The Nightmare Before Christmas (Special Edition) | Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon

The Nightmare Before Christmas (Special Edition) | Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon | Pleased

DVDs:

The Nightmare Befo...

	The Nightmare Before Christmas (Special Edition) Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone, 2000 average customer review:based on 420 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Enter an extraordinary world filled with magic and wonder -- where every holiday has its own special land ... and imaginative, one-of-a-kind characters! THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS tells the heartfelt tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, and all things that go bump in the night. Bored with the same old tricks and treats, he yearns for something more, and soon stumbles upon the glorious magic of Christmas Town! Jack decides to bring this joyful holiday back to Halloween Town. But as his dream to fill Santa's shoes unravels, it's up to Sally, the rag doll who loves him, to stitch things back together. This critically acclaimed movie milestone captured the heart and imagination of audiences everywhere with its Academy Award(R)-nominated stop-motion effects, engaging Grammy(R)-nominated music, and the genius of Tim Burton (BATMAN, PLANET OF THE APES). THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHIRSTMAS -- a delightful treat the whole family will enjoy!

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Saw this at the Disney booth at Comic-Con...

The verdict: Christmas is early this year.

Among other cool Nightmare stuff (including a $24K reproduction of Halloween Town that's just a leeetle out of my reach), they had the prototype of this Collector's set on display in a glass case, along with the DVD and Blu-ray (the packaging for both of these was pretty cool. The DVD had a 3-D relief portrait of Jack). The pics of this collector's set posted here don't really convey that this is a pretty big Jack! Maybe 14" high or so and seems pretty well-made (although again, it was labeled as a prototype). The people at the booth couldn't or wouldn't say much else that isn't already described here, but it does seem as though this thing also has a sound chip and "says" lines from the film. I'd probably like it just as much without it being noisy..but hey, why not? Oh, and one other cool thing not shown here: It comes in a very big coffin with a "window" to Jack's face--how apropos!

Anyway, I fell in love with this movie when it first came out and I caught it at the El Capitan. There was nothing like it before and nothing since. It's nice that there is finally a DVD release and gift set that feels worthy of this classic. I'm particularly excited about some of the new bonus--especially the Haunted Mansion tour. Since I live in LA, I've been able to experience the Jack-ified Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in person. It should be interesting to see how it all comes together each year and it'll be fun to see some of the details that you probably miss when you're on the ride.

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Pleased

I got the DVD quickly in the mail for my niece's birthday and she is just pleased with her movie.

This year Christmas is ours!

Only Tim Burton could produce a holiday musical about Halloween's grotesqueries taking over Christmas.

And in fact he did. Burton wrote and produced a charming stop-motion musical called "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is as close as we'll ever get to a Burton Christmas film. And there's rarely a dull moment in this town called Halloween -- from start to finish, it's a quirky, macabre, vintage-flavoured ride through the darker side of everybody's favorite holidays.

In Halloween Town, the undead Jack Skellington is king, and each Halloween the residents try to make their celebration even more horrible than the year before.

But this year, something is missing for Jack, and he starts wondering if scaring people is all his life has. He ends up wandering into a sort of holiday junction, and finds a portal to Christmas Town -- it's full of snow, lights, presents and innocent fun. Jack is instantly enamoured of Christmas, and decides that for this year, the residents of Halloween Town are going to celebrate Christmas.

He manages to convince the other Halloween residents -- except the sweet rag-doll Sally -- to go along with his plan. So Halloween Town is redecorated and filled with presents (in a suitably ghastly style) and "Sandy Claws" is abducted so Jack can take his place. But are the people of Halloween Town just not suited to innocent merriment, and can the Pumpkin King fill the capacious red suit when Christmas Eve rolls around?

The idea of Halloween ghouls and spooks deciding to take over Christmas sounds terribly twee in concept, like a gimmicky children's book. Fortunately Tim Burton's darkly humorous sense of humor and delightfully gothic designs -- as well as Henry Selick's brilliant direction -- end up turning the movie into something that is more than just another kid's movie. Think a Burtonesque "Princess Bride."

Much of its charm comes from the richness of Burton's visuals -- his Halloween Town is saturated in spiky iron fences, ghost dogs, insects, mad scientists, and a spooky cloudy night that never ends. And though the inhabitants of Halloween Town are devoted to being grotesque and spooky, there's a lighthearted benevolence in their actions at all times. It almost makes Christmas Town look... dull.

But it's also an incredibly funny, sweet little movie, with plenty of heart. There's an adorable little love story between Jack and Sally ("My dearest friend, if you don't mind..."), despite Jack's total cluelessness. And Burton weaves in lots of solid musical numbers ("There's children throwing snowballs/instead of throwing heads/they're busy building toys/and absolutely no one's dead!").

But the crown jewel is Burton's macabre sense of humor. Hardly a scene goes by without a creepy gag (one child's present is a shrunken head) or clever dialogue ("Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here. I can't make decisions by myself!"). But the best humor comes from the Halloween-town's residents eagerly trying to be festive, and only making Christmas even creepier than Halloween ever could be.

For a skeleton puppet, Jack Skellington is a pretty adorable hero -- he's earnest, generous, but suffers from a bit of ennui from the same old performance every year. His meditative songs about Halloween and his attempts at Christmas add an introspective note to him as well. And he's backed by a bunch of lovable characters, with Sally and the ghost dog Zero at the forefront.

"Nightmare Before Christmas" is a macabre, wildly adorable little movie that reminds us why we love Halloween (besides the candy). Sometimes the dark and fun go hand in hand.

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Another Nightmare

This is so awesome that I can finally put this on my iPod. With the Digital Copy. I can put it on and if I am bored I just can play it on my iPod and have a great time. I love this movie. I had it on VHS then my VCR stopped working. So this is so awesome. This is hard to find on DVD.

I want the 3-D version on DVD

OK...my husband and I love this movie, as well as most of Tim Burton's work. We were amazed when we saw the 3-D version in the theater. I of course will buy this set when it is released in a few weeks to go with my 1993 version I already own, but what I would really like to see is a release of the movie in 3-D format with a few pairs of glasses included (spykids). I'm sure there are plenty of fanatics out there that wouldn't mind paying the extra cost for it. I know I'd pay. I guess since it's a different kind of 3-D technology it may be harder to put into DVD format, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

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