There has been increasing pressure on me from family and friends to finally watch The Nightmare Before Christmas(1993).  There has been nothing about it that has interested me, but it is one of those movies that shocks people when I tell them I had yet to see it.  Given how often I go to Disney, and my general awareness of its fame, I have always felt I had a firm grasp of what it is about despite never putting it in front of my eyeballs.  Either way, my main question to those who had always reacted incredulously to this gap in my cinematic library was whether it is a Christmas or Halloween film.  The general consensus is that it can represent either holiday.  While there is some truth to this statement, I am here to tell you that it is better viewed as a Christmas movie.  As such, it represents everything that is wrong with how our society has increasingly come to understand this Christian holiday.

The Nightmare Before Christmas begins not with the title calendar day, but rather on the night after a successful Halloween.  What does that mean?  I have no idea, but the inhabitants of Halloween Town, or whatever it is called, seem pleased with themselves.  They are singing about all the spooky stuff they have done, particularly as heralded by the “Pumpkin King,” Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon, singing voice by Danny Elfman).  He is the one they all look to, including the mayor (voiced by Glenn Shadix), and they cannot wait to plot what evil things they will do when this night comes around again in 364 days.  Jack, too, is publicly excited, but as he walks away from the adoring crowds, he begins singing of his weariness for doing the same thing year-after-year.  He is surreptitiously followed by Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara).  Basically, she is Frankenstein’s monster, but in female form.  She has a crush on Jack, but is too shy to openly approach him, so she essentially stalks him.  Eventually, she is caught by her “maker,” Dr. Finkelstein (voiced by William Hickey) (sigh), and returned to his dungeon.  As for Jack, he causes quite a stir when the mayor shows up at his doorstep to begin discussing the next Halloween, only to find that he is not at home.  Instead, Jack has wandered into the woods and discovered a group of trees that contain doorways to the realms of other holidays.  I guess the one that has a chicken on it is supposed to represent Thanksgiving, but there are also Easter and St. Patrick’s Day clearly denoted on other entries.  Jack is drawn to the one with a Christmas tree on it.  Inside, he basically finds the North Pole, with elves busily preparing the haul of toys that Santa Claus (voiced by Ed Ivory) will soon be delivering to the good children of the world.  Jack is enchanted by what he sees, and apparently spends enough time in Christmas Town to get a sense of the holiday that is its raison d’etre.  He returns to Halloween Town, much to the relief of its denizens, and announces his intentions to bring Christmas to Halloween.  Because Jack has some kind of unexplained emotional grip on the, um, people there, they all seem willing to go along with his mad plan.  The only one who sees the impending disaster is Sally, but as usual, she is too timid to say anything, at first.  She has some time, though, because as Jack ponders what he needs to do, he can tell that there is something missing from his calculations.  I did not use that last word euphemistically.  He literally tries to work out the mathematics of the holiday.  He also reads books and decorates his home with all the expected paraphernalia.  Finally, he realizes that it is Santa Claus that he needs.  Further, he decides that he must replace Santa Claus.  He is the Pumpkin King, after all.  Why could he not also be the ruler(?) of Christmas.  Thus, he sets everyone in Halloween Town with a task for helping to ready himself to take on Jolly Ol’ St. Nick’s mantle.  This is when Sally finally speaks up, telling Jack that she is willing to sew him a Santa suit, but also admitting that she thinks it will not go well for Jack.  He ignores her because he is taken with Christmas fever.  It also leads him to make the questionable decision on who will bring Santa to Halloween Town.  He chooses three minions of Oogie Boogie (voiced by Ken Page), who passes for a villain in this nonsense.  Oogie Boogie is jealous of the attention Jack receives (I guess), and has other plans for Santa than giving him a break from his reindeer.  At any rate, Jack makes all the preparations, overlooks the fog Sally conjures to try and prevent him from taking to the skies, and heads off to deliver gifts to Earth’s young ones.  These consist of severed heads and murderous toy ducks, among other things.  In other words, it is the fiasco Sally predicted, and the only thing that ends it is anti-aircraft weaponry.  That is not meant as a joke.  Jack is literally shot out of the sky.  When he comes to, he has a moment of despair before finally realizing his mistake and returning to Halloween Town through a nearby sarcophagus because, of course, he comes down in a cemetery.  He gets to his land in time to save Santa, and Sally who had attempted to rescue Kris Kringle, from being murdered by Oogie Boogie.  That may seem like a harsh description, but it is what is about to take place until Jack intervenes.  Instead, it is Oogie Boogie who is killed.  Now free, Santa angrily heads off to save Christmas.  As for Jack and Sally, they share their feelings for each other by the moonlight and kiss as the credits roll.

After Jack is hit by an anti-aircraft gun (which is a fun phrase to write) in The Nightmare Before Christmas, he lands in the arms of an angel statue in the cemetery.  It is the only reference to Christianity in the film.  I find this interesting because the first thing the film asks us to ponder is what is the origin of holidays.  All of the ones on which it concentrates have their roots in Christianity, even Thanksgiving, if that is what the chicken intended.  Christmas is an obvious one, or at least it should be because, if nothing else, it has the word “Christ” in it.  Halloween is more obscure.  It actually is a derivation of “All Hallows Eve.”  Eve means the day before something, and in this case it presages All Saints Day, the point at which the Catholic Church celebrates the army of Holy Men and Women that have built the Faith over the years.  “Army” is appropriate, too, and part of the reason why we moved the majority of them to one day because the calendar was getting rather crowded.  Now that I have explained all this, know that this discussion is absent from the film, of course.  This reflects the drifting away from God that society has undertaken for far too long.  They are not simply boxes on your wall calendar that denote when you should put on a costume or decorate a tree.  They are meant to draw us closer to God, which is far more important than any of the silliness you see here.  Thus, I am happy to remind you about their origin.

I cannot tell you why anyone likes The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Of course, these are subjective matters.  It also does not help that it is a musical.  Indeed, there are more songs in the movie than speaking parts.  Further, given that I am not a fan of them, or the way in which it speaks to how society celebrates these holidays, I am pre-disposed towards disliking it.  The animation is kind of interesting, but not enough to sway me.  I do not recommend the movie because of these reasons, but I doubt anything I have to say about it will change anybody’s minds.