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"Halloween Town" redirects here. Halloweentown, spelled as one word, is a setting in the Halloweentown series of movies.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion animated musical film about the inhabitants of Halloween Town who take over Christmas one year, directed by stop-motion animator Henry Selick. The film is loosely based on drawings and a poem by Tim Burton, and he served as co-producer. He did not direct the film as is sometimes believed, but he was still heavily involved.

The film was released by Touchstone Pictures, a film studio owned by the Walt Disney Company, after the main Walt Disney Pictures division balked at some of the darker content.

The remastered 3-D version is planned to be re-released by Walt Disney Pictures on October 20, 2006.

Synopsis

The film centers on Jack Skellington, the much adored leader of Halloween Town. Although Jack is loved and respected by the townspeople, he is bored with the repetitiveness of his Halloween festivities and feels that there is something unknown to him that is missing from his life. One day while wandering in the woods with his dog Zero, Jack discovers a circle of trees unlike anything that he has seen before. Each tree has a door on it representing a different holiday. When Jack opens the Christmas door he is sucked into the wonderful world of Christmas Town. Jack is mesmerized by the color and cheerfulness of the holiday, and realizes that this is exactly what he has been searching for.

Jack immediately calls a meeting in Town Hall and reveals the splendid sights that were to be seen in Christmas town. Distraught by his inability to understand Christmas, Jack locks himself in his home and performs multiple experiments to try to better understand Christmas Town. He finally comes to the realization that all he has to do is believe in Christmas, and informs the town of his intention to take over Christmas for that year. All of the townspeople pitch in to create their own twisted version of the holiday. Sally Finkelstein, a close friend and admirer of Jack, tries to warn him that she thinks it is a bad idea to take over something he knows nothing about, but Jack is too wrapped in his fantasies to listen.

In order to successfully take over Christmas, Jack enlists the help of a trio of misfits named Lock, Shock, and Barrel to kidnap "Sandy Claws", aka Santa Claus. The children take him to a villainous monster named Oogie Boogie.

On Christmas Eve, Jack embarks on his makeshift sleigh led by skeleton reindeer and his ghost dog, Zero. Jack's scary and sometimes dangerous presents put the people in the real world in a panic and they begin to call the police with reports of attacking Christmas toys and an impostor Santa Claus. Soon, Jack is targeted by the military and shot down. At the same time, Sally goes to try and rescue Santa Claus but is captured by Oogie Boogie and the two are in risk of their lives.

When Jack finds himself and his sleigh crashed in a graveyard and his vision of Christmas wrecked, he realizes that he is the Pumpkin King and that he should stick to what he knows best: Halloween. In order to salvage Christmas, Jack hurries back to Halloween Town and confronts Oogie Boogie. After Jack destroys Oogie, revealing him to be nothing more than a burlap sack full of bugs, Santa Claus exits to correct Jack's misdeeds and save Christmas. Santa is later seen flying overhead bringing Christmas spirit to Halloween Town, including snow, and the citizens are amazed by the new sensations.

Finally, Sally and Jack both reveal their true feelings for each other and the movie ends with a kiss.

Initial Conception

The original ideas for the film came to Tim Burton while working as an animator for Disney. Burton has stated that he was inspired by being at a store and seeing them taking down the Halloween merchandise and changing it out for Christmas displays. Also, Tim loved holiday movies such as How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. In an interview he also described The Nightmare Before Christmas as almost an opposite of The Grinch because instead of wanting to destroy Christmas, Jack wants to celebrate it but accidentally destroys it. While at work, Burton scribbled out the poem on a piece of paper as well as a few drawings. These initial versions only included Jack, Zero and Santa Claus and the plot was subsequently very different from that of the film. Originally, Tim Burton pitched his idea to Disney, but it was declined. Disney told him the theme was too dark in nature, so he kept his sketches and continued his work on Disney's The Black Cauldron. It wasn't until years later that he was able to start production on something that had become his dream to create.

