Director: Henry Selick
My Rating: 10 out of 10
It's not a horror movie, I know this. So before you begin to give me a bunch of crap about watching a film outside the genre just remember that it's a Halloween film. And that's what this little exercise is all about: watching movies during the Halloween season. I couldn't resist watching this when the date on the calender read October 1st. It's out of my hands.
It's funny looking at the credits of this film and not seeing Tim Burton listed as the director, but rather Henry Selick. I suppose it's sometimes presented as Tim Burton's This Nightmare Before Christmas because it was his brain-child, and because his name is a little more well-known than Selick. In fairness, Tim Burton wrote the flick, so there it is. The idea of different holiday worlds inhabited by such diverse characters is brilliant. But, think about it: Christmas town would obviously be ruled by Santa Clause, Easter-ville (or whatever they would call it) would be run by the Easter bunny, but, from a conceptual stand-point, who would be the leader of a Halloween Town? Well, the creative team behind this film crafted a modern legend in animation. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, is on par with other animated creations of this generation, from Woody and Buzz Lightyear to Spongebob Squarepants. He's respected, admired and adored in Halloween Town as the unquestioned king of the land, but apparently it's been that way for a loooooooong time. Now Jack goes through the motions every Halloween in hope of finding some spark that will ignite his passion again.
The film has gathered up quite a cult following since it's release 17 years ago, and I'm proud to say I was in the theater during it's initial run. I loved it then, and I think I love it more now. To love this film is to respect the tremendous amount of work that goes into stop-motion animation. And not only does the film look amazing, but the songs are all fantastic and memorable. I still listen to the songs to this day, with or without the movie playing. I love this flick. The stand-outs include "This is Halloween", "Jack's Lament", "What's This", "Townhall Meeting", "Poor Jack".....well, basically the whole soundtrack.
Next: Frailty
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