The Nightmare Before Christmas/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"I've never felt so good before
This empty place inside of me is filling up!
I simply cannot get enough!
I want it, oh, I want it
Oh, I want it for my own!"

    • "In here they've got a little tree! How queer!"
    • It gets worse during "Making Christmas". Jack seems to get a little too excited. The lyrics make it worse:

I can't believe what's happening to me. My hopes, my dreams, my fantasies! *giddy, high-pitched laughter*

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Dr. Finklestein, Bigtime. Did he create Sally to be his daughter? His Sex Slave? An emotional companion? A servant? All of the above? Who knows!
    • And what of the mother-like figure he's with at the end?
    • Someone has said that he doesn't consider Oogie Boogie evil. That person? Tim Burton.
    • Sally herself seems solidly in the Only Sane Man camp, the only person in Halloweentown to act selflessly and with reason. But if one actually listens to "Sally's Song", one notes that every time she starts discussing the possible negative repercussions of taking over Christmas, she quickly derails into talking about whether she and Jack will hook up instead. With that in mind, it becomes a lot easier to view all her supposedly reasonable and selfless actions as simply cries for Jack's attention.
  • Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack, really. The movie WAS composed by Danny Elfman, after all.
  • Director Displacement: The film is mostly known as Tim Burton's work, and it is, but it was directed by Henry Selick.
    • This is probably why the promotional material for Coraline only said it was "by the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas", without specifying who said director was and inevitably leading people to assume it was Tim Burton.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Oogie Boogie tend to get this a lot, often making Jack into a bully to do so. Also, Jack is probably one of the rare heroes (if not the only one) who gets this. Fans bash the military for shooting Jack down, despite the fact that they were justified in doing so.
    • Dr. Finkelstein gets the opposite of this. Yes, he has a rather . . . questionable and dysfuntional relationship with Sally, but this does not excuse the Fanfic writers for writing him into a freaking rapist.
  • Ear Worm: Pretty much any song, but especially "This Is Halloween", "What's This?" and "Oogie Boogie's Song".
    • And "Kidnap The Sandy Claws".
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Going against your nature/set place in life will result to destruction, though considering Jack does this by kidnapping other people and giving kids dangerous presents, this is probably an unintentional Family-Unfriendly Aesop. (Though the movie does have an Ambition Is Evil vibe to it.) [1]
    • Lost Aesop: Maybe? Consider these lines from "Poor Jack":

Well, what the heck, I went and did my best
 And, by God, I really tasted something swell
And for a moment, why, I even touched the sky
And at least I left some stories they can tell, I did
And for the first time since I don't remember when
I felt just like my old bony self again

which suggest the moral "Break out of your comfort zone once in a while; even if it doesn't work it may give you a fresh perspective!" (Still a bit warped considering he nearly causes a major disaster...)

Oogie's Revenge WAS going to be a movie sequel, but Tim Burton convinced Disney otherwise (see Cash Cow Franchise in the Main tab for the reason why). Considering that the sequel was going to be in CGI rather then in Stop Motion, that gives you an idea on what the quality of the sequel might have been.

  • Tear Jerker: The part following Jack being shot down, where we see all the kids crying as the police announce that they've yet to find the actual Santa Claus and Christmas will most likely be cancelled.
    • As well Jack's song after he's been shot down and landed in the graveyard... well, until he decides to fix things and not mope around feeling sorry for himself, realizing that his holiday is Halloween, not Christmas, and that even though he failed he did his best and he's ready to give his all for the next Halloween.
    • Also, Sally's Song segment.
  • Ugly Cute: Pretty much everyone in Halloweentown.
  • Uncanny Valley: Usually the ones quoted for this trope in the Halloweentown citizens, but a lot of the fans think the elves are creepier. They're too cheerful, dammit!
    • The human children are creepier than most things hanging around Halloween Town.
    • Have you ever seen fanart of Jack drawn realistically? Dear Lord, there's a reason why Jack is a cartoony skeleton!
  • Vindicated by History: It was a modest hit in 1993, and well-received by critics, but it wasn't near as big as Disney's in-house fare at the time (Aladdin arrived the previous year, The Lion King the next). This was partially because Disney was nervous about the Nightmare Fuel; they initially released it under their Touchstone Pictures banner (which was reserved for mature films and the edgier Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). But now it's arguably a much more popular film than any of Disney's post-Lion King animated efforts, and they've since allowed it to be released under the Disney banner itself.
  • What an Idiot!: No amount of naiveness can excuse Jack from actually trusting Lock, Shock, and Barrel to take care of Sandy and not hand him over to Oogie.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Several parents won't let their little children watch it because it looks too scary, while the actual film, outside of the kooky visuals and character designs, doesn't actually contain a lot which is unsuitable for a younger audience.
  • The Woobie: All those who feel sorry for Henry Selick because he never gets credit for this film, raise your hand.
    • Sally is one too. All the things she does for someone who doesn't reciprocate her feelings (at first) is heartbreaking.[2]
    • Jack might be considered one too. A guy who gets tired of his job might sound whiny, but not when you consider that he lives in a town where it's all about said job. Put that on top of the fact that a lot of the responsibility for Halloween is on his shoulders, and all you have to say is "That's rough, buddy."
  1. ↑ The soundtrack has a brief Santa-narrated coda not found in the film, where years later Santa drops by Jack's place for a visit and bluntly asks Jack if he'd do it all over again, knowing then what he knows now. Jack's gleeful reply? "Wouldn't you?" So it seems to not be "Ambition is Evil" so much as "Jack's idea of fun is not the World's idea of fun."
  2. ↑ Though note that "not-reciprocate-Sally's-feelings" does NOT equal "hardly-notices-her".
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