A goth's dream! (The Nightmare Before Christmas (DVD))

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	The Nightmare Before Christmas (DVD)
Date:	21/08/02 (509 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gothic charm, Great direction and production, Really gets the spirit of Christmas - just in a roundabout way

Disadvantages: Well, could frighten the very easilly scared

Well, back in the chair again, writing away with little else to do on a warm bright summer morning than write about the deep dark mind of Tim Burton and his olde worlde classic piece of work "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first shall we? An obvious play on words for the title "The Night before..." it's produced by Disney and with all sorts of unknowns (Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ed Ivory
- info from http://movie-reviews.colossus.net) giving excellent voices to the characters. Tim Burton's usual Gothic style is fantastic for this picture.

Brief plot synopsis:
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Oooh, synopsis - what's wrong with "Summary" smartarse?

Sorry - feeling in a synonym mood today - let's see what else we can use for really normal words later in the opinion....

Anyhoo (see - Americanisms creeping in too...)

We begin the film with Halloween just ending in Halloween town, all the ghouls return triumphant and jubilant at a great job done of scaring so many kiddies and having made such a success of the whole thing. Jack Skellington, as head scarer and Pumpkin King is ailed as being a genius and is awarded all sorts of prizes for his abilities.

On we go to find out that Jack is pining for something more, not happy with his life (or death...) and goes off for a bit of alone time with a long walk in the fog with his dog (deceased) Zero. After getting totally lost he comes across somewhere new - portals in some trees to other worlds. Off he goes and finds himself in a new world called Christmas Town - see, there is a seasonal (or unseasonal as I'm writing this in August) link after all - and he finds himself all warm inside with a newfound lease of life.

On his return to Halloween Town, Jack tries to get the idea of Christmas over to the residents but has to go
a bit creepy on them all - Santa becomes "Sandy Claws" and is portrayed as a bringer of doom and terror to the lands - in this way he gets the Halloween Town mob to try their own Christmas.

All over the world there is a lot of fun and games as Santa is replaced by Jack Skellington and, well, I'll leave you to see it before I give the whole plot away.

Animation:
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Henry Selick (the director - again, thanks movie-reviews.col...) has done a great job on a tight budget here. All plasticine models and (seemingly) papier-mache scenery it flows very well. Very nice backgrounds, dark, mysterious colouring and a real atmosphere is developed through incredibly talented direction, production and an animation team that must have spent weeks on each sequence.

Scripting and songs:
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Brilliant - the voices, as I said, are done by unknowns, or at least unknowns to me - they'll probably turn out to be something huge in the world of voiceover but there you go - and get a great range of characters in a perfect way. Swapping between kids, skeletons, the Oogie-Boogie Man (wonderful character) and a whole range of assorted ghosts, ghouls,vampires and a mayor with a revolving head, they are fantastic. The script is really well written, funny, sometimes sinister, thought provoking (really? No, sorry, just thought I'd chuck that one in) and quite touching in places. The little love thing developing with Sally and Jack is quite sweet.

Songs tend to be either on the melancholy side or massively upbeat, with memorable tunes and words that are relevant to the plot of the film. Great singing and a load of fun.

Overall:
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This film was absolutely great when it first came out, I was one of the first in line for the cinema and had a great afternoon's entertainment form it. I love just about all things Goth (well, maybe not Buffy all that much b
ut then there are limits to what we call good - keep that stupid Geller woman away from me and we'll get on fine) and this more than lived up to expectations. Beautifully made, beautifully scripted and cast and a real part of Christmas from 1993 onwards.

If you're into a bit of Tim Burton (you know, Beetlejuice, Batman etc.) and like to see a bit of animation, you'll love this film.

Merry Christmas and God Bless us, every one.

Summary: