by Dennis Polifroni
(U. S. 1993) DVD/Blu-Ray
Dr. Seuss meets Frankenstein as performed by the Metropolitan Opera
p. Denise DiNovi, Tim Burton d. Henry Selick w. Caroline Thompson,
Micheal McDowell, Joe Ranft poem/designs. Tim Burton
m/songs. Danny Elfman ph. Pete Kozachik art. Dean Taylor ed. Stan Webb
Danny Elfman (Jack Skellington-singing voice), Chris Sarandon (Jack Skellinton-dialogue), Catharine O’Hara (Sally), William Hickey (Dr. Finklestein), Glen Shadix (Mayor), Danny Elfman (Lock), Catharine O’Hara (Shock), Paul Reubens (Barrel), Ed Ivory (Santa Claus), Ken Paige (Oogie Boogie)
An iris slowly opens and a crooked scarecrow appears, clinging to its post. A leaf strewn gust of wind turns the straw-man on its hitch and the pumpkin-headed specter of the fields points with an outstretched, wooden, knobby finger. He beckons and suggests a path we might not readily take. The path is towards a dark place and the ghosts that seemingly rise from nowhere, jelly-like apparitions with deep black holes for eyes, begin to chant.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thumpaaaa. Thump!
But, what’s this? MUSIC?
It’s here that all fears and feelings of uneasiness drag slowly away like a corpse towards dissipation and we find ourselves in a town square. The squares designs are a combination of cartoonist Charles Addams and the architectural masters of German Expressionism. An assortment of ghouls and creatures that lay dormant till night jump for joy and sing, like a chorus of children rowdy from too much sugar and games heavy with competition, glee filled and anxious. This is music of celebration, a chorus of affirmation, and the excitement in the singers voices signify the congratulations wished upon each other for jobs well done. It is a social celebration of a community that has pulled together in a joint effort.
However, in the midst of all the well wishing and congratulatory exuberance, cheers come ringing out. Cheers of respect and applause that define the admiration these lowly creatures of the night labor on their fearless leader, the king of their quaint little hamlet. It’s amidst these high-pitched songs of praise that the head of their clan, a great man whose presence both humbles them and signifies the bonding of a community capable of such good work is asked to step up, reveal himself, and speak.
One would expect a smiling politician in a top hat and a pristine pin-striped suit or, perhaps, a farmer made of solid muscle whose toils in the fields are unchallenged. What appears, though, is something wholly different for rising from the green moss and silt tainted waters of an ancient, gothic fountain is Jack. Jack, the King of Halloweentown, devoid of skin, a skeleton prince among the ghouls and goonies of a place that can only be visited in the dreams of slumber. With a boney hand, he touches his bat-shaped bow-tie and clears his throat. It is at this moment the crowd that has gathered around him pause in silence. It is a moment we expect a guttural and gurgling thunder of a grunt to rumble from his waist-coated rib cage. Instead, a lilting, soft and beautiful voice wafts across the square.
Nothing, that we have come to expect from other moments like these in time and dreams, is anything like it would seem to be.
Or should be…
So begins Tim Burtons irreverent, kooky and altogether haunting THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
It is a film that breaks the molds of conventional Hollywood musicals. However, even in its insanity, it’s grounded by the same sweetness and moral conventions of the classic musical repertoire and the best films of its genre. At its center is a story of moral revelations turned completely on its ear, taking the often quoted words of wisdom “home is where the heart is” and inverts its sentiments for Jack, the Pumpkin King, will soon find out that heart (and the best of ourselves) is where we and our friends live. It’s a film about the grounding and comforting natures of home (as bizarre as some of our homes may be) and these sentiments, fused as they are here through the stained glass windows of Poe (as in Edgar Allan) and Lovecraft (as in H. P.) and Stevenson (as in Robert Louis) and Whale (as in James), are not new to film musicals. These same sentiments, and the moral lessons derived from them, hark back to a lonely, sepia-toned little girl named Dorothy that once took a magical and song punctuated, wonderful Technicolor trip down a yellow brick road. However, while Dorothy’s journey was one decorated in the bright colors hued onto the landscape through lollipops and candy-canes, Burton chooses the reverse and casts his hero, and the journey he takes, through a mesh that sifts its details from Grand Guignold. It’s a landscape of shadows and fog, of black cats and bats in every attic. It’s a place that resides in the shadows of our childhood closets and those dark, inky black places we dare not reach into under our beds.
The story is simple. Jack has been organizing Halloween for the worlds children for decades from his base of operations, that magical little metropolis mentioned before. Like his home, all the other holidays have their own worlds and lands. However, bored by the daily grind of creating frights for that one day a year, he wanders from the celebration (with his ghost-dog, Zero) and into the woods, lamenting about the predictability of it all. He stumbles upon a ring of red-wood trees. Unbeknownst to him at first, each tree harbors a doorway to another world. Curiosity, being what it is, forces Jacks hand to one of the doors and the spindly skeleton is sucked down, in a spiraling fall (shades of the cyclone that will spin Judy Garland to a place called Munchkinland) to a town swathed in snowflakes and elves and warm cocoa and wrapping paper. From the coldness of his dark world, he escapes to the warmth of a holiday that evokes smiles and not frowns, where screams are replaced by hugs and kisses. Suddenly, and without hesitation to think things through, Jack makes the decision to kidnap Christmas and make it his own. Finally, the predictability of his life has found a loving, new and freshly reactive finish line.
That is, until the best laid plans of mice and men and clumsy skeletons go horribly and mistakenly wrong.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS is one of the few recent (by recent I mean within the past twenty years) musicals that holds up remarkably well after repeat viewings (I watch it, at the very least, annually) and the ravages of time. I remember seeing it for the first time on the big screen during its original theatrical run in 1993. Swathed in a cloud of marijuana smoke and NOT a few cans of beer, I remember its irreverence and the whimsical effect it had on me. Yet, seeing it recently (on a pristine Blu-Ray), I realized that its charms and artistry had nothing to do with the illegal (and should be illegal) substances I was partaking in at the time. It is a film that charms with its story, a musical whose music borders on that of the operetta form and originality rarely seen in this kind of genre. It’s a perfectly conceived dream of a movie so convincing in its depiction of its places and people that the audience has no other choice but to surrender to it. Like OZ, we never question the whereto’s and the whyfore’s of its contained reality. It is a film about places and people we only wish really existed. It is the strictest of great fantasy film-making and stands tall with the likes of THE WIZARD OF OZ, KING KONG and STAR WARS.
Thinking back on interviews given by Tim Burton, it’s really not at all hard to understand where the bizarre inspiration for the story came from. As a “goth” kid growing up in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Burton himself was a loner. Forced into solitude by his appearance and enthusiasm for art and the weird, he dove into a life of the mind. Pumped up by candy and made wide-eyed by the glow of a portable black and white television set, he latched onto the surreal landscapes illustrated by Rankin and Bass with their innumerable stop-motion animation holiday specials (RUDOLF THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN) and, particularly, by Chuck Jones immortal short cartoon masterpiece HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. Infusing his own morbid sensibilities (and invoking favorites like Christopher Lee in THE HORROR OF DRACULA and every horror outing for Vincent Price) into the mix, these animated classics served as a diving off point for the soon-to-be animator/director and it’s the fruit of this combination that surfaced as an illustrated poem (I had the great, good fortune to see the Burton exhibition at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City last year. Among the displays was a wealth of drawings and paintings that Burton did decades ago for the poem that NIGHTMARE is based on.).
On paper, in written words and pictures, the poem acted as a constant, gnawing reminder to Burton for decades. Years passed. However, after the success of directing blockbusters like PEE WEES BIG ADVENTURE, BEETLEJUICE and the over-the-top BATMAN, Burton was finally in a position to bring his love-child made of crayons, ball-points and construction paper to life. To the powers-that-be in Hollywood, the only logical course was to let this dynamo that just made them a gazillion dollars at the box-office have his day in the sun and allow him to realize his dream project.
But, how do you do it? How do you bring the drawings from the poem to life in a way that isn’t old hat?
In the late 1980’s, Burton had the great fortune in meeting one Henry Selick. A budding stop-motion animation genius, Selick had impressed the blockbuster director with some of his early short films and, as lightning often will, set off a fire of inspiration in Burton’s mind. Here, finally, was the perfect medium (one he had loved for years) and the perfect technician to get his project up and purring like the blackest of cemetery cats. In his capable hands, Selick recreates, line-for-line, brush-stroke-for-brush-stroke, every drawing and design Burton committed to paper years back, but this time in moving and flowing three dimensions. The process of stop-motion animation is one that adds depth to the ordinarily two-dimensional qualities of traditionally hand-drawn cartoons. By using miniature sets and posable puppets, the illusion in the animation allows the viewer to look further into the frame and not be encumbered by a make believe world depicted only on drawing boards. There is a solidness to the illusion and it acts like an anchor in reality the more the story swerves off into fantasy. You can feel the cold chill of the winds navigating the corridors and alleyways of Halloweentown or the icy wet fallen snow that covers every inch of Santa’s toy-making plantation. Combined with a surrealistic palette of colors that look like they were brushed onto the screen by an overly hyper kindergartener, the visual dichotomy of the film perfectly suggests a very real nightmare/dreamscape of a child.
What’s this? What’s this?
There’s color everywhere.
What’s this? What’s this?
There’s white things in the air.
What’s this?
I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming.
Wake up, Jack. This isn’t fair.
What’s this?
What’s this? What’s this?
There’s something very wrong.
What’s this?
There’s people singing songs.
What’s this?
The streets are lined with little people laughing.
Everybody seems so happy.
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this?
There’s children throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads.
They’re busy building toys and absolutely no one’s dead.
There’s frost in every window. Oh, I can’t believe my eyes
And, in my bones I feel a warmth that’s coming from in-side.
Oh, look, what’s this?
They’re hanging mistletoe. They kiss?
Why that looks so unique. Inspired!
They’re gathering around, hearing stories
roasting chestnuts on a fire.
What’s this?
In here, they’ve got a little tree.
How queer. And, who would ever think?
And, why?
They’re covering it with tiny little things.
They’ve got electric lights on strings,
And, there’s a smile on everyone.
So, now correct me if I’m wrong,
This look’s like fun, this looks like fun.
