Tag Archives: jack skellington

December 16, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Santa Jack

By Joe
What’s this?! A skeleton Santa?

Today’s review has been a long time coming. It was on December 26th, 2024 that I received in the mail a NECA Ultimate Santa Jack action figure based on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Christmas had come and gone so it didn’t make much sense to post a review, so I waited. Nearly a year, in fact, but I’m finally going to take a look at this figure. When NECA returned to The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2024 it went the predictable route by doing two Jack figures and pairing him with Sally. They also did the Mayor, so I guess that part wasn’t typical, and based on how many of those figures I see hanging around store shelves I would assume most were content to just get Jack and Sally. For toy companies, doing two versions of Jack makes a lot of sense. He spends considerable time in the movie with both looks, but also they can conceivably use a lot of the same tools to create both figures. Only, NECA actually opted not to do that from what I can tell.

Santa Jack is actually a little bigger than standard Jack.

The sculpt for this one is credited to the trio of Kyle Windrix, Marty Henley, and Andrew Lawson which is the same trio that brought us the standard Jack. This one comes in the same style of packaging that’s just credited to Chris Longo. Usually NECA credits the artist who made the actual drawings that factor into the packaging, but since one isn’t present that either means Longo did it all or Disney supplied the artwork and declined to include the artist’s name. Regardless, it fits thematically with the other figures we already looked at and will make for a fine coffin for the figure eleven months out of the year.

The prior Jack came with a bunch of expressions while with this one we have to settle for three.

Santa Jack stands approximately 8 3/8″ to the top of his head which is actually a little taller than the standard Jack. Why is this? I’m not sure, but it would appear that most of this figure is new tooling. I was expecting a new upper torso that conforms to the Santa suit and maybe new forearms and shins, but I also thought NECA might add the trimmings of the suit in another fashion. The texture of the red, which is a nice, vibrant, shade, is a little bumpy and almost chalky. I wasn’t sure if this was achieved via paint or by sculpt, but considering the different size I’d guess it’s just all new. The only parts this figure appears to share with the regular Jack are the hands as even the included expressions are different. This one necessitates holes in the sides of each portrait for the beard as well as a port for the hat, but I thought they might be able to reuse the prior heads and just insert something into the mold to create the needed ports. What we end up with though is a very nice presentation of the character from the film in his Santa guise. The paint is clean and the red has a nice matte appearance while the black boots are appropriately shiny. The skull head is a touch off-white and has that cold appearance it has in the film. There are no soft goods present and I suppose some might have preferred actual faux fur trim or a soft goods beard, but I’m content with the all plastic approach.

As long as you can’t see the hole in the top of his head, hat-less displays are possible.

Perhaps because of all that new tooling we don’t get quite as much in the box this time around. That Ultimate Jack is perhaps the figure I own that best lives up to the billing as he came with a ton of different expressions. This Jack comes with just three: smile, wink, and a surprised look. The smile and surprised look are both slightly different from the same expressions found with the standard Jack. You can use the heads from that release with this one, but you won’t be able to make use of the hat or beard as both peg into the heads. The beard is on a double ball peg while the beard has a peg on each side. It’s a little bendy and forgiving, but also mushy. I could not get it into the alternate heads without first dunking them in a cup of hot water. Santa Jack also has an array of hands including sets of relaxed, clutching, pointing, and flat hands which are all repeated from the previous release. To complete the look, he has a plastic sack and three different, wrapped, presents to go along with a candy cane and his clipboard with a picture of himself in this Santa suit. The accessories are all quite fine and will help to build out a little scene on your shelf. He also has the same stand that came with the other figures and you will need it. In fact, I recommend borrowing a second one from another release if you have one. I put regular Jack and Sally away so I had another to make use of and it helps to keep him upright.

All of Jack’s accessories will contribute to your holiday display.

