The Nightmare Before Christmas: in Disney Digital 3-D

Chris Sarandon
Danny Elfman
Catherine O’Hara
Paul Reubens
Greg Proops

Directed by: Greg Selick

After 13 years, Disney is re-releasing the cult classic film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, in 3-D. Fans of the film will quote it chapter and verse and maybe even pull out their Jack Skellington backpack if you ask to see it Then there are those that just don’t understand the sheer brilliance of the film. The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the story of Jack Skellington, and the people of Halloweentown. After accidentally stumbling across Christmastown and learning about Santa Claus and Christmas, Jack decides that next year his town will participate in Christmas and take over Santa’s job. Without knowing what Christmas actual is, the town plans to put together the best Christmas ever, with predictably disastrous results.

The original film was made up of a cast of characters unlike anything you could expect to see in a children’s story. A dancing, singing skeleton, a woman made of cloth sewn together by a creepy mad scientist to be used as a slave, not to mention the mayor with the swiveling head and the three mischievous children with the “Oogie Boogie man” locked in their basement. This musical claymation film is a juxtaposition of the light and dark of Christmastown and Halloweentown; the dark, adult characters and the innocence of misunderstanding, all of which seemed to be ripped out of a twisted pop up book. All of this makes this film an excellent tool for Disney’s 3-D animation.

Disney’s use of 3-D animation to pull the characters off of the screen gives fans of the film a chance to visualize all of the characters as real people, performing and acting in a real environment. There are times when watching the film that you get lost and actually forget that none of the characters are real, that you are in fact watching clay moving back and forth on a miniature stage. You could just as easily believe that you are watching actors on a stage and that they are working in a surreal environment, seemingly real nonetheless. This new technology both literally and figurative gives this film an extra, more real, dimension adding depth and texture to a film already bursting at the seams with both. Sure, with all 3-D films dating back to Jaws 3-D and Friday the 13th Part 3, there are over-exaggerated moments designed to accentuate the technology, but they are very rare in this movie and completely forgettable after they happen. Disney’s choice to revamp this film in particular should make fans crawl out of the woodwork and enjoy this film on a deeper lever. Hopefully, they will drag along their friends and make this a financial success.
 

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