... And absolutely no-one's dead! (The Nightmare Before Christmas (DVD))

Member Name: paranormalhandy

Product:	The Nightmare Before Christmas (DVD)
Date:	25/05/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One of the finest Chritmas family films

Disadvantages: You may start wearing black eyeshadow

A gathering post for Goths, Emos, horror fans, children's fiction afficianados, Tim Burton nerds, and just anyone who (like me) find the annual fifty-five day holiday between Hallowe'en and Christmas to be the most wonderfully atmospheric, cozy, scary, life-affirming time of the year, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of the truly "cult" movies of the past two decades.

Other animations, like "Toy Story" or "The Lion King", maybe have been more popular and used newer technology, but after fifteen years their spin-offs and merchandising sales are now pretty minimal. 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas", however, has generated an industry which still thrives - from Jack Skellington t-shirts sold in tattoo parlours to Oogie-Boogie bum-bags posted on eBay. So - what is the appeal? And if you're not a Goth or Emo or similar teen-mope, could Jack's story of how Hallowe'en Town kidnapped Sandy Claws and got the world's most popular winter festival so horribly wrong ever appeal to you?

For me, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a movie that taps into large atavistic parts of my childhood TV viewing (I was twenty by the time it was released in British cinemas). Stop-motion animation, which is featured throughout the story, was very much on the wane by the early 1990s (and ever since really, despite the subsequent sterling work of "Nightmare" director Henry Selick and Aardman Animation's Nick Park). But when I was growing up, stop-motion was the stock in trade of much UK kids' telly, from Tony Hart's putty side-kick Morph to the more addled delights of "The Magic Roundabout".

Despite being an American production, elements of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" seem heavily indebted to this style, particularly the lunch-time telly favourite "Chorlton and the Wheelies" (the mayor's twisting, two-emotions face is similar to that of Chorlton's nemesis, the genuinely scary Welsh witch Fenella) and an obscure early eighties stop animation of "Hamelin", used in schools' programme "Words and Pictures" (Jack Skellington's spindly, jerky frame echoes that of the animated figure of the Pied Piper, taken from that most dark of old European folk tales). Danny Elfman's masterful score and beautiful music lends even more depth and shadow to the atmosphere - so much so, that in subsequent years some of the soundtrack's more poppy songs have been covered by the most unlikely of bands (Marylin Manson, etc).

This may be a very personal, even esoteric, response to the film but "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and its connection to the kids' programmes I adored (or at least, was disturbed by) as a child is a huge part of its appeal to me. Plus, I unequivocably love both Christmas and Hallowe'en - especially as done in America. I grew up near a USAF air base in Scotland, and still remember how in between mid-October and mid-January all of the Service houses would become encrusted in the most bizarre and colourful seasonal decorations, first pumpkins, then Thanksgiving turkeys, and finally an explosion of Christmas lights. As Carly Simon once said, nobody does it better!

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" in the New England Fall of Ichabod Crane and the December cheer of George Bailey mixed together with a heavy dose of story-telling via L. Frank Baum. I don't really want to go too far into the specifics of the movie itself as this is such a singular work of art, really only appreciable in and of itself, that to give a synopsis seems rather mean. However, on a more practical level, the DVD itself comes packed with extras, including an illuminating commentary, making-of featurette, Tim Burton talking about his original "Nightmare" poem, and the wonderful stop-animation short "Vincent" (the supporting feature from the original theatrical release). Even seven years after original release, this DVD still shows lesser animated films what they have to come up with to be considered a decent Region 2 release. Plus, it's now usually cheap as chips.

So please, watch the DVD next Christmas (or Hallowe'en (or any time in between (or indeed any day of the year at all))) and enjoy the film like a rich and good meal, or a sparkling jewel. In the end, it may not entirely be your cup of tea, but at least you'll find it lays off the saccharine.

Summary: Off-beat but well-loved exploration of a coal-black Christmas