Production

The Nightmare Before Christmas marked the first time that a stop motion movie had been attempted at this scale. Because of this fact, a great deal of imagination and inventiveness had to be used in making the film. In order to produce the film, Tim Burton assembled a hand-picked group of animators, artists, and crew members to work on the film and founded a production company called Skellington Studios. In order to flesh out the script and come up with new characters (as the initial poems only had Jack, Zero and Santa Claus), Burton hired screenwriter Caroline Thompson. Burton also worked very closely with composer and long time collaborator Danny Elfman to write songs for the film. Because Burton was not able to give his full attention to the project (he was contractually bound to direct Batman Returns), he hired director Henry Selick to helm the project. Selick brought an understanding of the media to the film and maintained a vision close to that of Burton.

When Tim handed over the project to the concept artists he was very specific as to the look and feel of the movie, even limiting them to orange, black and white for the primary colors of Halloween Town. Burton also encouraged the artists to not use their dominant hands as to give their drawings his trademark feel. Once the sets had been approved they were then made into half scale mock-ups out of cardboard. These were then used as guidelines to build the actual sets. The puppets were constructed with a detail metal armature as a skeleton, and then placed into moulds which were injected with a foam latex. From there they were set to the fabrication department to be painted and finished. Multiple puppets were made of most of the characters so that they could cycle between the set and fabrication for touch ups.

The crew often had to improvise solutions to problems that they encountered during production. One of these problems was to give facial expressions to the puppets and making them speak. This was accomplished in a number of different fashions. Some puppets had mouths that were moved manually while some of the main puppets, such as Jack, were given hundreds of replaceable heads so that they could have a greater range of expression. The puppet for Sally was given interchangeable masks that were integrated behind her hairline because her hair was too long to be sculpted for the number of heads that would be needed. Another problem that was faced was allowing the animators to work on the sets. Because some were so large, the animators were worried that they would have to reach too far to move the puppets. This problem was solved by building the sets in different sections that could be separated when an animator was working and then placed back together for the shot.

The actual production of filming was a very slow and grueling process, taking over 3 years to finish. The animators worked on multiple sound stages at once to improve productivity on the film but a week’s work was still only a minute worth of actual film. The animators had to be very careful to be cautious on the sets as a simple thing such as a bump to one of the puppets could ruin a shot and they would have to start from scratch.

At the finish of the production of the film, the sets and puppets all faced different fates. Henry Selick kept a great deal of props from the film in his personal collection, and some of the animators also took home the puppets. Many of the sets were simply discarded as there was so many of them and they took up a great deal of space. A number of the puppets with a more human like structure were cut open and the armature taken out, as they were custom made and expensive.

Public Reaction

Nightmare originally opened in wide release on October 29, 1993. Although it received generally rave reviews by critics, the film struggled to find an audience. It eventually earned a respectable $50 million at the box office, but still was not nearly as successful as many other Disney films of that time.

Nightmare Before Christmas was nominated for best original score in the 1994 Golden Globes, as well as an Oscar nomination for Visual Effects, however it lost in both cases.

Legacy

When Nightmare was released on video, the general public began to discover it and it quickly gained a cult following. In more recent years, Nightmare has become a mainstream hit and is even considered a holiday classic.

The same studio that produced Nightmare later created another stop motion movie based on the Roald Dahl book, James and the Giant Peach (1996), though it did not receive the same amount of success.

In 2005, Tim Burton returned to the medium of stop motion with his new film, Corpse Bride, which was distributed by Warner Bros.

Technical data

Cast (voices)

On the soundtrack album, Patrick Stewart voices the opening narrative poem. A second poem, also read by Stewart, is included before the "End Credits" music; in this passage, the narrator describes a visit he made to Halloween Town many years after the events of the film.

Merchandising

The Nightmare Before Christmas has become one of the most successful franchises ever in terms of selling merchandise, and much of the original merchandise has become highly collectible and rare. A very dedicated group of collectors has developed over the years, utilizing on-line auction websites such as eBay to obtain rare items.

In recent years, with the introduction of alternative clothing stores such as Hot Topic, there has been an explosion of new merchandise. This has caused a great deal of tension and debate between some of the original fans and the people buying these newer items. Some of the original fans maintain that the newer merchandise is overproduced and uninspired, as well as poorly made, and thus is cheapening a film which, at one point, was a cult classic.

