Animation · Review ·
The Nightmare Before Christmas
A stop-motion musical that still looks like nothing else. Selick's handmade Halloween Town and Danny Elfman's songs are the reason to go; the story is simple and short, and the reviews mostly judge the film by its world, not its plot.
Back in some cinemas for Halloween, and a good fit for older kids and adults who like their holidays a little gothic.
Dir. Henry Selick · 1993 · 76 min · back in cinemas for Halloween in some countries
Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, and he is tired. Every year he scares the world on schedule, takes the applause, and starts again. Then he finds a door in a tree that opens onto Christmas Town, and the film's whole argument begins: what happens when someone who is brilliant at one holiday decides he can improve another.
The setup
That is as far as it is fair to go. Tim Burton first imagined the story as a poem in 1982, while working at Disney, and the idea sat for years before Selick directed it in stop-motion, with a screenplay by Caroline Thompson from an adaptation by Michael McDowell. Danny Elfman wrote the score and the songs, and also sings for Jack, whose speaking voice is Chris Sarandon. Catherine O'Hara plays Sally, the rag doll who sees trouble coming before anyone else does.
What works
The picture. Roger Ebert noted that there is not a single recognizable landscape in it, and that is the achievement: Halloween Town and Christmas Town are built as physical sets, and the figures move through them with the dimensional, handmade look that cel animation does not have. Variety found the same thing, calling it "refreshingly different" for anyone with an aversion to conventional animation, and pointing to engraving-like and Bosch-like inventiveness in the design.
"Everything looks strange and haunting."
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com
The songs do the storytelling. Elfman's score was not an easy sell at the time, and he has since said he got bad reviews for it, yet the music is what turns a design exercise into a story with a pulse.
What doesn't
It is short, and the plot is simple. Variety called the ending conventional, and Jonathan Rosenbaum, writing in the Chicago Reader in 1996, put his verdict as "at worst a macabre Muppet movie, at best an inspired jaunt", with Elfman's songs only "fairly good". That split is worth knowing about: the case against the film is that its story is thin next to its world. The case for it is that you will not mind.
Who it's for
Anyone who likes their holiday films a little twisted. Ebert flagged that some creatures may frighten small children, so it suits older kids and adults better than toddlers. Try the checklist below and see where you land.
Where to watch
It has been returning to cinemas around Halloween, with listings for this season in some countries. Availability varies by country, so check your local cinema listings and your own streaming services rather than assuming it is on one of them.