Has it really been so long since the name Tim Burton didn’t inspire at best an apathetic yawn out of me? Sure, I enjoyed the hell out of Batman Returns when it originally came out, but Burton’s brand name seemed to hit a high point with the one-two punch of The Nightmare Before Christmas in ‘93 and Ed Wood in ‘94. Oh, and Cabin Boy, too. I will defend Cabin Boy until the day I die.

After that it seemed Burton hit a creative wall with a collection of remakes and adaptations that ranged from decent enough (Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish), fairly inconsistent (Mars Attacks!, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and ass-canceringly bad (Planet of the Apes). But ’93 and ’94 would be considered by most to be Burton’s highlight – which is quite odd considering Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t a Tim Burton film in the first damn place.

Originally a short poem by Burton that was adapted to screenplay by frequent collaborator Caroline Thompson, The Nightmare Before Christmas introduces us to Halloween Town, a spooky little shanty populated by vampires, wolfmen, witches and various creepy crawlies that love nothing more than to prepare for October 31st, culminating in a parade that ends with Halloween Town’s most popular citizen, Jack Skellington, setting himself aflame and diving into the nearest fountain to the joyous cackling of the townspeople.

However, behind the scenes Jack is stuck in a rut. Tired of the same old holiday day in and day out, Jack wanders off into the woods and finds a collection of doors featuring crude paintings of hearts, clovers, turkeys, Easter eggs and most important of all, a sparkly Christmas tree. Seeing as how nobody really gives a shit about St. Patrick’s Day, he opens the Christmas door and finds himself in the middle of Christmas Town, full of snow, colorful lights and elves. Jack is instantly captivated and decides to bring the event to Halloweentown. There, he presents his findings to an instantly enthusiastic audience. Well, except for Sally, the ragdoll who has vision of flaming Christmas trees.

Despite Sally’s argument against stealing Christmas, Jack has tunnel vision, and sends the local trick-or-treaters, Lock, Shock and Barrel, to fetch Santa Claus with the idea that they’re actually giving Santa a vacation rather than kidnapping him. Of course, everything falls apart as Santa is shipped to the literal bag-‘o-bugs Oogie Boogie and Jack is shot down by the police after his man-eating presents go berzerk.

While it might not be the honest-to-goodness holiday classic every 14-year-old girl with a tube of black lipstick and a Xanga account wants you to believe, The Nightmare Before Christmas certainly comes as close as it possibly can and probably is one of the best Christmas films to come out in the past 20 years. I think it has to do with the whole concept itself: crossbreeding Halloween with Christmas kind of makes the film more of a neutral rather than a strict Holiday film.

Semantics aside, there’s very little to complain about the film itself. There’s the signature Burton style in full tilt, its dazzling technical acheivement, the stellar cast (on a random note, who would have thought Jeffrey Jones was going to be the one in the Burton stable to be deemed the sexual offender? I would have put my money on the awesome yet fairly frightening Glenn Shadix), and Danny Eflman’s last great score. Remember when Danny Elfman wrote memorable songs? Damn I miss those days.

While the film might not appeal to the traditionalists and will probably scare the wits out of any child under five, if you want a slightly macabre twist to your Christmas cheer, if you want to scare the wits out of any child under five, or if you want to double-whammy a Jehova’s Wittness, The Nightmare Before Christmas should please.

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The original release of the film was a non-anamorphic widescreen release. The special edition of the film is… a non-anamorphic widescreen release. But hey, I’m working off an old television, so I don’t care. Despite its shortcomings we get a fairly nice image free of specks and dirt. It's quite sharp. The muted color palette in Halloween Town comes off nicely, and gives way to the bright shininess of Christmas Town.

Sound
Coming in both 5.1 dolby digital and 5.1 DTS (a French track in 5.1 dolby digital is also included), both tracks are quite excellent, especially during the musical numbers. I’d compare the two, but the disc locks you out from switching audio tracks on the fly – boo. Either way, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Extras
Quite an extensive special edition, we have an awfully dry commentary with director Henry Selick and director of photography Pete Kozachik that’ll be quite informative to anyone interested in the art of stop-motion animation, but which will bore anyone else. A little more lively is the making of documentary, which runs 24 minutes and covers enough to disregard the commentary.

The storyboard to film comparision covers a musical number, while deleted scenesfeatures both animatics and fully animated deleted scenes that includes a (rightfully) removed character tie-in, along with Tim Burton’s severed head. The World of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a selection of production sketches and animation tests that are well worth looking through, while posters and trailers feature a couple of alternate poster designs, a teaser trailer from when the film was still associated with Disney, and the full length trailer.

For those who wanted more Burton goodies, two short films, Vincent and Frankenweenie, are present. Both are worth watching.

Finally, there’s a trailer for James And The Giant Peach.

Overall
While it might not be fun for the whole family, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fantastic film that won’t be stuck in a box for 11 months out of the year like a lot of Christmas movies. The non-anamorphic transfer might be a sore spot for some, but the strength of the movie itself along with a decent collection of extras should be the deal-breaker.