The Nightmare Before Christmas/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • How did no one in Christmastown notice the 6-foot fucking skeleton running around?
    • From what I could understand, they were all too busy getting ready for Christmas to notice a stealthy skeleton sneaking around (and singing... yeah). He was almost noticed during that musical number, though...
    • It also helps that, considering that it's Christmas town, everyone is probably full of joy and acceptance (unless you kidnap them).
    • Well...he is the pumpkin king, so he probably needs to be good at hiding (did you see how he entered to Oogie's lair, saved Sally and Sandy Claws and sat on the ramp instead of them, and all that without Oogie noticing?)
      • Now his stealthiness may work in Halloween town, where he can blend in with the scenery, but in Christmastown, he's this big black spindly thing crawling around in a colorful area. Kinda hard to miss.
      • He spent a lot of time as a mobile snowman...?
      • He would blend into the scenery of Christmas Town as well, given he's as white as the snow, and is skinny enough to easily hide behind a Christmas tree if needed.
    • The entire dance number was based on him hiding from everyone. He hid. Obviously.
      • It's part of the brilliance of the choreography, and difficult to understand how someone wouldn't get that while watching it. He's always off to the side, just behind someone, or they're not quite quick enough to catch a glimpse of him when they turn to look... exactly like a spooky creature should do.
  • The line in "What's This?," "They kiss? Why, that looks so unique!" How would Jack know what a kiss is if it's so unique to their culture?
    • In addition, how did he know what snowballs and mistletoe are?
      • See the It Just Bugs Me for Enchanted. In Disney worlds, characters just know everything that we would, to make up perfectly fitting songs for any occasion, even if they have no clue what they're singing about.
      • Mistletoe is very poisonous, that's probably why he knew what it was. I think he knew what kissing was, he was just unfamiliar with the tradition of doing it under a hanging plant.
      • Popping in to point out he must know what it is...Jack and Sally kiss at the end, remember?
      • And Dr Finkelstein tries to kiss his clone. The Halloween people know about kissing, it's just the tradition of kissing under mistletoe that's "unique".
        • And Inspired!
      • Concerning snowballs: Canada, despite being Canada, must experience Halloween. Therefore, Jack knows what snow is. There are mentions of monsters under beds (children's beds, I assume), so balls must be known to Halloween Town. He just fit the two words together when he saw the snowballs.
      • Perhaps he subconsciously remembers this stuff from back when he was alive, and not undead, even if he won't allow himself to access all of his memories, certain stuff still stands out to him.
      • Though if that was the case, then the citizens of Halloweentown shouldn't have reacted the way they did when Santa made it snow. They said stuff like, What's this, why it's completely new! Must be a Christmas thing!" and such. So unless Jack's the only one who ever leaves Halloweentown, then that still doesn't make sense (and before someone says that Jack is the only one to leave Halloweentown, then who did the vampires drink the blood of in order to get the award? I know it's just a small part of the movie, but it's a part of it).
        • Well, it's possible that Halloweentown citizens only go to the real world on Halloween (and the vampires could be living on animal and/or other citizens' blood or something like that) and it never snowed when they went. Jack could have heard the elves talk about the snow, and since he didn't, presumably, bring any snow back with him, it's possible that either Jack didn't tell the citizens about snow, or he did and they forgot about it.
    • Kissing and snow are likely known to Jack and the Halloweentown residents, but the context is different. On a perfect Halloween, if there's snow it would be driving and blinding, or laying around thick and slushy making things dangerous and look like something was lurking in them, not peacefully and gently drifting from the sky. Also when Jack says his line about kissing being so unique, he's watching a mistletoe kiss... thus something that's obviously part of a holiday tradition and would have no place in his own holiday's traditions.
  • In the ending track of the official soundtrack, Santa narrates about a visit he paid to Halloween Town several years after the events of the movie. This, in itself, is fine and dandy. But the thing that bugs me is that it is explicitly stated that Jack and Sally have kids. "Five skeleton children", if I recall correctly. If Jack is supposed to merely be a (poorly-proportioned) human skeleton, then he should not be in possession of a baculum (penis bone), and I would sincerely hope, for the sake of my childhood, that Sally isn't that kind of doll. So, I ask you, how, exactly, do a skeleton and a rag doll, neither in possession of genitalia, procreate? Did the zombie stork deliver them? Were they found under pumpkin leaves? Were they assembled from the corpses of normal dead children?
    • Jack popped a boner.