Oh, could it be I got my wish?
What’s this?
Oh my. What now?
The children are asleep.
But, look, there’s nothing underneath.
No ghouls. No witches there to scream and scare them
or ensnare them.
Only little cozy things secure inside their dream-land.
What’s this?
The monsters all are missing and the nightmares can’t be found.
And, in there place there seems to be good feeling all around.
Instead of screams I swear I can hear music in the air.
The smell of cakes and pies is ab-so-lute-ly eve-ry-where.
The sights. The sounds.
They’re everywhere and all around.
I’ve never felt so good before.
This empty place inside of me is filling up.
I simply cannot get enough.
Oh, I want it. Oh, I want it.
Oh, I want it for my own.
I’ve got to know. I’ve got to know.
What is this place that I have found.
WHAT IS THIS?
Hmmmmmm. Christ-mas-town?
To say that the lyrics of the above song are heavily influenced by that master of childrens-book disasters, Dr. Seuss, would be an understatement. Long before the project even got underway the roots of the music were beginning to take place.
Former OINGO BOINGO (DEAD MANS PARTY was a college mixer favorite) composer/lead singer and now four time collaborator to Burton, Danny Elfman, was brought into private meetings with the author of the poem. Having his fullest trust and knowing his capabilities outside garage-band rock and punk ballads, Elfman embarked on what would become his signature score. Kind of a half way mark between Seuss and the almost Wagnerian overtones that made his score for the aforementioned BATMAN become noticed by serious scholars in music, the two took their love for the rhyming madman Seuss and created an accompanying round of songs that would resemble, in finished form, an off-the-wall operetta of macabre themes and character laments that would stand the polar opposite to more typical musical fare. MY FAIR LADY and THE SOUND OF MUSIC this films score is not, it’s actually an inventive, almost non-stop blanket of gothic rhythms and lyrics that step in for dialogue. Sticking within the strictest rules that define a true musical, it’s hard to believe at first, and near impossible to damn after the credits scroll, that what NIGHTMARE is, beyond being a terrific animated film and a gloriously whacked out little comedy, is a PURE musical. Its glee springs not so much from the inventiveness of the animation and its attention to the visual details but, rather, the happiness that everyone is feeling by singing and grooving along with the tunes. Nearly every big emotion or plot point of the film has a musical accompaniment and, by Elfmans design, is reminiscent of a genre of music that either turns him on or adds another dimension to the already three-dimensional characters.
Jazz, Opera, Ragtime, 1920’s Busby Berkeley are all represented here in the score. One of the high-water marks, for me anyway, is the wonderful allusion that Elfman makes to Ragtime Jazz and the fusing he does by adding hints of Cab Calloway to the vocal impressions of Oogie Boogie (a.k.a. the Boogie Man) voiced and sung brilliantly by Jazz baritone Ken Paige. It’s a moment of pure compositional inspiration made even more amazing by the black-light effects in the animation and the Voo-Doo themes of Old New Orleans in the production design. Simply put, the sequence rocks the house and has the audience both amazed by the visuals and charmed by the music and lyrics at the same time. Pretty much every number in the film is nothing short of a show stopper. The overtly Seussian lyrics to the above mentioned “What’s This”, the ominous ticking clock device that swirls out of control in the Greig inspired ditty “Making Christmas” and the Bernstein/Sondheim inspired opening and closing numbers that act as musical bookends to the libretto. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, for film, is pure Opera created directly for the screen. Its songs have become tongue twisting dares for children wanting to sing-along with characters who resemble them in their hopes and predicaments. To think the Academy didn’t even entertain the notion of a nomination for Danny Elfman in the song and score departments was…. Hmmm…. Well, that’s an essay for another time…
The voice cast of the film was the final point of perfection and the icing on the cake. Ken Paige is hilariously menacing as the fog-horned voiced bag of bugs Oogie Boogie, the villain of the piece. Catharine O’Hara lends an almost dainty little-girl charm to mask her premonitory wisdom and the feelings of enslavement she feels to the character of Sally; a Frankensteinian rag-doll stuffed with dead leaves and with the worst make-up application since Bette Davis went before the camera as “Baby Jane” Hudson. The late William Hickey is hysterically funny with his creaking vocalization of the maniacal mad doctor that imprisons Sally and his vocal suggestions towards her hint at just a slight bit of S+M in his intentions. The trio of Danny Elfman, Ohara (again) and Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman) are just right as the always arguing trio of demented and deadly little trick-or-treaters, Lock, Shock and Barrel who set out to help Jack in his plight but are secretly working for Oogie.
The center of the film, though, is the vocal lamentations of Jack. Voiced for dialoque by Chris Sarandon (DOG DAY AFTERNOON, FRIGHT NIGHT), he is quickly usurped in every inflection by Elfman himself, who voices the character in singing mode. His liltingly soft voice exudes a kind of pain rarely heard of in recent screen musicals. At once quirky and always firm in his belief of what is right, Elfmans performance perfectly puts sound to the definition when describing what THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS is about.
But, what is THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS really about?
Well, it’s about many things both new and old. It’s about finding your place in a world that doesn’t understand your aspirations and dreams. It’s about trying to do for others what is out of your league when all you had to do in the first place is be who you are. It’s about realizing that your home, your truest place in the universe, is where the people who love you reside.
