Force Fed Films: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993)

I think "The Nightmare Before Christmas" has been on Jim's list of movies that Puneet-needs-to-watch-before-the-year-ends for a while now. And it is only appropriate that he forces this movie onto me only ten days before Christmas. Jim isn't the only one that has been harping on me to see this movie. A good friend of mine is disgusted that I've never even tried to see this. Both of them have praised this movie on the catchy songs, the unique styling and fun animations. Only recently have I seen musicals in a new light, before I've immediately tossed them away as being too 'girly' for my taste. I got to keep my up manly image as an internet tough guy, you know? Sadly this means I had pretty high expectations going into this movie, while being fearful that nostalgia might be why this movie lingers in my friends' mind why this movie is so great.

As the king of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington has grown old and tired of the same rituals that they perform on October 31st. During a walk after celebrating Halloween, Jack accidentally walks into the portal of Christmastown and is amazed at what he finds. He decides that celebrating Christmas in Halloweentown might be the ticket that will spruce up his year. He brings the idea to Halloweentown and the towns people with Jack will celebrate what they think Christmas is all about. But they might not fully understand what they got themselves into.

Sally and Jack celebrate in the moonlight.

This movie is just adorable, this is the one word I can use to describe the entire movie. The animations are adorable, the monsters are adorable and the overall tone of the movie is adorable. Although the movie can be summarized as: what happens when you remix Christmas with death metal. Every element of the movie seems to have a contrast to it. For every scary ghoul, there is a comedic demeanour accompanying them. As for the dark tone, there is a festive message at the end. A whole lot of duality in the movie that makes it one of a kind .. uhh two of a kind.

If we jump straight into the movie, we get right into the music. I loved the well written lyrics and they are definitely infectious. But overall the songs are hit and miss, I loved intro "This is Halloween" and the jazzy-old timey feel of "Oogie Boogie's Song" as they are the gems of the movie. But than we have "What's This?" a song that must have been written for kids with A.D.D, and most of the other songs are easily forgettable. But what is interesting is the 2006 reissue of the original soundtrack has covers by many artist who have rock music backgrounds. I enjoyed these covers a lot more.

Oogie Boogie is my favourite creature!

Now what stole the show was the animation. I could not stop admiring at how beautiful the stop motion animation was and the pure fluidity of each monsters, especially Jack. As his arms move, the body accompanies it so well. It was almost mesmerizing how good it was. And the small details they put on each character gives it that extra flair. Stitches on Sally or the the wiggles that you can see on the Oogie Boogie man's skin. These little things really make the movie that much better.

And if we are talking about little things, I must bring up the comedy. Because, even though the movie isn't rib-cracking level of funny. It has small details that bring out amusement to even the most mundane activities. Thankfully the movie isn't just for kids, enough of the jokes were targeted to a more mature audience. Because what is funny about kidnapping Santa and torturing him to a ten year old? Nothing that's what. The movie is more amusing than funny I suppose, but I sure got one or two laughs from it.

Santa, did you lose some weight?

It was hard watching this movie, not because it was a bad movie. It was far from bad, instead I enjoyed a good amount of it. It was hard because two of my good friends really like this movie, almost felt pressure to enjoy it as much as they did. I don't want to be the black sheep out of my friends. And I think I enjoyed it for the wrong reasons. I enjoyed the art direction a lot more than anything else. The story was simple, short and sweet but nothing too outstanding and the music wasn't the highlight of the movie. It's a nice movie to get me into the festive mood, but it is far from being my favourite Christmas movie (I'll say it once and I'll say it again, Die Hard is awesome).