a parody of the famous "Night before Christmas" poem by Moore that Burton wrote and illustrated while employed at Disney, this idea was stagnant for many years prior to filming. In many ways this was a good thing, technology was able to catch up to Burton's ideas.

In NBC, we see our hero Jack Skellington, aka The Pumpkin King, depressed as another Halloween passes. In the background we hear the residents of Halloween Town celebrate another wonderful holiday. But Jack is sad. The only one who notices is the Rag Doll-style woman Sally.

Other characters, including many town-monsters, are introduced. We meet the wonderful mayor with two faces, the evil scientist and his assistant, three local children and our evil boogie-man.

After an accident, Jack develops a plan to kidnap "Sandy Claws" and give presents out for Christmas in place of Christmas Town. You will have to view this movie to discover the rest.

The claymation is not what I expected, it was of a high quality and the movements are not jerky like the old Christmas Specials. Danny Elfman's music has little resemblance to his work with Ongo Bongo and "What's this?" (which Jack sings when he discovers the colorful world of Christmas Town) is closer to a tune mixed from Cabaret and The Music Man. The voices match the mouth movements nearly perfectly. This was a project from the heart and all the little touches to make it 'just' right show this fact.

Superb Gothic animation with a thin plot

[The_Void · 7/10 · 7 November 2004]

Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas is a visually spectacular tour de force of Gothic styles and themes, bound around a simple children's tale. The story follows Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween Town, who one day while walking in the woods stumbles upon Christmas Town; a town where, you guessed it, every day is Christmas. Jack doesn't quite understand the concept of a celebration where nobody is frightened or killed, but he decides to have the celebration in his town regardless. While plotting, he also decides to kidnap Santa and deliver Christmas Town's gifts himself this year...much to the dismay of the local children, who aren't too pleased about receiving the gifts that a skeleton from Halloween Town brings them...

This movie was actually directed by Henry Sellick, but it is obviously Tim Burton's film. His style is rampant throughout the film, and it is clear that this could only have come from his mind. The animation on display here is magnificent; the style is very unique and it blends very well with the Gothic theme. Where the film falls down, however, is on the story side and, more notably, the delivery of the story. The story is very linear; I understand that this film is predominantly aimed at children, but even children's films can be more expansive than this; the film also really should be more expansive as Tim Burton has created a whole world with many unique and interesting characters, yet only a handful are allowed to shine. Burton (and his composer, Elfman) seem far too keen to pack the movie with songs. I have no problem with this, but the songs here are really rather dull. The majority of them have little more than one or two lines that are sung over and over and considering that the film is packed with these songs; it gets old fast and more dialogue would have worked better.

Overall, Nightmare Before Christmas is a nice film. The animation and style are amazing and it has lots of nice moments; but it is let down by a thin story and poor delivery. Horror fans will have fun spotting the tributes, and I don't doubt that many children will love this film, as will many adults; but it could and really should have been a lot better, and I have to say that it left me cold.

Textbook example proving the old adage, "The grass is always greener in someone else's yard."

[llltdesq · 10/10 · 15 November 2000]

This film, while far from Burton's masterpiece, is a delightful musical that in the end shows that, sometimes, we have things far better than we think we do and the other side of the fence sometimes looks better just because it's different, but that doesn't make necessarily wise to pursue someone else's dream because we mistakenly think we may like it more. Tim Burton's fingerprints are all over this film. Excellent casting of vocal talent, the score is great and the animation is marvelous. A very good film and worth watching more than once. Recommended.

A great achievement but could had been way more entertaining.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 16 October 2005]

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a perfectly professionally made movie with almost flawless looking stop-motion animation. However as entertainment this movie is flawed, due to its simple story and a pace that is a bit too fast for the movie.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" has some highly fun and amusing characters in it and that also is the strongest thing of the movie. Jack Skellington is a nice and memorable main character but it is the Mayor that mostly steals the show in this movie. The movie is filled with tons of odd looking- and acting monstrous characters. Oogie Boogie is a cool villain but he unfortunately doesn't get an awful lot to do in this movie. The characters are fun but the movie itself isn't halve as much as fun. There are just a few laughs in it and in general the movie is simply too short. Because the movie is so short all of the scene's come and go too fast after each other. The story is told too fast and because of that things aren't always build up nicely or correctly. Because of this there also are some plot holes in the movie. The movie should had been maybe at least 10-15 minutes longer. It makes "The Nightmare Before Christmas" a bit of a movie that is most certainly not bad but has many missed opportunities in it.

