The Nightmare Before Christmas might just well be one of the most disappointing movies ever made. How could something with a great concept and stunning visuals be so incredibly dull and problematic? I remember watching this once when it went to video in 1994 and feeling bored. I later was talking about it with someone I went to school with and we agreed that it wasn’t as good as it should have been.
The movie is just a mere 76 minutes and that includes opening and end credits. There are about 11 songs in the movie, each average about three minutes so that makes up 33-35 minutes of songs. So roughly about half of what we actually see is nothing more than characters singing. That leaves about half an hour for a plot that borrows heavily from Dr Suess’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas but switches just enough around to avoid any legal action.
Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon with singing vocals by Danny Elfman) is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, but he’s grown depressed with the same old thing. So, after Halloween ends, he talks a long walk and comes to a wooded area with doors on them that represent all the holidays. He opens the door with the Christmas tree on it and goes to Christmas Town where he becomes fascinated by what he sees.
Returning to Halloween Town, he brings back mementos to show everyone and thinks Halloween Town can improve on Christmas. Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) is a rag doll that likes what Jack has brought but doesn’t think he should mess with the holiday. However, everyone else including the Mayor (voiced by Glenn Shadix) is in on it. If this doesn’t seem like the same thing as The Grinch, I don’t know what is.
The concept behind the movie is actually not bad. A lot of people have loved Halloween and Christmas but yet Halloween at the time wasn’t as cherished as it is now. I remember when the Christmas stuff would go up in September and October more than 30 years ago. And most Christmas kids programs were sometimes condescending toward kids. By the early 1990s, the Rankin/Bass stop-motion animation programs weren’t being shown as much as they used to.
So, you can see how Henry Selick (who is actually the director) and Tim Burton (who is only the producer) were inspired by the programs of their childhood to do their own thing. The closest thing I think I ever saw compared to this was The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, the Rankin/Bass stop-moton animation adaptation of the L. Frank Baum book. Unfortunately, it was deemed too weird for audiences when it aired in 1985 and quickly fell into obscurity only resurfacing later. It was an attempt to do something different and darker as it deals with whether Santa Claus should live or die.
Selick deserves the best credit for Nightmare for making a movie that is colorful and creative. The movie was written by Caroline Thompson, who had previously wrote the screenplays for Edward Scissorhands and The Addams Family movie. Thompson has a nice tone to her writing. She knows how to mix a little of the macabre with normal society. And there’s a lot of creativeness to work with Selick. I like how the Mayor has two faces (one that smiles like a Cheshire cat the and the other that looks worried) because most politicians are two-faced.
But the plot leaves a lot to be desired. Sally is constantly trying to get away from the overbearing mad scientist, Dr. Finkelstein (voiced by William Hickey), who supposedly created her but this is done away with after the first half. There’s also the introduction of a villain, Oogie Boogie (Ken Page), in the final act who isn’t as menacing as he should be. And it seems to have been added to give the movie a villain even though it’s originally implied Finkelstein is the villain but he mostly disappears. Oogie Boogie has been controversial since the phrase is known as a racial slur from the south and Page is a black man. Also, some people have noted that Oogie’s looks kinda like a Ku Klux Klan outfit, even though he appears mostly in neon green.
Thompson has said in recent years that it was never her idea to have Oogie the way he is and begged Burton and Selick to change if but Burton refused. Behind the scenes, conflicts got so heated between the producer, director and writer that she said Burton kicked a hole in the hole one time. And Selick had told Thompson she had ruined his movie. This is why they never worked together again. Thompson would work with Burton on The Corpse Bride, which was actually directed by Burton and has a better plot and execution.
Part of my problem is how Jack just never seems like a likeable character. I can understand why he would become bored with the mundane routine of just celebrating and focusing on Halloween. But when he goes to Christmas Town, he thinks he can change it to make it better but doesn’t realize that it doesn’t need any change. Let’s not forget he orders Santa Claus (voiced by Ed Ivory) to be kidnapped because he though it his name is “Santy Claws.”
So, Jack kidnaps another person, then ruins his job by delivering creepy toys to the kids. In one part, he gives a child a shrunken head. But then he just realizes after people push back against him that the job isn’t for him, and he’s the Pumpkin King and should embrace that. This is some Kramer from Seinfeld nonsense. Also, Jack never undertstand he is wrong. Not saying that all movies have to have a message and good morals, but considering it’s intended for children, it promotes horrible behavior.
I feel a lot of the problems behind the scenes resulted in problems with the story and production. The run time I think was cut short either because of finances or a rushed production schedule. We sit through alot of Jack preparing to ruin Christmas and little time of what he does. I expected to see more of Jack as Santa. Maybe it was because Suess’ estate legal team demanded some changes.
And while the movie has become popular in the recent years, I don’t think it’s worthy of its popularity. I think a lot of it is marketing. Disney released the movie and probably owns the right so they’re going to try and milk it for what it’s worth. But many of the songs by Elfman aren’t as catchy or memorable. Aside from “This is Halloween” and “What’s This?” there’s mostly forgettable a few minutes after you hear them.
I also feel Nightmare doesn’t go as dark and macabre as it could. This is probably because Disney reigned in some darker material. Selick went darker on Coraline, which had a production not controlled by the House of Mouse. And Burton had to allow Disney to call the shots because he was busy in pre-production on his next movie, Ed Wood, which would be distributed by the studio through its Touchstone Pictures label. This might explain why the movie is shorter than normal.
Despite the movie’s problems, I feel it helped get the ball rolling for more darker Christmas movies. Only a decade earlier, parental groups had gotten Silent Night, Deadly Night, in which a killer wears a Santa suit, removed from the theaters. Now, you have movies like 2015’s Krampus and last year’s Violent Night being released. Newer generations have embraced the notion that Christmas movies don’t have to be Bing Crosby tap-dancing with Danny-fuckin-Kaye.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 