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The Nightmare Before Christmas

1993

Henry Selick

Animation, Voice: Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey ...

7.7

105,229

Animation. Fantasy. Musical. Romance. Horror Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.

	Author	Review
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Of all the new Halloween films, only this one has the power to truly haunt our dreams"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The director of the film, a veteran stop-action master named Henry Selick, is the person who has made it all work. And his achievement is enormous (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"[It] has a clever visual format that keeps it streamlined and sharp (...) 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is a major step forward for both stop-motion animation, which is stunningly well used, and for Mr. Burton himself."	POS
United States	Jay Carr Boston Globe	"'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is the black diamond of family films, brilliantly conceived, touchingly pure of heart, much more endearing than scary."	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"[It] is at worst a macabre Muppet movie, at best an inspired jaunt. The set designs are ingenious and the songs (music and lyrics by Danny Elfman) are fairly good."	POS
United States	Todd McCarthy Variety	"For those with an aversion to conventional animation, this represents something refreshingly different"	POS
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"This brilliant combination of stop-motion animation, three-dimensional sets and superbly imaginative graphics, brings animation to new peaks"	POS
Canada	Rick Groen The Globe and Mail	"[It] occupies the imaginative ground held by the likes of White and Dahl and Seuss - that lovely place where, for shining moments, parents and children can travel on the same passport and smile for the same reasons."	POS
United States	John Hartl Seattle Times	"Visually a macabre knockout, this 75-minute fantasy boasts some of the wittiest, most vigorous stop-motion animation effects in the history of the process."	POS
United States	Nick Schager Slant	"Whereas the film is a marvel to look at, it’s unfortunately not much in the song or story department"	NEU
United States	Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"A delightfully ghoulish holiday musical that displays more inventiveness in its brief 75 minutes than some studios can manage in an entire year"	POS
United Kingdom	David Wood BBC	"A wickedly dark and decidedly alternative look at [Christmas] (...) Selick moves the action along at a brisk pace but it's Burton's characters and superb production skills (...) that really delight (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Ian Nathan Empire	"All gothicky, christmassy, romantic and Burtonesque. Worth a look (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"This beautifully realised confection will delight grown-ups of all ages."	POS
United States	Bill Cosford Miami Herald	"That Burton darkness (...) was said to be the one element that kept Batman Returns from becoming the most popular movie of all time. Maybe so. But this time, it's simply perfect.	POS
United States	Josh Modell AV Club	"'Nightmare' looks great, largely, I think, because of how the characters move, and because of the insane attention to detail in most every frame."	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"For the kids, it's a fantasy celebrating two holidays. For the adults, it's an opportunity to experience some light entertainment while marvelling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS

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