Characters / The Nightmare Before Christmas

Main Characters

Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King

"Yet year after year, it's the same routine
And I've grown so weary of the sound of screams
And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King
Have grown so tired of the same old thing..."

Voiced by: Chris Sarandon, Frank Welker^note Welker only voiced Jack in a test animation by the film's director Henry Selick. ^{Other voice actors}Olivier Constantin (French)
Singing Voice: Danny Elfman^note In the movie. The video game Oogie's Revenge actually has Sarandon do Jack's singing voice as well as his speaking voice.

Jack Skellington, also known as the "Pumpkin King", is the main protagonist. Jack is a tall skeleton who wears a black pin-striped suit, complete with a bat bowtie. He has earned the title of Pumpkin King by being so terrifying to humans (but never harming them), a clearly well-earned title as it appears he is even able to scare the monsters that occupy the town. He lives in Halloween Town, a world based solely on the holiday of Halloween.

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• The Ace: When it comes to anything resembling frights, nobody can deny Jack is the best at what he does. Not so much at anything outside his particular skill, though.
  • He's no slouch in a fight either. Notably he's the only thing Oogie, who is The Dreaded to everyone else, is afraid of. When the two clash it becomes very obvious why Oogie fears him as Jack is extremely dangerous once The Gloves Come Off.
• Action Hero: He becomes this very quickly to rescue Santa and Sally from Oogie Boogie, and makes it clear to the Boogie Man that he's not going to take what he did lying down.
• Adaptational Badass: In Kingdom Hearts, he's capable of using magic.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original poem, Jack decided to take over Christmas for himself, selfishly telling Santa Claus as much with no intention of giving up the holiday. In the film, Jack only wants to be in charge of Christmas once to break out of the monotony of Halloween. He also expresses his takeover to Santa Claus as giving him a vacation from running things and insists that he be treated with care and comfort.
• Aesop Amnesia: Played With in Kingdom Hearts II. He decides to take over Christmas again, but this time he decides to ask Santa's permission if he could just fill in for him this year.
• All-Loving Hero: Jack takes great pride in caring for the well-being of the denizens of Halloween Town, even if he is a bit disappointed that they don't quite get the concept of Christmas. He also takes it upon himself to bring his version of Christmas to the children, though he learns just as quickly that they're not comfortable with the idea of it, and rescues Santa from Oogie Boogie to set things right.
• Ambiguously Human: While Jack is an undead humanoid skeleton, his proportions are very different to the humans that we see in the film, and it's never stated where he came from, or who he was. We know that he's dead since he describes himself as such, but we're given no information as to his previous life before he became the Jack we know.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Jack could possibly be the Personification of Halloween.
• Arch-Enemy: He considers Oogie Boogie, who at one point he describes as a "no-account", to be one. When Oogie kidnaps Santa and Sally, Jack takes the gloves off and makes it clear just how much trouble Oogie's in.
• The Anti-Grinch: Embodies this trope perfectly. Jack loves Christmas so much, he tries to take over Santa Claus's job that year, spreading Halloween-frights on Christmas, thinking he is improving the Holiday. Unfortunately, not only is Christmas nearly cancelled because of him, but the National Guard succeeds in blowing him out of the sky.
• Anti-Hero: In the movie, Jack genuinely wants to spread the cheer of Christmas to everyone once he discovers it. Trouble is, Jack's frame of reference is limited to Halloween, causing no shortage of trouble once he makes it his mission to take over for the year. Jack never quite crosses into Villain Protagonist territory, if only because his motives are selfless enough that he's more misguided than malicious.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Jack is the Pumpkin King because he's the scariest and the toughest.
• The Atoner: Downplayed both in his feelings and the level of mayhem. He does go about trying to fix his mistakes, but only angsts about it very briefly; overall, he is satisfied that he tried his best with Christmas and had fun doing so.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: "What's this?!" He exclaims as he discovers Christmas Town.
• Badass Boast: Upon recovering from his Heroic BSoD, he boldly declares, "I AM the Pumpkin King!"
• Badass Bookworm: He attempts to master the magic of Christmas through study and scientific research, and while his methods fail entirely, the logic he employs suggests a strange sort of genius at work.
• Badass in Distress: For all his mastery of horror, he proves no match for the might of the US Military when they shoot down his sleigh with missiles, and he falls out of the sky.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The badass Jack sports a nifty suit.
• Bad Santa: His attempt to take Santa's place does not go over well. However, in his case, it's less due to maliciousness and more that he's just not very good at Santa's job.
• Beneath the Mask: All of the Citizens of Halloween Town (except Sally) believe Jack to be bold, loud, and happy. Too bad they have no idea that underneath that bony exterior was a guy that was practically going through depression and burnout before he discovered Christmas Town.
• Berserk Button: Scaring someone to put them in unnecessary distress genuinely ticks Jack off. As shown when the Easter Bunny arrives, and feels threatened enough to immediately hide away - prompting him to apologize and make Lock Shock and Barrel apologize to him again when they return him to his home. Kingdom Hearts displays perhaps the best in Chain of Memories; when Oogie proclaims his intent to harm people, Jack outright calls him a monster out of digust.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's really a nice guy who doesn't want to actually hurt anyone besides giving them a harmless scare, but he didn't earn the title of Pumpkin King for his gourd farming. And God help you if you hurt his friends.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just as Sally and Santa are about to be fried, Jack shows up in Oogie's lair and saves the two, then lets the Boogie Man know he's gone too far.