Haunted Mansion Holiday

For the past five years, the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in California and Japan have received a Nightmare Before Christmas themed overlay, called Haunted Mansion Holiday, for their Haunted Mansion attractions. The Magic Kingdom Park in Florida might bring this themed overlay to their park as well. The attractions are closed in October each year for themes to be completely overhauled, and open until January of the next year. The attraction generally has a one night opening event each year that includes special guests, a dinner, special merchandise, and a ride through the attraction, although the Happiest Celebration on Earth halted that in Disneyland in 2005. Starting in 2001, the ride has included a score that was written specifically for the ride by film composer Danny Elfman. There has been a great deal of speculation recently that 2006 will be the last year for the event, allegedly at Tim Burton's request. Despite this, Disney CEO Bob Iger dismissed these rumours at the shareholders meeting in 2006, saying "there is no reason why the Haunted Mansion Holiday will not go ahead".

Video games

A video game based on the original movie was released in 2005. Oogie's Revenge is an action/adventure game developed by Capcom from Japan for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox systems. Intended to be a sequel to the movie, the game features the return of all the well-known characters in a new and arguably darker story with upgraded versions of the film's songs. In the story, Jack leaves Halloween Town to satisfy his curiosity, but during his absence, Oogie Boogie is reconstructed and by the time Jack returns he has taken over Halloween Town and tricked its people into thinking Jack has abandoned them. Now Jack has to stop Oogie Boogie's evil plans as he attempts to take over the other holiday worlds, and the 'real' world. The game features controls similar to Devil May Cry. The game features a weapon known as a 'Soul Robber'. In the game you get other costumes such as "Pumpkin King," and "Santa Jack".

A GBA game, The Pumpkin King came out in fall 2005. The opposite of the PlayStation and Xbox versions, the GBA game works as a prequel to the movie. The Pumpkin King is a side-scrolling action platformer in which you'll control Jack Skellington and use a number of different weapons to fight enemies and traverse obstacles. The side-scrolling adventure game centers on the first time Jack faced off against his nemesis, Oogie Boogie, to eventually become the Pumpkin King. The game's plot will kick off with the invasion of some unusual bugs in Halloween Town. Jack soon discovers that these nasty insects are under the control of Oogie Boogie, who's looking to take over Halloween himself. With these creepy wheels set in motion, it will be up to Jack and his friends--including characters such as Zero, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, and others--to both stop Oogie and save Halloween.

Halloween Town's first appearance in a video game was one of the worlds in the Square Enix/Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series. In this game, Jack tries to create an artificial heart so he can control the Heartless for use in his "Heartless Halloween," but the plan goes awry when Oogie Boogie (who was one of the Disney villains allied with Maleficent) steals the heart, ingests it, and tries to use it to control the Heartless for his own purposes. Jack then teams up with Sora and the others to stop Oogie Boogie's plans. Jack can also join Sora's party whenever they are in Halloween Town. He was also included in the GameBoy Advance game Chain of Memories as a Friend Card sporting his own unique Sleights, or combos. In this version, he helps Sora stop Oogie Boogie after the latter drank a potion that shows the true memories of the heart and frightens all but the most pure-hearted. His appearance as a Friend unlocks the availability of the Pumpkinhead Keyblade Card as well.

Kingdom Hearts II also features Halloween Town and its residents. It seemingly follows the movie plot, in which Jack tries to take Santa Claus's place in Christmas. However, at one point during the story, Jack and Santa mention this being the second time Jack has attempted to take over Christmas. This justifies the theory that Kingdom Hearts II takes place after the events of the movie (Although is it not specified if it also takes place after Oogie's Revenge, as said game and the Kingdom Hearts series are owned by different companies), minus Oogie Boogie. In the game, Maleficent arrives to recruit Lock, Shock, and Barrel to help her wreck Christmas Town and make Santa Claus into a Heartless. But when Sora arrives to help Jack as Santa's bodyguard, Maleficent uses her powers to revive Oogie Boogie, who now seems to have a short-term memory, remembering only his undying hatred of Jack and "sidekicks". But, like before, Oogie Boogie is defeated.

In the second visit, Jack, still wearing the Santa outfit, and Sora team up to help bring back lost presents to Santa and learn of a mysterious "gift-thief". But the thief turns out to be a robotic creature created by Dr. Finklestein, referred to as the "Experiment." It is caught and defeated while attempting to find a heart by stealing Santa's presents since it lacked its own.

