Plot
Jack Skellington, king of Halloweentown, discovers Christmas Town, but doesn't quite understand the concept.
Release Year: 1993
Rating: 8.0/10 (108,672 voted)
Director:
Henry Selick
Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara
Storyline Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.
Writers: Tim Burton, Michael McDowell
Cast: Danny Elfman
-
Jack Skellington - Singing Voice
/
Barrel
/
Clown with the Tear Away Face
(voice)
Chris Sarandon
-
Jack Skellington
(voice)
Catherine O'Hara
-
Sally
/
Shock
(voice)
William Hickey
-
Dr. Finklestein
(voice)
Glenn Shadix
-
Mayor
(voice)
Paul Reubens
-
Lock
(voice)
Ken Page
-
Oogie Boogie
(voice)
Edward Ivory
-
Santa
(voice)
(as Ed Ivory)
Susan McBride
-
Big Witch
/
WWD.
(voice)
Debi Durst
-
Corpse Kid
/
Corpse Mom
/
Small Witch
(voice)
Greg Proops
-
Harlequin Demon
/
Devil
/
Sax Player
(voice)
(as Gregory Proops)
Kerry Katz
-
Man Under Stairs
/
Vampire
/
Corpse Dad
(voice)
Randy Crenshaw
-
Mr. Hyde
/
Behemoth
/
Vampire
(voice)
Sherwood Ball
-
Mummy
/
Vampire
(voice)
Carmen Twillie
-
Undersea Gal
/
Man Under the Stairs
(voice)
Opening Weekend: $191,232
(USA)
(17 October 1993)
(2 Screens)
Gross: $50,379,629
(USA)
(1 January 2001)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Tim Burton wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas when he was a Disney animator in the early-1980s. Burton took inspiration from television specials of
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. On the 2008 Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD release, Christopher Lee narrates this poem with a new animated visual accompaniment.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
As the Mayor turns on the reflector light at the town meeting, some bats fly off it, scared by the sudden light. Here you can clearly see the wires that they are suspended by.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Santa:
'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems in a place perhaps you've seen in your dreams. For the story you're about to be told began with the holiday worlds of auld. Now you've probably wondered where holidays come from. If you haven't I'd say it's time you begun.
User Review
Burton's "Nightmare" is a dream come true
Rating: 10/10
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.
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