    • Dr. Finklestein made them. He made Sally, the reindeer, and his genderswapped clone, so why not?
      • But wouldn't that make Dr. Finkelstein the parent, rather then Jack and Sally?
      • Considering Sally and Dr. Finkelstein's rather turbulent relationship, it's questionable rather or not Sally would have the doctor being the creator of her kids.
      • Maybe Sally learned how to animate corpses while she was living with Dr Finkelstein.
    • They adopted, Halloweentown is actually hell, and as kids died, Jack & Sally gathered them up into their family. Of course, that particular song is non-canon, as it wasn't used... so... maybe Danny Elfman just went a bit too far, and Tim Burton had it cut because he started to think about it too?
    • Well, to be fair he did say four or five children.
    • Maybe Jack is a child of Death and a Toon? At the fansite someone suggested that Jack has strap-on balls. I've already bought the Brain Bleach.
    • According to the DVD Commentary, Tim Burton said that Jack not eating is worrying so in Jack's case (and Sally's case too - she also apparently eats) if they need to eat like living people, reproduction isn't all that out there. Of course, their form of reproduction might be different then ours, like they could hold hands while feeling love to reproduce. Though that puts a different spin on the ending . . .
    • Does it matter? This has been conveniently ignored in all the other NBC media anyways.
      • That's mainly because we never seen the kids. But it's important enough to be released on the first and the latest soundtrack.
    • "...that skeleton man, with four or five skeleton children at hand, playing strange little tunes in their xylophone band..." Nowhere does it say that they're Jack and Sally's children. I like to think that he was the Halloween Town equivalent of a community music class instructor or glee club director (that is, both teacher and instrument). Learning Christmas carols in minor keys for the holiday, perhaps.
      • But why mention them in the first place? That's the problem this troper has with that theory. If they wanted to show Jack has learned his lesson, they could have easily have him discussing plans with the citizens or even a romantic moment with Sally, why those skeleton children? And why put emphasis on SKELETON children, unless implying that they were his?
        • * shrugs* Because it's a better Pet the Dog Reformation-Establishing Moment than making plans and risking the implication that everything's about to go haywire again? Skeleton fits the meter and shows that they're from Halloweentown. They probably are supposed to be his kids, though.
        • Hmmm, good point. However, if they weren't suppose to be his kids, the writers were just asking for confusion putting "skeleton children" in there ("monster children" would fit the meter and be less confusing).
    • It's official. Somebody needs to ask Tim Burton or Henry Selick about this.
    • In Xanth, skeletons reproduce by taking one of each of their own bones together with a pile of other bones...or something to that extent, it's been awhile since I read #17. Perhaps something along these lines?
      • Still, why children? While Jack and Sally would probably love being parents, I don't think they'd like to be parents to little kids (presumably, the kids in the poem are little) forever. I remember seeing a webcomic where the author had Dr. Finklestein create kids for Jack and Sally, and they were in their teens (because apparently teenagers are a lot easier to take care of than little kids).
    • It could be that they aren't a skeleton and a corpse, just very vague fantasy beings made to fit the theme of the assigned holiday. I always just thought of them as walking, talking Halloween decorations rather than being literal versions of what they represent.
      • That sounds like an awesome theory, not to mention good material for Fanfic in the right hands . . . except Jack refers to himself as being dead in "Jack's Lament". If he was a vague fantasy being, why would he do that?
        • Because when he mentions that he's dead, he's talking about scaring people and being in character. He represents a skeleton, so, by assumption of his victim, a dead person.
    • Concerning Jack, this troper is always amused by the fact that everyone says, "oh, Jack's a skeleton, therefore he doesn't have the downstairs equipment." Seriously, where's the evidence that Jack's 100 percent skeleton? Has anyone ever seen Jack naked?[1] [2]
      • In agreement with the above, it always seems odd that people don't question the fact that Jack has eyelids, a (forked) tongue, and fingers which can be pricked by Sally's sewing needle, but they insist on realism when it comes to the "how can Jack have kids?" question.
        • Nor do they question why Jack and Sally can walk, talk, sing, eat, can die, etc. Actually, it's pretty bizarre that out of the things to cry foul on, it's something from a cut-off poem.
    • Plus, I don't care how "hung" you are, there's no competing with a guy who can remove his femur bone any time he wants. Sally's going to be one happy ragdoll thing, tell you what.
      • And since Sally can remove her body parts whenever she wants, Jack is gonna be one happy skeleton. Seriously, there's some incredible Power Perversion Potential in their relationship, which explains a lot . . .
