Don't take over someone's holiday

 THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

Though director Tim Burton did not helm this stop-motion masterpiece of unparalleled imagination (the director is Henry Selick), you still feel it is unmistakably Burton all the way. The kooky, creepy aesthetics aside, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is not just an incredible animated film in its own right, it is also wondrously inventive and oodles of fun for all its 77 minutes. Not one shot is wasted, not any one shot has less detail than expected for stop-motion animation. Everything and everyone moves - motion is consistent in the background as well as the foreground so that you feel you are a part of this strange new world. Strange it is. I am not joking.

The strange new world is Halloween Town where a skeletal Pumpkin King reigns with new surprises and horrors every Halloween. He is Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon), a truly bony skeleton who has long legs that resemble sticks and no eyes in his black sockets. He is tired of Halloween, all the shock and awe has withered away for him. Sally (Catherine O'Hara), a Frankenstein-type creation and a rag doll, feels sorry for Jack. One day, Jack discovers a set of trees in the woods for different portals to other holidays. Thanksgiving is one (with a turkey as its symbol) and a curious Christmas tree symbol as another. Jack enters the Christmas tree portal and falls accidentally into Christmas Town where elves make toys, there is a jolly fat man named "Sandy Claws" (I always laugh at that one), and there is an abundance of snow and merriment. Everything is bright, cheerful and colorful with this crazy notion of putting multi-colored lights around a tree! To us, this is normal but to Jack, this is odd and surreal. Well, you know the rest and I am not joking! You're joking, you're joking, if you have not seen this Burton masterpiece in the last thirty years. Okay, so Jack has three little Ooogie Boogie misfits kidnap Santa so Jack can dress up as St. Nick and give the kids Halloween gifts of the eerie, distasteful kind such as severed heads, a slithering big snake and other deadly toys that chase kids around the house!

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a wickedly riotous, fun-filled and supremely Gothic delight that puts its own stamp on Christmas and still preserves its universal meaning (remember Jack's heart warms up earlier on in his visit to Christmas Town). Jack is not a threat nor does he mean to cause disruption - he just does like all the other denizens of Halloween Town. It takes a stitched-up Sally to save him from complete destruction. Awesomely staged musical numbers ("What's This?" might be my favorite) with memorable characters every step of the way (including the Oogie Boogie Monster and those Draculas playing on a field of ice, not to mention the sad/happy face of the local mayor), no other movie aside from "A Christmas Story" brings me more joy in the Yuletide season than this one. A true keeper.