Even though the movie isn't directed by Tim Burton himself, it still has 'Tim Burton' written all over it. The visual style and characters are definitely Burton material. There is plenty to enjoy for his fans, in this movie. The music and songs by Danny Elfman are also what gives this movie a 'Burton' kind of feeling and atmosphere. The music by Elfman is good and the songs, even though no Oscar material, are enjoyable and quite memorable as well.

It certainly is a professionally made and good looking movie but the story could had used some more work and the movie should had been longer, to build up the scene's and characters better. It still is an enjoyable movie to watch but it could and should had been way more entertaining.

7/10

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An animated classic? I think so!

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 20 December 2009]

I admit it, I really like Tim Burton. I know his films are very oddball, but he has a wide imagination and his films are visually amazing. And I like a vast majority of his films, Edward Scissorhands being my personal favourite, and I love Batman and Batman Returns too. Henry Sellick is also promising, from the likes of James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a brilliant film. Is it an animated classic. Yes I think it is! It is wonderfully weird yet lots of fun as well. Visually and technically, the film looks absolutely amazing, with wonderful Gothic backgrounds and detailed colouring. Skellington silhouetted against the moonlight is quite possibly the film's most haunting image. The story is great, about Jack Skellington discovering ChristmasTown but doesn't understand the concept so he kidnaps Santa Claus. And the characters are endearing and weird, ranging from jazz playing zombies, Four-tenor like vampires to a wolf man. Then we have the title characters, Jack Skellington is a wonderful protagonist, really interesting to say the least. And Sally for an inventor's creation is very beautiful. The songs from Danny Elfman(the fact that he didn't get an award for his score for Edward Scissorhands is the biggest music snubs ever) are great fun, haunting, funny, clever and intelligent. The voice acting is top notch, Chris Sarandon does a great job as the speaking voice of Skellington, and Danny Elfman himself provides the singing voice superbly. Catherine O'Hara is sweet and innocent, and Ken Page(the voice of King Gator in All Dogs Go To Heaven) is a hoot as Oogie Boogie. All in all, weird, but visually stunning, funny and intelligent animated movie. A definite classic! 10/10 Bethany Cox

Great Visuals Shadowed by Poor Storytelling

[SquigglyCrunch · 6/10 · 27 December 2016]

The Nightmare Before Christmas follows Jack Skellington, a skeleton leading Halloween town who, after having another successful Hallowe'en, discovers Christmas and becomes obsessed with introducing the holiday into his world.

The visuals are, to be expected, great. It's a creepy Tim Burton clay-mation movie, what do you expect? The way in which it is done screams the 90s, but despite it's age it holds up very well regardless.

The soundtrack is a lot of fun, specifically the opening song. The rest of the songs are worked into the movie very well, and I never dreaded listening to any of them when they did come up. Furthermore, they actually contributed to the story in most cases, so I had to listen anyway

However, without the visuals this would be a very poor movie. The writing is unnatural a lot of the time, and it features an incredibly forced, out-of-nowhere ending scene. On top of that, there are several points throughout the movie where certain events happen for no reason. Jack and other characters know things they never had the opportunity to learn. Sure, we as the audience can piece together that they went to some other character and figured it out, but because that is never shown and it is somewhat important that they do because of how it will affect the story, I have to assume that they didn't happen and that the writers just didn't know what to do because they were running out of time.

Despite this, I more or less enjoyed the movie. I wouldn't say it's good, but it's worth a watch. I'll probably never see it again, and in the end I wouldn't really recommend it.

