The Nightmare Before Christmas

The main character, Jack Skellington, is renowned in Halloween Town as the Pumpkin King. He stumbles into Christmas Town and is mesmerized by this wonderful place.

He tries to recreate it in his own way with himself as Santa Claus and things quickly go awry. The citizens of Halloween Town are enlisted to help build toys, but their toys are a bit creepy and mean.

Eventually Jack realizes that he is best at the Halloween side of things and saves Christmas by rescuing Santa Claus who replaces the creepy toys delivered by Jack.

That is pretty much the Reader's Digest version of things. The movie runs 76 minutes so obviously a lot more happens than my 60 second plot outline.

If you have never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, don't let the strange title and bizarre-looking characters stop you. With entertaining music, catchy songs, and incredible animation The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fun movie that is worth your entertainment dollar.

But don't just take my word for it. Here are a couple of national reviews:

• "The hippest of all holiday classics, the 1993 release rendered anew in 3-D format remains a postmodern three-ring circus of morbid humor, eye-popping puppet animation and show-stopping songs." - Colin Colvert, Minneapolis Star Tribune


• "Working with gifted artists and designers, [Burton] has made a world here that is as completely new as the worlds we saw for the first time in such films as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Star Wars." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I found the links for the reviews via rottentomatoes.com

• Jack Skellington (singing) . . . Danny Elfman


• Jack Skellington (voice) . . . Chris Sarandon


• Sally/Shock . . . Catherine O'Hara


• Dr. Finkelstein . . . William Hickey


• Mayor . . . Glenn Shadix


• Lock . . . Paul Reubens


• Oogie Boogie . . . Ken Page


• Santa . . . Edward Ivory


• Big Witch, W.W.D. . . . Susan McBride


• Harlequin Demon, Devil, Sax Player . . . Greg Proops


• Man Under the Stairs, Vampire, Corpse Dad . . . Kerry Katz


• Mr. Hyde, Behemoth, Vampire . . . Randy Crenshaw


• Mummy, Vampire . . . Sherwood Ball


• Undersea Gal, Creature Under the Bed . . . Carmen Twillie


• Wolfman . . . Glenn Walters

Via IMDB.com

Just because this is an animated film and catchy songs that the little kiddos might enjoy does not necessarily mean it is meant for the Disney cartoon set. The film has its dark moments and creepy characters.

Other than the dark appearance of the film, this really is not much different than the old Looney Tunes cartoons as far as the jokes and harmless violence.

Check out the review at www.kids-in-mind.com to see what they say about having children watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.