In the spirit of Halloween, we are going to take a look at one of the most notable Halloween themed films titled: The Nightmare Before…Christmas? The title as well as the movie itself contains a little irony because it takes place around Christmas but its overarching theme is heavily Halloween. The film is based on Tim Burton’s poem which features many of the same characters designed by the man of weird himself. In another role twist, Tim Burton handed the director reins to stop-motion enthusiast and fellow Disney animator Henry Selick, who had studied Experimental Animation at CalArts. One would think that due to Burton’s recent successful venture with directing and re-imagining Batman, he would direct a film that was more in his creative range and that he would have more control over. Danny Elfman composed the score and provided the singing voice of our dear Jack Skellington. It proved to be a smart decision since Elfman drove the film’s plot using diverse musical numbers, jazzy mix-ups, and classic funeral-ambient music. I had the pleasure of watching the movie for the first time on Blu-ray and, compared to the original VHS copy currently sitting on my shelf courtesy of my wife, I felt it was cleaned up visually and aurally from the original VHS, so it made it that much easier to watch. Ok, here we go again, and by god I’ll do it right this time. Read more