The Nightmare Before Christmas

***The Nightmare Before Christmas*** is a 1993 American stop-motion animatedmusical dark fantasy film.

## Synopsis

Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home cause confusion.

## Plot

Halloween Town is a fantasy world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, zombies, mummies, vampires, werewolves, and witches. Jack Skellington, the "Pumpkin King" and leader of the town, leads them in organizing the annual Halloween celebrations. However, privately Jack has grown weary of the same routine year after year, and wants something new. Wandering in the woods the morning after Halloween, he stumbles across seven trees containing doors leading to towns representing various holidays, and opens a portal to Christmas Town. Awed by the unfamiliar holiday, Jack returns to Halloween Town to show the residents his findings, but they fail to grasp the idea of Christmas and compare everything to their ideas of Halloween. Jack sequesters himself in his tower to study Christmas and find a way to rationally explain it, but cannot. He ultimately decides that it's unfair for Christmas Town alone to enjoy the holiday and announces that he and the citizens of Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year.

Jack assigns the citizens of Halloween Town Christmas-themed jobs, including singing carols, making presents, and building a sleigh to be pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally, a beautiful rag doll woman that is secretly in love with Jack, feels that their efforts will end in disaster, but Jack dismisses her and assigns her the task of sewing him a red coat to wear. He also tasks Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous trick-or-treating children, to abduct Santa Claus and bring him back to Halloween Town. Jack tells Santa he will be bringing Christmas to the world in his place this year. Jack orders the trio to keep Santa safe, but the children instead deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman, who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake. Sally attempts to rescue Santa so he can stop Jack, but Oogie captures her as well.

Jack departs to deliver presents to the world, but the Halloween-styled gifts terrify and attack the populace. As concerns over "Santa's" behavior grows, the military takes action and shoot down Jack, causing him to crash in the cemetery. As Jack bemoans the disaster he has made of Christmas, he finds he enjoyed the experience nonetheless, reigniting his love of Halloween. Jack returns to Halloween Town and finds Oogie's lair. Oogie tries to kill Jack, and Jack pulls apart the thread holding Oogie's cloth form together, revealing a massive pile of bugs that fall into Oogie's cauldron and are killed. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, and Santa assures Jack that he can fix things and returns to Christmas Town. As Santa replaces the Halloween-style presents with genuine ones, the townspeople of Halloween Town celebrate Jack's return. Santa then visits Halloween Town and brings them a snowfall for the residents to play with. In the graveyard, Jack and Sally declare their love for each other.