Trading Card Game

Sometime during 2005, a card game called The Nightmare Before Christmas TCG, was released. In March 2006, a new set came out: Christmas Town. A tournament kit also came out during that time.

Trivia

  • There is a hidden Mickey when Jack is on the train in Christmas Town. The Steam blower puffs out a Mickey shaped cloud but it quickly turns into a rabbit shaped cloud.
  • In the German version, Sally was dubbed by Nina Hagen.
  • In the Italian version, Jack is voiced over by Renato Zero.
  • In the song, "This is Halloween", the lyrics "...tender lumplings everywhere..." refers to "Tender Lumplings," a song composed by Danny Elfman when he was with Oingo Boingo.
  • Behemoth is based on B-movie actor/Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson.
  • Jack makes his first appearance in Beetle Juice (1988) on top of Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton)'s carousel hat towards the end when Beetlejuice rises out of the floor, after summoned by Lydia (Winona Ryder).
  • The cat from Tim Burton's first film, Vincent (1982) is present in the beginning of the film. It's the cat that jumps onto the garbage can.
  • Patrick Stewart did the original introduction for the movie, which can be heard on the film's soundtrack.
  • Tim Burton has said the original poem was inspired after seeing Halloween merchandise display in a store being taken down and replaced by a Christmas display. The juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with Santa and his reindeer sparked his imagination.
  • The snake seen in the movie is the Saturn Sandworm from Beetle Juice (1988)
  • Two items were invented to facilitate the filming of the movie: One was a "light alarm" which would warn the animators if any of the stage lights failed to come on. The other was a system that enabled a puppeteer to seamlessly switch to a replacement puppet if a puppet broke during a shot. Prior to this, either situation, a light failing to come on or a puppet breaking would destroy a shot.
  • An excerpt from the Batman (1989) theme can be heard when the search-lights are looking for Jack.
  • Two toys that Jack delivers reference Batman Returns, the film Tim Burton had directing commitments towards at the time. One is an evil duck on wheels, which is the vehicle that Penguin drives. The other is an evil cat doll, which has the same head as the mascot for Shreck's corporation
  • The teaser trailer tells us that the film was originally produced by the major Disney division, playing the movie heavily as the next generation of filmmaking. By the time the theatrical trailer was released, the production team had changed (Touchstone Pictures, which is itself a division of Disney), and the comparisons to Walt Disney as the new great animator are gone. The reason for this was, at the time Disney did not think it proper to have a "PG" rating under the Disney Banner, so it was switched to the Touchtone Banner.
  • This was the first movie to ever be fully animated using the stop-motion technique that was favored by Tim Burton for special effects in some of his other movies for its surreal quality. The animators received Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects as a result, but lost to ILM who created the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park (1993)
  • Oogie Boogie is inspired by Cab Calloway, who provided character voices and musical numbers for several Fleischer Bros. cartoons; he and Santa Claus quote dialog from the Betty Boop short "The Old Man of the Mountain", when Santa asks (quoting Betty's line) "What are you going to do now?", and Oogie returns Calloway's (as the Old Man) "Goin' do the best I can..."
  • Tim Burton had hoped to direct, but placed Henry Selick in the director's chair instead as Burton was busy working on Batman Returns (1992).
  • The character design in Okage: Shadow King has been said to be reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas. This was either done in tribute or just the creators taking advantage of the huge amount of popularity the movie has in Japan, hoping to generate sales of what many believe to be an average game overall.
  • During the song "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" barrel lures a bug into a cage using a lolli-pop. When he picks up the cage in the next shot the lolli-pop is no longer there.

External links

1993 films | Christmas films | Disney animated films | Musical films | Stop motion-animated films | Touchstone Pictures films | 3-D films

Malson abans de Nadal | Nightmare Before Christmas | The Nightmare Before Christmas | L'Étrange Noël de Monsieur Jack | Martröð á Jólanótt | Nightmare Before Christmas | הסיוט שלפני חג המולד | The Nightmare Before Christmas | ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス | Miasteczko Halloween | Nightmare Before Christmas | Кошмар перед Рождеством (мультфильм) | The Nightmare Before Christmas | The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

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