Jack Skellington

**Jack Skellington** is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, and the protagonist of Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion Disney film, *The Nightmare Before Christmas.*

Jack Skellington is the patron spirit of Halloween, portrayed as being on par with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny within his own holiday. As a living skeleton, he is immortal and can remove parts of his body without harm, as is often demonstrated for comic relief. He is the most important of many Halloween spirits, with the implication that their job is to scare people in the real world on Halloween night, though all in innocent fun.

In TMNT X Pokemon, he is the husband of Sally and the father of Daniella Tang Shen Hamato.

## Background

### Personality

Jack is very much an *undead* gentleman, graceful and patient in equal measures and can usually be counted on to do what is in everyone's best interest.

Though his logic is sound, his reasoning can be questioned at times - he was quite thorough in his Christmas research, but opted to go with what he and his friends knew when he decided to give Santa Claus the year off and take over for him.

He was also oblivious to Sally's feelings for him throughout most of the story, showing that while among the more intelligent citizens of Halloween Town, he is very oblivious at reading people's feelings. This is backed up by the fact that he barely even recognized Santa's distress when they first met.

It seems that Jack might be slightly naive at times, as shown that he trusted Lock, Shock, and Barrel enough that he believed that they would simply bring Santa Claus to him without causing trouble, despite them being in cahoots with Oogie Boogie, as well as not realizing all the chaos he was causing on Christmas Eve before it was too late.

Jack almost never loses his temper and hardly ever raises his voice, but Jack was unable to contain his contempt for Oogie Boogie and did not hesitate to severely punish his old foe for endangering his friends with grim dedication.

It is also shown that Jack enjoys things that are new to him. He quickly became delighted with Christmas and grew increasingly excited as Christmas was being remade in Halloween Town just as he pictured, even giddily laughing as he gave out presents on Christmas Eve.

He is also highly optimistic, as he is very certain everything will go perfectly...that is, until he realizes how "Everything's gone all wrong." Even when in despair after ruining Christmas, he is able to cheer himself up by realizing he didn't mean to do what he did and that "nobody really understood" (whether he is referring to Halloween Town not understanding Christmas or humans not understanding his intentions is unclear). He is also humble enough to admit that he has failed and is willing to hand back the reins to Santa Claus in order to rectify everything.

### Powers and Abilities

Being an undead creature gives Jack one major advantage that most other Disney protagonists don't have; near-invincibility. Dismembered body parts can easily be re-attached, as well as remotely controlled by his mind. Though this doesn't mean he can't be killed, as in the film Jack states that for him, death would be his bones being ground to dust, this is supported by the fact that after his sleigh is shot down, everyone assumes he's dead. The Mayor even stating on his microphone that *"Jack Skellington is naught but a pile of dust"* while everyone, but Oogie, is lamenting over the supposed loss of Jack.

He is also shown being very agile and light on his feet. Being nothing but a skeleton, he has no muscles or organic tissue weighing him down, so he can perform great leaps and bounds through the air effortlessly, and despite having no muscles, he seems to be quite strong, one would think that without muscles he wouldn't be able to move or even lift things. Yet he has no issues lifting glass containers, presents, or even the rotund child of the corpse family as seen in the end of the film.

In his video game appearances, he is shown to be a very capable fighter as well. The *Kingdom Hearts* series shows him to be a very powerful mage, capable of using fire, ice, electricity, and gravity magic. He's also shown being able to use dance moves, such as twirling about and striking with his legs, or performing knee slides, as effective physical attacks, and he is also shown using his skeletal fingers like claws to slash at enemies as well.

In *Oogie's Revenge*, he is given a gel like weapon called the Soul Robber, which functions as a multipurpose shape shifting weapon, most commonly used as a whip, as well as a grappling hook. In *The Pumpkin King*, he's also shown to have access to other weapons such as the Frog Gun, the Bat Boomerang, and Pumpkin Bombs.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Jack will appear in Season 3 when our heroes are decorating the Farmhouse/Mansion for Halloween. Dani and Goddard was looking for some leaves when a portal open. Jack appeared and she was so exciting to actually meet him in person. To prove that she is a witch, she changes into her Human form which shocked Jack. After he takes out a pin and unlocked the pumpkin-shaped locket, it is revealed that Dani is his daughter named Jane.

## Trivia

* Jack Skellington made his first onscreen appearance in Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" (1988, Warner Bros./The Geffen Co.). As Beetlejuice rises from the ground, a canopied miniature merry-go-round rests on his head; at the very top of the canopy is a comical white skull that would later become Jack Skellington's head.
* His surname is play on skeleton.
* He is in the video game, *LittleBigPlanet 2*, as a DLC costume.
* In the original film, by a personal request, Danny Elfman does Jack's singing voice. Chris Sarandon (Jack's speaking voice actor in the original film) wouldn't do his character's singing until the video game, "Oogie's Revenge".
* In the Italian dub, he is voiced by Pop Rock, Soul, Rock and Roll singer, Renato Zero.
* In the Japanese dub, he is voiced by Masachika Ichimura, who did both his speaking & singing voices, as well as voice him in the Kingdom Hearts games and possibly Disney Infinity. Ichimura is also well known for being the original, dark voice, of the Pokémon Mewtwo.
* Jack was listed #22 in Empire Magazine's The 50 Best Animated Movie Characters. Stating as his stroke of genius the song "What's This?", as Jack - accustomed as he is to the dark, twisted Halloween Town, tries to get his head around the sweetness and light of Christmas Town. Jack Skellington has become a recurring theme in Gothic-style clothing and accessories, mostly due to his character and nature (as well as the nature of the movie in general).
* Though Jack can use Black Magic, as shown in the *Kingdom Hearts* series, he is never shown using it in his other appearances. (Though the opening scene where Jack lights himself on fire inspired by the redesign of his *Blazing Fury* attack in *Kingdom Hearts II* and the two *The Nightmare Before Christmas*games has Jack using magic through his costumes.)
* Though Jack is usually shown with white stripes on his clothes, his 2D artworks usually have them absent (or largely absent, some white can sometimes be seen).
* In the soundtrack version it said that Jack had four or five skeleton children after the events of the film.
* Although Jack is the hero/protagonist of his film, in some stores in the Disney Parks (most notably Walt Disney World) his merchandise is seen alongside that of the Disney Villains.
* His puppet used for the film is made out of clay.