        • Everyone, everyone, we're talking about Jack Skellington, not Geoff Peterson! I think we can safely assume that Jack and Sally got their kids from an undead Halloween stork.
  • Why did Lock, Shock, and Barrel tell the townsfolk that Jack is still alive and lead them to Oogie's lair? Even The Other Wiki notes how strange this is.
    • If nothing else, it was probably to stay out of trouble or redeem them to the audience. Might explain their lack of any sort of real punishment.
  • If Jack "read these Christmas books so many times, why is he still saying "Sandy Claws" the whole movie?
    • Accent. Try changing how you say a word once you're used to it. Anyway, it doesn't matter unless he hears it aloud. Does anyone ever say it?
      • It's more than an accent. Upon meeting Santa, he literally says "Why you have hands! You don't have claws at all!"
      • Oddly enough, it's Oogie Boogie that says it right.
      • He does? The captions say he says "Sandy Claws" like everybody else.
      • Perhaps Jack assumed it was a strange spelling, or Funetik Aksent?
    • Jack is a poor study; he is shown only giving cursory glances to his books.
  • This it just bugs me is in relation to the whole "how-can-Jack-and-Sally-have-kids-when-they're-dead" thing. How come most of the fans, as far as I can tell, will accept the prequel and sequel games as canon when neither Henry Selick nor Tim Burton nor Danny Elfman had involvment with them, yet something on the soundtrack, which at least the words must come from the writers and/or Danny Elfman, is contested? I know, it's not possible for dead people to reproduce, but neither is dead people walking, talking, singing, or having the need to eat, which Jack and Sally obviously does. Can't we say "it's a fantasy" and move on?
    • This troper remembers reading that Pumpkin King (The GBA game) happens a year BEFORE the movie, while Oogie's Revenge (The PlayStation 2 and Xbox game) happens only a year AFTER, where as they had "four or five children" years after, if I remember the poem correctly, also, I remember reading Danny Elfman's name in the latter's credits.
      • The timeline isn't the problem. The problem is that fans are more likely to take games that aren't created by the original creators as canon over a cut-off poem that was.
  • Sally gives Jack an, uh, "meal" or something to that amount to show her affection for him and Jack seems rather pleased with it. Presumably, this means that the concept of giving gifts them isn't completely alien to the residents of Halloween Town. So why is it so hard for them to understand what Christmas presents are?
    • Perhaps the giving of gifts they get, but it's the "wrapping-them-up-in-pretty-paper-with-a-bow" bit that confuses them.
    • While not entirely canon to the movie/games, in Kingdom Hearts II, Jack was noted to have picked up a box, with the paper torn off and bow discarded, stepping on the doll that was inside, and say "What a shame, it looked like such a nice present". My only response to this is that Jack and the residents of Halloween Town believe that giving a present is determined by how nice it looks. Then again, he seems to know that a gift is really inside the box, in the game and movie.
  • This Troper really wants to see what's in "St.Patrick's Day Town".
    • One would assume it involves getting completely and utterly shitfaced drunk on a regular basis.
    • I wanna see Thanksgiving Day Town.
  • A minor thing, but this troper has always wondered why Jack has an electric chair in his home. Is it the Halloween Town equivalent of a massage chair or something?
    • Remember what electricity is to robots like Bender...
      • And if you take Pumpkin King into consideration, you actually heal by sitting in electric chairs. There's some more Fridge Logic for you.
        • This actually make sense if you consider the fact that Dr. Finklestein got Jack some skeletal reindeer by zapping the bones with electricity.
          • Electricity=life
  • Does anyone else think they should've established how everyone gets to the real world in the beginning of the movie? I've always been confused about its nature and just assumed that Santa Claus-Jack goes to a very different part of Christmas Town instead, so showing the real world earlier on would've been more helpful.
    • My guess would be that once they leave the "City Limits", they arrive in a certain part of the world, hence why Sandy Claws flies away in his sleigh, however, Jack was seen using a gravestone as a teleport between the real world and Halloween Town, so maybe the Halloween residents leave via graves, leaving town, or magic. This would also explain why the Hinterlands lead to the Holiday Doors.
      • I always thought that they could use openings decorated to represent their holidays as portals. That's why someone made the holiday trees, and how Jack can use a random tomb he just happened to land near to get to get to Halloweentown. Their towns exist in the "real" world, the doors are just shortcuts.
    • I liked that they didn't explain it. It's eerie and interesting, and I think that's the point. He just… wandered into Limbo, like it was meant to be. Like fate cleared a path for him.
