Yes, there are some good things about this movie like the songs and the animation, but the plot is really dumb. This movie is watchable, but if you try to think about the story too much you'll realize how stupid it is.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the story of Jack Skellington (voiced by Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon) as he becomes disillusioned with his role as the Pumpkin King and wants more out of life. This is a tale that everyone can understand in that many times throughout life, people are simply not as satisfied with where they are. Jack is joined by the rest of Halloweentown in his quest to introduce Christmas to the residents. The residents blindly follow Jack's lead with the exception of Sally (voiced by Catherine O'Hara). Throughout the film, Sally tries to get Jack to follow his normal path, as Christmas is already being handled by the residents of Christmastown. Each character in Christmas town is themed after a different aspect of fear, and they tend to blend together well. As fishmen, vampires, and even a clown with a tear away face group up, each has their own part to play in the film. Because this is a claymation style musical, music and sound is everything to the plot, and it is done in a way that gets the songs stuck in your head so that you will find yourself singing along during any viewing after the first. This is because of Danny Elfman who wrote the score. The score itself fits a Tim Burton film and likely is because they have worked together many times in the past. During The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is impossible to ignore the similarities between this and Betelgeuse not only because of the team up of Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, and Glen Shadix (The Mayor of HalloweenTown), but also because there are subtle nods in the animated film as well. During one scene with the main antagonist, Oogie Boogie, there are a pair of dice that landed on snake eyes. Out of the holes in the one die slithers a snake that looks remarkably like a miniature sand snake from Betelgeuse. This quick nod along with Jack dressed in a black and white pinstripe and coupled with the score that is reminiscent of Betelgeuse is enough to instantly bring back thoughts of both movies. The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't entirely without fault, however. There are times where you can visibly see the wires holding certain bats or other props in place, however the use of light is such that is tends to mask the majority of the flaws. In some cases, you have to look hard to see them, even if you are told they are there. The motif of fear is presented at the forefront, which makes sense given that the main setting is Halloweentown. This does present itself in Jack as well. Jack isn't simply discontent with his position in life, he comes off as being afraid that being the King of Halloween is all he will amount to in life. I believe that is his impetus to find a new passion. Overall, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fun-hearted musical about a guy just trying to chase a dream. With a solid score of musical numbers and an art style that isn't often seen in cinema, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a great family movie that is fun to watch at any time of the year.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is an American animated musical from 1993, so this pretty short film (75 minutes) has its 25th anniversary soon and it is the first full feature film directed by Henry Selick that younger audiences today know rather for Coraline than for this one here. It was nominated for an Oscar in the visual effects category, which is a rather rare achievement for a non live-action film (lost to Jurassic Park). And composer Danny Elfman was nominated for a Golden Globe for his score. I know him very well for his composing, but I was genuinely baffled by his amazing singing voice for the main character here. Great job. The script is (to some extent) by Tim Burton and if you have seen other stuff from him, you won't be surprised one bit. So this is a film that combines horror, animation, comedy and musical and that must be a pretty unique achievement. While I don't necessarily agree with the truly high rating here on IMDb, I would still say that it was a good watch overall. The fun perspective may be in the center of it all I guess, even if without a doubt a more creepy film than Coraline for the most part for example. So horror animation indeed.As for the story, horror is always difficult to combine with the spirit of Christmas. Even the classics like Grinch stuff etc. are hardly truly scary. And most filmmakers trying to combine these two have at best delivered something that could be considered a good guilty pleasure watch, but not a truly great film. Here they came pretty close. The fact how short the film is shows at times when we see for example how the villains are depicted left me a bit unimpressed. Sally's creator Finklestein was still somewhat decent and funny most of the time, even if severely underused, but the torturer near the end was pretty much completely forgettable to me. Nonetheless, one of the film's biggest strengths is the attention to detail. There are so so many characters visible in here that we find out almost nothing about, but they are interesting on a level where they could have deserved their own movie. As for the romance part, it was okay. It felt a bit rushed at times too and I would not call it a defining animation romance, but still it worked out fine and the last shot was kinda cute.The two central characters worked out nicely too all in all. The fact that Jack may not have been too interesting in looks, was more than made up by his singing parts. I would also like to add that his affection for Christmas is interesting to me as we may see his world as scary and creepy, but it's normal for everybody who lives there. That includes the funny two-faced mayor. The abnormal aspect is getting warmth, harmony and gifts in there. The thing we see as normal. And when the worlds collide, nothing is normal anymore (the police call scene e.g.). These worlds shall not be intertwined for the sake of everybody living in them. Pay attention to how adult human's faces are never seen in here. Santa doesn't count as he's Santa and not a human. Overall, I give this film a thumbs-down. It managed for the animation genre to be an unlikely success story with an approach/subject that has little to do with what you'd expect for Christmas. In one way or another like Die Hard. What else could I add? I think that is basically all. I think the style and animation will scare some away, but if you aren't one of them, then I believe you are in for a treat. It was a good film and I recommend checking it out. A bit of a shame it took me almost a quarter of a century to finally check it out. I also think that it is worth seeing more on a big screen than a small screen, so if you haven't seen it so far, wait for 2018 and make sure you catch a viewing when it may return to theaters as a 25th anniversary tribute. In any case, see it.

First of all, don't tell me this is a kid's movie and you're not supposed to think about it. You can take that attitude outside right now. Obviously, this movie looks fantastic. It really makes you realize how boring these CGI Pixar kiddie flicks have become when you see highly detailed, real-life animation like this. That's the beginning and end of what makes this movie good.In one scene, we see Jack Skellington singing on a hillside about how bored he is with Halloween. You can see a full moon behind him. The next night we see the night sky and it's a crescent moon. Moon phases don't happen that quickly. Jack Skellington wanders into the woods and finds doorways into other Holiday worlds. How has nobody discovered these doors before? He steps through a door and falls into Christmas world. You see no doorways back, but somehow he gets back. How??The Halloween crew kidnap Santy Clause and bring him back to Halloween world. There's a scene where they have to shove his fat butt down a ventilation shaft. They have a difficult time and you see the shaft buldge out as he gets sucked down. Uh, this is Santa Clause. He drops down chimneys effortlessly. Why is he having a hard time here?Santa is completely helpless during this whole movie. Why? Doesn't he have magic powers? Why doesn't he fight back? At the VERY end, when they save Santa, you know what he does? Just flies away! He smashes through the ceiling! Why didn't he do that to begin with??Most sane people would agree that Tim Burton can't make good movies anymore. Many people who hold this opinion will include "Nightmare Before Christmas" as one of his last good films. Well, I beg to differ, boys and girls. I give this movie an F+.