The Nightmare Before Christmas Storyline and Short Review

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion dark fantasy comedy film produced by Tim Burton and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the poem of the same name by William Allan. The film tells the story of Halloween before Halloween, when the Pumpkin King decides to put all pumpkins in his kingdom into hibernation for fear that Jack Sterlington will steal them on Halloween night.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1983 American stop-motion musical fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was adapted from the poem of the same name by William Shakespeare, and focuses on an alternate history in which horror author Jack Sterlington takes over Halloween Town after its ruler, Jack Sterlington, abandons it to its inhabitants.

The Main Characters Of The Nightmare Before Christmas

Jack Skellington

Jack is the main character in The Nightmare Before Christmas. He’s also known as “The Pumpkin King” and he uses a large pumpkin as his head, which makes him resemble Jack Skellington from Tim Burton’s film of the same name. It is unclear if that was intentionally done on purpose or they just thought it would be cool looking but had no real point to back up the idea other than an actor portraying their own role only using their superficial. Sal ‘Bag of Nails’ – Player.

Most commonly known as “Sal ‘The Bag of Niles’, or bag-o-nails for short, is a character in The Nightmare Before Christmas. He’s usually seen with a pickaxe which he uses to “fix” the damage caused by Dr. Finkelstein and his army of rats who have taken over Halloween Town all season long despite Nick’s little efforts.

Okogie Boogie

Okogie Bogo is The Pumpkin King’s assistant, henchman and ally. He loves his master above anyone else (possible except for Jack), even referencing him in “Halloween” by saying:

Mean Little Willy-Mackeson.”

Sally

Daughter of Doctor Finkelstein, Sally is a mentally disturbed girl who gets herself into harm’s way in order to meet Jack on Halloween. She acts like an “innocent” little girl yet has rabid insatiable hatred for Jack and wants his head as part of her collection. Later she appears with Pinocchio claiming that the only reason they had been sailing was so they could get their wish granted: to be together again.

Dr. Finkelstein

Mind controller and boss of monsters. Brindley Brindley is actually a little girl that swoops in through people’s bedroom drawers, usually on Halloween night for Jack Skellington. She often comes to give him advice about his “problem” as she calls it, due to Sally only reappearing around then (due possibly to the fact that Remorids from Brazil takes place during The Nightmare Before Christmas).

Mayor

The mayor is the over-done stereotypical “town drunk”, often portrayed as a very overweight man who claims to be from another town. It’s not known if this character appears in other Tim Burton films (i.e., Sweeney Todd, Mary Poppins), or how many there are since they only appear once during Nightmare Before Christmas Michael the Skellington.

Clown with the Tear Away Face

Jester, a Keeper of the Pumpkin Patch, who has fallen out of favor with Okogie Boogaloo. He is played by actor Matthew Bailey (who portrayed Truffle Shuffle in Mary Poppins and also Jack Skellington alongside Billy Zakka). A talking penguin made to look like ancient Chinese court official writes “1000 years” on pieces of paper which turn into water.

Harlequin Demon

Shape shifting harlequin demon who can transform his face into that of any man. Harlequin encounters Jack in Antwerp after the Halloween party he’s held upon receiving candy and a knife to cut himself off from Okogie Boogaloo, but is defeated by Sally. He also seems like an “innocent” character at first until it shows otherwise later on as portrayed during some scenes where he accidentally kills Pinocchio.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Storyline

Michael is a Christmas fanatic who, one year starts planning the most perfect holiday ever with his sweetie Sally (who repeatedly attempts to break up). One day while they are out doing their usual activities that include walking around town singing happy songs and giving these gifts cheery children when Jack Skellington appears in front of them asking if he can borrow their house for some party business.

Michael opens the door not thinking what’s going on until Okogie Boogaloo appears and interrupts, confirming Michael’s worst fears. Sometime later (day or night it is unknown), Okogie Boogaloo invites Jack in which he questions “What kind of party do you have here?” The Bo boogaloo replies with a confused face saying that nothing happened at all despite several children killed. He then asks if he can borrow the house again until Sally interrupts yelling at them to get out while still hoping.

Exposition

The term background exposition typically refers to information that serves to set up the events happening in a story and are given at certain points during the course of the movie. During these sections, characters explain things such as what is going on based upon fates or other specific circumstances surrounding them.