  • Oogie Boogie bugs me. I mean, considering he's a Disney villain, and that Disney has given us the likes of Chernabog, Ursula, and Frollo, he's just pathetic. He's got no real motivation, and we're never told why he and Jack hate each other so much. The original poem didn't have a villain, either, so I've just been forced to conclude that Selick or Burton had to come up with a bad guy to satisfy something in the contract.
    • While this troper would have love to hear why Oogie and Jack hate each other (and I'm not satisfied with the Pumpkin King game explanation, either), I think you're giving Oogie little credit. While he doesn't want to Take Over the World or anything like that, he does have a motivation - sadism and, apparently, hunger. He seems to love torturing people, which is pretty dark for a Disney Villain. Also, there's at least seven skeletons in his lair, so he's killed before (according to The Other Wiki, he's the first Disney Villain to have killed previous to the movie).
    • Are we so sure that Jack and Oogie really hated each other before the latter tried to eat Sandy Santa and Sally? We never hear Oogie talk about Jack, but the way Jack spoke of Oogie seems more "he's-a-waste-of-space" rather then straight-out hate. It's only after Oogie tries to kill Sally and Santa when the dislike upgraded itself to "I'm-going-to-fucking-kill-you".
    • Oogie Boogie is mentioned from the start to be bad news, not just to Jack, but everyone in Halloweentown. In the scene introducing Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the mayor mentions fearfully that they're associated with Oogie, and Jack makes them promise not to involve him. This troper got the impression that while everyone in Halloweentown is scary, Oogie is the only citizen who takes things too far, to the point that his brand of scaring becomes dangerous.
      • OP here. So Oogie's basically Halloweentown's version of The Joker? That makes sense: Seeing as pretty much everyone else there is Chaotic Neutral, or at least True Neutral, they would find Chaotic Evil legitimately disturbing.
        • More like Halloweentown's version of Chris Hargenson.He's a prankster like the rest. He's just a much bigger asshole about it.
        • You do realize that Chris is listed as a Complete Monster, right?
          • Sure, but she doesn't believe that what she's doing is truly dangerous or wrong like the Joker.
          • By the way, Oogie Boogie IS a Complete Monster and one of the worst ones among the Disney Villains - Great part of 'em had a specific goals (power, money, girls etc.), Oogie toys with people's lives, kill'em and keep their remaning bones as trophy FOR PURE SICK FUN.
  • Am I the only one who sees how much of an egotistical, selfish twat Jack really is!? He's convinced himself he could do Christmas better than the people who do it for a living and when he fails the goes into self pity for a very short while. Because he's basically the boss no one ever tells him No. Considering how quickly he's willing to jump in to take over Christmas, AND how quickly he gets over his pity party, you can expect that this happens fairly often to him. Kinda make you wonder exactly how idealistic Jack and Sally's relationship is going to be....
    • Wait, not quickly getting over his self-pity party isn't selfish? Also, while Jack can be egotistical and selfish, I think calling him a twat is overdoing it. Note that after he gets over his pity party, he goes to set things right. I think Jack is more an egotistical guy who has a good heart, as well as being an Idiot Hero and a Well-Intentioned Extremist. And I think Jack really hates the fact that people practically worship him and no one tells him no (again, note how distressed Jack gets when the citizens wouldn't let him go). That probably one of the reasons Jack loves Sally -- because she told him he was wrong. Plus, are we so sure it was "quickly"? The movie is about an hour and fifteen minutes, so we can't be sure just how long it took Jack to decide to take over Christmas. Also, that's Jack's Character Development -- learning that he can't do something better than the people who makes Christmas for a living (Hey, how many of us tropers thought we could make a movie better than the directors?). Actually, that's the reason why I like Jack -- he's not perfect, he has some serious flaws that not only gets him into trouble, but it causes the plot in the first place! Admittedly, Jack has done some questionable things (hiring three evil little trick-or-treaters to kidnap Santa) but then again, he both meant well (he obviously thought he was giving Santa a vacation) and has Blue and Orange Morality -- he probably didn't think kidnapping was wrong (Weekly in Halloweentown: Kidnapping parties! Next this week: the Mayor!....for the eighth week in a row.) As to how idealistic Jack and Sally's relationship will be.....it'll probably have some problems, but all couples have problems, it's the question of how well they deal with those problems. Jack and Sally most likely can teach each other the things they need to learn -- Sally can teach Jack how to think before leaping and be someone Jack cares about other then himself, and Jack can teach Sally not to take life afterlife so sadly and seriously. (Hey, like Tiana and Naveen!)