The articulation for Santa Jack is exactly the same as it was for the standard Jack (linked at the end of this post). The only difference is we now have the hat and beard. The beard, since it just pegs into each side of the face, can swivel forward and back which helps a little with adjustment posing. The hat is a double ball peg so it can rotate, but also slide around a bit to be posed at slightly different angles. It’s a nice touch and obviously the only downside here is it means the hat isn’t usable with the standard Jack heads. I do wish NECA had found a solution there. A magnet makes the most sense, but maybe they couldn’t get one into the heads without putting an ugly seam on the top. It also wouldn’t solve the beard issue. If the beard could have just pressure fit to the heads somehow that would have been great, but probably tough to get right. Even something like sunglasses on a figure or the faceguard on the movie Shredder still has tabs to click onto and there’s just no way to do such here without making them visible. Or we could have just got more heads like we did with the regular Jack. I’d have loved more expressions, but it wasn’t in the cards here.

Sally may have been returned to her box, but not Zero. He gets to stay.

Santa Jack is perhaps a little less “ultimate” compared with the standard Jack Skellington, but it’s still a nice figure. The likeness is terrific and the articulation is just enough to make him rather expressive, provided you can keep him standing. That’s my one lingering critique of this line as the disc stand we get just isn’t quite enough in this case. It’s a nice holiday decoration though and if you like the film and this version of Jack it’s an easy recommend. To my surprise, I have not seen a single copy of this figure at stores this year. I’m guessing NECA has been shipping them, but apparently not in tremendous numbers. He can be found online though with hopefully enough time to arrive before Christmas.

If you like The Nightmare Before Christmas or just Christmas toys in general then take a look at these other reviews:

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Jack Skellington

When Tim Burton created The Nightmare Before Christmas while working for Disney I don’t think the powers that be had any idea what kind of a gift he had just given them. Obviously they didn’t since they didn’t even believe enough in the film to release it as a Disney film instead opting to put…

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by Joe

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Sally

If you buy a Jack Skellington action figure, then you almost have to get him a Sally. That’s exactly what I did, though it proved mildly difficult to track down. I have seen NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington around throughout the year as I head into stores that carry NECA products, but Sally had proved elusive.…

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by Joe

Jada Toys Frosty the Snowman

There are a number of Christmas specials out there that are basically known by all and I’ve written about most of them here. Some have been annual traditions especially when we had more of a monoculture in the US, but the slow death of cable television has made those annual traditions fade away. One holiday…

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by Joe

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October 23, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Sally

By Joe
What’s a Jack without a Sally?

If you buy a Jack Skellington action figure, then you almost have to get him a Sally. That’s exactly what I did, though it proved mildly difficult to track down. I have seen NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington around throughout the year as I head into stores that carry NECA products, but Sally had proved elusive. I’m sure I could have ordered her at some point from somewhere, but I wanted to find it in store. And if I didn’t, then it wasn’t made to be. Coming in midway through the Halloween season is that NECA Ultimate Sally which I finally encountered at retail. I wasted little time in selecting my figure as they all looked pretty good and now she’s on my shelf with my Jack enjoying the fall decorations.

Sally comes in the same style of packaging as Jack. It’s an all black box with some artwork done in white. Chris Longo is credited with packaging, but I don’t know if he’s responsible for the illustration or not. Sculpt is credited to Kyle Windrix, Marty Henley, and Andrew Lawson with fabrication credited to Marty Henley. Jon Wardell and Geoff Trapp handled the paint duties.

They look good together.

Sally stands right at the 7″ mark making her noticeably shorter than Jack. The size disparity between the two looks appropriate to me. She only had one look in the film and that’s what she has here. Proportions look really nice as she has a long, slender, physique with tiny hands and feet. Her dress features sculpted stitchwork as does her flesh and a muted color palette. Her skin tone has a blueish tint to it that might be a touch too saturated for my taste. I always had the impression the lighting in the film was more responsible for the blue hue than her actual composition. Or perhaps I have it backwards and it’s the lighting that make her appear more pale in the film. Either way, it looks nice enough. The paint is clean and better than my Jack in that regard. The only thing about the appearance of the figure that is unfortunate is the tie in the packaging left behind a slight crease in her dress. I hate those god damn ties NECA uses and I would outlaw that practice if I could.

