Henry Selick and Tim Burton on the set of Nightmare Before Christmas
Noni Ford discusses the endearing outcasts and sympathetic mindset of Jack Skellington in the animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Tim Burton loves a misfit. It’s easy to trace this affinity through the central figures of many of the films he’s penned or directed. From Frankenweenie to the Netflix show Wednesday, nearly all of Burton’s work has a distinctive lead who we see carving out a place for themselves within the more conformist world he put them in. As a young fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I consider both a Halloween and Christmas classic, I loved the world he and co-writer Michael McDowell built. And I loved the way he allowed Halloween Town with its monsters and beasts to be a place where people could find delight in one of my favorite holidays. He made Sally, a Frankenstein-like creation, and her ability to sew back her limbs quaint, Zero the ghost dog just as lovable as any dog in a kid’s movie, and the iconic backdrop of the Henry Selick film, which is a pumpkin patch graveyard, romantic and dreamy.
Yes, Christmas Town is enchanting too and when Jack falls into this other world we can understand why he’d love it. It’s the opposite of Halloween Town in seemingly every way to him, although by the end of the film we soon recognize some of the similarities between these two places. However, it is still Halloween Town and its occupants that really captured my heart. When we meet Jack Skellington, he is discontent with his life and the repetitive nature of his role in Halloween Town. He feels that Christmas Town is superior due to it being both new to him and because its focus is on bringing happiness instead of scares. As Jack attempts to force his way into the traditions of Christmas, chaos ensues, and he has to confront his place in life and his desires for the future.
Jack Skellington exploring Christmas Town
One of the biggest differences between the two worlds of the film is Christmas Town appears to be occupied by normal-looking, alive humans while the people in Halloween Town are often anything but conventional looking to Christmas Town’s standards. In most American horror stories, the dead are simply those that haunt the living; in this tale, though, death is a continuation of life, not a point of end. Halloween Town’s characters still have feelings, desires, and lives they are leading beyond the grave. They also aren’t objects of fear, but those who we can sympathize and empathize with. Jack, a walking and talking skeleton, is unhappy with his job and trying to seek a way to improve his life — who can’t relate to deciding to get yourself out of a work slump? Sally wants the man she’s had a longstanding crush on to notice her — what person alive who has gone through the pains of adolescent love can’t see themselves in that longing for reciprocation?
Sally becomes concerned about Jack’s ideas
While Jack feels that Christmas Town is a place of happiness because of its emphasis on gifts and family, he misses out on seeing how Halloween Town embodies happiness too. All of the inhabitants of the town find joy in delivering scares, and there are family units too that look after each other with love just like they do in Christmas Town. Sure, they may look vastly different, but both are places of comfort and kinship for their occupants. As Jack fights to make another place his home, he finally realizes where that home truly lies.
Before it is too late, Jack has a realization about his predicament and decides to do what he can to fix his mistakes. He finds a way to put things right again and to take stock of the beautiful community he was part of and didn’t appreciate in Halloween Town. He has his redemption.
I think there are several lessons in the movie and important morals as well that Nightmare gives to viewers young and old alike. One of the reasons I believe the movie embodies both holidays it depicts is because there’s an important reminder for each in the final act of the film. Never be embarrassed to let your freak flag fly — love what you love. And always be thankful for those around you and the families you create; it’s never too late to express your gratitude and make new traditions.
The Nightmare Before Christmas will be screened at IU Cinema on December 13 at 10pm as part of an unofficial holiday double feature with Carol, which will precede Nightmare at 7pm.