Visually inventive, but not my thing

[sjw1029 · 5/10 · 16 October 2022]

I think a lot of the enjoyment of this movie comes down to what you think of the animation. Watching it now versus watching it in 1993 makes a big difference. I wasn't a huge fan of the animation, making it harder to get into the story. And I found the story a little lacking. Was Jack Skellington trying to ruin Christmas or did he really enjoy it and just accidentally mess it up? I think the script could have used a little work. That said, I did enjoy the music, and have been singing "What's this? What's this?" for the last day. Is this is Christmas movie or a Halloween movie? I can see both sides of the debate.

Wonderful movie!

[jaime_lich77 · 24 December 2004]

This movie has always been a favorite of mine. I never like holiday movies, because i always find them to be full to bursting with slapstick comedy, or way too sugary-sweet and dramatic. both of these things are okay in moderation, but most Christmas movies seem to go to one side of the spectrum or the other. this wonderful fairy tale is perfect for someone like me, who likes a little bit of a darker movie, but expects a Christmas movie to have a good message. the darkness in the movie is not without cause-it shows the joy of Christmas in great contrast to the scariness of Halloween, and it made me love both holidays all the more for that reason. i don't know, maybe that's just because Halloween and Christmas are my favorite holidays, but i really feel that this movie is great for older children and adults. younger children (up to 5 or 6 years) may find this simply frightening, but older children would find it wonderful.

When You Don't Want the Traditional Christmas Movie.

[nycritic · 10/10 · 10 January 2006]

Thank God for stop-motion animation and the creative genius that is Tim Burton because any other technique would have diminished its surrealistic landscape. But, however kid-friendly THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE Christmas appears, this is a somewhat disturbing tale that children under the age of ten may not like because of some of its subject matter, specifically a scene in which Santa Claus gets tortured by the Boogeyman and children have a frightening experience with Christmas presents that turn deadly.

Relying heavily on HOW THE GRINCH STOLE Christmas, the story tells of how Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown is in a rut because every Halloween is the same old thing. By accident he stumbles onto what seems to be a portal embedded unto a tree which lands him in magical Christmastown -- a place which enchants him, a place where "Sandy Claws" is revered as its gift-giver. Here he gets an epiphany of an idea: he decides that he wants to celebrate Christmas the Halloween way, all in good spirit, and decides to kidnap Santa Claus, but Sally, the rag doll who loves him, has a strong feeling that this will not turn out well and must find a way to stop him, particularly when Oogie Boogie, the Boogeyman, enters the scene with nasty intentions.

This is, quite simply, a beautiful film despite its dark and borderline disturbing tone which arrive late into the story once Jack Skellington decides to go on his frightful crusade to bring Halloween into Christmas unto an unsuspecting world. However, the film is really in good cheer and even a ghoul as mean as Oogie Boogie proves to be quite harmless. I do believe, though, this is a film to be watched closely and with a child spirit in order to appreciate its technical wizardry: Jack Skellington's eyes say it all: when has a skeleton looked so childlike and full of wonder? And who but a child could create the havoc stemming from a prank instead from meanness? Like I said -- this is a stunning film, and one the family can view on not one but two holiday seasons. If you like your Christmas a little iconoclastic and retch at the thought of singing another Christmas carol, this is the film for you.

Many peoples favourite movie, and many peoples go-to Christmas movie. A classic in every sense.

[mickman91-1 · 10/10 · 26 November 2021]

This is one of those movies that transcends ratings. Actually this is currently at 8.0 which is quite high, but the influence that this film has had on so many people, the friendships and bonds that it has forged, the emotional lessons it has taught, makes the ratings for it pretty useless. I can't imagine what watching it for the first time in 2021 would be like. I imagine you would still get a sense of how totally unique and beautiful this film is. It is a gothic christmas/halloween musical stop-motion love story like no other. There are huge pockets of people around the globe for whom this is their favourite film and I know many make a point of watching it annually at christmas time and consider it the quintessential christmas eve movie also. I think for this reason, if possible it is best to watch it with a fan of the film, so you can get a true sense of how much this film means and the context around it.

