Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D ****

Back in 1993, Tim Burton had a vision, and Henry Selick was able to carry out that vision. The result, "The Nightmare Before Christmas," has become one of my favorite movies of all time. A film of such magical proportions, that it is required to watch every single year. I saw it in the theatre when it first came out in 1993, but of course I was too young to remember it. I revisited it on the big screen in 2004 as part of a midnight showing, and now I was able to revisit it, as well as experience it with a whole new generation of viewers, in a 3-D format. It was amusing going into the theatre, and seeing it with such a large crowd of kids that have no idea how old the film is, and how much of an impact it has had on many people. I really do hope that they can enjoy it as much as I do.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" tells the story of the many different holiday's. They are all divided up in a forest, all inside their own little tree. There is a tree with a Christmas tree on it for Christmas, one with an egg for Easter, and one with a pumpkin for Halloween. And this is the focus of the story, beginning in Halloweentown, where we are introduced to Jack Skellington, the king of the town. After another Halloween, where all the citizens give their best efforts to scare, Jack is tired of the same old thing. He is bored of screams and scares, and believes that there is a place out there better than this town. After a walk in the woods, he spots the forest with all the trees, and is entranced by the Christmastown tree. Jack comes up with a great idea-to bring the concept of Christmas to Halloweentown, and give them all something new and something great! But it goes horribly wrong, as the people of Halloweentown do not know the ideas of being cheerful and jolly, and decide to make this Christmas the most frightening yet. Jack also gets into deeper trouble when he enlists Halloweentown's finest trick or treaters, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, to go and kidnap Santa Claus, which they do. However, they make the mistake of sending him into the lair of Oogie Boogie, the villan of Halloweentown who'll eat Santa before giving him a nice home cooked meal. It'll take the help of Sally, a rag doll creation who secretly loves Jack, to try and talk some sense into him before it is too late.

The 3-D is not amazing, but it does create a clearer image, and any excuse to see "Nightmare" on the big screen is good enough by me. It is such an original tale, with some great musical numbers, brought by the help of Danny Elfman. His singing voice of Jack is brilliant, as are many of the lyrics that he came up with for the songs. It's poetry. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" holds a place very high on my top best films of all time list, and there is no reason to see why not. It is special, and is mandatory viewing for the holiday season as much as "It's a Wonderful Life" and "March of the Wooden Soldiers" are for Thanksgiving. And I also have the honor of being an original viewer, and not like the goths and other teenagers who seemed to try and call this film there own, when most of them probably didn't even hear about it until the late nineties. I've read that this 3-D version of the film is being rereleased in October of 2007, and maybe this could in fact become the yearly tradition that it deserves to be. In a happy twist of fate, the 3-D does not destroy the film, but enhance, and is hopefully appealing to a new set of children who all should experience this the way it deserves to be experienced: right there on the big screen. It should hopefulyl open childrens eyes to the type of animation there was before the world of Nemo and The Incredibles. Instead of computers, "Nightmare" is done in stop motion animation, and this is for the better. I've heard that Disney wanted to make a CGI sequel back in the late nineties, and Tim Burton refused mostly because of the way Disney wanted to make it. I applaud Tim for not wanting to change the way this film is, as the stop motion animation gives it a special charm and a special feeling. A true Halloween/Christmas classic returns, and it's a welcome one at that!