Sally is not as expressive as Jack, but still pretty damn expressive.

Sally’s articulation is pretty basic as well as pretty restricted given the character design. She’s composed entirely of plastic, no soft goods, so the dress is going to prevent her hips from doing anything. She does have a ball joint at the head and at the base of her neck so she gets decent range there. Her hair is a long sheet of plastic so it gets in the way a bit, but not enough to stop her from being able to look her beau in the eye…sockets. Shoulders feature ball-hinges, elbows are single hinged with a swivel, wrists rotate and hinge. There’s a diaphragm joint that offers a little tilt, but it mostly works for rotation. Knees are single-hinges and the ankles are hinged and do feature an ankle rocker, but her feet are so tiny it can be hard to use. Articulating her feet feels like wiggling a loose tooth.

I’m not sure if these accessories are essential, but I enjoy them.

Sally isn’t going to do much aside from stand there, but she doesn’t do much in the film nor does she come with a ton of accessories that require her to do anything. For portraits, she comes with five: neutral/smile, open mouth smile looking to the side, concerned looking ahead, concerned side eye, and an angry expression with her eyes narrowed. I like them all, though I wish she had an open-mouth smile without the side eye as well. Her expressions swap via face plates and it’s easy to utilize. She also has two sets of hands which are easy to swap: open palms and gripping. It’s a light assortment of hands, but I can’t think of any gesture she needs to be able to perform not covered by the options included.

NECA is doing a good job of making these NBX figures earn that “ultimate” label.

Sally’s other accessories are mostly tailored to her time in her tower and some other odds and ends. She comes with the basket she brought to Jack when she worried he wasn’t taking care of himself (does a skeleton really need to?). For contents, there are two white bottles one marked with an S and the other P which makes me think salt and pepper, but it would be odd to have those in bottles, no? There’s also a translucent green bottle which is from the movie. Sally also comes with her slotted spoon and the jar of deadly night shade. The jar has some really nice texture and paint work on it to the point where I expect it to feel like a true ceramic every time I pick it up. The black cat is also along for the ride and he has a little plate with fish bones on it. The cat is articulated at the head and no where else. Sally also has a jack-in-the-box with a black cat theme to it as well as a smiling jack-o-lantern. Lastly, she has a stand just like Jack’s which you will need since her feet are so tiny. She stands okay with it, but I did have her take a shelf dive the first night so do be careful.

She’s not sold on this whole Christmas thing.

Sally is a fine addition to NECA’s Nightmare Before Christmas collection. I don’t think she looks quite as good as Jack, but that’s not a slight against this figure as I think that Jack looks pretty damn amazing. This collection should be the final say on this film in plastic form. I can’t imagine ever needing to upgrade on either Jack or Sally. Some might prefer soft goods to the all-plastic approach NECA took, but I am not one of those people. I think this looks great, I don’t need her to come with anything else, and I don’t need her to articulate any better than she does here. I guess she can’t really kneel on the ground as she did in her omen scene, but maybe that’s also why NECA didn’t include a little Christmas tree or burned one. She’s on my shelf with Jack where I suspect she’ll be for many Halloweens to come and I may even let her hang around for Christmas. If you’re a fan of the film I think you’ll be pleased.

Simply meant to be.

