Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
What’s this? What’s this? Well, I’m asking the questions around here, bud. Jack Skellington, the “Pumpkin King”, is fresh off another highly successful round of scares as Halloween draws to a close, but the plaudits from his fellow Halloween Town residents cannot bring him joy, just ennui. Going to a meditative stroll he stumbles across the wondrous Christmas Town, a jolly place ruled over by the dreaded Sandy Claws.
Greatly enamoured with the place, and finding it unfair that the elves get all the fun, he determines to take over the holiday this year, roping in the rest of the horrific residents of Nightmare Town to help as best they can given their limited understanding of the concept of a Christmas, so that ultimately goes as well as you might expect, as long as what you expect it is a great selections of songs, gags, and striking character design.
While Harry Selick directs, it’s styled as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, primarily because, well, look at it. This is pretty much what I’d expect an anthropomorphised inside of Tim Burton’s head to look like, and indeed he functions more as a “executive director” here than a traditional producer role. That said, it’s perhaps Danny Elfman who has the strongest voice in the film, both in terms of the soundtrack and more literally as the singing voice of Jack Skellington.
I don’t think I’ll belabour the point of this too much – these days this is widely, and in my opinion rightly, regarded as a classic, both Halloween and Christmas, and remains a greatly enjoyable watch with it’s inventive story, great voice and vocal performances, clever, funny songs and beautiful animation. I endorse this film.