In a sentenceA Christmas musical for people who would rather keep the Halloween decorations up
Halloween and Christmas meet in a stop-motion musical featuring Jack Skellington, whose speaking voice belongs to Chris Sarandon and whose singing voice belongs to Danny Elfman. Catherine O’Hara voices Sally, with Glenn Shadix as the Mayor and William Hickey as Dr. Finkelstein. Santa Claus, voiced by Edward Ivory, also figures in this fairy tale, alongside Ken Page’s Oogie Boogie. Henry Selick directs from a screenplay by Caroline Thompson and a story by Tim Burton, with Elfman’s songs accompanying a cast of characters drawn from two different holiday traditions.
Henry Selick’s stop-motion musical is funny, macabre and affectionate towards its grotesque characters. The story thins out between songs, but the animation and Danny Elfman’s music make it worth forgiving.
Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is an inventive holiday musical that we recommend despite its thin story. Tim Burton provides that story and is among the producers, but Selick directs the stop-motion animation, and the distinction matters when so much depends on movement. The film asks us to enjoy its grotesque characters before expecting us to care what happens to them. The 76-minute running time is sensible, though the middle still drags.
Chris Sarandon gives Jack Skellington his speaking voice, while Danny Elfman sings for him and supplies the music. The two voices make a convincing character, with no distracting sense of a handover whenever a song begins. Elfman’s elaborate writing suits these creatures: there is room for theatrical showing off, and the performers take it. Some melodies fade quickly afterwards, but while the numbers are under way there is plenty to enjoy in their bustle and oddness.
Pete Kozachik’s cinematography gives the sets depth and the figures a solidity that makes them satisfying simply to look at. These peculiar bodies appear to occupy actual space, and we can appreciate their shapes as they move through it. The designs invite us to inspect the edges of the image without making the central action difficult to follow. Both the Halloween and Christmas sequences make good use of this density of detail.
We laughed with uncomplicated pleasure at the dance scenes, where the grotesque figures become an ensemble without losing their individual oddness. Stan Webb’s editing is particularly effective here, keeping the movement readable while allowing the numbers to gather energy. Selick does not need to make the characters look less peculiar to make their company inviting. There is affection in the way they perform together, and it keeps the film from becoming a display of ingenious but tiresome ugliness.
Caroline Thompson’s screenplay has more trouble getting from one attraction to the next. The middle loses momentum, and another curious face or an elaborate musical passage cannot quite disguise the lack of dramatic development. We wanted a stronger reason for each new number beyond the understandable wish to hear Elfman and watch the animation again. That is a limitation worth stating in a film this short, especially when the music occasionally gives a modest piece of storytelling more ceremony than it needs.
Catherine O’Hara’s Sally brings a welcome softness to the voices, while Ken Page’s Oogie Boogie gives the musical its more demonstrative side. The performances help explain why the sweetness survives all the macabre decoration. A family fantasy can become exhausting when every unusual-looking creature has to advertise how loveable it is. Here, the characters are allowed to remain peculiar, and the film trusts us to enjoy that.
The PG certificate is worth noting, but it should not be mistaken for a promise of cosy Christmas viewing. The ghoulish imagery is part of the attraction, particularly for older children and adults who find conventional festive sweetness hard going. Anyone hoping for a strongly plotted musical will need to forgive the slackness between its attractions. Choose it when the prospect of another reassuring Christmas film begins to feel like a threat.
Most critics like it, and the praise clusters almost entirely in one place: the stop-motion itself. Reviewers describe Henry Selick’s animation and the character and set designs as a world nobody had seen on screen before, richly detailed and grotesque in a way that stays affectionate rather than nasty. Danny Elfman’s score and songs draw frequent, though not universal, approval, and several critics note that the Halloween-meets-Christmas premise works for adults at least as well as for children.
The reservations cluster around the story. Empire and The AV Club find the tale thin and losing momentum halfway, and the songs divide the reviews, catchy to some, forgettable to others. The spread is wide for a film this well regarded: The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calls the plot rickety and inert, and Slant Magazine judges it narratively slight beneath the design. The dissenters, notably, still admire the look.
Only Burton's demented imagination could have produced such a dark vision of the holiday season. The affectionate trashing of Christmas traditions is conceptually cunning and clever enough to please every generation.
Read the full review →The critic calls it a delightfully ghoulish holiday musical that displays more inventiveness than most studio films, crediting Burton's quirky sensibility realized through brilliant stop-motion animation and character designs. He singles out the morbid yet sweet fairy-tale tone and the painstaking technical achievement in bringing the demented world to life.
Read the full review →The critic praises the film's creation of an entirely new, strange and haunting world through stop-motion animation, noting it as one of cinema's rarest gifts. He highlights the visual richness, clever songs by Danny Elfman, and the subversive energy that appeals to older kids and adults alike.
Read the full review →The critic finds the stop-motion techniques create a striking, never-before-seen look in sustained form, making it a unique curio for kids and film enthusiasts. He praises the dimensional visual style, inventive characters and sets, Elfman's score, and the iconoclastic yet not subversive attitude.
Read the full review →The critic praises Henry Selick’s directorial debut as a gleefully macabre cinematic marvel and an unlikely but enduring festive favourite. They single out the film’s signature musical numbers and refreshingly original, dark perspective on Christmas for particular praise.
Read the full review →The film is an original fairy tale told in stop-motion animation with a lively score by Danny Elfman. It is a beautifully realised confection that will delight grown-ups of all ages.
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