Dark, Gothic, Fun, and soooooo enjoyable for young and old!

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2005)

It's Halloween and Jack, the King of this dark holiday, finds himself performing a fantastic Halloween Ceremony, but unbenknownst to his followers, save for a girl with a crush on him, Sally, Jack no longer wants to be apart of the Gloominess of Halloween, he wants something different.
By chance he comes to a wooded area with doors leading to the lands of other holidays - Easter, Thanksgiving etc, and then one catches his interest. A door with a shining sparkling tree. Unable to resist his curiosity, Jack enters the door and into a world so unlike the one he knows - happy, gleeful, everyone enjoys themselves, it's so full of color, laughter and life - run by a big red man called "Sandy Claws" (or Santa Claus as we know him!) Jack on returning home, decides that instead of having his subjects prepare for Halloween - they'll prepare for Christmas as Jack has decided to take the joy of Christmas and give it to Halloween - this year HE will be the one to make millions of Children happy. Sally however has a feeling that this isn't going to go as smoothly as Jack would like. Jack meanwhile has Santa Kindapped, and orders that he be taken to place where he will be comfortable, and to be kept away from "Oogie Boogie" the Boogie Man for Santa's own safety.
Also - unfortunately for Jack and the people of Halloween - they don't understand that what makes them (Zombies, Vampires, and Ghouls of Halloween)happy, and what makes human children happy are entirely different things, and wind up creating some... rather sick and dangerous toys. And when Oogie gets his hands on Santa and Sally, Jack realizes that the consequences of his actions have gotten desperately out of hand.
The animation of the movie (Stop Frame Animation - I'm learning how to do that this autumn!! ^__^) is SUPERB, the character models are amazing and it runs so beautifully and suits the story it's telling so well.
The music is very suitable too, and we have such a variety of great singers and songs - particular favourites of mine are "Jack's Lament" at the beginning and the "Oogie Song" - the Oogie song just reminds of the great Black singers of the passed which just bowled people over with their talent! The characters are very lovable, and Jack especially is very likable. Despite having Santa kidnapped his intentions ARE good ones (all he wants is to be happy and to make others happy)he's naive of the world beyond Halloween which people just take for cute silliness, and he's got an awesome singing voice! It isn't a scary movie - some of the Halloween townsfolk models may give you the creeps, but they aren't scary. The humour is lighthearted and fun, the story is amazing to watch. It is at times a dark movie but people love that stuff - yeah you've probably seen Jack around on some Goth girls handbag or wristband as he has become something of a Goth icon, take it as a sign that Jack - and this movie rock and go watch it if you haven't!