If you like this Sally figure, then you may be interested in these ones as well:

Dec. 19 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #53 – 44

Today our countdown enters the top 50 when it comes to Christmas specials. If it wasn’t apparent before, it should be now, that we’re well into the cream of the crop. The best of the best. And this collection of specials comes almost entirely from the world of kids or general audience television shows. There’s…

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Dec. 18 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #63 – 54

December 18th brings with it the realization that we are now one week away from Christmas – start panicking! Why panic? Well, if you’ve been putting off your Christmas shopping you’re now in danger of missing out all together. This is the point where it’s risky to order anything online expecting it in time for…

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October 21, 2025

NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas Ultimate Jack Skellington

By Joe
All hail the Pumpkin King!

When Tim Burton created The Nightmare Before Christmas while working for Disney I don’t think the powers that be had any idea what kind of a gift he had just given them. Obviously they didn’t since they didn’t even believe enough in the film to release it as a Disney film instead opting to put it on the company’s Touchstone brand. In creating what is now a beloved film, Burton gifted Disney something it values more than art itself: merchandizing. In particular, a product that could be sold and tied into the two most commercialized holidays on the planet: Halloween and Christmas. It’s a film that stars Halloween characters creating their own Christmas special. Or, to perhaps put it simpler, it’s a Christmas movie with a Halloween aesthetic.

With the Halloween season upon us it felt like a good time to take a look at a figure that I’ve had in my possession for a little while now: NECA’s Ultimate Jack Skellington. NECA released action figures based on The Nightmare Before Christmas many years back, but in 2024 the company decided to return to the franchise with some all new sculpts. There isn’t much shortage for merch based on the film these days, but NECA felt like it had something to say where the characters are concerned. Those old toys were okay for their time, but could use an update. Super7, Diamond Select, Beast Kingdom, and more have all tried to put their stamp on the franchise as well in recent years to varying degrees of success and failure. NECA, always being more of a horror brand when not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, must have felt like it could top them all and they may have done just that.

I feel like it only makes sense to compare him to a Halloween-type figure and a Christmas one.

Jack Skellington was one of four figures released by NECA at the end of 2024. Missing Halloween, but arriving in time for Christmas was Jack, Sally, the mayor, and a Santa variant of Jack. I had planned on reviewing at least some of those figures for Christmas last year, but I never had an opportunity to buy this particular figure during that window. And that’s fine, because as a standard Jack this is firmly in the Halloween part of the film and a better figure for this very moment.

There are so many expressions included.

Jack comes in the standard Ultimates style box with artwork on the front and photography on the sides and back. There’s no credit for the artwork so I assume it’s from Disney. It certainly looks nice if you’re an in-box collector, but I am not. Once Jack is removed from the box he’ll stand around 8.25″ to the top of his head. He’s composed entirely of plastic with no soft goods at all. The plastic is also fairly rigid including the tails on his coat and his bow tie. The proportions look spot-on to the source material with incredibly thin, long, limbs. The body looks like it’s all black plastic with white lines painted onto it for his tuxedo. There’s an intentional wiggle to those lines reflecting the look in the film and I almost wish I had two figures to compare each other to see if there’s a random element to the shape of the lines or if this is taken from the film. The application isn’t perfect. There’s some messy paint on the right thigh of my figure that I lament not noticing at the store when I picked this guy up as I had a few to choose from. The backside of the coat tails also aren’t painted, or if they are it’s a touch glossy and I wish it were matte. The white of the hands and the chest are clean as is the head.

And speaking of, that head is magnificent. They all are, actually. NECA really captured the look of Jack with each and every portrait in this box and it’s what sells the figure. By default, we have a smiling Jack portrait but there’s also a mischievous grin, an open mouthed smile, angry smile, a look of wonderment, an “Ooo” mouth, a scared portrait, and a howling one. That’s eight total portraits, if you weren’t counting, and you practically have enough to do your own stop-motion with this figure. There’s also four sets of hands to add to the expressive nature of the figure and they are relaxed, pointing, gripping, and I guess what I’d consider clawing. He doesn’t have a tight gripping hand, but aside from that I can’t think of anything that’s really missing. Some of the heads are better than others when it comes to paint, but mostly to how the head was extracted from the mold. My howling head has a blemish by the left eye and a couple of them have little divots in the top of the skull. They should hopefully be visible in the pictures.