Gothic stop-motion masterpiece: an essential holiday film

[TheRetroCritic · 10/10 · 6 November 2023]

An animated Disney production from 1993 directed by Henry Selick (Coraline, Wendell & Wild), The Nightmare Before Christmas follows "Pumpkin King" Jack Skellington's doomed adventures from Halloween Town to Christmas Town and back again.

Based on a story and characters by Tim Burton, the film is a stop-motion animated musical featuring the singing voice of Danny Elfman, who also wrote the score. While it wasn't a huge hit initially, it soon achieved cult classic status and is seen, to this day, as one of the best animated features of all time. Two holidays are cleverly intertwined here as Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon), a Halloween hero, grows tired of entertaining his usual ghoulish crowd, delivering the same spooky thrills year after year. When he discovers a place called Christmas Town, he becomes enamored with the entire concept and so decides to... take it for himself.

A loving yet twisted pastiche of classic Rankin/Bass specials, as well as Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas and other classic cartoons, The Nightmare Before Christmas lures you in quick with its delightfully macabre "This Is Halloween" tune and it never lets go as Danny Elfman offers catchy song after catchy song, making the most of each one in his own unique style. This may have been Tim Burton's idea, and it may be Henry Selick's masterpiece, but it is, first and foremost, Elfman's baby: his work here is nothing short of genius and deserved a lot more recognition back in the day. From the lonely "Jack's Lament" to the bombastic "What's This?", the beautiful "Sally's Song", the playful "Making Christmas" and the devilish "Oogie Boogie's Song", the movie never missteps and is singalong-worthy from start to finish.

The animation here is, frankly, incredible. This is stop-motion at its best with every shot carefully composed, Tim Burton's art style perfectly captured and the emotions of all these bizarre characters conveyed with great care. The character design is unique, the settings are appropriately gothic and countless inventive techniques are used here to make the animation flow in harmony with the music. The film looks gorgeous, of course, but it also has a timeless, nostalgic feel that'll make you want to watch it for both aforementioned holidays every single year. We care about these characters, feel for them, and can't wait to see them naively attempt the impossible in true Halloween Town style!

Few animated films manage to get everything right: The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those rarities. Hugely entertaining, a visual treat, a truly fantastic musical and, despite its frightening look, very very funny, not to mention filled with the magic that many Christmas movies promise but so often fail to materialize. It's one hell of a sleigh ride and viewers of all ages should get a big kick out of it.

Essential holiday romp.

Utterly Enchanting

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 22 July 2008]

This film is utterly delightful and can be watched over and over without ever getting stale. As one would expect from a film from Tim Burton it is darker than most animation. The sets and character designs for the inhabitants of Halloween Town are suitably macabre without being too scary for children to watch. Almost all of the characters are well intentioned despite being rather strange, the only exceptions are Oogie Boogie and his three side-kicks Lock, Shock and Barrel.

The story begins the night after Halloween when Jack Skellington, the organiser of the festivities is feeling down, despite its success as he is fed up of doing the same thing year after year. He leaves town to do for a walk with his ghost of a dog and stumbles across a strange wood where the trees contain doorways to the other holiday towns. He is drawn through the one that leads to Christmas Town and is enchanted by the strange world he has discovered.

Once back home he tells everybody what he has seen then sets about understanding what Christmas is all about. After much experimentation he decides that this year the people of Halloween Town will organise Christmas, soon the townspeople are eagerly making presents and Jack has dispatched Lock, Shock and Barrel to go to Christmas Town to kidnap "Sandy Claws". The only voice of doubt is Sally, a rag doll who has strong unrequited feelings for Jack. Not surprisingly things don't exactly go according to plan.

This is a film I would recommend to everybody, especially fans of animation or musicals, although the songs are aren't as up beat as most musicals I suspect you'll still be humming the tunes to yourself after it is over. While this is a Tim Burton Film one mustn't forget that is was directed by Henry Selick who did a wonderful job with the stop-motion animation, Danny Elfman must also be remembered as he wrote all the music to this excellent film.