    • To add on to the previous entry, this troper personally thinks Jack is more sympathetic in the movie than in the original poem. In the poem, Jack basically got bored of Halloween, while in the movie, Jack was also the Pumpkin King, having the stress of preparing for Halloween on top of being tired of the holiday (the Mayor evens comes to Jack's house VERY early in the morning right after the night of Halloween, and it's indicated that happens often). Now put that on top of the fact that, unlike other people who gets tired of their jobs, Jack didn't have the option of taking a vacation -- as far as we can tell, he thought the only places there were are either the Real World (who probably wouldn't be too kind to him, considering he's a skeleton) or Halloweenland, which is freaking obsessed with Halloween and the inhabitants would probably know Jack, therefore assuring that he wouldn't get any rest. In the poem, Jack seems to have friends while in the movie, with the exception of Sally and maybe the Mayor, he's more like a celebrity with fans that says they know him so well but really don't. Lonely at the Top, ya know. Also, if you listen to the lyrics, "Poor Jack" isn't really a self-pity party, it's more expressing guilt over what he's done ("But I never intended all this madness, never...").

What have I done? What have I done?
How could I be so blind?
All is lost, where was I?
Spoiled all, spoiled all
Everything's gone all wrong

  • Soooooooooo........What Happened To The Elves? Seriously, you would think that Mrs. Claus or the elves would worry about the fact that, respectively, their husband and leader was kidnapped and taken to a ghoulish world.
    • And unless Jack somehow sneaked a snowmobile and a large bag of presents out of storage without any of them noticing, they would have a pretty good idea who to blame when three trick-or-treaters kidnapped Santa.
    • Who says they knew about Halloween Town? Santa didn't seem to.
    • That is actually explained in an early draft of the movie script, right in the starting narration. SANTA "For each one, way back when, was alas unaware Of the others' existence, now I've said it -- so there!" There he states that the residents of one holiday town don't know anything at all about the other worlds.
  • Why the fuck does everyone say that Jack hardly notices Sally? He's obviously friends with her, and the way he says her name with the first time we see them together is awfully fond for someone who "doesn't notice her" (or someone who's Just Friends, though that's just me). The only times he ignores her (which . . . is two of their three interactions in the movie. Dammit.) could be explained by him being too excited for Christmas, which came to bite him in the bony ass.
  • How come there's no candy in Halloweentown? It seems like a pretty big part of the holiday to leave out. You'd think that they'd at least get giving candy out at Christmastime, even if it'd be unseasonal things like candy corn.
    • Because monsters don't give out candy on Halloween. Probably why Lock, Shock, and Barrel are so irate.
      • When the trio first enters the scene, you can see that Barrel has a lollipop.
      • Well, if you look closely, after Santa gets his head out of the sack in the town square, there is some candy stuck to his beard, thus proving that not only does it exist, but the trio had some. Here's a clip showing this, starting at 0:38. However, it's not there during the Oogie Boogie song.
    • The corpse kid ate it all (that's why he's so fat)
  • Why, oh why did Jack trust Lock, Shock, and Barrel to take care of Santa and not take him to Oogie? The rest of Jack's Idiot Hero moments are understandable, but that is just plain Too Dumb to Live. Why not trust someone else like, say, Sally to take care of him?
    • Agreed. While it is understandable why he would want them to go and catch him (it's implied that they know what they're doing, which begs the question of whether or not they've kidnapped people before), but there was nothing stopping him from handing "custody" of Santa to Sally, or really, any of the other monsters.
  • As much as I love Jack, the part where he gets angry at Lock, Shock, and Barrel for going through the wrong door seems pretty douchey to me. I mean, he didn't even tell them that there's more than one door, it's his fault that they kidnapped the Easter Bunny!
    • Actually, he said "Which door? There's more than one!". They just got the wrong shape.
    • When Jack gives Lock, Shock, and Barrel their orders, he's basically giving a lecture on Christmas and is surrounded with Christmas iconography. If LS&B weren't idiots, they'd have either 1) figured out the door that looked like the thing Jack is standing next to is probably the one they want, or 2) upon seeing there were multiple doors, go back and ask which one to use rather than just going through one at random and kidnapping the first large living thing they came across. Yes, Jack probably should have been more specific, but he's probably used to giving orders to people that pay attention to him and apply some basic critical thinking to what he asks for.