He’s a good boy.
For ambience.
Something’s missing…

We have a few other accessories to talk about including the best, little, ghost dog around: Zero. He’s sculpted in this milky, translucent, plastic with a nicely painted jack-o-lantern nose. His head rotates, but that’s all for articulation. He does come with a transparent ball-socket stand that gets the top of his head about 3.5″ off the surface if you’re keeping him parallel with the ground. You can tilt and move him about on the stand and it’s a solid way to pull off Zero. I wish the plastic had more of a blueish hue to it instead of a yellowish one, but I’m happy we got a Zero with Jack. The other accessories include a pair of jack-o-lanterns, the jack-o-lantern jack-in-the-box (that’s a lot of hyphens), and the framed picture of Jack holding yet another jack-o-lantern (he is the Pumpkin King, after all). Lastly, there’s a clear, oval, stand for Jack that works only so well. It has two pegs on it, but I’ve found if I actually use both pegs that Jack will fall over eventually. The jack-o-lanterns help here because they have some weight to them so you can plop on the stand to help stabilize things. I think it works best to only use one foot peg on the stand and turn it so it’s pointing out from Jack for a little more coverage that way, though given the proportions and tiny feet in play here, this is a figure that’s never going to be 100% secure on your shelf. He really needs more of a doll stand to grab him at the waist. Just be mindful with where you leave this guy on a shelf.

Articulation for Jack is basic, but also pretty substantial given what’s here. He has a simple ball joint at the head and another at the base of the neck. Since there’s really nothing to get in the way, Jack can look up and down pretty well even with the neck joint having minimal range. From there, we get ball-hinge shoulders, hinged elbows, hinged wrists that swivel, ball-jointed diaphragm, ball-socket hips, hinged knees, hinged ankles, and ankle rockers. Even though the knees and elbows are single hinges, they bend well past 90 degrees because there’s just nothing to impede them. You can swivel at both points as well, but the pins are tiny and I can’t say I like the feel there. The diaphragm joint rotates pretty well, but doesn’t move forward and back much. The hips will let Jack do splits while the angle of the pelvis won’t let him kick out straight, but the leg will go off to the side and pretty high. He’ll pretty much do what you need him to do, but there’s no getting around that his limbs are all very thin and slender. There’s a fear element to working some of these joints out of the box. Bending the knees the first time was one of those moments where I just had to take a deep breath and see how it goes. Everything has been fine so I’m not saying there’s any issues with the durability or quality control, but the design of the character is going to lead to at least the perception that this is a fragile figure. And I don’t think there’s any getting around that, but from what I’ve experienced the figure is structurally sound.

This is a really satisfying figure to own.

If you have ever wanted an action figure of Jack Skellington then I think you’ll be very happy with this NECA figure. NECA captured the look and personality of the character to near perfection. If it can be helped, I just recommend finding him in store where you can cherry pick the best paint job available and mind those lines. I was caught up in making sure the heads looked as pristine as possible and didn’t even look at the legs, not that I should have to, but I wish I had. Otherwise, I love the look of this one and he looks like a puppet from the film. You could probably substitute this figure into a shot of the movie without anyone noticing. Getting Zero included is a great perk while the other accessories help for a festive, Halloween, display. And if you want to leave him up all the way through Christmas then you’re more than welcome to, though NECA also has a solution there as well.