In “Nightmare Before Christmas”, there’s ample background expositors determining different skills used within each character played by Jack Skellington and Sally while they act in the film’s different scenes. This includes showing characters explaining things such as how Danny forgets what he seems to forget from time to time and how Okogie Boogaloo speaks ill of Jack in his own manner.

In “Nightmare Before Christmas”, some background expositors are established throughout certain scenes like Indiana Jones meeting Sally for the first time, who also lives within Jack Skellington’s official residence which is known as The Haunted Mansion. In “Nightmare Before Christmas”, background expositors were also made possible due to the film taking place during Halloween and year one of The Haunted Mansion’s existence, but excluding Easter as this would be unheard of in a Holiday Special type movie like Nightmare before Christmas is accepted unlike other movies such as Moulin Rouge which has an Easter egg within its storyline featuring Louise Lodzinski (although it wasn’t called that back then).

Rising Action

The term rising action typically refers to what happens throughout a company’s or individual’s story progression where the events, characters and plots are at their most intense during this part of their stories, which then leads into another. This is one reason why some movies such as “Nightmare Before Christmas” have the concept of character development over other typical battle-oriented live-action films that treats fighting scenes as more important than plot points which will be explained further below.

Just like in the case of a real person’s story progression where one begins as a newborn baby and then developing into an adult persona, the same thing goes for character development from childhood to adulthood. For this reason, it can be said that those who are watching “Nightmare Before Christmas” relating with their favorite characters both visually and naturally will find more interest due to having already have gotten used to seeing their mentalities change towards their own capabilities; all of which happens because this film is, in effect the end result of how The Haunted Mansion progressed from stage one to year two. But keep in mind that it is still a children’s-oriented movie and does not even reference too much recognizable history throughout its entirety though some might find it interesting as an extra nostalgic study and/or sensual experience rather than what a normal young adult would relate or want to obtain out of watching the story unfold.

Climax Of The Nightmare Before Christmas

Where a climax is the most intense and memorable portion of any story for an audience, then it could be argued that what The Nightmare Before Christmas does best in this chapter is emphasizing on how Victor Fries (played by actor Tim Curry) came to resent himself being held back to where he couldn’t become whole as well. This leads into his final set-back which cannot only save Harvey/Harpy’s sister Sally but also his own life from certain ills of never being able to attain the one thing he is realistically not ever going to get out of his entire journey: complete happiness.

Despite all that, Victor is still a “ghost” and by definition cannot be truly happy (or anything like it) because according from what we learn throughout this chapter’s events, it wasn’t exactly so easy for him both as a child or when having been broken physically without an amputation on each of his

legs.

What Nightmare Before Christmas does very well in this climax is having the viewer sympathize with Victor in that you understand how he feels at the same time as him making a rash decision beyond his control because of it? There’s an electric feeling to it all leading up to its surprising conclusion while also providing enough closure so as not make readers feel lost or unfinished like some other films do before leaving them on such a cliffhanger.

Failing Action

Because The Nightmare Before Christmas holds the distinction of being one of well-known animated movies that lasts longer than 90 minutes, there’s a point where so many different plot development lines can run into each other while they’re all still concurrent to it. And in this case, none more apparent than when trying to determine what initial action did Victor Fries do first towards his journey not only becoming part of Halloween Town but also hellbent on taking away Sam the dog’s life.

Despite having just saved his sister from certain death, it could be argued that he is still trying to do what any parent would want their child to do in honor of them when dying (if they were able); i.e., make a difference in someone else’s happiness for something worthwhile — or so he thinks / hopes anyway by being part of Halloween Town and merely doing this as an ordinary citizen of it.

If Victor did indeed do this action first, there’s a chance he was just saving Halloween Town in the name of all its residents by giving them what they want and love like Sam being his beloved dog food (which is where most characters go to when hungry). In that case, Victor could end up making total sense as someone having such a strong desire for family even at their inhuman conditions with Okogie Boogie trying so hard to conquer him when initially adopting Victor.

Conclusion

To say which action did Victor do first doesn’t really matter in the end of it all because he’s given a community to be with, but going for whether or not he saved Halloween Town versus Sam being his dog food does have an important distinction that can catch light. While all of these characters can still only be seen as pawns for the writers who are just doing their bidding, but usually nice characters actually have cause to exist and various mini-goals / storylines throughout the individual shows.

