The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas — 8

I can honestly not tell you the number of times i have seen this movie. I also have to see it at least once a year preferably just before Halloween. I did one time try to watch it on Christmas eve, but that didn’t go over to well with everyone else who wanted to watch either A Christmas Carol, or A Christmas Story. Anywho, I love this movie.

So first off, this movie is not really meant for kids. Kids can watch it, but then again kids will watch whatever they want to, including Debbie Does Dallas if you leave it out.

There is really only one thing that bothered me about this movie, and my friend Jessica pointed it out to me last night. If Sally has been locked in a tower and no one is supposed to know about her because she is an experiment and is help indoors, the why, later in the movie does everyone seem to know her and accept her like shes been a part of the group for the entire length of the movie. There really never is a scene where Sally actually ever meets Jack. a little strange.

But then another friend i was watching this with, Presley, pointed out that Jack never really speaks. He sings more often then not. He doesn’t really ever speak plainly, he is always full of some sort of joy/hatred/depression that prevents him from talking and makes him sing. a little strange that i never noticed it before.

The only other thing that really bothers me about this movie is that its also short. However it is a claymation movie, so it takes a long time to even get a minute worth of footage. Think about it. In American films, the average frame rate is 32FPS (Frames per second), most of the time for claymation movies they lower that number, so for simplicities sake, lets put it down to 25FPS. Now each frame has to be slight movement in anything thats on screen, so a car moving, a character blinking, a part of a step if a character is walking, etc. it all has to be changed, so lets say it takes an hour for each frame, that means that is takes 25 hours to film 1 second worth of animation. so for a whole minute of animation we have 25 hours * 60 = 1500 hours, or 62.5 days of non-stop work. now times that by the films length of 76 minutes = 4750 days worth of hours, or 13 years of non-stop work. Of course, this is only a rough estimate, but there are also a lot of people working on different parts all at once, so its slowly complied into one film. but what I am getting at, is that even though its a short movie, its well worth it, and i couldn’t imagaine a movie that nears 2 hours thats a claymation type.

All in all, if you havn’t seen this movie, now is the time of year to truly enjoy this movie. This is my Halloween movie. Just like A Christmas Story is most everyones Christmas movie(you know the one with Ralph, the leg lamp, and the Chinese Christmas ‘Turkey) is most everyones Christmas movie.

Base Score = 8/10
-1 for the random acception of Sally
+1 for noticing that Jack sings, not talks
= 8/10

Last updated: 2010-01-12 02:05:41 by Tolll

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I never know which holiday to put this film into. I mean, for the most part it is based around Christmas, but it starts just as Halloween is ending, and much of the story takes place in Halloween Town. I’m sure I’m not alone in the having this conundrum.
Alot of people are confused as to if this is a Disney film or not. The answer is yes and no. It is a Tim Burton film, but he did while he was still working for Disney and they own the rights to it. I’m not 100% sure, but I think Burton has let them keep it because he, unlike other directors, doesn’t care about the money…that and the fact that Disney is a guaranteed cash cow generator.
I know that I’m a huge proponent of hand drawn animation, but this came out before CGI seemed to rule the world, which made it different and unique. Before its release, most of the animation that was seen was the wooden stop motion in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and others of their ilk. The stop motion used here is different, unique, and fresh. What’s even better is that it still look as new today as it did upon its release.
Tim Burton uses his favorite composer for the music to the film. Danny Elfman did a good job mixing creepy, dark, happy, and joyous music together to create the mood. Not to mention he sang Jack’s parts and voiced Lock, Shock, or Barrel (I forgot which one).
In the tradition of Disney villains, Oogie Boogie looms over the film once they say his name, complete with teasing his appearance. When he does appear, he strikes fear into children, not just because he’s tortures Santa Claus, but because he’s the Boogie Man! I won’t mention the freaky bugs, blacklight, and gambling that just add to the character.
Jack is a true skeleton. Tall, lanky, and…well, bony! His movements are awkward to say the least, but its not because of bad animation or anything, he’s so much taller than everyone else. There’s a scene where he’s running and it looks as if he has to nearly kneel down just to keep moving.
Originally, I thought Sally was a scarecrow, but turns out she’s a rag doll. Not quite sure why a scientist would create a rag doll, but weirder things have happened in film. While she does seem to be the voice of reason, as Santa Claus puts it, her constant nagging of Jack that something is going to go wrong got on my nerves, not to mention her poisoning of Dr. Finklestein, which was never explained why she was doing so.
The inhabitants of Halloween town are your typical monsters, witches, and scary critters. All of whom have their quirks, especially the Jekyll and Hyde-esque mayor.
The scenery is quite impressive, especially since all these sets were hand constructed, no CGI.
This is definitely a Tim Burton film, dark, yet light at the same time. The only thing missing are his usual actors Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Animation isn’t done like this anymore. Studios have gotten to reliant on computers, rather than the hard work it takes to put this together. It such a shame, because this is such a classic masterpiece.

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