If you liked reading about this Jack Skellington then here’s some more seasonal fare that may interest you:

12 Films of Christmas #8: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Is it a Christmas movie? Is it a Halloween movie? Can a film be both? That seems to be the big question surrounding Tim Burton’s multi-holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. Released on Disney’s Touchstone label (because the company was too scared to be directly associated with the film at first) around Halloween 1993, The…

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by Joe

Funko Pop! Halloween Huey, Dewey, and Louie

There’s a scourge taking over our local record stores, clothing outlets, and gaming boutiques. It comes in mass quantities dominating its chosen territory at the expense of other merch. It swears no allegiance to anyone and will even place mortal enemies side by side as it amasses an army of licensed property of yesterday and…

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by Joe

Dec. 12 – Teen Titans Go! – “Halloween vs. Christmas”

  It’s a battle for the hearts of children around the world! What is the superior holiday:  Halloween or Christmas? Today’s entrant is founded on the premise that Halloween is the only holiday to rival Christmas as far as what children look forward to most. This feels more or less on point as a kid…

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by Joe

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December 23, 2012

The Nightmare Before Christmas

By Joe

Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993)

Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993)

There was a time when I had no idea that The Nightmare Before Christmas was a Disney property.  When I first saw it around Halloween of 1993 during its original theatrical run, it was credited to Touchstone Pictures, which unknown to me at the time, was a spin-off of Disney.  Disney used Touchstone to market to older audiences and when the executives got a look at how creepy the imagery of Nightmare was they decided it was best to distance it from the Disney brand.  That’s not to say they expected failure or anything, on the contrary, Disney hoped to cash in on the Henry Selick directed picture due to its unique animation style.  That was another thing I wouldn’t become aware of for years.  The picture, often marketed as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, was directed by Mr. Selick.  Burton crafted the story and worked on the character designs, script, and screenplay but had little involvement in the actual production.  This was due to him being a pretty hot commodity at the time and a certain Batman picture demanded a lot of his time.  Also, he had little desire in overseeing the tedious process of stop motion animation.  And who can blame him?  It’s a process that would drive many a person insane!

I remember being unsure of the film before first seeing it as a kid.  The adults taking us kids seemed more excited about it, though I’m not sure why.  Maybe it was the concept of marrying Halloween and Christmas into one film, or perhaps it was the visual style that is unique, if nothing else.  I think it was that visual style that initially put me off.  Not because it looked scary, but because Jack didn’t look like a skeleton in the traditional sense.  There’s a silliness to the look of the characters that’s lacking in true scares.  The vampires are a good example as they’re pear shaped and corny.  The look of most of the weird characters resembles that of Beetlejuice, one of Burton’s other popular films of the era.  I was way into X-Men at the time and preferred a realistic look to my characters, so I guess it’s not that surprising in hindsight why I had my reservations about the picture.

The film's protagonist, Jack The Pumpkin King, is bored and depressed over the whole Halloween thing and turns to Christmas for help.

The film’s protagonist, Jack The Pumpkin King, is bored and depressed over the whole Halloween thing and turns to Christmas for help.

Of course, they proved to be unfounded as myself and everyone I went with that day enjoyed the film immensely.  I’ve stated many times in my reviews of other properties that I care little for musicals and that was true of child me as well.  The Nightmare Before Christmas is heavy on song, more so than the traditionally animated Disney pictures of that time, and yet I still found it enjoyable.  There’s a humor to a lot of the film that’s present in the songs as well.  Most especially the “What’s This?” sequence where Jack is observing the differences between Halloween Town and Christmas Town (“The children are throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads,”).  That’s not to say they don’t get annoying, as sometimes the characters seem to break into song for the sake of doing so (such as when Jack explains Christmas Town to the rest of the gang), and I’m left wishing they’d just talk like regular folks instead.  The quality of the songs seems to vary too.  Danny Elfman was in charge of the film’s music (and also provided Jack’s singing voice) so I suppose he can be forgiven since he isn’t known as a Broadway composer.

