Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glen Shadix.
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The genesis of the film started with a poem by Tim Burton written when he was working as a Disney animator in the early 1980s. With the critical success of Burton's stop-motion film Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short subject or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids".[2] The Nightmare Before Christmas has been viewed with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.
"Halloween Town" is a dream world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves and harpies. Jack Skellington ("The Pumpkin King") leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween ("This is Halloween"), but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year ("Jack's Lament"). Wandering in the forest outside the town center, he accidentally opens a portal to "Christmas Town" ("What's This?"). Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his (somewhat limited) understanding of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. He reluctantly decides to play along and announces that they will take over Christmas ("Town Meeting Song").
Jack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Sandy Claws ("Jack's Obsession"). Sally, a rag doll woman who is created by the town's mad scientist, Dr. Finklestein, begins to feel a romantic attraction towards Jack. However, she receives a premonition that his plans will end in disaster and attempts in vain to warn him, however Jack is blinded by his enthusiasm for Christmas to her warnings. Jack assigns every resident in Halloween Town a task to help with Christmas ("Making Christmas"). Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to abduct Santa and bring him back to Halloween Town ("Kidnap the Sandy Claws"). Against Jack's wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake ("Oogie Boogie's Song").
Christmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer, guided by the glowing nose of his ghost dog Zero, much to Sally's dismay ("Sally's Song"). He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an impostor attempting to imitate Santa, and the military goes on alert to blast him out of the sky. The sleigh is shot down and he is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he quickly regains his old spirit and appreciation for former role as the Pumpkin King, having come up with new ideas for next Halloween ("Poor Jack"). He then rushes back home to rescue Santa and put things right.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the lair and frees them, then defeats Oogie by unraveling his outer covering to spill out all the bugs that comprise him. With Oogie gone, Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver the right presents to the world's children. He makes snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack; the townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack reveals that he is attracted to Sally just as she is to him, and they kiss under the full moon in the cemetery ("Finale/Reprise").