Let’s wrap this review up with what was said about Emily Valentine in Part II. ^ Jane Doe Theme Review: Alice (Once Upon a Time) The other highly decorated character from Once Upon.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Review

Overall Feeling of the Movie: The first thing that comes to mind for Adams family’s journey are their yellow color but also great singing and comic acting by Penn. It is a wonderful example of this if you were looking for one on DVD or anywhere else. A lot more attention was given on how Tim Burton did his best at directing than other horror films in the past. It still does continue to feel slightly like Halloween, giving us an enjoyable movie that easily falls back into a number of production designs such as Tim Burton’s 2013 remake.

What makes this better: I could argue for character development from any other part than Jack Skellington more so because he was the main character and heavily involved with everything going on throughout the entire story. His very existence shows just how much of a disorder it is to be under the collar design that Michael Giaimo put him in. What’s even better was how vivid and detailed Alice creating her world was, leading us into something that felt more alive but also contained flaws on both sides.

The Film As An Aesthetic:

It had been said truly weeks back by someone online how bad things were getting in this vein such as when we were asked what movie will Trapp ‘s story fit into? Just when you thought there was a chance we could have another masterpiece of this time in the movie industry, they instead produce something that is not deserving of what has been happening on Nightmare’s webpage.  It also felt very blatant as how Daniel Ferrand and Courtney Claus wanted to try and make up for Tim Burton’s lack directorial mistake by taking an abrasive approach at being more twisted than usual.

What People Like About The Movie?

So there has been a plethora of things that people have said about what’s wrong with the film from many different places. Like one this person agrees with me on, it is not an all-around satisfying movie to watch in the middle of their days especially for those who are very into horror movies and appreciate Tim Burton’s work as much as possible most importantly.

What does make perfect sense considering how hard I hear him defending himself (which leads us back towards Trapp) is that author and director Daniel Ferrand whom he has been flirting once more with a possible remake. Another person this comes up again in the film when Trapp throws his papers at Mike by asking him if it was worth rebooting a thing that people lived through? A very valid question which leads us to what made things so bland within the movie while also stuck back towards Michael Giaimo’s creation of Alice.

What People Do Not Like About The Movie?

This is where I get to discuss a lot of my many issues with the movie since the original POV’s all seem debatable and that kind of dissent has some room for me to listen. It comes mostly from people who have watched earlier material in this saga, plenty more than what you see now like when they talk about it being ‘unsettling’ which was untrue during those moments but perfectly fine while they last.

Although still, these are not exactly what people dislike the most about this movie. What they disliked more than anything was that the adult takes on child roles which took me back to when I would go here, saying how wonderful those were while watching it (which often happens) minus one of my favorite films by Tim Burton ever!

Final Thought

Despite being an interesting and chilling story with some very strong points, I cannot say that this film is perfect. There are plenty of things people seem to dislike about it more than anything else which makes me believe that audiences may not enjoy it as much as we anticipated. Although still, there are enough great elements at play to make The Stranger a movie worth watching in the middle of one’s days!

FAQs

How Long Is The Movie And How Many Minutes Does It Last?

The Stranger runs around 110 minutes when edited into a 2hrs long film.

How Is The Movie? How Would You Rate It Out Of 10?

I would give this an 8/10, since half way through I was wondering if Alice had forgotten her previous life within The Lamp or not…but once all 3 stories were given to us at last, we get whatever little hint that remained until now given and see how wonderfully they took off.

Is This A Good Movie For Adults?

I think it’s a really nice film. The visuals are incredible, the music is great and even if you don’t want to admit it but adults can be attracted to this oddity as well! Although there are some aspects that may not be to everyone’s liking, I believe that the film as a whole is very intriguing and well-done. If you’re looking for something dark and chilling to watch on a cold night, then I would definitely recommend checking this one out!

Is This A Good Movie For Children?

There’s some sporadic violence here and there (both implied and shown) but I think it would be fine for younger children. As far as the narrator goes, he is absolutely brilliant!

What Are The Themes Of The Nightmare Before Christmas?

The first one that comes to mind is the theme of isolation, which happens when Okogie Boogie isolates Jack, who was a toy before he became guardian/creator. Although Okogie’s intentions are evil and without remorse as he will do anything in his attempts at getting revenge on Calvary Grace for murdering him by making it look like she did so with Jack-O shooting her up and having her pillage the town saying.