In 1993 director extraordinaire Tim Burton created the animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since then this animated phenomenon has become a cult classic among the goth music scene (thanks to Hot Topic and Spencer’s), and has spawned a whole line of marketing items which include video games, apparel, and comics. The unique stop action film approach also inspired other Tim Burton movies like James and the Giant Peach and The Corpse Bride. I think it goes without saying that Burton is a master film maker who certainly has the “Midas touch”. In August of 2008 Walt Disney Pictures releases for the first time a special 2 disc DVD of The Nightmare Before Christmas and it is digitally restored and re-mastered. Now the story of Jack Skellington and Halloween Town can be seen in picture perfect clarity, the way it has always been meant to see.
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween town has grown bored with the menial and boring task of being the King. He has reached a point in his life where he feels that there must be more to life than this. While walking jack stumbles upon a tree that is brightly lit and contains a door to a world that he has never seen. Jack enters the tree to find it leads to a place called Christmas town. As he explores this wonderful new discovery Jack comes up with an idea that will change Christmas forever. Determined to stir things up a bit in Halloween town Jack devises a plan to have the town take over this wonderful holiday called Christmas. He hires the mischievous trio of trick or treater’s to kidnap Santa and ultimately take on the role of Santa Clause (or Sandy Claws as he refers to the man in red). As you can imagine this years Christmas will be like one no one has ever seen or experienced.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderful movie that gives the holiday season a little bit of a twist. The second disc is packed full of extra’s including “Frankenweenie”, “Vincent” (a short film), commentaries, Behind the Scenes, deleted scenes and much, much more. One of the unique aspects to this set is a third disc that is called Disney File Digital Copy. This disc is designed to allow you download the full movie to either iTunes or Windows Media Player on your computer and then put it on your iPod or other hand held device. I am interested to see where this technology goes in the future. This two disc DVD is a must addition to anyone’s traditional Holiday movie collection.
Reviewed by Jeff Holton
