This movie is so dark, funny and cute its hard to explain, but i'll try, here goes.
Jack Skellington is the king of Halloween, the scariest guy in town. But he's bored and restless with life. One night, walking in the woods, he comes across a doorway to Christmastown, where everyone is happy, kind, cheerful and no ones dead! He decides he wants to try Christmas himself, so all of Halloweentown try to claim Christmas while preparing for their very own Christmas eve...
This has got to be the best animation films i have ever seen, it is not up-to-date computer technology with fancy lighting effects and computerised water reflection. Its old-fashioned, simple puppet animation, and it fits fantastically. The attention to detail is extraordinary, Halloweentown pacifically looks wonderfully Gothic. Christmas town is..well..christmassy. The puppets movement seems a little jittery the first time you watch it, but once you are used to the style you will not notice anything drastic.
You do really feel for Jack as a depressed skeleton, bored with his life. You want him to find what hes looking for. Also for Sally, Jacks unnoticed, under appreciated love interest who knows something will go wrong and tries in vain to stop Christmas. The greatest characters though are the Oogie Boogie man, a gambling addict, slightly old school town misfit brilliantly voiced by Ken Page. And the Mayor, who has two personalities, optimistic or neurotic, depending which side of his head your talking too!
The music is catchy, although sometimes it gets in the way of important character development, and everyone in the cast can sing (which is unusual for this type of musical.) Only one song is a little boring and that is the slow one which is sung by Jack second, but you soon forget about that and on to the brilliant ones like 'Kidnap mr. Sandy Claws' and 'The Oogie Boogie song.'
My only glich with this film is it doesn't spend enough time on the character development the other residents of Halloweentown, spending far too much time on Jack. I for one would love too discover more about Oogie Boogie, like why was he outcast in the first place? and why does he seem to have a vendetta with Jack? And there are a lot of background characters who i would have loved too see more of. Wolfman, The hanging tree, the 2 witches, the slime monster and the Vampires to name a few.
A cute little plot woven in with brilliant characters and catchy songs, Tim Burton has outdone himself with this holiday treat for everyone!
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