  • This troper's been thinking . . . is Sally really a Stalker with a Crush? The only times Sally is stalking without due cause (trying to get Jack to not go through with Christmas) that I can think of is when she listens to Jack in "Jack's Lament" and when she goes to give him the little gift basket. The former actually doesn't really count, as she was there first when Jack came into the cemetery. So is she?
    • Yes.
      • Could you be a bit more specific as why she is, that josses the above arguments?
        • During Jack's Lament, she follows him around, but is very particular about not wanting him to see her. Stalking is stalking, even if the intent is completely innocent.
        • This troper decided to look up the actual definition of stalking, and yourdictionary.com gave the law definition:

A form of harassment generally comprised of repeated persistent following with no legitimate reason and with the intention of harming, or so as to arouse anxiety or fear of harm in the person being followed. Stalking may also take the form of harassing telephone calls, computer communications, letter-writing, etc.//

    • So, at least by that definition and, if the website is to be believed, legally, Sally isn't a stalker, as in "Jack's Lament" and when she delivers the food basket, she didn't have the intention of harm[3], and as for all the other times, trying to get your best friend (as they obviously are friends) to not get himself into trouble (remember that Sally's premeditation had a Christmas tree going up into flames, so the trouble is pretty big) is a pretty legitimate reason to follow him.
      • The legal definition is what determines whether someone can be charged with stalking under the law. The broader definition of stalking is just used to describe a behavior someone engages in. For example, the stuff that Sally does is referred to as stalking in anime all the time by characters within the series (and occasionally by the character doing the stalking themselves). She follows him around while trying to avoid being seen, takes a keen interest in his activities but doesn't do much (if any) communicating with him directly, and lurks around on the periphery of places where he is... she's pretty much stalking him. Now, whether she's stalking him for legal purposes, I'm pretty sure she doesn't have to worry about that, since she's an articulated doll with removable parts and a switchable head for different expressions.
  • ... in "Oogie's Revenge" and the first Kingdom Hearts game they animated Jack's mouth wrong. They stretched and squashed it into shape instead of replacing the position of the mouth frame-by-frame like in the original movie, and it bugs me. His face loses its vivacious quality without it. They fixed it in Kingdom Hearts 2, but still...
    • And on that note, why didn't someone tell Chris Sarandon that it was "Finkle-STINE" in the movie, not "Finkle-STEEN" like he pronounced it in the games? I'm splitting hairs, but that's what this page is for...
      • Did anyone ever call the Dr. by his name in the movie? I've watched it an awful lot (especially when The Insomnia Donkey kicks me), and I can't remember ever hearing anyone call him by name in the movie. Then again, most of the times I watching it, I'm running on two or three days without sleep, so I could very easily be sleeping through or missing things like that. (I usually say "Finkle-STEEN" anyway; even if it's not what the creators intended, I think it would be an awesomely hilarious Shout-Out to Young Frankenstein if it's pronounced "-Steen".)
      • Yeah, when Dr. Finklestein goes to get his Christmas job from Jack, you can hear the Mayor in the background saying, "Dr. Finkle-STINE, to the front of the line!"
  • This is coming out of left field, but am I the only one who thinks the characters should have French accents? I'm not quite sure why (maybe it's the music . . .), but something about Nightmare screams "French" to me. Maybe I'm just being weird.
  • Maybe it's just me being a major fangirl of Jack, but I don't think that the military was quite justified with shooting Jack down with missiles. Yes, the toys Jack gave out was scaring the crap out of the kids, but, as far as we can tell, they didn't hurt anyone. In fact, one of the toys (the jack-o-lantern jack-in-the-box given to the fat kid) was better for the kid than what Santa gave him (a candy cane) because it gave the kid needed exercise -- and I'm not the only one who noticed that. Wanting to stop Jack from scaring the kids on Christmas? Quite reasonable. Blowing him up with missiles? Overkill, mate, overkill.
    • Shooting him down right off the bat may be a little harsh, but the military didn't have many options to get his attention. He was flying, after all. However, it would have made more sense to send some jets to fly alongside him and try to escort him to a landing or have police waiting to arrest him at his next location.
      • Especially with the fact that, like it was noted on the main page, the military shot Jack down over a suburban area. Seriously, they're lucky Jack fell into a graveyard instead of a random house. Though there's always the possibility that they shot him down right of the bat because he's a skeleton. After all, we know Jack's a good guy, but that's not what the military sees. They see a skeletal horror going around terrorizing the world's children who'll probably not listen to reason.
