October 13th, 2012
3 Nights of Tim Burton continues.........
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Again I have previously written about this movie and it will not be the last but Jack Skellington is pretty much synonymous with Hallowe'en in my house. I love this time of
year because Nightmare Before Christmas is everywhere. In fact I bought some new Jack socks today. Let's revisit what I previously published on the topic.....
The
Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride really resonated with me
when I first saw them and every time after. First of all, Hallowe’en and
Christmas combined? Holy Shit! Best thing ever! Just saying. Then when I
got over that, the characters and their world real moved me. I love the style; I
find these realms very aesthetically pleasing. But the idea of a whole
world devoted to Hallowe’en or Christmas or Easter. That our fantasies
come alive having their own little kingdom to rule was an amazing
concept to me. Did they manifest because we believe in them or do we
believe in them because they manifested? (If they were real) And do they
live just on the fringes of our reality so we never have real
confirmation of existence? The use of grey/ black shades with stunning
colour also inspired me. Wait until you see my Jack Skellington coat
A theme I also like in both movies is things are not as they seem. The
scary monsters and the dead are not to be feared. They have no malice.
They just have different ideas about social norms, like being scared and
want to share their joy. A divergence in taste from what
most people if you like. Jack actually believes he can bring joy like
Santa. The intentions are good but the execution is off. Oh well maybe
next time.
Again on to new thoughts. Yesterday I wrote about Scraps from the Corpse Bride. Today I want to give an honourable mention to Jack's dog, Zero. The floating, glowing ghost dog. He is a cinematic triumph. The fluidity of his movements, like a scarf in the wind, is quite the accomplishment for the stop-motion medium, I have read Zero is simply animated and overlaid but I also read he is stop motioned and overlaid and this is the explanation I prefer. (The gown of the Corpse Bride also flows like this) Zero floating at the head of the team of Jack's sleigh, the dexterity of the team is amazing to watch. But Zero is not the only impressive aspect of TNBC. The plot for one thing. The change-up of good and evil. Then you have the scenery, the curling hill unfurling as Jack walks is an amazing detail, a time consuming one at that in stop-motion production. And let's not forget this is a musical. A popular musical at that. Oh and the voice of Jack is Humperdink from The Princess Bride...seriously, look it up.
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