Hmmmmmm…
Come to think about it, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS really does resemble that journey to Oz way back when the movies were putting the finishing touches on how to speak and sing. Like that musical/fantasy film made back in the greatest year the movies ever knew, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS uses many of the same elements that made that film a classic for all time. For, it’s now a classic itself…
Gee, Aunty Em, there really is no place like home.
How ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ made the ‘Elite 70′:
Dennis Polifroni’s No. 20 choice
Marilyn Ferdinand’s No. 22 choice
“It’s a landscape of shadows and fog, of black cats and bats in every attic. It’s a place that resides in the shadows of our childhood closets and those dark, inky black places we dare not reach into under our beds.”
“There is a solidness to the illusion and it acts like an anchor in reality the more the story swerves off into fantasy. You can feel the cold chill of the winds navigating the corridors and alleyways of Halloweentown or the icy wet fallen snow that covers every inch of Santa’s toy-making plantation. Combined with a surrealistic palette of colors that look like they were brushed onto the screen by an overly hyper kindergartener, the visual dichotomy of the film perfectly suggests a very real nightmare/dreamscape of a child.”
“Jazz, Opera, Ragtime, 1920’s Busby Berkeley are all represented here in the score. One of the high-water marks, for me anyway, is the wonderful allusion that Elfman makes to Ragtime Jazz and the fusing he does by adding hints of Cab Calloway to the vocal impressions of Oogie Boogie (a.k.a. the Boogie Man) voiced and sung brilliantly by Jazz baritone Ken Paige. It’s a moment of pure compositional inspiration made even more amazing by the black-light effects in the animation and the Voo-Doo themes of Old New Orleans in the production design. Simply put, the sequence rocks the house and has the audience both amazed by the visuals and charmed by the music and lyrics at the same time. Pretty much every number in the film is nothing short of a show stopper. The overtly Seussian lyrics to the above mentioned “What’s This”, the ominous ticking clock device that swirls out of control in the Greig inspired ditty “Making Christmas” and the Bernstein/Sondheim inspired opening and closing numbers that act as musical bookends to the libretto. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, for film, is pure Opera created directly for the screen. Its songs have become tongue twisting dares for children wanting to sing-along with characters who resemble them in their hopes and predicaments. To think the Academy didn’t even entertain the notion of a nomination for Danny Elfman in the song and score departments was…. Hmmm…. Well, that’s an essay for another time…”
I used three of the passages from your review to illustrate what I saw as magisterial allusion to the film and its artistry, but this astonishing review must surely be seen on one of the very best this countdown has offered up so far, indeed will ever offer up. I admit I am not the fan of the film that you are, but I come to this thread with a priceless anecdote, one that reaches the essence of this site’s membership and friendship. For you see, Allan Fish saw this film with my entire family on his second visit to the states a few years ago at the Edgewater multiplex. We watched it in 3D. I can’t speak for Allan, but I was not at all imprssed with the use of 3D, and thought it’s use here was wholly ineffective. I agree that this is a prime Buton vehicle for the cultists, and it boasts the most famous score in any of his films, courtesy of Danny Elfman. Much of the Halloween imagery is colorful and atmospheric, and there’s a clever wit at work. For me there are also some tedious pasages, but I can’t blame anyone for thinking otherwise. In any case this is a towering piece that wil surely be fondly remembered as one of the jewels at the end of the countdown.
For the record my favorite Burton films are SWEENEY TODD, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and ED WOOD.
Well, Sam, you and I have often discussed what I find interesting in Burton versus what you find interesting in him. As a director, I hark back to his earlier work, his abandon of logic and his eye for the bizarre that, at anytime, can go completely over the top. PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE really does flit the bill when you go for what I really love about this director and BEETLE JUICE is a close second.
But, Burton is not the director here and I feel that NIGHTMARE not only displays the elements I love so much about Burton, but it also infused with other odd sensibilities from Henry Selick. As he proved with his follow-up to NIGHTMARE, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, and, later, with CORALINE, Burton wasn’t the only person responsible for the total emmersion into this film the audience takes, Selick’s bizarro sensibilities are just as viable and are, probably, 50% of what you see on screen. To make a long story short, NIGHTMARE is my favorite film that Tim Burton had anything to do with whether as director, animator, screenwriter, on conceptualist.
Understanding the history of the film and what inspired Burton to write the poem is another reason I love this film so much for I was inspired by the same films and TV shows when I was a kid too (particularly the work of Chuck Jones). I indentify with the themes of the film and I love, love love the bastardizing of the genres in the music.
As for the essay itself, well, you make me blush for I really think it’s nothing special. However, as you did highlite some of the passages from the piece I will say this: You highlighted my own personal favorite paragraph (the one eluding to Ragtime Jazz and Cab Calloway) and probably the only point I was trying to make and actually liked (LOL)… I think this essay is servicable in comparison to your titanic MAGIC FLUTE from a few days back.
