The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Ken Page

Director: Henry Selick

Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy, Musical

Rating: A

It's almost Halloween, which means that it's officially the time to question whether The Nightmare Before Christmas qualifies as a Halloween or Christmas movie.  I personally like to think both.

Jack Skellington (Sarandon, singing voice by Elfman) is the Pumpkin King of Halloween town, but as of late his heart hasn't been in the scarring people business - he wants something more.  This something more is found after Jack discovers the portal to Christmas Town and decides that this year Halloween Town will do Christmas.  With the help of the town he prepares for Christmas, even going so far as to have Lock (Paul Reubens), Shock (O'Hara), and Barrel (Elfman), kidnap 'Sandy Claws' so that Jack can replace him - although unbenknownst to Jack, the trio deliver Sandy to town bogeyman Oogie Boogie (Page).  Watching it all with apprehension is rag-doll and love interest Sally (O'Hara), who is certain that Jack's Christmas is not going to be a success.

It's no surprise that the best part about this movie is the music.  The songs are simplistic, catchy, and well sung.  Honestly, in my opinion one of the best parts about most Tim Burton films is the Danny Elfman soundtrack, and Nightmare really shines as one of his best.  Some of the songs aren't as good, but most of the music is just iconic of the stylings of this film.  It's a perfect blending of the styles of Burton and Elfman - sadly, for actual director Henry Selick he's kind of left out of the limelight a bit here by the two bigger names.

The next thing that makes this movie great is the world that Burton and Selick have created.  It's beautifully crafted stop motion animation, meaning that everything about it has actually been crafted.  The attention to details and what not isn't just some computer program - I realize that there's more to computer animation than just the computer doing it, but it has a different feel to it.  Somehow, the knowledge that the creations in Nightmare are all actually crafted things makes it feel more real.  You might not be able to have as much going on in the background when you're using stop motion, but what happens in the foreground just has this extra little charm to it - and really, Nightmare doesn't lose all that much of the background either.  The fact that they had about 400 heads for Jack alone says something about the time and effort that went into this movie.

Rounding out the greatness is the fact that it's a movie that does, or at least can, appeal to people of all ages.  It's animated and intended to appeal to a younger audience, but it also works really well as a movie for adults.  I actually hated this movie as a kid because I found it to be too scary, but as I got older and it began to reemerge a bit I really got into it.  It's fun, it's cute, it's dark, but it's also light at times.  It's probably the best thing that's come out of Tim Burton, or at least pretty close.  Definitely the best thing Henry Selick's directed.

Dark Shadows (2012)

Stars: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath
Director: Tim Burton
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Drama
Rating: B+

At some point in the last decade or so people began to think of Tim Burton as a director of blockbuster movies, which is about the same time that people really started to say that Burton’s movies suck.  I suspect that a huge part of this has to do with Johnny Depp; once Depp did Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl people began to see him as a blockbuster actor and assumed due to their frequent collaborations that meant that Burton was a blockbuster director.  The problem is that Tim Burton are not blockbusters and should not be treated as such.  The man who made a movie about Ed Wood is not trying to be a blockbuster director.  Let’s stop trying to treat him as such.

Dark Shadows is a movie upgrade of a campy 1960s gothic soap opera.  That is the type of movie that this is, and that is how it should be taken, nothing more, nothing less.  The film follows the life of Barnabas Collins (Depp).  Born in the mid-eighteenth century, Barnabas is the son of a wealthy entrepreneur living in the fishing port of Collinsport, Maine.  Barnabas is somewhat of a playboy who breaks the heart of servant and witch Angelique Bouchard (Green).  She, in turn, kills his parents and his lover, Josette du Pres (Heathcote), before casting a spell that turns him into a vampire.  Turning the town against him, she has him chained in a coffin which is then buried in the woods.  In 1972 later the coffin is accidentally dug up by a work crew, releasing Barnabas.  He finds that his family, or the descendants of his family, are living in the shadows of the greatness that they once had, having been cursed by Angelique.  After promising matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) to keep his true identity secret from the rest of the family and to not feed on them, Barnabas sets out to restore his family’s to their former glory.

This film is campy, but intentionally so.  It’s dark, over the top, and ridiculous, but that’s what makes it fun.  The jokes are a bit corny at times, but for the most part they’re funny.  Watching Depp play an out of time vampire, in the 70s, is pretty much comic genius.  One of my favourite scenes was of him trying to figure out just what a lava lamp is.  At times he’s a bit too over the top, especially in his language (I never want to hear the term ‘birthing hips’ again), but it works within the parameters of the film.  I also really enjoyed the more deadpan humour of Willie Loomis (Haley).  There’s something about Haley that makes him both so creepy and so entertaining at the same time.  The overall plot of the movie made sense and was easy to follow, although I would have enjoyed a bit more character development. You really get to know Barnabas and Angelique, but a lot of the other characters were a bit sidelined.  I would have liked to have seen more of the Collins children, and I think because of the lack of development with them some of the plot twists at the end came out of nowhere.  I’m almost interested in seeing this again, just to see how much foreshadowing there is.  I do have to say, my favourite part of this movie was the music.  The score was done by Danny Elfman which is always a good thing, and the soundtrack is comprised of music from the 70s.  It’s hard to go wrong there.