Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
I've occasionally encountered controversy about whether this is a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie. It's true that it came out around Halloween, but that's only one week earlier than most Christmas movies. And yes, it's a scary, but don't forget that Tim Burton also made two other scary Christmas movies around the same time.
Anyway, this is a pointless argument. It's clearly both Halloween- and Christmas-themed, so it makes the list. After all, it does have the word "Christmas" in the title.
As the movie begins, the narrator explains that all our favorite holidays are somehow created by the denizens of fantasy towns, accessible by a bunch of warp zones hidden in the woods. Who knew?
The people of Halloween Town (not the unforgivably long Disney Channel movie series, but a different Halloween Town) spend 364 days out of every year planning a scary festival for October 31. In charge of the excitement is Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, adored by the townsfolk but secretly dissatisfied with his life. The only person who understands him is Sally, a Frankenstein created by some guy who looks like a duck.
While wandering aimlessly through the woods, Jack stumbles across the entrance to Christmas Town. In a musical number that will be familiar from the Coming Attractions you fast-forwarded through on every VHS tape you ever owned in the 90s, Jack wonders at the jolly world he has entered. He returns home with a few souvenirs in the hopes of persuading his fellow Halloween Town citizens that there is more to life than ghosts and goblins.
Jack becomes determined to bring Christmas home, so he enlists the help of some obnoxious children to kidnap Santa Claus (who Jack believes to be a giant lobster), and persuades Sally against her better judgment to make him a Santa outfit. On Christmas Eve, the kids return from their caper with Santa Claus in tow, and he is by far the scariest-looking thing in the movie. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something in his gigantic, inhumanly-proportioned body, his stiff wiry white beard, and his sandpaper voice that my eight-year-old self found really disturbing. Seeing it again today, I can confirm that he is as hideous as ever.
Just look at him:
And he's not wearing any pants, either.
On their own initiative, and apparently believing that they're doing Santa a favor, the kids deliver him into the lair of a homicidal gambler called Oogie Boogie, who is really just a bunch of bugs in a burlap sack.
Meanwhile, Jack has disguised himself as Santa and set off to deliver scary, often deadly presents to the children of the world—that is, the real world, although it too is populated by creepy-looking stop-motion characters. The real world doesn't take kindly to Jack's antics, so they shoot him down with anti-aircraft artillery, apparently killing him.
Back in scary world, Sally has entered the bogeyman's lair to free Santa, only to find herself captured alongside him. Finally, Jack returns, having survived his encounter with the Real World Military. (Actually, Jack said at the beginning of the movie that he was already dead, so why did anyone think he had been killed?) Jack disables Oogie Boogie by pulling a loose thread on his burlap skin, releasing the vermin inside. (As Oogie Boogie disintegrates into a swarm of insects, his voice cries out "My bugs!" What's going on here? The burlap skin has been removed, so the bugs are all that's left. Who is crying out? Isn't he made of bugs? That would be like if a person died and cried out, "My cells!" Okay, forget it.)
Jack and Sally realize that they love each other, and the movie's over.
I was surprised to discover that this movie was not directed by Tim Burton. His name is placed so prominently on every piece of promotional artwork, I had always assumed he was an auteur. But no: Burton wrote the three-page poem on which this was based. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it was a super-weird poem.
Really, the man of the hour is Danny Elfman, who wrote the music and lyrics, and who provided Jack Skellington's singing voice. (It's common in cartoon musicals for the speaking and singing voices to be done by different people, and usually the speaking voice is treated as the "real" voice, with the singer just jumping in for the songs. But here, Jack spends most of the movie singing, so Elfman really is the star of the show.)
Since the plot makes no sense, you really are watching just to enjoy the way everything looks and sounds. But that's not a bad thing—it looks and sounds great.
Here's the True Meaning of Christmas and/or Halloween:
1. Life is better when you celebrate multiple holidays.
I'd hate to live in Washington's Birthday (traditional) Town. That must get old.
2. Santa Claus can be horrifying.
Remember that episode of Full House where Nicky and Alex were afraid of Santa Claus? (Or were they just afraid of Joey Gladstone dressed as Santa Claus? Because that I could understand.)
No comments:
Post a Comment