So this is a film I love. I love the theatricality of this film and as a theatre graduate I watch this film thinking more about how it was created.
So we start with the inhabitants of Halloween Town singing about their individual talents of scaring people during their Halloween celebrations. The towns leader Jack Skellington is very important in the organising of these celebrations however he has become bored of the same thing every year - I can’t say I’m surprised if his whole life is Halloween! He decides to take himself on a walk through the wood where comes across several doors and chooses the one that takes him to Christmas town - legit my favourite!
After arriving in the town he sings about all the magical things he can see and decides he want to tell everyone about it! He goes back to Halloween town where she shows everyone things he brought back, however they don’t really grasp the concept of the town and keep coming back to Halloween. They do get excited by the idea of Christmas towns ruler Sandy Claws! He asks the local scientist Dr Finklestein to borrow some of his equipment to do some experiments to show the town what Christmas really means! He isn’t able to explain it properly to them but decides it’s not fair for Christmas town to have all the fun and they are going to do the Christmas celebrations this year!
Jack calls a town meeting where he assigns everyone jobs to do to put on his Christmas celebration - I mean I think he Christmas is somewhat lack lustre but his intentions are good! Sally, a rag doll woman who loves Jack - but secretly and from a distance - has a vision that Jacks efforts are not going to go well, but he basically tells her to shut up and make him a Santa suit - charming! He makes Lock, Shock and Barrel (three naughty children) capture Santa Claus which ends badly first time when they return with the Easter bunny - I mean I know they probably don’t know what Santa looks like but surely they’ve seen a bunny before even if it’s a dead one! After finally bringing him back, Jack tells him that he is doing Christmas this year and asks the trio to take him somewhere safe. As if they are going to do that! They take him to Oogie Boogie - who is a bogeyman who likes to gamble and his happy to gamble with Santa’s life! Sally tries to save Santa - although 100% she does it for Jack - but obvs Oogie Boogie gets her too!
Jack, dressed as Santa, heads off to deliver presents to the children of the world - I mean in all fairness he has got this bit right - but the gifts he deliver are scary and attack everyone. The military decide they’ve had enough of the imposter Santa and shoot him from the sky where he crash lands in a cemetery- pretty apt really! The people of Halloween town are devastated as they think Jack is now dead, but he has survived and realises he fucked up Christmas but enjoyed the process and his love of Halloween returns. He decides he need to fix the mess he made so heads back to Halloween Town to get Santa.
He arrives in town and goes to Oogie Boogies house where Oogie Boogie tries to kill him, but quick thinking Jack with his long creepy fingers catches a loose thread on Oogie Boogies body and unravels him causing all the bugs that make up his body to fall into the cauldron. Jack apologises to Santa who is still pretty pissed but says he can fix this and goes back to Christmas town. Santa replaces all the Halloween toys with nice ones and brings snow to Halloween town where the residents are rejoicing as Jack is alive! Alone in the cemetery Jack and Sally declare their love for each other which is a cute way to end.
I enjoy this film and I think the music in it is brilliant! The stop motion action is incredible and it amazes me the amount of work and skill goes into making a film like this. Not long till we can watch it again fit Christmas!!
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