The Nightmare Before Christmas

Due to a lack of half way respectable christmas movies this season I thought perhaps I'd do a review on an old classic. The Nightmare Before Christmas is in my opinion, one of the best christmas movies out there. Now I'll warn you that I am VERY biased being a big Tim Burton fan but oh well!

This movie starts out in Halloween Town shortly after Halloween has ended. All the monsters and ghouls are coming back from their fright night and the leader of the pack (VROOOM VROOOM) Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King has had a most spectacular night of scares. The Mayor and the Witches all have compliments for him but they just pass right through poor Jack.

It seems that Jack has grown tired of the same old same old. He knows he's the best and that "..with a wave of my hand and a well placed moan, I have swept the very bravest off their feet!" In well written and preformed songs (written, composed, and often times preformed by Danny Elfman) we find out that Jack has an empty spot in his heart.

Jack goes a wonderings and stumbles across a handfull of doors. Each one has something rather stereotypical of any given holliday. But the door that Jack decides to open is the one shaped like a decorated christmas tree. After falling through it Jack finds himself in Christmas Town, IE the north pole. Here he finds Santa and his elves preparing for the big day. Jack is overwhelmed by the christmas spirit and decides to hyjack the holliday. This, of course, is where things go all wrong for our lovable hero.

Between the great songs like "This is Halloween", and "Making Christmas" and the unique animation/stopmotion style. I think we have the perfect replacement for movies like Rudolph and Frosty. My wife doesn't totally agree with that last statement but again I remind you...I am a big fan of Burton. When this movie first came out, critics said that Burton had created a sharp and witty kids movie that was too scary for kids. I disagree entirely. My daughter has a love for the movie that knows no end. In the past two months we must have watched our VHS copy a dozen times.

So if you want a unique christmas movie with a good message for the holidays I say check out The Nightmare Before Christmas if you haven't already!