    • Is it really just scaring though? I know we don't see any casualties, but think about it; Jack left a big snake in one house that started eating the tree (not hard to think it'd go after everyone else), a man-eating plant in the shape of a wreath (I'm going by the original poem's description of it, but I'm thinking it's the same), a vampire teddy bear and undead duck that actively tried to attack little children. I know this is the normal scaring procedure for Halloween, but no one expects their Christmas gifts to try and attack/possibly kill them, and to the normal humans this seems like a mean-spirited act at best, and a possible attempt at mass murder at worst. Since Jack was flying through the air and getting around with hardly a problem, I think the military felt they had less of a choice than to shoot him down wherever they could.
      • True, but there's still a few problems. One, it's still very irresponsible of the military to shoot Jack down over a suburban area when there is plenty of country side. Also, considering Jack's and the town's general attitude to Oogie, it's obvious that while they love scaring, they don't enjoy hurting people (in Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories, Jack even tells Sora that the citizens of Halloween Town enjoy scaring people, not hurting them, though whether or not this is canon is debatable), so how likely is the presents going to actually hurt people? Also, Rule of Perception. We never see the military consider any other sort of option, nor do we see anything done to save the kids from the attacking toys in the first place. As far as we can tell, it's only when Sandy Claws Santa Claus comes to set things right is when the kids get any sort of help from the toys. Granted, they were going for the cause of the problem, but still, seriously, what the hell, police/military?!
        • Okay, I just read info added on the main page but a more knowledgeable person. The police/military weren't being as stupid as I thought.
  • Alright, since there's debate on the main page, let's discuss it here: who's the true King of Town, Jack or the mayor?
    • The Mayor has all the official power in theory, but between his own wimpiness ("I CAN'T MAKE DECISIONS BY MYSELF!") and the town's worship of Jack's celebrity, Jack ends up in charge for most intents and purposes.
      • Sounds good, but I'm still skeptical of the idea that Jack is "just a celebrity". This lyric in Jack's Lament "He'd give it all up/if he only could . . ." makes it sound like Jack has to be the Pumpkin King, which is unlikely if Jack's only a celebrity. Now, I know a lot a celebrities feel they have obligations, and that very well could be the case for Jack, but being the scariest guy in town doesn't sound so obligatory, as anyone else could take that job. I just get the feeling that Jack has, for a lack of a better word, some sort of legal obligation, like he inherited the Pumpkin King crown or something. *shrugs* I dunno, it's just me.
        • Seeing as how the town completely depends on him, going so far as to freak out if he's gone for even one night, it's not as easy as giving it up. I doubt it's anything legally binding, and in theory he could just decide to give up, but that'd require ignoring everybody in town.
        • Gee, that makes Jack even more pitiful.
      • I always regarded The Mayor's "I can't make decisions by myself!" as a Parental Bonus. It makes me laugh, at least.
    • Okay, I just read the trope, and part of the trope is the king having little or zero competence. So Jack doesn't fit as while he's an Idiot Hero, Jack definitely knows how to run things and has quite a bit of competence.
    • I always thought that The Mayor is responsible to the town itself, while Jack is responsible to planning the Halloween celebration. The thing is that there's not so much beside Halloween in Halloweentown and The Mayor's a wimp.
  • When Jack is shot down by the police and the people realize that Santa isn't coming, instead of going for a "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" moral and teaching Jack that Christmas was never just about the presents and decoration like he thought, they actually announce that Christmas will be cancelled this year because Santa can't come. Apparently, Christianity doesn't even exist in this universe.
    • In the "real world" of this movie, Christmas exists as it is seen by children. That is why you never see the adults' faces, Santa really delivers presents, and the military will shoot down a Santa impersonator. From a kid's point of view, a lack of presents would mean Christmas really was cancelled. The movie just portrays this as the reaction of the entire world.
    • Christians didn't always celebrate Christmas, you know. Christmas was originally a pagan celebration of the winter solstice that was absorbed into Christianity to combat the pagan celebrations. It's possible that in this universe that with the holidays having their own worlds, that the holiday Christmas, and by extension Easter, are celebrated in their secular forms, and the religious forms are celebrated separately. There's two possible reasons why they didn't go with a How the Grinch Stole Christmas moral: 1. if the human children didn't care about getting presents (or, more likely, worrying about Santa's well-being), Jack won't have a reason to rush back and save Santa (and with Oogie about to eat Santa, that would have been disastrous) and 2. The writers didn't want to rip off How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
  • Why is it Jack is the only one who got bored of Halloween? Has he been doing this longer than anyone else?