A definite milestone in stop-motion animation that everyone should watch.

[avi-greene2 · 7/10 · 1 November 2016]

So I know it's a little late to be writing this review on a Halloween themed animated movie, but I was watching it the other day on my VCR and thought that it was absolutely fantastic. There are WAY too many things I like about this movie, but I'll just name a few.

First of all, I think the soundtrack composed by musical genius Danny Elfman is engaging and very impressive, and my particular favorite songs are "This is Halloween" in the beginning and "What's This" that Jack Skellington, the main male protagonist in the movie, sings when he accidentally slips into Christmas Town.

I also love all the different varieties of characters seen throughout the film, including the mayor of Halloween Town who has two different faces (one being happy and one being sad) as well as a spider necktie, Dr. Finkelstein whose name is supposed to be a parody of Frankenstein (he's not so nice), and Sally the Ragdoll who was created by Finkelstein and is Jack Skellington's girlfriend.

But to me, the most significant element of the nightmare is that not only is it a movie based on Halloween, but also there's a lot of other elements that have a tremendous amount to do with Christmas, as the title suggests. Before the climax of the film, all the citizens of Halloween Town help make a new Santa outfit for Jack where Sally sews his hat, and then later Jack, along with his ghost dog Zero, leave Halloween Town via sleigh and help save Christmas when all the boys and girls there receive scary and frightening toys that end up chasing them and waking up their parents when they're sleeping. Sadly he ends up falling into a cemetery, but there's a secret passage that takes Jack back to Halloween Town when Sally and Santa Clause are in trouble and are about to be stewed by the villain in the movie, Oogie Boogie who is very cool, but also very spooky and creepy. In the end, the good kids in Christmas Town get regular toys that don't magically come to life and chase them, and Jack and Sally end up together when they kiss on the top of Spiral Hill.

For anyone who is curious as to where 3-D animation originated, this is definitely an animated hallmark of a film to check out, and I particularly recommend that people watch it on Halloween or on Christmas as I did. You may think that "Toy Story" was the first ever 3-D animated movie in history, but think again because you'd be wrong. While "Toy Story" is considered the very first computer- animated movie, this one is actually stop-motion animation which is also in 3-D. This is a movie that will not only delight you and make you become addicted to its soundtrack, but it will also take you to a magical world from the incredible imagination of Mr. Tim Burton.

Anyone who hasn't seen this yet, DEFINITELY SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES!

A True Tim Burton Film

[bbSouthstreet · 10/10 · 2 August 2001]

I was five years old when I saw this movie and after that the words Tim Burton rang in my ears as one of Hollywood's most eccentric directors. Whenever I hear that a Tim Burton film is coming out I think of The Nightmare Before Christmas and how wonderful it is. The story is very original, the scenery is wonderfully Gothic and the characters and animation is to scream for.

Another thing about this film are the songs. They're so twisted and funny that I can't help but hum, whistle or just sing them word by word and musical note by musical note.

So in conclusion, The Nightmare Before Christmas is what you would get if you were to put the minds of Edgar Allen Poe and Dr. Seuss in a blender. You get a beautifully dark and wildly bizarre film about Santa Claus, dancing skeletons and what goes bump in the night.

I don't understand what the fuss is about.

[A-Clockwork-Bobbin · 6/10 · 6 October 2010]

Right, I've seen all these other teenagers wandering around, wearing hoodies with Jack's face on, all crying out "OMG the nitemare be4 Xmas is soooooooo awesome", so I decided to see it for myself. I wanted to know what the fuss was about. I mean, if loads of people like something, it's got to be good, right? .....Right? Less than 3 minutes into the film, I was sitting there thinking "So...People think this is the best animated film ever?" I was struck instantly by the animation. It's dire. So amateurish. I've seen cartoons done by first-year animation students and they are sensational compared to the animation in this film. The animation is 'sticky', usually far too slow (especially with 'shock' reactions), and it's just... argh. It bugged me so much. I'm sure there are going to be people who either think "What are you talking about?" (to them I say: Watch it again and bear this in mind) or "Oh, don't be mean. Stop-motion is very hard and they must be applauded for their efforts" (to them I say: No it's not. I've got loads of experience with stop-motion. It's simple if you know what you're doing). Sure, the models are fine, no, the models are great, it's just that they didn't do a very good job of giving them 'life'.

