I'm about to make a pretty startling confession. It's something I don't normally like to share with people, for fear that I'll get burned at the stake by nearly everyone I know, including my boyfriend and my best friend. But recently, this deep, dark secret has been weighing on me, and I'm not sure why. Maybe the lies have just gone on too long, or maybe I feel like I've given people a very wrong impression of me, but either way, it's time to get this off of my chest. I think that The Nightmare Before Christmas is just...okay.
In case you're wondering, I don't have anything against people who love The Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm still expecting a whole lot of backlash, because I think almost everyone I've ever met is a huge fan. It's important to note that I do like watching it. When I was younger, I was right there with everyone else singing its praises. But as I got older, and as I watched it more, I started noticing several things that just didn't make sense. However, in spite of its flaws, I still find it very enjoyable. So no, I will not judge you if you're part of the 99% of the population who adores it. It's just that, if you try to tell me it's the most flawless, brilliant piece of cinema ever made, I'm going to have to disagree with you.
First of all, the "love story" comes off as extremely forced. I'm getting this complaint out of the way first, both because it was the first thing that really stood out to me, and also because I worry that this is the one that will rattle the most cages, considering how many people think that Jack and Sally are the cutest little spooky couple that ever happened. Basically, I'm trying to get the most severe beatings over with right in the beginning. Anyway, it's pretty well-established that Sally has feelings for Jack. There are plenty of scenes throughout the movie showing her admiring him from afar. However, I have a hard time believing that there is any kind of a foundation for an actual relationship. The only arguably romantic moment between them comes when Sally sends Jack a basket containing a dead fish and a bottle of magic butterfly wine. But even then, she runs away before Jack has time to say anything to her. They only have one real conversation at any point, which consists of Jack effectively brushing off Sally's attempts to warn him about his Christmas being a terrible idea. And suddenly, at the end, they're singing about how they're "simply meant to be," and we're expected to just accept it. Unfortunately, it's not, as they claim, "as plain as anyone can see." It feels to me like they just decided to throw in a love story for the sake of having a love story. Even in Sally's own song, her unrequited love seems like nothing more than a footnote:
I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend
And does he notice my feelings for him?
And since we're on the subject of the music, I have to say at least a little bit about the songs. Mind you, I'm not talking about the score itself, which I honestly believe is one of Danny Elfman's finest. But while no one is arguing that Elfman is a talented composer, a brilliant lyricist he is not. Every once in a while, he manages to crank out some lines that sound fairly poetic, but most of the time, it feels like he's just trying to throw in words because he didn't have enough syllables to fill out a line, ("I am the clown with the tear-away face / Here in a flash and gone without a trace"), or he needed a rhyme, ("Kidnap the Sandy Claws, tie him in a bag / Throw him in the ocean and see if he is sad," which, let's be honest, doesn't actually rhyme), or he just wanted some more arbitrary Halloween-themed lyrics, ("Trick or treat 'til the neighbors come and die of fright"). At least three of the songs contain bits where people are just singing "la la la," sometimes for the entirety of the chorus. One of these songs, "This Is Halloween," also includes numerous repetitions of just the word "Halloween" over and over. This may only be me, because I'm an admitted grammar nazi, but every time I listen to "What's This," I can feel my eye twitching from the multiple grammar mistakes, ("They're gathering around and hearing story," or "The smell of cakes and pies are absolutely everywhere"). The good news is, the songs to lend themselves quite well to cool covers, and I like to listen to Nightmare Revisited on loop every October.
Every time I watch Nightmare, I have more and more questions brought on by the continuity errors and all of the things that go unexplained. How can Jack be killed if he's already dead, like he says he is very early on? How does Jack wander (sleepwalk?) into the portal between Holiday Worlds without ever coming out through the door to Halloweentown? If Santa Claus comes from Christmastown to deliver toys to children, and the Easter Bunny presumably comes from...let's call it "Eastertown" to hide eggs in the human world, then what is the purpose of Halloweentown? Do they just pop out and scare people on Halloween, or do they just have some kind of a parade amongst themselves and then start planning for next year? Why does Jack get frustrated with the villagers for not understanding Christmas when he does exactly the same thing? What's up with Oogie Boogie, anyway? So he's a gambling addict who eats/is made of bugs (and maybe people)? Why is he the villain? Can you really have an outcast in a village that's already full of strange nightmare people?
To be fair, a lot of the issues I have with this movie can probably be chalked up to a lack of time. I watched it a couple of weeks ago, and for the first time, I noticed that it has a runtime of just over an hour. I don't know enough about the making of the movie to know why it was so short, but Nightmare was truly the first movie of its kind, and the first stop-motion feature of that magnitude. It's entirely possible that the crew didn't have the time or resources to make such an elaborate production too much more than an hour long, and perhaps that's why the story suffered. Or maybe I'm being too nice, and it really was the product of terrible writing.
Speaking of the writing, I need to clarify something. Tim Burton neither directed Nightmare nor wrote the screenplay. It was directed by Henry Selick, and written by Caroline Thompson. Burton was a producer, and the creator of the original characters and concept. I know this is a little nit-picky, but I like to give credit where credit is due.
And of course, anyone who has known me for any amount of time is aware of how often superfans have ruined things for me. I have very little patience for all of the weird little Jack Skellington fangirls and fanboys, and it certainly doesn't help that a huge percentage of them weren't even born when the movie came out.
Now, all of that aside, I'll still maintain that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a cute, fun-to-watch movie with a lot of redeeming qualities. As I mentioned before, it was definitely the first of its kind. Full-length stop-motion features may have existed before Nightmare, but none on such a grand scale. No other movie before that time involved such intensely detailed character animation, facial expressions, or set designs. It paved the way for a number of amazing movies like Coraline and ParaNorman. Even though the final story left a lot to be desired, the concept itself is very unique and endearing. And like I also said earlier, it has a fantastic score. Now, I know we like to poke fun of Danny Elfman's tendency to reuse a lot of the same elements in everything he writes, (with the lalalala lalalalas and the BOM BOM BOM BOMs and the deedleedeedlee deedleedeedlees), but he really does have a distinct and intriguing style that's hard not to like, and his Nightmare score was exceptionally well-written.
So keep on truckin', all of you Nightmare fans. I salute you. I just...probably won't watch it with you multiple times in one year.
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