• Blessed with Suck: Jack has grown tired of the same old tricks and traditions, even if he's the most popular.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Jack's sense of what is right and what is wrong centers entirely around Halloween and (harmlessly) scaring people. His attempt at hijacking Christmas comes from a legitimate desire to share the wonder and cheer he experienced upon discovering it. The trouble is, both Jack and everybody he enlists to help him with his scheme think that the best way to do this is by giving people horrifying and often dangerous gifts - the sort of gifts that would be well received in Halloween town, but nowhere else. They see this as an improvement; everyone else, not so much.
• Book Ends: Jack shows his despair at the beginning of the film atop the Spiral Hill, and ends it at the same hill reciprocating Sally's feelings.
• A Boy and His X: Or in his case, a Skeleton and his Ghost Dog. Zero follows Jack loyally, and Jack is very fond of his compatriot. Notably, Zero is the one who helps Jack's Christmas scheme come to fruit when a fog started by Sally nearly derails their plans.
• Break the Badass: The Pumpkin King is utterly broken at the start of the film by being stuck in a monotonous routine each Halloween. When he discovers Christmas and tries to take it over, he feels like he's on top of the world until the military shoots him down. After that, he's devastated at how badly he screwed things up.
• Broken Ace: The opening shows Jack's boredom over things never changing in Halloween Town turning into despair.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He's the brooding boy to Sally's gentle girl. She's more shy and quiet, but still very sweet, while he's in agony over the fact that Halloween has become monotonous.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Is Jack the scariest thing around? Unquestionably. But he's a Nice Guy all around, and beloved by all of Halloween Town because he treats everyone there very well.
• The Cameo: Quite a few, mainly in other Tim Burton and Henry Selick movies. He appeared as a ghost pirate in James and the Giant Peach, his head shows up in a yolk in Coraline, his scarecrow costume is seen at the beginning of Sleepy Hollow, his head adorns the top of a merry-go-round in Beetlejuice, and he is seen as set dressing alongside the remains of other creatures during the credits of Wendell and Wild.
• Camp Straight: He's quite effeminate and becomes an Official Couple with Sally.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: He has this realization at the start of the film and wishes he wasn't the King of Halloween.
• Character Development: At the start of the film, he's utterly distraught over the monotony of Halloween and wishes for something new. When he gets that something in the form of Christmas, he tries taking it over, but finds out the hard way that his idea of it doesn't mesh well with what it truly stands for, and that he's caused a lot more harm than he intended. The experience sees him take responsibility for his actions, and finds his passion for his holiday reignited.
• Character Shilling: There isn't a soul in Halloween Town (besides Oogie Boogie) who doesn't sing Jack's praises. He certainly has the talent and the scariness to back it up, but it's Deconstructed when Jack gets tired of the constant praise, distraught that no one understands how bored he's become with his job.
• Clothing Damage: His Santa suit is burnt to a crisp after he gets hit by the missile. He tears it off when he boldly reclaims his Pumpkin King title.
• Cold Ham: His hamminess becomes more subdued (and darker) when he gets angry.
• Color Motif: He's associated with black and white, on account of his tuxedo and the fact he's a living skeleton.
• Creepy Good: He's a skeleton, the King of Halloween, and The Hero.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Jack, who is regarded as the Pumpkin King and the scariest of all the monsters, has a tenor voice. Although he sometimes lowers his voice when he's trying to be intimidating, he is also prone to high-pitched Evil Laughs, cementing him as a Terror Hero.
• Creepy Long Fingers: His fingers are rather thin and long.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Jack definitely doesn't give the impression of being all that dangerous, being introduced as a goofy, skinny skeleton man who does a Yorick routine with his own skull. Then you see him actually trying to be scary. Upon confronting Oogie, he effortlessly dodges his way through a gauntlet of deadly, gambling-themed traps with ease that would do Neo proud.
• Culture Blind: He has no idea about any of the other holidays, let alone Christmas. This proves to be a problem when he decides to take it over, but his lack of an understanding of what it truly means results in a near-disastrous take on the holiday.
• Cultured Badass: Has read (and memorized) Shakespeare's works, and can recite them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Oogie Boogie throws everything he has at Jack...and all Jack does to beat him is to pull one loose thread on Oogie's sack, causing him to fall apart, get boiled alive, and have his brain bug squished by Santa.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He may be the Pumpkin King and love scaring people, but he's a pretty nice guy. But don't forget... he's still the Pumpkin King.
• Dead to Begin With: His song, "Jack's Lament", has him state outright that he's dead, though we never find out anything about his former life. One theory is that in life he was the originator of the Jack-o-Lantern legend, which makes sense given his name is Jack and he's called "the Pumpkin King".
• Deadpan Snarker: Most notably when he gets mad at Lock, Shock, and Barrel for kidnapping the Easter Bunny by mistake and exasperatedly points out that there was more than one Holiday Door when the trio insisted that they followed his instructions exactly.
• Death Glare: Pun aside, he sports a rather menacing one the moment he sees Oogie-Boogie has been tormenting his friends and doesn't lose it throughout the entire fight.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Jack is one of The Ace. Though he's very well versed at his job, he's actually gotten so bored of it due to Halloween not really changing all that much. When he discovers Christmas and tries taking it over, his talents for Halloween only get him so far in making Christmas more like...well, Halloween. Just because he's good at one thing doesn't mean he can translate his talents to another, and it nearly ruins the holiday for everyone.
• Dem Bones: Jack is a skeleton humanoid.
• Despair Event Horizon: After his sleigh is shot down, Jack briefly considers just letting himself rot in the graveyard he landed in as penance for all the damage he did. However, he quickly realizes that for everything that happened, he did enjoy himself, and his passion for Halloween is reignited, giving him the strength to free Santa and set things right.