But, don’t get me wrong, I take the cpompliment! ;-P
I thank you for the kind words and only hope that this essay did justice to a film I happen to love very much…
Dennis,
I too saw this in the theatre when it came out, but I was even younger than you and had to have my parents drop me off! I liked it then, but amazingly have never seen it since. You give a great review and recap of the film! I happen to also like Sweeney Todd and The Corpse Bride as long as we’re talking Burton musicals. Fun/Dark stuff.
Too young? Geez, you do this film a disservice without the weed and booze like I did years ago (LOL-just kidding!)…
JON-All I can say, is take another look. I recently screened this film on my big screen at home in high-definition Blu-Ray and got lost in it all over again. The music, the visuals and the charm of both Burton and Selick are a sight to behold and the film does the films of Rankin and Bass and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS proud.
I find most of Burton’s films fun (as opposed to IMPORTANT) and see him more of a director of guilty pleasures than a director of highly praoised intellectual fair. In this canon, I have favorites from each period and as I said to SCHMULEE above I find his earlier period to be my personal favorite. I think Burton has had his fair share of successes (BATMAN-although I like BATMAN RETURNS better, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, ED WOOD, SWEENY TODD) and a few bombs in there as well (MARS ATTACKS and that God awful “remake” of PLANET OF THE APES). He’s not Bergman or Ozu or Fassbinder but I like losing myself in his worlds of fantasy.
I also like that Burton is not ashamed to blatantly show homage to the filmakers that inspire him as well (there is Jacques Tati all over PEE WEE, Fritz Lang all over BATMAN and the EALING company all over one of my favorite, the under-rated SLEEPY HOLLOW). He is, as they say, an aquired taste and you either get him or you don’t. I also happen to be an artist myself (I paint and draw) and Burtons eye for bizarre detail and his background in animation draws me closer to his work than others get to him.
Thank you so much for the kind response to the essay!!!!
CORRECTION: I said that EALING was all over SLEEPY HOLLOW. That was a slip of the tongue and fingers over the computer keybord. What I MEANT to say is that HAMMER was all over SLEEPY HOLLOW, especially in the moment the womans head rolls across the floor and her eyes stop still to stare at the child under the floorboards through the cracks…
Hey Dennis,
I definitely appreciate Burton’s film, and actually consider Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood to be flat-out masterpieces, although many of his films are at least very enjoyable escapist fare. He has enough subversion and entertainment to feed the minds of the masses and those interested in something more. It’s a good blend.
I appreciate the love for Burton, however I cannot say I love him as much as I just admire his whacked out sensabilities. Really, with the exception of, say, ED WOOD, his films have often faltered with the critics and I think this is due to them not understanding that there is a place for excapist entertainment and not just high-minded intellectualism.
That said, I just get a kick out of where his mind will take you. The ice-cream pastel colored suburbia off EDWARD SCISSOR HANDS, the smokey film sets of ED WOOD or a place called Halloweentown in NIGHTMARE. I don’t look for intellectually brilliant, ten best of the year stuff when it comes to this guy, I just look forward to having my eyes yanked from their sockets and my belly jiggling from the irreverant humor (I still think PEE WEES BIG ADVENTURE is raucously hysterical and I’ll defend that picture with every fiber of my being).
NIGHTMARE, though, is the real masterpiece in the canon. It’;s a totally enveloping experience and while Burton may have come close to creating worlds like this in other films, he couldn’t nail it completely. The reason?
Henry Selick.
I honestly think that Selick’s added attitude and sensibility piled on top of Burtons own warped perceptions and took the entire project over the moon. NIGHTMARE is a conjoined masterpiece whose intelligence and inspiration comes from two brains and not only one…
As for Burton, the one I love are.
1. NIGHTMARE
2. PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE
3. SLEEPY HOLLOW
4. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
5. BATMAN RETURNS
6. ED WOOD
7. BEETLEJUICE
I’m indifferent to films like BIG FISH…
But,, the ones from his canon I absolutely HATE:
PLANET OF THE APES (the biggest blunder of his career. You remake bad films not classics, Tim!)
THE CORPSE BRIDE (I hate it because the potential was there and the execution faltered because the score was so slow and monotonous that it made you hate the good that WAS there).
MARS ATTACKS (in a nutshell, his second worst movie after APES. What was Jack Nicholson thinking?)
While I am not a fan of this picture (and I think that Burton’s input in this is way over represented, as I think that as much as a passion project it is, he only is credited on the story and the creation of the characters, at least credit wise, but Selick really steals it by directing this stop motion wonder), as I find that “Coraline” from Selick and “Corpse Bride” from Burton are much more achieved films and the later is a better musical and a real Burton film.
But nevertheless you can’t deny the influence and energy this film has got in the mainstream media, as well as the unforgettable songs and the well made characters, but I have to say that I’m a little tired on how goth girls and emo boys take this movie as mana from heaven, but who am I to argue, but I cringe a bit when I see boys dressed in black with the skull of Jack stamped on their backpacks.
It’s a solid film and an amazing effort from Selick, that goes down by being unnecesarily over dark… some people think that’s the strenght of it, but I feel that it’s a stance that can be maintained, but sometimes we need a bit of relief, specially when we talk about musicals. I’d say it’s a downer for most of the film.
Actually, I have one of those T-shirts (black with Jack’s face on the chest)… LOL!!!
