An overall charming combination of Halloween and Christmas, albeit a little overrated

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2010)

This is a very famous stop-motion animated film, one which achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success. I first saw a trailer for it probably around the time of its release, or shortly after, and could tell right away that its title was obviously based on the title of the classic 19th century poem, "The Night Before Christmas". However, I never watched any of the film until December 2007 (I think), but even then, I only saw a bit of it. I didn't actually watch the whole movie until last year, just a few days before Christmas, even though it appears it was originally released for Halloween in 1993. With that first viewing, I was disappointed, and certainly didn't understand the massive appeal, but with a second viewing nearly a year later, it did get better.
All holidays have their own separate worlds, with entrance portals in trees! One of these worlds is Halloween Town, which is inhabited by different types of monsters who celebrate Halloween every year with a good fright. The leader of this celebration is a skeleton named Jack Skellington, but another October 31st has just gone by, and he is tired of the same routine year after year. His woes send him wandering out of town and into the forest, where he comes across the entrance to Christmas Town. He opens the door and is sucked in, but really likes what he sees on the other side. The other residents of Halloween Town have been wondering where Jack has gone, but he soon returns, much happier than he was when he left. He begins to share his knowledge of Christmas with the other monsters of the town, hoping to get them to help him celebrate this holiday for a change, but they can't seem to fully understand it.
The intro of this movie shows us the place in the forest where each of the holiday entrances are located and features an opening narration by Edward Ivory. This narration is far from perfect, as Ivory tends to speak too fast. The intro is followed by the film's first musical number, "This Is Halloween", which is a pretty good and intense song to start with. The stop-motion animation makes "The Nightmare Before Christmas" a visual treat, with well designed sets and figures. Christmas Town looks gorgeous as we watch Jack discover it, and I wish more scenes took place there. A number of characters stand out, including Jack Skellington, voiced well by both Chris Sarandon, who provides his speaking voice, and Danny Elfman, who provides his singing voice. Most of the voice acting I can't complain about, and that includes Edward Ivory as Santa, as he is definitely better in that role than he is as the opening narrator. The musical numbers can be a little weak, and mostly aren't really that memorable, but I guess they could be worse. The film does feature a decent amount of suspense, and there are some pretty humorous moments, such as the mischievous Lock, Shock, and Barrel accidentally bringing back the Easter Bunny to Halloween Town instead of Santa.
Before I watched this movie last December, I thought there was a good chance it would be a ten out of ten in my book, just like it is to so many other viewers. However, that certainly wasn't the case for me, which became clear shortly after I started watching. After that first viewing, I wouldn't have been able to rate "The Nightmare Before Christmas" any higher than a six, as I found it to be a severely flawed mess, and after that, I couldn't hope to ever be able to rate the film higher than an eight. Fortunately, it now is an eight out of ten for me, so watching it a second time did help, and the film didn't seem so messy to me this time. I still can't join those who consider this 1993 animated blockbuster to be an absolute masterpiece, but I can recommend it. It may be too scary for really little kids, but for older kids and people in other age groups who like stop-motion animation, are Tim Burton fans (he had a major part in this, even though he didn't direct it), and want an entertaining film that combines Halloween and Christmas, this highly imaginative fantasy could be well worth it. You could probably watch it around October 31st OR December 25th and find that it really fits in with either occasion, which is not something that can be said about any other films I know of!