• Didn't Think This Through: He tasks Lock, Shock, and Barrel with retrieving Santa Claus, even though he knows they work for Oogie Boogie. It doesn't occur to him that his orders to leave Oogie out of it would go unheeded, and they'd just send Santa to their boss to be his next meal. It also gets Played for Laughs at one point when he never considers they'd go through the wrong door and kidnap The Easter Bunny instead of Santa.
• Disney Death: His sleigh is shot down by the military and he falls to his doom, leaving everyone in Halloween Town convinced Jack is truly gone. He survives, since he was already Dead to Begin With.
• Dork Knight: Although he's terrifying and fearsome, he's downright awestruck and giddy when he first discovers Christmas.
• The Dreaded: Given who he is, it's pretty reasonable that he'd have a reputation for being scary. Noticeably, Oogie-Boogie, a terrifying monster in his own right, has to use distractions and unfair tactics against him, since fighting Jack fairly is essentially suicide. And when Jack's rage is finally directed at Oogie, suffice to say the latter is outright freaked.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite nearly destroying Christmas for the whole world, Jack is able to defeat Oogie, save Santa to set things right, reignite his passion for Halloween, and start a relationship with Sally.
• Easily Forgiven: Though Santa does chew him out after being rescued, Jack is nevertheless forgiven for nearly running Christmas when Santa flies overhead to bring Halloween Town its first snowfall ever. Later stories even see Jack and Santa become close friends.
• Easily Impressed: Jack is so awestruck by the wonders of Christmas, he takes to every aspect of it with amazement.
• Establishing Character Moment: Comes to us during the "This Is Halloween" number, where the people of Halloween Town spend the climax describing Jack and how much they respect him.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Jack is a perfectly Nice Guy and The Good King, but he despises Oogie Boogie and gives strict orders to Lock, Shock, and Barrel not to get him involved. He's in full Tranquil Fury when confronting Oogie during the film's climax, and as Oogie's bugs are falling into his stew pot, whereas Sally is visibly unnerved, Jack's expression is a Death Glare that clearly says, "You deserve this."
• Everyone Has Standards: Jack's job is scaring the dickens out of people and he'll gladly kidnap Santa Claus to hijack his holiday for a year, but Jack loathes Oogie-Boogie and gives Lock, Shock, and Barrel strict orders not to involve the evil Boogeyman in the plan. Furthermore, he's very unhappy when the trio kidnap the Easter Bunny and gives strict orders to return the Bunny to his home and apologize before making any further attempts at Santa Claus.
• Experienced Protagonist: By the time the movie begins, he's already well-known as the legendary "Pumpkin King" and has hosted many a Halloween Celebration without fail.
• Evil Laugh: It's his regular laugh.
• Fatal Flaw: His short-sightedness and stubborness. He means well trying to imbue new life into Haloween Town by taking over Christmas, but he becomes so obsessed with his plans that he refuses to listen to others' advice; especially Sally's, who fears that his meddling will lead to disaster (which turns out to be precisely right).
• Fire-Forged Friends: He becomes this with Santa in the post-movie stories. Despite having kidnapped Santa and nearly ruining Christmas for everyone, Jack and Santa nevertheless do meet up on occasion to share stories about their respective holidays.
• Forgets to Eat: Implied by the scene where Sally sends a basket of food up to him.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: In Kingdom Hearts II, he decides to take over Christmas again, but this time goes to ask Santa if it's okay to fill in for him this year. Santa is immediately against the idea, though he's a lot more understanding about wanting to understand the joy of Christmas, and eventually agrees to let him join on the sleigh run this year.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Optimist. His naive optimism leads directly to the tragedy of the stolen Christmas.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine — The most sociable and warm-hearted of Halloween Town.
• Friend to All Children: Well, the children of Halloween Town. The Corpse Kid hugs onto his leg when he finds out he's alive and Jack scoops him up and tosses him in the air happily. In his role as Santa, he's also kind to the human children he meets, and genuinely doesn't see why they might not enjoy the presents he's leaving them.
• Friendly Skeleton: One of the most well-known examples, being rather outgoing and excitable despite being the ruler of a spooky holiday.
• Genius Ditz: He has a book on the scientific method, which he puts to use by trying to understand Christmas, which entails him spending days dissecting toys and destroying ornaments. It doesn't bring him a single step closer to understanding Christmas.
• The Good King: The King of Halloween and a beloved ruler who cares greatly for those in Halloween Town.
• The Hero: He is the film's main character and he has good intentions, even trying to make things right when his plan to do Santa's job goes wrong.
• Heroic BSoD: He's already experiencing one at the start of the film due to his boredom with Halloween, and gets another one after he's shot down by the military.
• He's Back!: "That's right! I AM the Pumpkin King!" Complete with the realization he has some absolutely terrifying ideas for the next Halloween.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Another theory behind Jack's lost love for Halloween and being so enamored by Christmas. Jack had been running Halloween events for a very long time and became disillusioned with "the same routine". After his attempts at running Christmas go bad, he rediscovers his love for Halloween.
• Horrifying Hero: He's not the King of Halloween for nothing.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He decides that Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Oogie Boogie's known henchmen, are the best candidates to kidnap Santa Claus and that they'll treat him nicely when they do. Sure enough, a minute later, they're singing about feeding Santa to Oogie Boogie and beating him with a stick.
• Hot-Blooded: A given since he immediately decides to become Santa Claus by kidnapping the real Santa.
• Iconic Outfit: Jack's pin-striped tuxedo and bat bow-tie. His costumes as the scarecrow-like Pumpkin King (where he lights himself on fire) and his tailored Santa Claus suit are less so, but often when he's given something else to wear in merchandise, it's one of the two.
• Idiot Hero: As detailed on the main page, he's not an Idiot Hero because of an inherent lack of intelligence; he's an Idiot Hero because he's never encountered non-Halloween stuff before and he's too excited to listen to common sense.
• I Have Many Names: Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, the King of Halloween, Bone Daddy, Skeleton Jack, Mr. Unlucky (at least to one man in Kentucky)...
• Incendiary Exponent: He sets himself on fire, therefore having one of the most awesome entrances in Disney history.
• It's All My Fault: After he's shot down, Jack laments how badly he messed up Christmas for everyone, and after a bit of reflecting, hightails it back home to rescue Santa. Once Santa is rescued, Jack apologizes for making such a mess of things.
• Just the First Citizen: Jack's status as the 'Pumpkin King' seems to be purely ceremonial and is a reference to his role as the star of the Halloween festivities, rather than a signifier of real royalty or authority. Despite that, he has enormous sway over the townspeople, with even the Mayor looking up to him for guidance.
• The Kindnapper: Jack Skellington has part of his being a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. His way of indulging himself in his new passion for Christmas not only involves planning to run the show himself, but kidnapping the one who already does to enable his doing so. And he sees it as a favor for Santa, too! Despite Jack's unquestionable status as The Hero, though, his kidnapping is clearly shown as not being a good thing, especially because of what it leads to...
  Santa: (bursts out of the bag) Let me out! (the Halloween Town citizens gasp in awe)
  Jack Skellington: Sandy Claws — in person. What a pleasure to meet you. (prepares to shake but then looks down when their HANDS touch)
  Jack Skellington: Wh-Why, you have hands! You don't have claws at all!
  Santa: (dazed) Where am I?
  Jack Skellington: Surprised, are you? I knew you would be. You don't have to worry about another Christmas this year.
  Santa: Wh-what?
  Jack Skellington: Consider this a vacation, Sandy. A reward. It's your turn to take it easy.
  Santa: B-But there must be some mistake!
  Jack Skellington: See that he's comfortable... (the minions start to close up the bag, but then stop) Just a second, fellas! Of course! That's what I'm missing! (takes Santa's hat)
  Santa: B-But...
  Jack Skellington: (as he's putting on the hat) Thanks.
  Santa: Hang on — you just can't — (has the bag thrown over him again) — Hold on! Where are we going now?
• Large Ham: More subtle than Oogie, but still. "I AM THE PUMPKIN HAM KING!!!"
• The Leader: Type IV. Due to his skill and charisma, all of Halloween Town loves him and would follow any Zany Scheme he's concocted.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: Jack realizes his feelings for Sally after she admits to always liking him.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: A rare heroic example. He, and most of Halloween Town, enjoy the sound of screaming not out of sadism, but because it's their job which they enjoy. Plus the screaming comes from harmless pranks rather than torture.
• Made of Iron: In his first appearance he sets himself on fire (briefly), and then later in the movie he falls at least a mile, lands on a stone statue, and doesn't suffer any permanent damage.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Downplayed, as there are aspects of Halloween Town in general that are obviously magical, but aside from being a skeleton, Jack doesn't often seem to have magical powers to aid him or the citizens. Unlike Santa Claus and Christmas magic, Jack seems to need to rely on science (or rather, what Halloween would consider science), planning, and hands-on construction to help influence the majority of his Holiday and projects. This is made less ambiguous in his video game appearances, where he displays affinity for different magics (Kingdom Hearts variations of the spells, power over fire in Oogie's Revenge) and his hands-on approach is just more of an in-character preference.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: He is the scariest ghoul in Halloween Town, but also one of the friendliest.
• Meaningful Name: Jack takes over Christmas for a year. One meaning of Jack is "supplanter", or replacement. There's also the verb "jacking" as in "carjacking". In addition, his title as The Pumpkin King is a reference to jack-o-lanterns.
• Mood-Swinger: Jack frequently and quickly swings between elation, depression, and anger. Best shown in "Poor Old Jack" where he goes from complete and total despair^note Suggesting he lock himself away in a cave forever for his actions to cheerfully singing that he did his best and managed to make something great out of his efforts, in just a couple lines. Many fans speculate that he has a mood disorder (bipolar disorder is the popular choice, but that's not actually how it works, most of the time).
• My God, What Have I Done?: After being shot down, he laments his choice to steal Christmas.
• Never My Fault: Zig-zagged. Jack laments that it was everyone else who failed to understand, and all he ever wanted was to bring them something great, but it's fine because at least he did his best and had a lot of fun while also owning up to the damage he caused, making efforts to set it right, and apologizing to Santa. To his credit, the citizens of Halloween Town do actually fail to understand (with Jack trying in vain to convey it until he gives in to appeal to their Halloween sensibilities) until the ending sequence where Santa gives them a snowfall that brings out the same kind of wonder Jack had when he was at Christmas Town in person.
• Nice Guy: Jack was never malicious about kidnapping Santa Claus, and is a good-hearted being. This side of him is shown in full during Oogie's Revenge: when he first meets the game's main enemies, his immediate reaction is try to shake their hand and welcome them into town. Later, despite the scope of their crimes, Jack always leaves Lock, Shock, and Barrel off with an angry scolding and little else once they're beaten. During his boss fight with Finkelstein, he repeatedly implores the doctor to stop fighting, despite him literally having a different brain driving his body. Just about the only person he isn't in some way friendly with is Oogie, and even then the two sing and dance together in the boss battles.
• Nightmare Face: He's usually friendly, but Jack is the Pumpkin King for a reason: he can make truly terrifying faces that frighten even the macabre people of Halloween Town. He demonstrates this on Lock, Shock, and Barrel when he loses his patience from their bickering after they fail to bring him Santa Claus by stretching his jaw out and displaying his sharpened teeth under a furious glare.
• Nightmare Fetishist: As he's from Halloween Town, it's a given that he'd have a passion for what most people would find frightening. He especially takes great relish in planning for Halloween. When he isn't tired of it, that is.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: While he is a good guy, the fact that he saw no wrong in kidnapping Santa and delivering the citizens of Halloween Town's ideas of great gifts to the children of the world make him unintentionally unsettling.
• Noodle Incident: "Jack's Lament" has him nicknamed "Mr. Unlucky" to a guy in Kentucky and he's done something to make him known throughout England and France.
• Noodle People: Even by skeleton standards. He's all arms and legs.
• Obliviously Evil: Downplayed heavily with the "evil", but Jack means no harm at all and doesn't have a malicious bone in his body, but it's his actions that are creating nearly every problem in the film. Thankfully, he does eventually come to his senses.
• Oblivious to Love: Throughout most of the movie, he only views Sally as a friend, and has no idea that she's in love with him. He catches on eventually, though.
• Odd Friendship: The novelization of the movie reveals in its epilogue that Jack and Santa Claus actually became friends after the events of the movie, with Jack slipping away from Halloweentown to visit Christmastown with Santa's permission and even hanging out with Santa so they can discuss their respective holidays. They'd be a pretty strange set of friends to begin with, but given how they met, it's even weirder that they became friends. Jack is noted as still enjoying Christmas as a change from Halloween, and his visits essentially help him keep from burning out like he did at the start of the movie.
• Official Couple: With Sally. They share a kiss by the end of the movie.
• One Head Taller: He's taller than Sally by a head.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Very little can make Jack angry. When he turns a Death Glare on Oogie Boogie for hurting Sally and Santa Claus, though, you know the usually affable Jack is about to make the boogyman himself hurt.
• The Performer King: Since Halloween Town is a world populated with monsters with the sole purpose of managing Halloween every year (a theatrical holiday in its own right), Jack Skellington is himself a showman. He is the center of the Halloween Parade in the "This is Halloween" song sequence, he uses drama and ambiance to explain Christmas to the residence, is a Dance Battler, and is very popular among the people.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being willing to kidnap Santa Claus and hijack Christmas, his intentions are good, and when Lock, Shock, and Barrel kidnap the Easter Bunny (who's terrified by Behemoth), Jack orders they return the Easter Bunny to his home first and make sure to apologize profusely.
• Perky Goth: He's quite excitable for someone called the "King of Halloween".
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Hello, Oogie." (Said when he makes his presence known to Oogie Boogie and prepares to confront him for endangering Sally and Santa Claus.)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "How dare you treat my friends so SHAMEFULLY!" (Said as he unravels Oogie's thread, effectively killing him as his bugs fall into the boiling stew below him.)
• Psychological Projection: He rationalizes that kidnapping Santa Claus so he can take over Christmas this year is a good thing because the guy could use a break from the holiday. Jack's obsession with Christmas, of course, stems from him being sick of Halloween and wanting a break from it.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: His title is the Pumpkin King and he is definitely no slouch given that he actively leads the citizens of Halloweentown into doing their own version of Christmas and later tries to set things right by rescuing Santa Claus from Oogie Boogie.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Gender-inverted with Sally. He's an excitable man while she's a more withdrawn woman.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears a tux 85% of the time, and when he's not wearing it, he still dresses pretty good.
• Slasher Smile: He gives a sinister smile during the end of the song where he introduces the citizens of Halloween Town to the concept of Christmas.
• Species Surname: Sort of, as "skeleton" is sometimes pronounced as "Skellington" with an accent. See Hot Fuzz and Stardust.
• Stingy Jack: His name and title as the Pumpkin King are likely an allusion to the old Halloween legend.
• Stop Worshipping Me: At the beginning, after another Halloween, almost everyone in Halloween Town become rather clingy towards him as they praise him. Jack tries to get them to chill, and it was only when they were being distracted by the Mayor that Jack was able to make his getaway.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was already awesome before he became Pumpkin King, as the first game shows. Oogie's Revenge has him take a year off to search for more Halloween ideas, armed with a Morph Weapon Soul Robber. He comes back to find his entire town taken over, and takes it back in a matter of days.
• Tranquil Fury: In contrast to how hammy he usually is, he remains completely reserved throughout his entire confrontation with Oogie Boogie. And Oogie can tell from the start that he's in trouble...
  Jack: Hello, Oogie...
• Universally Beloved Leader: As the Pumpkin King, Jack is utterly beloved, adored, and admired by all the inhabitants of Halloween Town. The town goes into a state of mourning when they think he's been killed and celebrate when he shows up just fine.
• Uptown Guy: He's the Pumpkin King and Sally is merely a ragdoll.
• Vague Age: In personality and voice, he comes across as being in his late twenties or early thirties, but he's an undead skeleton man, so this has no connection whatsoever to how long he's been around. And aside from being adult-sized, it's impossible to gauge his age from his looks. He's probably older than thirtyish, though it wouldn't be impossible for him to be younger.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He only wanted a break from the tired routine of Halloween and had absolutely no intention of things going downhill when Santa was tortured by Oogie and the people in the real world were terrified by the presents he delivered.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: What drives his desire to leave Halloween Town, and his fascination with Christmas Town. He gets better.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Not just the fact that he does have very wide eye-sockets, but he fits the idealist trope very closely.
• Would Hurt a Child: Implied in "Kidnap the Sandy Claws". It should be noted that the children in question are Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who may not even qualify as human, let alone children. Shock objects to the idea of using a cannon to blow up Santa Claus, because Jack would "beat [them] black and green!" This could be an exaggeration on the trio's part, however. Played straight in Oogie's Revenge where he has to beat the trio in combat.

Sally

"I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have"

Voiced by: Catherine O'Hara (movie), Kath Soucie (video games) ^{Other voice actors}Dorothée Jemma [speaking], Nina Morato [singing] (French)

Sally is the female lead of the film. A living rag doll created by Dr. Finkelstein, she empathizes with Jack's feelings of loneliness and boredom, as she is kept under close watch by her creator. To escape his watch, she drugs his soup with deadly nightshade, but this angers Finkelstein. Being a rag doll, she is able to undo her stitches to allow her limbs to act independently, and seems to feel no pain, as demonstrated by her leap from the doctor's tower. Sally harbors a crush on Jack, but she spends most of the film feeling that her feelings are unrequited.

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• Alien Blood: She's stuffed with leaves, though it doesn't seem to bother her to lose any of them.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The population in general of Halloween Town is amazing in many respects and colour is no exception. It depends on each one's different form. Hers is a pale blue skin that resembles stylized dead flesh in Frankenstein tradition.
• Born as an Adult: Being a creation of Dr. Finkelstein already implies that she was born as an adult, but it is explicitly confirmed in the prequel game The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King, where Finkelstein has just recently created her and she looks no different from how she appears in the film. The sequel novel Pumpkin Queen reveals that this may not entirely be the case, as a younger Sally is kidnapped by Finkelstein in order to research Dream Town.
• Break the Cutie: In "Sally's Song", she expresses her concerns that Jack's Christmas plans could end in disaster:
  Sally: I sense there's something in the wind, That feels like tragedy's at hand.
  And though I'd like to stand by him, Can't shake this feeling that I have. The worst is just around the bend.
  And does he notice my feelings for him? And will he see how much he means to me?
  I think it's not to be.
  What will become of my dear friend, where will his actions lead us then?
  Although I'd like to join the crowd in their enthusiastic cloud, try as I may, it doesn't last.
  And will we ever end up together?
  No, I think not; it's never to become, for I am not the one.
  • Subverted when she goes into Oogie Boogie's lair to rescue Santa Claus.
  • Literally, when she jumps out her window and the impact causes several of her limbs to pop off before she regains consciousness and stitches herself back together.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Poor Sally can't tell Jack that she considers him more than Just Friends.
• Cassandra Truth: Tries to warn Jack beforehand that his plan for Christmas will fail, but to no avail. This tends to be a trend in her appearances outside of of the first movie as well.
• Creepy Doll: She is a heroic version, as she is a life-sized rag doll, but to audiences she's rather attractive.
• Cute Monster Girl: As much of a monster as she is, she's adorable, kind, and considerate.
• Damsel in Distress: She is captured and almost killed by Oogie in the film. This also happens to her in the video games. Given the fact that her body is easily fragile, she doesn't seem to have any sort of means of avoiding this trope.
• Detachment Combat: Sally's not a fighter, but she takes advantage of her detachable limbs for purposes of escape or distraction.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Serves Finkelstein his meals. Unfortunately for him, they're usually drugged.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted. She has red hair, but is seldom fiery at all and more of a Shrinking Violet. The few occasions when she has a fiery personality include her search for Santa Claus and when she confronts Oogie Boogie in his lair.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Realist. According to Santa Claus, the only sane inhabitant of Halloween Town. She alone sees the potential disaster in the plans the other characters come up with, no matter how well-intentioned they might be.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic. — She cares about Jack and worries about him and is often kept busy because she has to cook meals for Dr. Finkelstein.
• Frankenstein's Monster: She's made of leaf-stuffed rag pieces sewn together by a Mad Scientist in the style of this trope. One of the cuter versions, though.
• Glasgow Grin: Though not a creepy example, and justified because she's stitched up from top to bottom.
• Guile Hero: She is rather crafty and even cunning, as evidenced by "tasting" soup she drugged with a holey spoon she prepared, and distracting Oogie with her detachable leg.
• The Heart: Sally is the most down-to-earth citizen in Halloween Town and tries her best to support and guide Jack.
• Hero Antagonist: Mildly so. She tries to sabotage Jack's plans, but only because she fears for his safety and recognizes that he may be in over his head.
• Heroic Seductress: Sally tries to be this when she uses her detached bare leg to distract Oogie so she can save Santa. She fails when he discovers it's not attached to a body, and in turn becomes livid that she's trying to fool him.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: She says she "isn't the one" for Jack, lamenting being too shy to even confess her feelings for him. She's surprised and delighted when Jack turns out to reciprocrate.
• Iconic Outfit: Her dress stands out because of all the diverse patterns on the patches it is made of.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: If one were to interpret her as Finkelstein's daughter, she's quite pretty for a patched up living ragdoll.
• Ms. Fanservice: Of the Cute Monster Girl variety.
• Nice Girl: After all, she's a Cute Monster Girl and she's compassionate, kind, brave, sweet, and loving. This tends to carry over into spinoff and sequel appearances, such as giving Sora kind advice and praise, or apologizing to Jack in Oogie's Revenge for falling for Oogie's manipulations — while she's currently being held captive by a giant spider.
• "Not So Different" Remark: With Jack, in regards to his boredom with Halloween and routine. The idea that others enforce a (in a sense) sedentary lifestyle while their curiosity only grows is certainly not lost on her.
  "Jack... I know how you feel."
• Official Couple: With Jack. They kiss by the end of the movie, and are revealed to have had kids in the soundtrack.
• Only Sane Woman: Of all the inhabitants of Halloween Town, she's the most rational. Lampshaded by Santa:
  "Next time you get the urge to take over someone else's holiday, I'd listen to her! She's the only one who makes any sense around this insane asylum!"
• Only One Name: Unless you consider "Finkelstein" to be her last name, after her creator. Within the film, she's never given one.
• Opposites Attract: Her feelings toward the charismatic and boisterous Jack are a textbook example.
• Perky Goth: She does her best to try and be hopeful and optimistic, even when she shows great concern for Jack.
• Power Incontinence: Though she has mild clairvoyance, she can't control when her visions happen — they seem to come without warning and vanish just as quickly.
• Proper Lady: She has the modest, feminine personality and attire, and is domestic and sensible with her cooking and sewing skills. However, she does seem to have an independent and even naughty side, craftily drugging her guardian so she can leave his house and resorting to using a sexy distraction on Oogie in an attempt to save Santa.
• Psychic Powers: She has the gift of premonition, as seen when a flower she plucks turns into a small Christmas tree... which bursts into flames, foretelling what will happen when Jack tries to take over the holiday. When she tells Jack about this "awful vision," he doesn't seem surprised, suggesting that her powers are well-known in Halloween Town.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Gender-inverted with Jack. She's more withdrawn while he's more outgoing.
• Scary Stitches: Covered in them from all of her sewn-together parts. The stitches are easily broken and repaired, both aspects which Sally frequently uses to her advantage.
• Show Some Leg: In an attempt to save Santa from Oogie, Sally detaches one of her legs and places it through the doorway of Oogie's chamber. The sentient leg strikes a sexy pose, successfully getting Oogie's attention. Unfortunately, Oogie soon realizes that the leg is detached and Sally ends up captured herself.
• Shrinking Violet: One of the reasons Sally didn't tell Jack her feelings is because she's shy around him. Downplayed in a sense, as when she believes there's potential danger, she's more vocal about her concerns.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She is shy and calm, but isn't afraid to take matters into her own hands. In fact, instead of playing into Oogie trying to terrorize her when she's caught by him, she defiantly yells at him up until Jack is announced to be dead.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Seems to be attracted to Jack, who is, for the most part, a really nice and friendly guy.
• Stalker with a Crush: Portrayed sympathetically because she is friends with Jack already, and simply too shy to confess her romantic feelings.
• Statuesque Stunner: It can be easy to not notice this at first, but she's technically this. Jack is around seven feet tall and Sally is only one head shorter than he is.
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Her relationship with Dr. Finkelstein can be considered this, given their Father-Daughter dynamic. Sally's shown to be rather clever at drugging the Doctor and sneaking out.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: It's probably because she's so used to stitching herself back together, but this is likely one of the reasons Jack enlists her to make his costume.
• Tickle Torture: On the receiving end. She uses her detached leg to distract Oogie so she can help free Santa. Oogie, deeming her leg as quite lovely, takes off her shoe and playfully tickles her foot. Her foot fidgets under the tickling, which causes the leg to slide out of the door, revealing it to not be attached to a body.
• True Blue Femininity: Her skin is a washed-out blue reminiscent of Frankenstein's creation.

Dr. Finkelstein

"You're mine, you know! I made you, with my own hands!"

Voiced by: William Hickey (movie), Jess Harnell (video games) ^{Other voice actors}Bernard Tiphaine (French)

Dr. Finkelstein is a resident of Halloween Town, the wheelchair-bound mad scientist and the "father" of Sally.

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• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: In The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge and the Kingdom Hearts series, his name is pronounced "Finkel-STEEN" rather than "Finkel-STINE" as it was in the movie.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the video game spin-offs such as Oogie's Revenge and the Kingdom Hearts series, he's usually portrayed as a much kinder, genial guy with an occasionally foul mood, so he can be the resident Smart Guy for the game.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Sequel media tends to lighten his mood considerably more, giving him a much more thoughtful and friendly air while keeping him a Grumpy Old Man.
• Adaptational Villainy: As revealed in Long Live The Pumpkin Queen, Finkelstein kidnapped Sally when she was younger after visiting Dream Town to research the production of its dream powder. He then gave Sally a potion meant to make her forget her past life.
• All There in the Manual: Inverted; his proper name is mentioned by the Mayor as the residents line up for jobs to make Christmas, but isn't used in the film's credits.
• Ambiguously Human: On paper, he's a Mad Scientist Expy of Dr. Frankenstein, and not a monster or undead like many other Halloweentown residents. But, he has pale green skin, a strange face with a stretched-out, beak-like mouth, and an overly large head that he can open up at will. He is even shown to take out half of his brain and put it into one of his creations, with no ill effects.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: His resentment for Sally's attraction to Jack could be because he's an overprotective father figure or maybe Crazy Jealous Guy. It really depends on whether you interpret that he created Sally to be his daughter or his lover.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: More like Brainswapped and Crazy; in Oogie's Revenge, Oogie switches his brain out for an evil one to make him his loyal enforcer. The boss battle with Finkelstein revolves around putting his right brain back in his head.
• Dr. Fakenstein: One of the more obvious Frankenstein's Expies out there thanks to that non-subtle name.
• Evil Cripple: Kind of. He's in a wheelchair, and he's not necessarily "evil", per se, but he is crazy and a bit of a jerk. He's also referred to as "Evil Scientist" in the ending credits.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He tries to take Sally back home because he doesn't believe she's ready for the excitement.
• Fatal Flaw: The classic Pride, Curiosity, and a desire for control seem to be a running theme to his character, running hand-in-hand and befitting a classic Mad Scientist. His curiosity and tinkering with things tends to cause some real problems, particularly in spinoff material and sequels.
  • In an earlier draft of the film, he was revealed to have been the real identity of Oogie Boogie in particular because of want to keep Sally under his thumb.
  • Kingdom Hearts entries have him often experiment with things he'd — more often than not — be better off leaving alone that drive the conflicts. In the first game, The Heartless are surprisingly tame, up until he begins trying to control them better with an artificial heart and drives them into a frenzy. In Chain of Memories, his experimenting with Memories cause a similar frenzy, and prompt Oogie to come out of hiding and become a more direct antagonist out of a lust for power. Him wanting to curb Lock, Shock, and Barrel's antics drive him to create the antagonist of II's return trip to Halloween Town, The Experiment. Notably, he states his designs are flawless despite the issues they've caused, and in The Experiment's case, blames Lock, Shock, and Barrel for bringing him insufficient parts, only to proudly announce it was a success after all when it's revealed to be doing something it wasn't intended to do at all.
  • Long Live The Pumpkin Queen, a novelized sequel to the movie, shows that he kidnapped a young Sally to satisfy his curiosity over Dream Powder, and erase her memories to not only keep her around, but also have her become his caretaker under the lie that he made her (which also fuels his pride at being considered a genius).
• Genius Cripple: A mad scientist in a wheelchair.
• Herr Doktor: Downplayed; he has a German-sounding surname but speaks with an American accent.
• Idiot Ball: He mentions at the beginning of the film that Sally's most recent drugging of him is the third time that she's done so. That month. With no mention of how many times she'd done it in previous months. Given his considerable intelligence, one might be forgiven for wondering why he would trust her to prepare his food.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As abrasive and curmudgeonly as he is, he does seem genuinely concerned for Sally's well-being and seems very fond of Jack.
• Mad Scientist: As an expy of Dr. Frankenstein. Like with the rest of Halloween Town, it's implied he's the Anthropomorphic Personification of the idea of a typical Mad Scientist.
• Manipulative Bastard: He tries to get Sally to eat the soup she made to test his suspicions. When she refused, he plays the dad card.
  Dr. Finkelstein: You want me to starve! An old man like me who hardly has strength as it is! Me! To whom you owe your very life!
  Sally: Oh, don't be silly.
• My Brain Is Big: His head is huge and round. His brain is shown to be the same when his hinged head is opened.
• Rewatch Bonus: Taking into account The Reveal in the The Pumpkin Queen Novel sequel, a lot of his behavior beforehand is cast into a much more unfavorable light:
  • His scientific curiosity drives him to visit Dream Town, kidnap a young Sally for his own ends, and then give her Laser-Guided Amnesia via a potion a lot of his previous behavior comes across less like an overprotective dad trying to protect his daughter and more like an actual kidnapper trying not to potentially rejog his victim's memory, take advantage of their amnesia, keep them confined, and avoid the consequences of what he did.
  • It makes things like Sally drugging his food, then indirectly showing her priding herself in outsmarting him, and having her disembodied arm pound his head as much more deserved.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: He is the Tiny Guy to his wife Jewel's Huge Girl at the climax. (Though the fact that he's seated in a wheelchair certainly contributes to the height difference.)

Lock, Shock, & Barrel

"Kidnap the Sandy Claws, lock him up real tight
Throw away the key and then turn off all the lights!"

Voiced by: Paul Reubens (Lock, movie and The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge), Catherine O'Hara (Shock, movie), Danny Elfman (Barrel, movie), Jess Harnell (Lock, Kingdom Hearts), Kath Soucie (Shock, video games), Jeff Bennett (Barrel, Kingdom Hearts), Dee Bradley Baker (Barrel, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge) ^{Other voice actors}Michel Costa [Lock], Céline Monsarrat [Shock], Bertrand Liebert [Barrel] (French)

Lock, Shock, and Barrel are a trio of trick-or-treaters from Halloween Town. They served as Oogie Boogie's henchmen and the secondary antagonists.

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• Affably Evil: They really are terrified of Oogie, but in their minds, helping him is the most fun thing they can think of and it overrides whatever better judgement they could've had. To note, in the Movie, they are just as glad to find out Jack is alive, enough to confirm it to the Mayor. Even at their worst, they treat their villainy as a game to be gleefully won rather than true malevolence. It's implied that it is this aspect to them that Jack tries to be a father figure, but often is content to scold and never harms them unless they've really crossed a line.
• The Alleged Boss: Lock is supposedly the leader, but Shock is smarter and isn't above insulting or hitting him.
• Ambiguously Human: They don't appear to be monsters or capable of any special powers (see Badass Normal, below). That said, there's also definitely something about them that's... off. The colored lips, the pale skin, the pointy teeth, and the fact that Lock's tail is mobile, to name a couple.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: With Halloween Town and its residents being, essentially, embodiments of aspects of Halloween and the holiday itself, Lock, Shock, and Barrel are implied to be less actual children and more the Personification of trick-or-treaters, which goes a ways in explaining why they lean towards mischief and entertaining themselves more than being scary or gross like other residents.
• Badass Normal: In any video game (sequel, prequel, or spin-off), they do things like control monsters, capture holiday leaders, fight the protagonists, and convince Maleficent herself to resurrect Oogie.
• Big Red Devil: Lock's costume.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: An evil variation. Shock's tall, Lock's skinny, Barrel's short. Unusually, Lock is — nominally — the leader, but Shock is clearly the brains of the operation.
• Blatant Lies: Just before Jack sends them to kidnap Santa, while the three of them each make a Lying Finger Cross behind their backs:
  Jack: Leave that no-account Oogie Boogie out of this!
  Barrel: Whatever you say, Jack.
  Shock: Of course, Jack.
  Lock: Wouldn't dream of it, Jack.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The sequel manga reveals/clarifies this is how they think, operating on a trick-or-treater's logic to be troublemakers, but not quite ever learning from past mistakes or thinking things through. They search for Zero, only to be caught by Santa and his Elves (who immediately are wary). When they are not only not afraid of having been caught, but fondly talk about how much fun they had during the last time they met, a confused Santa directly asks them whether they know what right and wrong is. Their simple answer is that they do not, and Santa — thinking it through — feels inclined to believe them. Considering it's in-character for them to both "forget" Jack's request to leave Oogie out of his plans, and revive Oogie despite being afraid of him, it's not hard for the audience to believe them either.
• The Brute: Barrel is the muscle of the group. Switches to Lock in Oogie's Revenge.
• Butt-Monkey: Barrel is constantly at the receiving end of pranks and smacks from his cohorts. (Just watch "Kidnap the Sandy Claws".) But usually when he pulls a prank on Lock or Shock, he gets away with it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: They're quick to shout Santa down when he tries to talk to them about goodwill. They also state multiple times in their Villain Song that they enjoy causing trouble.
  "We're [Oogie's] little henchmen, and we take our job with pride!"
• Co-Dragons: The henchmen (and henchwoman, in Shock's case) to Oogie Boogie.
• Creepy Child: They're Ambiguously Human little trick-or-treaters who serve Oogie Boogie and delight in the thought of harm coming to others.
• Dem Bones: Barrel's costume.
• Devilish Hair Horns: To complete his devil costume, Lock's hair is waxed into the shape of two horns.
• The Ditz: Barrel, though he denies this.
• Dope Slap: Shock tends to dish these out, knocking the others in the side of the head with her mask. In Oogie's Revenge, Lock smacks Barrel with his plunger for talking too much.
• The Dragon: All three of them could be seen as Co-Dragons to Oogie, but Barrel specifically is described as Oogie's "star pupil" in Oogie's Revenge, making him this.
• The Driver: Barrel appears to be the pilot of the walking bathtub the trio use as their mode of transportation.
• Even Evil Has Standards: During "Kidnap the Sandy Claws", Shock shuts down Lock's idea of aiming a cannon at Santa's door, because they're trying to capture him, not kill him.
• Enfant Terrible: They're spooky little brats, who love messing with people and are absolutely overjoyed at the idea of subjecting Santa Claus to Cold-Blooded Torture. When Santa himself asks them if they've ever heard of goodwill to all men, they flat-out tell him "No!"
• Evil Genius: Shock is the brains of the operation.
• Evil Laugh: Just to underline the Enfant Terrible trope.
• Free-Range Children: They live in a treehouse and do not appear to have any parents or guardians unless you count Oogie, and possibly Jack.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: A more implied and downplayed example, but the Mayor implies that they don't have that good a reputation, calling them "Boogie's Boys" and they’re mentioned to receive constant scolding for their pranks. It's implied that's why they live outside of town, and why they bring Oogie back in the sequel game. Jack, on his part, sees a lot of value and good in them and their skills (which is not entirely misplaced, considering they make good on their word to return the Easter Bunny home and deliver Santa directly to Jack after catching him), acting as a psuedo-parental figure and only scaring them to get their attention when they start bickering.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Lock's costume is the latter.
• Hidden Depths: in various ways:
  • They are apparently good at building things, considering their treehouse and contraptions, in a vein similar to Oogie.
  • Since they treat things as a game, they are surprisingly good at planning in order to win, though their desire to have fun causes them to forget about the possible fallouts.
  • It seems like they don't have a good reputation with the town normally, and it's implied they live on the outskirts of town with Oogie because of it. Shock being flattered and happily stating that "they thought [Jack] didn't like them" and saying that he'd "beat them black and green" (despite there being no evidence of him considering that) implies that they are used to abuse by adults when they fail and/or misbehave.
• Karma Houdini: They decide to deliver Santa to the murderous, cannibalistic Oogie Boogie against Jack's explicit orders, and receive no comeuppance for it. Becomes an averted trope in a deleted scene where Jack scares them away after they watch Oogie torture Santa and Sally. Also averted in Oogie's Revenge, in which Jack himself proceeds to whip them to a pulp after they, yet again, help the eponymous villain with his schemes.
• Kick the Dog: They abduct Santa Claus and hand him over to Oogie Boogie on a silver platter against Jack's specific request.
• Kids Are Cruel: They are some of the few child characters in Halloweentown, and are also the only actively malicious ones (aside from Oogie Boogie).
• Malevolent Masked Men: Their trick-or-treat costumes invoke this, which, ironically, hide faces that are worse than the masks.
• