Always one of my favorites

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2011)

I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time when it was released for the first time; I was nine years old. Growing up in a country where whatever knowledge I had of Christmas and Halloween came from American TV, I missed a lot of the jokes and a lot of the references, but I enjoyed the colorful characters, zany adventure and dark slapstick. I loved it.
I watched it again when I was 16 and going to art school, during a lecture about adult animation. This time I enjoyed the stylish design, the meticulously made stop-motion animation and the infectious songs. Loved it.
And I watched it for a third time when I was 22 and studying design. I now knew the careers of both Henry Selick and Tim Burton back to front, and could appreciate just how much of a landmark the film was for both of them. I could also appreciate the subtle pokes at American culture, and the clever homage to both classic animated Christmas specials and German expressionist cinema. Loved it.
I now tend to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas approximately once a year. It's not a tradition or anything, I still don't celebrate Christmas or Halloween. There just always seems to be some good reason to watch it, as it's one of the shortest, quickest, and most enjoyable of my all time favorite films. And I enjoy it every time. It's wildly imaginative, beautifully animated in stop-motion animation that isn't likely to age any time soon, gorgeously designed and wonderfully scored. It refused to acknowledge the idea that an animated film has to make a choice between kids' and adults' animation; it's directed at mature and intelligent kids, and at young-at-heart adults, two years before Pixar started making films that made the same choice.
Most of all, The Nightmare Before Christmas remains one of a kind. Burton tried to recreate the magic with Corpse Bride and failed miserably. It's funny, it's filled with sarcasm but also surprisingly touching and idealistic. It's the best movie Tim Burton never made, and it will always be one of my all time favorites.