Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1847 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-06
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 73 minutes

Synopsis
Tim Burton's stop-motion animated feature finds Pumpkin King Jack Skellington thinking the grass is greener over in Santa Claus's holiday. He marshals all his goblins and ghouls to take over Christmas, but alas--poor Jack belongs to Halloween. An amazing visual and musical feast that should be seen at least twice to catch all the kinks and quirks in the nooks and crannies. Now digitally restored and remastered with state of-the-art technology, The Nightmare Before Christmas is deeper, darker and more brilliant than ever--just as Tim Burton originally envisioned it.

DVD Bonus Features
"Nightmare" haunted mansion tour
Tim Burton's original poem
New commentary
Plus the original special edition bonus features.

Customer Reviews

great film but one silly problem
This new edition of the Nightmare Before Christmas is great, better picture quality and great special features. However, if you already own the previous DVD version, the making of documentary is exactly the same. Just a little thing but great dvd!!

This year, Halloween is ours
Only Tim Burton could produce a holiday musical about Halloween's grotesqueries taking over Christmas.

And in fact he did. Burton wrote and produced a charming stop-motion musical called "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is as close as we'll ever get to a Burton Christmas film. And there's rarely a dull moment in this town called Halloween -- from start to finish, it's a quirky, macabre, vintage-flavoured ride through the darker side of everybody's favorite holidays.

In Halloween Town, the undead Jack Skellington is king, and each Halloween the residents try to make their celebration even more horrible than the year before.

But this year, something is missing for Jack, and he starts wondering if scaring people is all his life has. He ends up wandering into a sort of holiday junction, and finds a portal to Christmas Town -- it's full of snow, lights, presents and innocent fun. Jack is instantly enamoured of Christmas, and decides that for this year, the residents of Halloween Town are going to celebrate Christmas.

He manages to convince the other Halloween residents -- except the sweet rag-doll Sally -- to go along with his plan. So Halloween Town is redecorated and filled with presents (in a suitably ghastly style) and "Sandy Claws" is abducted so Jack can take his place. But are the people of Halloween Town just not suited to innocent merriment, and can the Pumpkin King fill the capacious red suit when Christmas Eve rolls around?

The idea of Halloween ghouls and spooks deciding to take over Christmas sounds terribly twee in concept, like a gimmicky children's book. Fortunately Tim Burton's darkly humorous sense of humor and delightfully gothic designs -- as well as Henry Selick's brilliant direction -- end up turning the movie into something that is more than just another kid's movie. Think a Burtonesque "Princess Bride."

Much of its charm comes from the richness of Burton's visuals -- his Halloween Town is saturated in spiky iron fences, ghost dogs, insects, mad scientists, and a spooky cloudy night that never ends. And though the inhabitants of Halloween Town are devoted to being grotesque and spooky, there's a lighthearted benevolence in their actions at all times. It almost makes Christmas Town look... dull.

But it's also an incredibly funny, sweet little movie, with plenty of heart. There's an adorable little love story between Jack and Sally ("My dearest friend, if you don't mind..."), despite Jack's total cluelessness. And Burton weaves in lots of solid musical numbers ("There's children throwing snowballs/instead of throwing heads/they're busy building toys/and absolutely no one's dead!").

But the crown jewel is Burton's macabre sense of humor. Hardly a scene goes by without a creepy gag (one child's present is a shrunken head) or clever dialogue ("Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here. I can't make decisions by myself!"). But the best humor comes from the Halloween-town's residents eagerly trying to be festive, and only making Christmas even creepier than Halloween ever could be.

For a skeleton puppet, Jack Skellington is a pretty adorable hero -- he's earnest, generous, but suffers from a bit of ennui from the same old performance every year. His meditative songs about Halloween and his attempts at Christmas add an introspective note to him as well. And he's backed by a bunch of lovable characters, with Sally and the ghost dog Zero at the forefront.

"Nightmare Before Christmas" is a macabre, wildly adorable little movie that reminds us why we love Halloween (besides the candy). Sometimes the dark and fun go hand in hand.

charming animation with catchy songs
Tired with Halloween Pumpkin King Jack Skellington finds a land called Christmas Town and plans to make the festivities very frightening.

Tim Burton's vivid imagination has made him a modern day great and this is a sparkling gem with an acute perception of the holidays.

Opening with a catchy song "This is Halloween", Henry Selick's picture sets the tone for an entertaining and interesting adventure starring a spiderlike central character

Jack Skellington is a wonderful creation, filled with many human emotions including hope and challenge and is easy to watch. Danny Elfman has pitched the songs to match Skellington perfectly, especially when he first sees Christmas Town "What's this?"

The animation may feel slightly dated with CGI taking over the genre but the features on the DVD including the making of will leave you feeling heart warmed and inspired by the work and effort the team went to in order to achieve the visually stunning Oscar nominated effects.

The plot is very enjoyable. However there are slight shortcomings when an important decision becomes an instant realisation. For example the `what to do about Christmas' dilemma. Nevertheless the dialogue is likeable and is told with that charm of fantasy verses reality that Burton does exceptionally well.

The songs are always upbeat and all the characters get a chance to sing and shine, giving the picture a creative diversity. Jack's explanation of Christmas to the town of Halloween is a particularly annoying part with other characters disrupting the flow of the song.

But this is a minor flaw when you have the classic well recognized "What's this" discovery song, not to mention a wonderfully colourful moment from Oogie Boogie. These two songs bring the light out of the darkness and are the finest moments of the film.

The humour doesn't live up to recent Burton animation The Corpse Bride but the characters in this animation are far better. The imagination and darkness of the picture should not be discouraged and should be applied to more animations.

The direction gives a charm that isn't horrific but pleasantly spooky and is therefore suitable for the whole family. The likeability and humanity of the characters also help give this picture a relaxing and enjoyable realisation that isn't to be missed.

The Nightmare before Christmas has been recognized as a 90's classic with its catchy songs and a good plot that is memorable if not the sharpest and funniest you will ever see.

7/10