The Nightmare Before Christmas is a film released in 1993 directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton. The film was a critical and financial success earning over 76 million dollars in it's initial run. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, making it the first animated film to be nominated for this award.
The film is a family, fantasy musical with themes of Halloween and Christmas (Who'd have thought it?) Following the adventures of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King in Halloween town where all year they prepare for a big Halloween celebration, but Jack eventually tires of doing the "same old thing" "year, after year, after year" until he goes for a stroll through the forest, where he stumbles upon a door, embedded in a tree which sucks him in and sends him to Christmas town. The rest of the film follows Jack try to understand what Christmas is and eventually try to take over the role of Santa Claus with his own Halloween spin.
The movie's main villain is named Oogie Boogie, a burlap sack filled with insects, spiders and a snake for a tongue, he is based off of a mythical creature parents use to scare their children into good behaviour, this is seen from both Oogie Boogie's name being very similar to "Bogey" and also in his song "The Oogie Boogie Song" he tells Santa "you better pay attention now because I'm the Boogeyman"
There are an ensemble of supporting characters, such as Sally, Dr. Finkelstein, Lock, Shock and Barrel along with plenty of others guiding the plot along and building the fantasy setting into something slightly more believable. The characters are all unique and lively, ranging from, Lock, Shock and Barrel being mischief-makers, to Dr. Finkelstein being a mad scientist creating weird and wonderful things.
The animation in this film is done entirely stop motion, using small figures, taking a picture, moving the figures along a touch, then taking another picture, this is a very time-consuming way of doing animation, but it also gives a unique style that would be hard to pull off any other way, especially in the early 1990s when this film was being produced. This method is pulled off very well in this film it comes off very smoothly, but not too smooth allowing the audience to always recognise how the film was made.
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