Terrifying good, slightly dark and timelessly charming fairytale

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2016)

There is Christmas movies. There is monster films, There is animations and also musicals. Then there is the ultimate - and probably the only one - combination, Nightmare Before Christmas. Tim Burton (story/producer), Henry Selich (directng) and Danny Elfman (compositor) works terrifyingly good together to create this slightly dark, charming fairytale that will please both children and adults.
The story follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. He is the creative genius behind the Halloween, designing each year to be scarier and more horrifying than the last. However deep inside he feels that his life is lacking meaning and he longs for something more than the familiar horrors of Halloween Town. A longing he cannot understand until he stumbles into Christmas Town and sees happiness and cheer the likes he has never witnessed before. Having finally worked out what Christmas is all about, Jack decides to kidnap Santa and make himself the new king of Christmas Town so that he can have the happiness of Christmas. But the others in the towns realise the significant consequences that this disruption of the norm will have as Jack's evil nature proves harder to overcome than he thought.
In an age where Disney dominates the world of of 'animations that please both children and adults' it is easy to forget that over a decade ago Tim Burton delivered this delightful family film using a much more traditional animation style and a huge amount of imagination. I think it's nice to have something different out there. The basic plot is a great little fantasy with a very dark heart to it, that make it much more enjoyable, just because it has that edge to it. Nevertheless 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is filled with warmth and happiness - especially from the protagonist Jack Skellington - just not the traditional kind. It is a musical so it has a lot of catchy and fun song throughout the film. The voice actors are great and in my opinion really succeeds to incorporates the characters they voice.
The effort that evidently have been put down to make this film is admirable and the small details in the background are stunning. It's a timeless visual masterpiece that has a lot of charming details like vampires with umbrellas to look at. For me personally 'Nightmare Before Christmas' have a lot of nostalgia to it since I have watched it year after year always around Halloween time. Overall this is a very short but very enjoyable film that will please both children and adults at the same time (although can be too scary for the youngest ones) and never ignores one side of the audience over the other. Both groups will appreciate the dark fairy tale, the clever songs, the darkly imaginative animation and the comic sense of humour, making this a family film that deserves to be remembered and watched ideally around Halloween or Christmas.