Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare before Xmas”, is a 77 minute stop-motion, all singing all dancing extravaganza. It the story of Jack Skellington, “Pumpkin King” of Haloween Town, who has grown mealoncholy with his lot as chief scarer. All this changes when he accidentally wanders into nearby Xmas town, a baffling place where everybody is motivated by seasonal cheer rather than ghoulish fear.
Jack resolves to take over Xmas for himself; To him it seems far more fun than Haloween, however the rest of Haloween town do not share Jack’s new obsession.
The humor comes from the contrast between the efficient kitch of Christmastown (populated by grinning gnomes), and the misguided enthusiasm Haloween Town’s residents (Vampires, Zombies, Witches and a mad-scientist). Jack’s henchmen are instructed to re-create Christmas, but do so in their own morbid style. Despite this Jack Skellington truly believes that his Christmas will be the jolliest ever.
I intend to show this film to my neice and nephewes, to see if it turns them into goths. Obviously I do not expect this transformation to occur instantly; According to leading film review site Cap Alert, gothication is sure to occur if I expose these young minds to films of a non-Christian nature.
The path of the goth leads from innocent childhood, via social exclusion, past an infactuation with death and graveyards, terminating at black lipstick and spikey clothing is a difficult one to tread. Films that feature the singing undead are not nececarily the inspiration of this particular life-style, but it should at least deliver a more persuasive message than the Sunday School that the children are made to attend.
This film is available in all good video shops, and most average quality bittorrent download sites.
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