You
know you have a cult hit on your hands when a movie inspires fashion. Walk into
a rock or a Goth clothing store and odds are you will find hats or t-shirts
with motifs from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Leave it to
that Vincent Price obsessed director to come up with a movie where the
monstrous citizens of Halloween Town take over Christmas. Each of his creations
are animated not by computer but via stop-motion, the process in which objects
are moved inch by inch and then recorded to give the illusion that inanimate
objects are moving by themselves. It also works as a musical, with music and
lyrics provided by long-time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman.
Released
in October of 1993 as “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas,” despite
being directed by Henry Selick, the film worried Disney executives because of
it might be too scary for young children. I guess my parents thought the same
thing since I had to discover that nightmare by myself. It wasn’t too
difficult. Flip through your TV channels around October and odds are you will
find it playing right after “Beetlejuice.”
But
for the full experience, buy the DVD or Blu-Ray to get the informative
behind-the-scenes. It turns out animating plastic figurines inch by inch is a
lot of work. Best of all, the DVD comes equipped with some of Tim Burton’s
early movies. These include “Vincent” an animated short about a young boy
obsessed with Vincent Price, and “Frankenweenie” a reimagining of
“Frankenstein” featuring a young boy in suburbia who brings his dog back to
life.
“The
Nightmare Before Christmas” opens with the camera zooming down to a forest
where trees contain doors to towns that represent each holiday. As we zoom in
on the door of Halloween Town, we meet its inhabitants in a musical number
called “This is Halloween.” Their official leader is the mayor (Glenn Shadix)
who, like most politicians, has two faces. The man in charge of Halloween is
Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), a tall skeleton with a round skull head who
wears a suit and a bow-tie.
After
this particular Halloween Jack is feeling bogged down by the routine of his
work. He tells the undead musicians in the streets this was great Halloween
just like the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that,
etc. While wandering aimlessly in the forests, he finds the trees with the
doors to each holiday and is particularly intrigued by the one for Christmas Town.
Once
in Santa’s land, Jack is amazed by the lights, the food and the presents. Could
this be the change he has been looking for? After a series of scientific
experiments in which Jack unsuccessfully attempts to understand the meaning of
Christmas, he convinces the monsters of Halloween Town to do their own version
of the holiday by kidnapping Santa and delivering their own brand of presents.
These include rat hats, possessed dolls, snakes, and shrunken heads. Seeing
children open these presents may make you laugh, depending on your sense of
humour.
No
doubt about it this is a movie with a weird plot. How could Jack ever think
this was a good idea in the first place? Moreover, how come Jack had never
heard of Christmas before? Don’t these people ever visit other holiday towns?
And for that matter, is there a Hanukkah town?
But
now I am digging too deep. The point of this movie is to create visually unique
landscapes for two of the world’s most famous holidays and then watch what
happens when the creepy one takes over the cheery one. Since Tim Burton grew up
watching horror movies in the sunny California suburbs, so I am sure he must
have imagined that scenario plenty of times.
What
makes this work is the stop-motion, the visuals and the music. Halloween Town
is populated with vampires, monsters, ghosts, witches, and of course a mad
scientist called Dr. Finkelstein (William Hickey). Their town is grey and
cloudy, just like any regular October night really. By contrast, Christmas Town
has that comfortable December snow, bright colours, and Santa’s cute little
helpers singing Christmas carols. It all looks gorgeous and you appreciate it
even more once you see how difficult it was to set up each frame.
The
music is catchy and will fit right in at your Halloween party. If you’re a
hard-core fan, try the 2006 re-release featuring Fall Out Boy, She Wants
Revenge, Panic! at the Disco, and Marilyn Manson.
The
stop-motion tradition lives on with movies like “James and the Giant Peach,” “Corpse
Bride,” “Coraline,” and next year’s “ParaNorman.” Happy Halloween.
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