Halloween. It’s my favorite day of the year. Halloween seems to yield itself to certain opportunities: dressing up, being evil for a day, getting candy for free and reviewing my beloved jewel of the screen, Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” As I sit here, writing, snacking and watching the movie, I have come to one conclusion. This movie was entirely overlooked by the mass audience.For those of you not “in the know” when it comes to Burton’s films, he did not direct “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” He wrote and produced it, and was brought on as a consultant during filming. The film was actually directed by the great Henry Selick, who went on to direct “James and the Giant Peach,” and more recently, “Monkeybone.” From his most recent credentials, you can assume that his greatness refers to this movie alone. Chris Sarandon, who played Prince Humperdink in “The Princess Bride” and Leon in the Al Pacino classic “Dog Day Afternoon,” voices the main character. His voice joins such other greats as Catherine O’Hara and even Paul “PeeWee” Rubens. Perhaps the most noticeable member of the cast, however, is Danny Elfman, who has not only the modern “Batman” theme to his musical credits, but also the themes to “The Simpsons” and “Beetlejuice.” In fact, there are no films that Burton was attached to that didn’t have Elfman doing the music. In this picture, Elfman even sings wonderfully, a talent previously unnecessary for other pictures. I’ve raved enough about the cast and crew; what about the plot?
It goes a bit like this: There are towns for each holiday of the year, from St. Patrick’s Day to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The story begins in Halloweentown where all that the town does, thinks, lives for or dreams of is Halloween. Enter Jack Skellington (a skeleton, voiced by Chris Sarandon and songs voiced by Danny Elfman), the most experienced of all the ghouls, who has become jaded and disillusioned with Halloween altogether, who is desperately searching for something new. Skellington manages to find exactly what he want in Christmastown.
Misguided, though well-meaning, he decides that they need to steal the holiday from Christmastown and begins preparations to do so, with the help of some other ghouls. At the same time, a young female Frankenstein monster by the name of Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) wishes in vain to be noticed by Jack, who is also the object of desire all the lady-ghouls in town. Thus, the movie takes shape.
Right about now, all of you should be saying, “This man is crazy. He’s reviewing a movie from 1993, and on top of that, it’s an animated children’s feature.” If you’re saying that, it’s totally normal. If you’re not saying that, it’s because you’ve seen the movie.
First of all, the movie breaks many of the conventions that denote a children’s work. For instance, the motivation of the main character is not to get back his candy, his house or anything material and concrete that a child would understand. It is a journey to get his self back, and no kid is going to understand that. While some may just make the point that that just means it fails as a children’s movie, I would argue that that makes it a great movie. For subject matter that deep, you’d have to watch a five-hour art-film festival, and I hate those. For another thing, everyone in Halloweentown is hideous and insane. There are zombies, vampires and even a Deliverance-style redneck with an axe in his forehead. If I had watched that movie at age six, it would have given me the creeps.
Technically, the film is amazing. The DVD special edition has excellent Dolby audio support for each and every one of the unbearably cool musical numbers. The animation, although claymation, is smooth and dramatic, lending itself to the mood at every turn. Not only that, but Henry Selick has camera savvy that I have seen in very few other movies. Some of the camera shots, such as the silhouette of Jack and Sally on the curly hill against the moon, I will remember for the rest of my life. I would say that until I saw this movie, I have never been moved by claymation, which I considered an inferior medium, but my opinion has changed. When I saw this movie, I was giddy.
When you get done watching your slasher, zombie and creature features this Halloween and don’t think you could stomach the sight of more entrails due only to sheer boredom, watch this movie.