Even though the film is a musical, it’s the visuals that make or break it.  And since the film has proven immensely popular ever since its release, it would seem to be that the visual style was accepted by the general public.  Selick has proven to be a master of the stop motion technique, and though films since have surpassed Nightmare in terms of animation quality, this film still holds up quite well today.  The characters animate very well and, for the most part, and lack the floaty quality many seem to have in the old Rankin/Bass Christmas specials.  Selick and his team don’t settle for the easy way in most scenes as characters tend to always be moving in some way as opposed to remaining still.  The only noticeable shortcut, if you will, seems to be the facial expressions of the non Jack characters.  Jack famously had over 400 heads to show various expressions while minor characters presumably had only one, save for maybe a back-up or two.  Sally had to use the same head so as not to disturb her hair, which would have caused a nightmare for the animators.  I suppose then it’s not surprising the lead character is bald.

While Halloween Town is presented in mostly black and white, Christmas Town is the exact opposite.

While Halloween Town is presented in mostly black and white, Christmas Town is the exact opposite.

The animation helps set Nightmare apart from other Disney fare, but the general look of the settings is also quite unique.  Halloween Town is very much rooted in German Expressionism.  There’s hardly a straight building in the town as everything juts out at seemingly impossible angles.  Several characters live in towers and crowded spaces.  Halloween Town seems pretty small in general, with mostly barren land surrounding it.  I suppose some would describe it as “gothic” (which would explain why so many goth girls in my high school seemed obsessed with Jack and Sally), but that seems lazy.  There’s very little color used as it’s mostly shades of gray.  And where color is present it’s often found in minor accents on the characters as opposed to the setting.  In contrast, Christmas Town is an explosion of primary colors and the objects Jack takes from it contrast nicely when they’re present in Halloween Town.  Watching the scene in Christmas Town almost makes one think a Dr. Seuss film would be a good idea for Henry Selick to oversee (as opposed to those wretched live-action films).

Jack playing Santa.

Jack playing Santa.

Tim Burton may get too much credit for Nightmare’s success, but one thing that can’t be taken away from him is the success of the film’s plot.  Dreaming up a world where each holiday has its own world separate from reality is pretty neat, but then taking the next step of having one wage war on the other is quite clever indeed.  Though Halloween Town doesn’t wage war on Christmas Town, they do seek to take over its holiday for at least one year.  Jack is a character of good intentions, but he lies to himself about what it is he’s doing without thinking about the implications this will have on Christmas Town, and Santa Claus to be specific.  He, for example, sees nothing wrong with sending off Boogie’s henchmen to kidnap Santa.  This makes him selfish, as he’s only thinking about curing his own seasonal depression, and short-sighted since he fails to predict the villainous Oogie Boogie’s eventual involvement.  And yet, we as the viewer know that he’s inherently good and he does set things right in the end.  The romance between Jack and Sally feels a bit forced, but I guess expecting for more development in that area out of a children’s moving may be asking too much.

The film settles in at 76 minutes, which is not uncommon for stop motion.  It doesn’t feel that short to me, maybe that’s due to my tepid response to the musical pieces, but it doesn’t feel long or anything.  And I give credit to all involved with the property that no stupid sequels exist such as Jack visits Easter Land or Valentine Town.  There are some spin-off video games and such, though I’ve never experienced any of them.  The unique dual holiday format of the film makes it extremely marketable for Disney, so perhaps that’s good enough for them to not seek out a sequel.

I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas this year for the first time in many years.  I was curious how I would respond to it after so long.  Despite being almost shunned by Disney for most of its life, it very much feels like a Disney picture, though Burton’s involvement is obvious as well.  Some of the songs made my eyes roll, but the visual effects are too charming to resist.  I enjoy the film’s humor and the fact that it separates itself from other holiday films and specials, but also makes sure to harken back to them at times with tongue firmly planted in cheek (“My what a brilliant nose you have!”).  While I don’t disagree with Disney’s decision to originally release the film through Touchstone, I don’t think it’s overly scary for young kids.  Most will recognize the film for what it is, but as always, parents know their kids best and might prefer to watch it first before showing it to the really young.  The film probably doesn’t rank as one of Disney’s best, but it is a fun film to revisit during this time of year, and I regret not purchasing it sooner.

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