Creepy and fun little animated movie

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2014)

Okay, I've noticed that the reviews listed as "most helpful" are those that rated this movie a 10/10. While it is a movie that I'm sure appeals to the audience of dark humor and such, 10/10 seems like an unfair rating to give to a movie that isn't as perfect as its reputation. Still, this is a pretty good movie, and it can't be denied that it has a very original plot for its time of production.
The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the comedic and creepy adventure of Jack Skellington and Santa Claus. Jack is a living skeleton of sorts, and the "king" (celebrity) of the fictional Halloween Town, where Halloween was invented and morbid and eerie yet very friendly creatures of all sorts reside, from clowns to black cats to vampires. Halloween Town is ruled by an overweight cone-headed, two-faced mayor, who closely resembles a demonic Patrick Star. Each year the town has a Halloween contest to see who in town is the scariest, and Jack is outvoted once again. Bored of the same routine every year, he doesn't realize that he has an admirer, a scarecrow named Sally who doesn't exactly have a free and adventurous lifestyle herself. She was built by a mad scientist and is forced to be his servant.
One day Jack wanders off and ends up finding the glittering, exciting world of Christmas Town, where life is cheerful and happy and the exact opposite of his own society. He makes it his goal to bring Christmas to Halloween Town with the help of three mischievous, disturbed children, and to replace Santa Claus as the bringer of Christmas to the human world. While Jack's intentions are good, his methods aren't, and soon Santa is is danger of being murdered by a gambling addict cloth man.
I was a big fan of this as a little kid. It was my first experience with a movie that wasn't all about happy, jolly, pink hippie-happy stories, and I was eventually able to recite the script word for word. What it took me a few years to realize was that this isn't the only creepy movie out there. Many reviewers have rated this above The Addams Family movies, Tim Burton's Beetlejuice franchise, Stephen King's books and movies, the 1988 detailed Japanese movie Akira, the German 1994 cat movie Felidae, the realistic nuclear war movie Threads, R. L. Stine's Goosebumps and many other morbid movies I never would have watched had I always assumed this was the best of 'em all.
I loved the original characters and soundtrack by Danny Elfman, unfortunately many Tim Burton movies have the same formula and get a little tired after a while. I don't hate this movie, I really like it, but I'm not a die-hard Tim Burton fan, either. This is a movie I highly recommend seeing, but don't assume it's the best, check out other movies as well and you might be surprised.