Wednesday 24 December 2014

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Nearly at the end of the 12 Days of Christmas and honestly it was a great experience to watch Christmas films that I always meant to watch, however it was supposed to mean that we could post all the reviews and then not have to worry about the blog over Christmas.  The fact that i'm sitting here on Christmas Eve morning in my pajamas writing out this post the theory didn't pan out!!


The Nightmare Before Christmas is the first ever stop-motion feature film that follows Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman - Voices) who although has had a very success Halloween decides its not enough and visits Christmastown.  He realises Christmas looks more fun that Halloween so decides to bring some Christmas joy to Halloweentown.


I genuinely can't tell you if I like this, it has actually messed with my head a little bit.  I love the concept of the story but i'm not 100% it comes across as well as the synopsis would suggest.  The music and the score however are fantastic, really catchy and I found myself tapping my foot and humming along on numerous occasions.  The animation, although a little dated now is still incredible and the detail that has gone into every scene, there is always something happening in the background that just shows how much detail and effort has gone into this production.


Unfortunately for me, for me the story didn't resonate, I know a lot of people who LOVE this film and won't go through Christmas without it but I just couldn't fall in love with it and honestly I don't understand why.  The first 40 minutes or so I found really boring and it only seemed to become entertaining once Jack started delivering 'shrunken heads' to children on Christmas morning.


None of the characters really stood out to me (even Jack) and for me the story was somewhat lost in the mass of characters, songs and scene setting.


I managed the whole film by listening to the music and watching all the detail in the production but I don't think I would ever watch it again.


3 comments:

  1. I really love this. In fact, I nominated it for a Best Picture Fisti in 1993, and stand by that. I don't celebrate Christmas or Halloween, but this clever mash up of the two just filled me with joy and excitement...and that score/songs are just incredible. Sad that it didn't hit all the right notes for you.

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  2. Aww, I'm sorry you didn't like this more. I cannot describe how much I love this film. I even named my dog after Zero in the film. lol

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