The cult this film has following it is something I don’t think anyone saw coming and, whether you like this film better than Burton or Selicks others doesn’t change the facts that this movie was the most successful of their efforts (the revenue this film brings in on a yearly basis is staggering).
As for THE CORPSE BRIDE, I think you and I will have to, politefully, part ways. While I think the film is expertly animated and the visual design of the film almost flawless, I found the music heavy handed and the story a complete and utter BORE. As Sam can attest, I have pretty good stamina, but THE CORPSE BRIDE was one film that actually had me dozing off.
As for NIGHTMARE being dark, well, I never heard that one before. Pretty much after the WHAT’S THIS number, the film, even in its Halloweentown environment, perks up. I don’t see it. I think the whole thing is pretty sweet and raucously funny and over-the-top.
But, hey, we all see things differently…
I do, wholeheartedly agree with you, though, that 50% of this film belongs to Henry Selick and I think I made it abundantly clear in the essay that finding Selick was one of the greatest strokes of luck that Burton caught when trying to get NIGHTMARE off the ground. I also adored Selicks JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and I was totally smitten with CORALINE as well.
I will seperate with you, though, on one point…
I still think that NIGHTMARE is Selicks best work all around…
Always a pleasure reading your enthusiastic & evocative pieces, Dennis. This was one of THE films of my childhood, for sure, and really captures a certain sensibility I – and many others in my generation – had as a 9- or 10-year-old. God, did our parents not understand. Mine hated it, as did most adults I knew – thought it was gross, too dark & macabre, etc.
I remember the action figures too, the doctor whose cap you could pop up to touch his brain and the mayor whose face whirled around. I used to think every film should have interactive action figures (I wondered a year later why there wasn’t a Lt. Dan action figure with a removable leg). Sometimes I still do. Just think: a Dafoe action figure from Antichrist with removable leg piece (we won’t talk about the Gainsbourg figure), or Historias Extraordinarias micromachine sets (the motel room, the farm, the sleepy government office, the river bank) which your pintsize figurines can explore for hours on end. I’d buy ‘em.
I’m glad you pointed out the Cab Calloway expression, it had never occurred to me oddly enough as his “St. James’ Infirmary” number in Snow White has become maybe my favorite musical moment in animation – though clearly here the bigger influence on Oogie Boogie is the walrus in Minnie the Moocher. Appreciated the voodoo reference too, as I just watched a documentary on Maya Deren, dealing extensively on her researches and practices of that religion.
Connections, connections, everywhere…
Well, I would have loved to see this film as a kid, I think it would have left a profound scar on me for the rest of my life. But, unlike you, I was 24 or 25 years old when I saw it and I was already able to deflect what I would have been to weak to had I been 9 or 10. Believe me, though, this film would have been THE film for me too had I been at the ripe age when I walked into that theatre all those years ago. This film is everything a semi-creative kid like me, who loved to draw and write spooky stories, was hoping and dreaming of. I happen to think this film is very affirming to the creatively-minded, it proves that you don’t have to be shy about your creativity and your off-the-wall ideas…
Ha! I had a hard time convincing my mom to let me see it too! She hated the idea!
JON-You should have tagged along with me, I needed someone to hold me up that night. Then again, I would have probably been arrested for pushing booze and drugs on a minor…
And since when are beer cans illegal?
Well, beeer and booze should have been outlawed to me a long time before this film came out as I was probably drunk 4 out of 7 days a week back then (Sam often shook his head at me due to my cancelling because of severe hang-overs and that ex-wife of mine was such a bad influence on me in this department). Still, I punched the clock every morning and still got my work dome with no fuss/muss.
The Cab Calloway references were something that hit me by surprize when I first saw this film and I took to them like a duck to water considering I was a fan of his vocals for years by 1993. That Elfmamn was smart enough to incorporate this into the character and find a vocalist that could properly evoke the kind of catterwhall that made Calloway so famous back then was a stroke of good fortune in the best way. The Oogie Boogie sequence is not only my favorite moment in the film but the sequence that really, I feel, sends the plot and the score into high kicking gear. There is no doubt in my mind that both Elfman and Burton were fans of the singer and those amazing Max and Dave Fleischer BETTY BOOP one reelers that the sequence looks to for inspiration (by the way, I recently bought the three box sets that make up the entire Fleischer POPEYE canon, all remastered and cleaned up-and they’re totally amazing and unforgettable-POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINBAD THE SAILOR, a rare color two-reeler-is a mini masterpiece)
The merchandising of this film was, regrettably (and I say regrettably as I hate seeing money wasted on things that will be discarded when the size no longer fits or the newest trend hits), a given (knowing full well the MOUSE HOUSE would find yet another way to soak the innocent for more cash), but what nobody expected was the cult that arose from this film and embraced not only the movie, but every gothic momento toy company’s and clothing manufacturers could muster. I drive past a local school every day to go to work and I am always amazed by how many T-Shirts, hoodies, hats and other clothing, highlighting a character from this movie, can be seen immediately in plain site. Not a Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny or a Popeye to be seen, but plenty of Jack, Sally and Oogie. Burton has seen giant merchandising success with his other films (BATMAN in particular) but nothing as bizarrely gigantic and BELOVED as this film. Jack has become a symbol of best intentions gone hay-wire and the patron Saint of goth chicks and emo bois all over the world.