Now I shall discuss my views of the plot. I must admit, I didn't pay as much attention to the film as many fans would have, but there was something that confused me greatly (among other things, but this one just plain annoys me). Sally is, effectually, the doctor's slave, and is never allowed to be away from the doctor (and is often locked up) so she doesn't get a good taste of the 'outside world', and yet she evidently had managed to develop a good friendship with Jack before the film's setting.

Wait, what? Is that just bad script-writing, or am I simply not seeing the apparent obvious? I don't quite understand how someone can be emotionally separated from the rest of the community, yet manage to maintain a friendship with one of its members.

Other than that *ahem* possible inconsistency, the idea of the plot is very good. It is very imaginative. I don't have any problems with it. This film, as we all know, is also a musical. Now, normally with musicals I sit there thinking "Oh God, there's another song coming up", but with this film, I found the songs tolerable; they became part of the film and, quite simply, the film almost survives on these songs. As for the voice acting, that was also very good, and the actors must be praised for making a decent job of it.

In conclusion, good story, maybe, but great cartoon? I don't think so. There's certainly nothing about it to make me feel like going around saying it's the best cartoon/animated film ever. There are dozens of things I can think of which would have made this film better, and admittedly I find it such a shame that my opinions of the film have been made so negative by this fact.

Beautiful and weird

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 24 October 2005]

Artistically speaking, this is a beautiful film with incredible stop motion camera-work AND a really stylish atmosphere. The characters are really captivating and just plain "cool". Halloween Town is also a visual delight. In almost every way I consider this a wonderful film. However, for people like me who are not particularly enamored with musicals, the music is definitely the low-point. It's not that the songs are bad, but that there are so many of them. The dialog is mostly sung and I found it detracted, slightly, from my viewing experience. However, considering that almost all the high school students I teach LOVE this movie, I certainly seem to have the minority opinion. So, for those who are not into musicals, still watch it--you'll enjoy it. But, like me you may also wish they'd done a few less numbers! PS--On the DVD, you also get FRANKENWEENIE (a half hour short) and VINCENT (also a short and the seeming inspiration for NBC). They make this a MUST-HAVE DVD.

It would be better were it not a musical.

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 25 August 2006]

First, I want to say that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a very neat idea for a movie. If it comes from Tim Burton (although he just produces, not directs), then it's pretty much guaranteed that there's something cool in store. The idea of a land where there's only Halloween having Christmas one year while forcing Halloween on a land where there's only Christmas...a really cool concept. And it's worth seeing what the movie shows happening.

Now for the unfortunate aspect. The excessive number of songs weakens the movie. I don't mind a song or two - or more in a Beatles movie - but it's just sort of hokey to have a song every five minutes in a movie that supposed to be macabre.

So, if you see "TNBC", you can appreciate the concept, but you just might get put off by the musical aspect. Featuring the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens.

So what did Santa bring YOU for Christmas?

Most overrated movie in existence.

[SneakySneasel · 3/10 · 4 October 2015]

People only give this high reviews because they're blinded by nostalgia. Me, having only watched this movie recently, actually see the problems in this movie that everyone else here is blind to. This movie wasn't terrible - the music and animation were very good - but what this movie lacks is any kind of importance in anything. Sally had basically no character, but the movie acts like she's important. Sally's relationship with the main character Jack Skellington was also completely forced. They had absolutely no chemistry with each other, the only time they even talked with each other was when Sally was warning Jack about how his desire to become Santa Claus was a bad idea. And speaking of him wanting to be Santa, that's the plot of the movie. But barely any of the movie even follows this plot, it just wanders off into these musicals and scenes of Sally doing meaningless things. Overall, 3/10 - only because of the animation and music.