Nightmare Before Christmas, The

The early 90's was a great time for film and animation, especially for Walt Disney Studios, who were experiencing a renaissance in terms of quality and popularity. Another giant at the time was Tim Burton, a star director who directed both the Batman films as well as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton has a unique vision and an ability to materialize his colorful personality better than most other film makers are cable of. From the very beginning, the idea of Tim Burton and Disney collaborating on a stop-motion animation film and its a match made in heaven. Add score master Danny Elfman to write the music, and you've got history in the making! The film opens with a brilliant song called 'This is Halloween', that establishes the setting and many of the major characters as they prepare to celebrate their yearly ritual of Halloween. They live in Halloweentown, so Halloween is kind of a big deal for them. They all go bananas when their pumpkin master Jack Skelington rolls onto the scene sporting a flaming pumpkin. He gives a spectacular show and everybody loves him, but in classic Disney style our hero is riddled with inner turmoil, longing for something new instead of the same ritual year by year. He wanders off and discovers a new holiday, Christmas! Jack falls in love with the jolly spirit of Christmas as a contradiction to his normal life and attempts to make the next Christmas the best one ever, though it doesn't exactly go the way he plans. The film is filled with catchy and memorable songs that will definitely tempt you to sing along (even in a crowded theater). Some of my personal favorite tracks from the movie are 'Jack's Lament', the town meeting song, and 'Making Christmas'. The songs are so memorable and iconic that there even exists a tribute album entirely dedicated to them, and it's pretty good too! Although it doesn't hold a candle to the originals by Danny Elfman, that man is a genius. Stop-motion animation was an excellent choice because it gives the film a very unique, life-like look. The animators put many man-hours into making the film frame-by-frame, and their dedication shows in the attention to detail. The amount of detail and care given to smooth out the movements really makes everything look a lot more realistic than most traditionally animated films. Tim Burton's twisted and dark imagination comes to life in the most fantastic of ways in Halloweentown, populated by a whole bunch of weird and wacky monsters who are honestly more lovable than scary (until they bite your face off). There is a lot of humor in this movie, which I really appreciate because it helps keep things interesting. One of the most hilarious characters in the movie is the Mayor, who switches between his confident face and nervous face to wacky results. Another favorite of mine is the Oogey Boogey Man. That guy used to crack me up as a kid. I have to admit, though, his ending part really used to freak me out. I've seen this movie three times in movie theaters when it was rereleased in 3d. It has remained a favorite of mine since I was a little kid and had it on VHS. For some reason it became a trendy, hot topic sort of thing and got super popular, but to me its not a fashion trend its a great animated movie!

This is always a great holiday favorite. I have the blu ray version but opted to see it in 4k. It does look like it has a little better graphics but not terribly upgraded. It is more convenient & lazy to stream it rather than using the disc. More movies get watched at my house if it’s streaming LOL. Always been a great movies that is loved by many.

Love this movie. Entertaining for all ages.

Great for the holidays

I had never seen this movie. It was ok.

Amazon conditioned very clean I forgot it was used lol awesome movie

Classic. A must own. Tim Burton rules.

Good movie daughter loves it I think should be part of prime membership not sure why we have to pay for movies amazon

Super film à regarder en fin Halloween

Great film

Un film da sogno, e poi essendo sorcina la voce calda del maestro Renato Zero.

Nightmare before Christmas ist ein wunderschöner, vor Details strotzender Film über eine (zwei) Jahreszeiten, welchen man jedoch das ganze Jahr geniessen kann. Es ist eine Art Puppen-Musical. Also es wird hier ziemlich viel gesungen. Die Story ist schnell erzählt: Jack Skellington, unangefochtene Star von Halloweentown, ist der immer wiederkehrenden Halloweenvorbereitungen leid. Gibt es für ihn denn nichts anderes auf der Welt, als immer nur die Welt in Angst und Schrecken zu versetzen? Tief in Gedanken findet er bei einem Spaziergang eine Lichtung, mit Türen zu anderen „Dimensionen". Durch seine Neugier findet er sich urplötzlich in der Weihnachtswelt wieder. Von dieser frohen, glücklichen Welt fasziniert, beschließt er das kommende Jahr Halloween sausen zu lassen und Weihnachten selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Dafür überzeugt er mit einer kleinen List die Einwohner Halloweentowns Halloween durch Weihnachten zu ersetzen und lässt dazu noch den Weihnachtsmann entführen... Mehr möchte ich von der Geschichte hier nicht weiter verraten - das müsst ihr einfach selbst sehen. Tim Burton haucht den Puppen solch ein Leben ein, dass man wirklich mit ihnen fühlt oder sie aber auch richtig widerlich findet. Es gibt hier eine solche Vielzahl an interessanten, genialen Figuren, wie es kaum ein anderer Film bietet. Die StopMotion Technik, hier mit einem Oskar ausgezeichnet, ist auch heute noch eine heruntergeklappte Kinnlade wert. Der Soundtrack von Danny Elfman ist eine wahre Freude für die Ohren: die schön-schaurige Musik, die Lieder, die Texte, all das vermittelt solch starke Emotionen, dass man richtig in den Film hineingesogen wird. Sehr zu betonen ist, dass dies auf beide Tonspuren zutrifft, Englisch sowie auch Deutsch. Denn die deutsche Syncro ist wirklich erstklassig gemacht worden. Die Stimmen sind sehr gut getroffen. Auch verlieren die (reimenden) Lieder kaum an Inhalt, was hier wahrlich schwer zu verwirklichen war. Dass diese Ausgabe auch den Namen Special Edition verdient, wird durch folgende Dreingaben sichergestellt: 2 Kurzfilme, zum einen Vincent, eine Hommage an Vincent Price (Kindheits-Heroe von Burton) sowie Frankenweenie. Beides Titel aus früheren Tagen Burtons. Desweiteren gibt es noch ein ca. 20 min. Making-Of, einige Produktionsentwürfe sowie diverse geschnitte Szenen. Alles in allem, ein wahrlich meisterhaftes Fest für die Sinne mit entzückenden, morbiden Einfällen, zum Lachen, teilweise fast zum Weinen sowie auch zum Nackdenken anregend. Nur kleinen Kindern würde ich diesen Film nicht unbedingt empfehlen, da manche Szenen sie vielleicht etwas erschrecken könnten.

Nato dalla mente di Tim Burton (autore del soggetto), che ha dichiarato di aver preso ispirazione da un ricordo d'infanzia riguardante il proprietario di un negozio intento a sostituire le decorazioni di Halloween con quelle natalizie, scritto da McDowell e Thompson, The Nightmare Before Christmas è una favola tetra e strampalata, divertentissima e dall'allegria contagiosa, ironica, e ovviamente realizzata in stop-motion (tecnica adorata da Burton), sofisticata e complicatissima, che il regista riutilizzerà per La sposa cadavere diversi anni dopo. La stop-motion richiede lunghissimi tempi di lavorazione (più di 3 nel caso di questo film, considerando il fatto che a ogni minuto corrisponde circa una settimana di lavoro) e consiste nel realizzare pupazzetti mossi a mano dagli animatori e ripresi passo per passo (solo per Jack vengono realizzate ben 400 teste, con diverse espressioni).