As for the darkness. I never understood the complaints from the older generation when the film was first released as it’s nothing if it’s not totally sweet and smile-inducing. Its moral is universal and it’s characters and their plights are as innocent and noble as any in the canon of great fairie tales.
I just think it’s one fo those mini masterworks that snuck outta knowhere and captured the imaginations. It’s legions of fans grow every year and it’s one of the few films where the artistry and the message it sends deserves the kind of loyal fandom it received.
Thank You for the kind words and the memories, Joel…
Great essay Dennis. I’m somewhat surprised that you don’t like A Corpse Bride more since it seems like a worthy followup to Nightmare. I remember seeing it in the theater and finding it to be an effective sequel/companion piece to the earlier picture. I personally wouldn’t call either masterpieces, but both are worthy of a night in search of some light popcorn entertainment.
MAURIZIO-There are alot of elements of THE CORPSE BRIDE that I admire, actually love (the visual dichotomy, the production design, the animation), but, as a musical the score is the key and, I’m sorry, I just felt the music and the seque into songs was an out-n-out bore.
I’m a funny guy, though, when it comes to musicals… I feel the best ones have songs that immediately connect with me and they must stay in my head even after the film is over. PINOCCHIO has WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR, THE LITTLE MERMAID had PART OF YOUR WORLD, SINGIN IN THE RAIN has the title number, MOSES SUPPOSES, ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU, WEST SIDE STORY has AMERICA.
THE CORPSE BRIDE?
Nada, ziltch, zippitee-doo-da.
At least with NIGHTMARE you got no less than two songs in the score (although there are more), with WHAT’S THIS? and JACK’S LAMENT, that are singable and unforgettable…
Staying in your head long after and being unforgettable are not necessarily a good thing lol. When a friend made me hear Friday by Rebecca Black, I couldn’t get that tune (using the term loosely) out of my head for weeks. I slowly went insane with Autotune overdose.
Thinking back about both films, I don’t see much difference in quality to be honest. I guess Nightmare might have two better songs, but is that the difference from masterpiece to bore? They both appear to be equally worthy or shitty depending on personal criteria’s. Your stand here seems to be the rare case (in my dealings at least) of someone loving one film much more than the other. It usually strikes me as a package deal with most people. Personally, I consider both to be okay and adequate examples of fluffy Hollywood entertainment. Either way, the goth/Hot topic subculture surrounding these works is very unfortunate (well not for Burton’s bank account) and irritating. Again, congratulations on a lovely written essay.
I don’t know Maurizio, THE CORPSE BRIDE just didn’t grab me wheras NIGHTMARE spoke directly to me. NIGHTMARE’S moral and its music fused seemlessly together. CORPSE seemed clunky where NIGHTMARE didn’t and the best way to describe my personal attitude on CORPSE seems that it felt forced where NIGHTMARE just flowed…
I don’t know…
Yeah Maurizio I like both films. Corpse Bride I appreciated as an adult and I really liked the story, but true I can’t remember the music. Still liked the film though. Like I mentioned I haven’t seen Nightmare since it came out, but I loved that as a kid.
That a lot of the discussion here weighs the relative contributions of Burton and Selick reminds me that this is the film that caused a temporary estrangement between Burton and Danny Elfman, the latter feeling that his contribution wasn’t being acknowledged enough. As a result, Elfman skipped Ed Wood but was back, for what it’s worth, for Mars Attacks!. The composer’s disgruntlement was probably inevitable, since few composers have been so completely perceived as a director’s alter ego as Elfman has.
That, SAMUEL, is the one unfortunate reactive to NIGHTMARE that is sinful. Elfman is so vital to the production that the structure would have fallen without him. His whimsical stylizations and Seussian lyrics are the life-blood of the film. His music gives words and yearning to the entire piece. However, Burton is a bit of a hog when it comes to this property as I think he feels he nurtured this baby from an eye-dropper to a full grown adult.
What’s more, is that considering the music made for filmsd that year, there is no doubt in my mind that both the score and at least one song (WHAT’S THIS?) should have been up for the Oscar in their respective categories. That the dopey Academy totally overlooked Elfman in what is probably the most vital faction of a successful and critically praised MUSICAL is shameful.
He’s written great score both for Burton and other film-makers. His BATMAN theme is properly operatic and harks back to Wagner. The score for the little seen BLACK BEAUTY is beutifully fused with Irish sentiment and delicate flourishes. PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and BEETLEJUICE brilliantly allow one to understand what would have happened if you let Looney Tunes composer Carl Staling loose on a take-no-prisoners all-out whacked-out-of your-skull anything-can-happen feature length comedy. Let’s face it. the guy’s got MAJOR talent.
And, to go one further. As much as I HATE the film, I think his score for PLANET OF THE APES is a kick-ass two hours of some of the most bizarre themes in recent film music.
Dennis, notice that it’s harder to think of great Elfman scores away from Burton. I haven’t seen or heard Black Beauty but I think Elfman did good (though similar) work in Darkman and a decent score for Ang Lee’s Hulk. Of his Burton scores I think Batman Returns is the high point, along with Pee Wee, Scissorhands and Nightmare.
