Utterly Enchanting

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2008)

This film is utterly delightful and can be watched over and over without ever getting stale. As one would expect from a film from Tim Burton it is darker than most animation. The sets and character designs for the inhabitants of Halloween Town are suitably macabre without being too scary for children to watch. Almost all of the characters are well intentioned despite being rather strange, the only exceptions are Oogie Boogie and his three side-kicks Lock, Shock and Barrel.
The story begins the night after Halloween when Jack Skellington, the organiser of the festivities is feeling down, despite its success as he is fed up of doing the same thing year after year. He leaves town to do for a walk with his ghost of a dog and stumbles across a strange wood where the trees contain doorways to the other holiday towns. He is drawn through the one that leads to Christmas Town and is enchanted by the strange world he has discovered.
Once back home he tells everybody what he has seen then sets about understanding what Christmas is all about. After much experimentation he decides that this year the people of Halloween Town will organise Christmas, soon the townspeople are eagerly making presents and Jack has dispatched Lock, Shock and Barrel to go to Christmas Town to kidnap "Sandy Claws". The only voice of doubt is Sally, a rag doll who has strong unrequited feelings for Jack. Not surprisingly things don't exactly go according to plan.
This is a film I would recommend to everybody, especially fans of animation or musicals, although the songs are aren't as up beat as most musicals I suspect you'll still be humming the tunes to yourself after it is over. While this is a Tim Burton Film one mustn't forget that is was directed by Henry Selick who did a wonderful job with the stop-motion animation, Danny Elfman must also be remembered as he wrote all the music to this excellent film.