    • Since he's basically become synonymous with Halloween in the first place, his whole life is forced to revolve around that one single day. It's understandable that sooner or later he'd get sick of it.
  • I don't understand it why people say Jack has a lot of moodswings. He always seemed pretty chipper throughout the film kinda like Phineas. The part with the Easter Bunny and the battle with Oogie are the only times I see him angry.
    • I think people are using "Poor Jack" for the moodswing argument, as he does go from being depressed to happy in a relatively short time.
  • So they spend an ENTIRE YEAR preparing for Halloween? Don't the residents have anything else better to do?
    • Apparently so. If it's a "go-world-wide-where-Halloween-is-celebrated" similar to Christmas, it can be understandable, but otherwise, yeah, it's really weird. And provides yet another reason why Jack wanting to take over Christmas isn't that surprising.
      • It's more that they use those 364 days planning the year's theme/gimmicks and how they'll go about bringing it to life. It's a bit like how Universal Studios does the "Halloween Haunts" thing, except these people are the key to the holiday itself.
  • In the opening narration, it says, "'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems . . ." Yet if the Real World is any indication, the movie takes place fairly recently. Am I the only one confused, or am I just thinking too much into this?
    • It may not seem that long ago, but it's actually longer now than it seems.
      • That does not answer the question.
    • The real world seems to be in the late 50s or early 60s, based on the style of the TVs we see and the low-tech toys that the children are given. Still doesn't answer the question, I know.
    • If you look closely at Jack's chalkboard, he's noted the date as 1993, the date the film came out. So, uh... yeah.
  • Why does everyone assume that Jack's an Idiot Hero? I mean, I know that he practically ruined one of the biggest holidays ever, but that doesn't technically mean he's stupid. For all we know, he could actually be pretty smart.
    • I'm sure Jack does have quite a bit of intelligence. What makes Jack an Idiot Hero isn't a lack of intelligence, it's lack of common sense. After all, having the citizens of Halloweentown try out Christmas when they don't understand the holiday is definitely not a smart move. Plus, as the main page detailed, Jack's a more justified example than most, as he never encountered anything like Christmas before.
  • I just noticed this. The Mayor refers to Lock, Shock and Barrel as "Oogie's boys." Sure, this could just be simplifying things for the script, but "kids" could have worked just as well. This would imply that Shock is a boy and not, as people typically assume, a girl. Depending on their intended ages, this could easily be the case, as it can be difficult to tell a young boy with a high voice and atypical manners from a girl.
    • Shock is clearly in a witch costume. Maybe it could be a really bad wizard costume? Or if she was, as one fan theory states, a human child in a Halloween costume, maybe "he" had really gender-identity-liberal parents?
    • I'm pretty sure "boys" wasn't actually referring to gender. Kind like saying "Hey, you guys!" when one of them is a she.
    • Yeah, "Oogie's boys" is just a general way to refer to them. Using a gender neutral term wouldn't work, because "Oogie's gang" makes them sound worse than the sense of slight whimsy they're supposed to have, and something like "Oogie's minions" makes Oogie Boogie sound more like a supervillain than what he seems to be the equivalent of, a mob boss. I suppose he could have called them "Oogie's mooks", but the film's primary demographic might not know what a "mook" is, plus you're back to making them sound like hardened criminals instead of impish pranksters.
  • A bit surprised it's not been mentioned yet—why had nobody else stumbled upon those holiday trees? Jack had only been walking for one night and he found it.
    • I like to think that Jack has some unconscious powers that come directly from being synonymous with the holiday of Halloween, or at least it responds to him more than to other residents. He apparently had the ability to unfurl that twisted hill thing, so he was probably led directly to the holiday trees subconsciously while he was asleep through the same force that did the aforementioned unfurling of the thinggy.
  1. ↑ Fangirls, please restrain yourselves from volunteering
  2. ↑ And no, the James and the Giant Peach cameo doesn't count, as it's arguable if that's canon to Nightmare
  3. ↑ and, like this troper said before, Sally was in the graveyard first, not to mention she did have a somewhat valid reason for not wanting to be seen: 1. she's obviously very shy, and 2. when Jack starts to singing how he doesn't want to be the Pumpkin King anymore, it's pretty understandable why Sally didn't want to interrupt him. The Pumpkin King doesn't want the crown anymore? What is this!?! (His singing probably didn't hurt either)


Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas/Headscratchers?oldid=1821575"