Not difficult at all…
As you mention DARKMAN, I’d also add his psuedo rock score for MIDNIGHT RUN, his wildly militaristic themes for MEN IN BLACK, his subtle hints at Boston Irish with GOOD WILL HUNTING. Then there is probably his most well known piece and it’s not a score for Burton, it’s the weekly opening theme for the longest running show in American TV history: THE SIMPSONS
I also like his slow turns to dread with DOLORES CLAIBURNE and his nifty little, sexy riffs for TO DIE FOR…
Oh, and his incredible ode to Gershwin for Warren Beatty’s under-rated DICK TRACY…
Hi! Dennis…
What a very well-written and very detailed review…being a fan Of director Tim Burton’s films and I do own a couple Of Tim Burton inspired blogs…you would have thought that I would have watched this film, but not yet, (with yet being the operative word here…)
Thanks, for sharing I most definitely, will add this film to my list of films to watch soon list.
[By the way, I had a couple Of Twitter followers stop following me after I switched my Twitter skin to reflect Burton and not "Jonny" Depp...."forget them!" those little brats!...lol ]
deedee
By the way, I have watched Burton’s “The Corpse Bride” I really like that film and the steam-punkish (Sp) “Sleepy Hollow” too!
Ahhhhhhhhh, a million thanks Dear Dee-Dee!
Your words of kindness inspire.
Well, if you liked THE CORPSE BRIDE and SLEEPY HOLLOW prepare for your senses to get an overhaul as NIGHTMARE is far and away the more preferable and better film. The animation is superb and the sense of place so distict that you really believe a place like Halloweentown exists.
Thank you again, my friend, for the well wishes and compliments and an even bigger THANK YOU for helping me get the YouTube clip embedded in the post (Sam and I are the worste with this techniucal computer stuff-I’m ok with it, but Sam is hopeless unless Lucille is around) and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the lovely posters that align the sidebar…
Be well,
Dennis
Terrific, terrific, terrific review Dennis. I run hot and cold on Burton’s work. Admire his EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, BATMAN RETURNS, ED WOOD, SLEEPY HOLLOW and NIGHTMARE while the of his work I can live without. Admittedly, I have not seen THE CORPSE BRIDE.so I will hold off on that one.
JOHN-Thank you for the praise, I’m sure I really don’t deserve it. But, I’m whore so I’ll take it.
Listen, I’m not saying that Burton is the be all and end all of the film world. However, the guy has such a bizarro sense to his work that a former reader of comics and horror literature and a fan of Vincent Price like me is gonna fall hard for some of his work. However good or bad his other films are is beside the point. NIGHTMARE is th Burton film that spoke to me and the only film he associates himself with that OI consider a flawless work of art…
This is a great piece, Dennis – I’ve realised that I probably tend to overlook animations when thinking about musicals, but, as you say, the songs are very important to this. I have also tended to lump this together with ‘Corpse Bride’ in my mind as the imagery of the two is so similar, but can see (or should I say hear) that the music in ‘Nightmare’ is better! My favourite Burton movies, though, are probably ‘Batman’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’ – i couldn’t bear ‘Big Fish’, which seemed so sentimental, and I thought the same sort of whimsy marred ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ too, though it was visually stunning, of course. Great stuff, anyway, and I’ve seen the backpacks everywhere in the UK too!
JUDY-The contribution of Elfmans’ oroginal songs and score cannot be taken lightly. His music gives voice to the characters of this piece and allows the yearnings of the protagonist whisp through the plotting loud and clear. It’s a moral tale all the way, but without the songs hitting exactly the right chords, both musically and sentiment-wise, the structure and all the good work creating the worlds and people of this film would go for nothing. CHARLIE is under-appreciated in that Burton was able top recreate, almost perfectly, the world of Dahls novel. I also loved the back story he and the writers gave Wonka’s history to further deepen the complexity of the character. Johnny Depp’s channerling of Micheal Jackson added a perfectly creepy/bizarro element to his interpretation of Wonka that I felt not only worked to the films advantage, but bested (at times) Gene Wilder’s rather famous turn as the reclusive chocolatier… I prefer Burton’s version all around…
JUDY(Part II)-SLEEPY HOLLOW is. One of my very favorite films by Burton. It takes the approach the same way Hammer films took when retelling timeworn tales of mystery and gothic horror. THE HORROR OF DRACULA with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing tells the story of Dracula on Hammers terms. The plot is reconfigured, characters from the book have their backgrounds and personalities changed or are dropped completely. The plots are twisted to adhere for a more modern, gore hungry sensabilty and the action goes from droll and slow to lightning fast and kinetic. In other words, a classic tale with a modern spin and plenty of in your face scares to never allow you to notice the holes in it all. SLEEPY HOLLOW follows Hammers lead and, by doing so, takes the mundane nature of the original story and sets it up with big centerpiece sequences and grand flourishes throughout. It ‘s a gassed up version that takes anyones familiarity with the story and sets them on their ear.
Thanks for the detailed replies, Dennis, much appreciated! The backstory and reunion with Wonka’s dentist father are the things I find rather offputting in ‘Charlie’, but I should probably watch it again and see if it strikes me differently.