Friday, 7 December 2012

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Tim Burton


Synopsis:
Jack Skellington tries to bring Christmas to Halloweentown but doesnt quite get the concept.





This is one of Christmas’ greatest films? This… this piece of painfully slow, unmemorable, unfunny and ridiculously uncomfortable tripe is supposed to be one of the first things that comes to people’s minds when they think of the great holiday movies? Complete and utter madness. I know Burton is a bit eccentric at times and likes to bring an “oooo… look at me, I’m a goth and I make everything dark and blah blah blah” into everything he does but did he have to bring it to Christmas?

Without a doubt the most visually uncomfortable film I have ever watched. It’s so inappropriately stuffed thick with german expressionism that you honestly can’t relax. Everything is ugly and hollow. Not a character in this piece can be sympathised with since, save for Sally, they are ALL bad deep down because they’re ALL Halloween bad guys. One character with depth is not nearly enough to save an entire clusterfuck of onscreen personalities that tear at the very fabric of my patience. Even in Christmas Land the imagery still remains slightly twisted and the shallow elves and characters there are so pointlessly happy and dull that they come across as props.

One thing that can really bring a musical down is bad music but my goodness, The Nightmare Before Christmas takes it to a whole new level! I can’t sit through musicals at the best of times but when their only purpose is to spoon feed the audience through the narrative I honestly have to put my foot down. There was no imagination; just a crap writer playing unintelligently with the themes of Halloween and Christmas without any ingenuity or care.

The animation lacked any form of excitement or intrigue. When the only saving grace could potentially be the way the characters move and interact you really need to plough all your efforts into that because nothing else is going to save this crap. I understand this was made nearly 20 years ago but that didn’t stop other companies producing absolute gold with stop motion. Finally, Jack Skellington is one if the poorest designed characters I’ve ever seen.  His spindly arachnid limbs allow for NO decent ways to animate him and has somehow, for reasons beyond my comprehension, persuaded people to even copy this style! A sickening, soul-sucking flood of bottom of the barrel student animations use the same long limbed formula that fails so miserably here and it makes me feel positively nauseous.


Overview:
Genuinely upset that this is considered one of the greats. To all those who feel the same (there must be more out there)… Don’t be afraid to speak out! Tim burton needs a good slap for this painfully overrated waste of time.

Rating:

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