Tim Burton’s “Nightmare before Christmas” was directed by Henry Sellick. The producer was Disney Production. The movie is an interesting of what happens when Halloween is combined with Christmas. THESIS: The film “Nightmare Before Christmas” was one of the first of its kind, its creativity making the movie original and captivating. It is a good example of the cliché, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” and that disturbing the natural order of tradition does not work.
The beginning of the movie is an example of serendipity, which means a fortunate accident. The main character Jack Skellington, who lives in “Halloween Town” somehow enters an odd trap door type portal that is really “Christmas Town.” Jack had been used to celebrating Halloween and was the main organizer of the event. However, Jack had grown bored with the same old traditions and themes. When he sees how Christmas is done, Jack is very excited to tell everyone all about it. He tells his town all about Christmas, but they do not get it. The whole concept of Christmas is completely over their heads. However, Jack decides that the town will celebrate Christmas this year. “Halloween Town” is the typical town of ghosts, witches, goblins, werewolves, and zombies. That is why the citizens keep comparing the Christmas theme with Halloween. They cannot seem to grasp the new idea that Jack is bringing to the town .
Jack gives the residents of his Halloween Town jobs to do for Christmas that he saw while in Christmas Town. He wants them to create presents, sing Christmas carols, and make a sleigh that is led by a skeleton reindeer. There is a woman named Sally, who is crazy about Jack. Even though her intuition tells her trying to switch the holiday will not end well, which she informs Jack of, she still does it for Jack. Jack tells Sally that she needs to sew a red coat for him. Jack also makes some bad decisions that come back to haunt him. He asks Shock, Lock, and Barrel, who are trick-or-treating, to go steal Santa Claus and get him to come to Halloween Town. Jack informs Santa Claus that he will be doing Christmas instead and will travel the world to give people presents. In essence, Jack fires Santa Claus. Jack puts the trio of kids in charge of guarding Santa, but the kids screw things up. They give Santa to Oogie Boogie, who is a gambling bogeyman. He comes up with an evil game that threatens Santa’s life. Oogie also abducts Sally .
Jack makes his rounds as the new Santa, but the kids are scared of the Halloween-themed gifts. This starts a war against Santa. The military fires their weapons at Jack, whose sleigh ends up getting shot down in a cemetery. Jack realizes the big mistake that he made, but he also realizes how much he really loves Halloween. Jack goes back to Halloween Town, saves Sally from Oogie, and apologizes to Santa. Santa tells Jack that he will make things right again. Santa goes back to his town and find good gifts to give to everyone. He also gives Halloween town some snow, which they love. Sally and Jack kiss, express love, and get married in a cemetery, as snow falls. Everything is back to normal .
As you can see, “Nightmare Before Christmas” was original and creative. The old adage of not fixing what was not broken was shown in this essay. By Jack trying to get the residents of Halloween Town to celebrate Christmas and taking on the role of Santa, he created more problems. Screwing up the natural order of things does not work well.
- Nightmare Before Christmas. Dir. Henry Sellick. Perf. Chris Sarandon. 1993. DVD.
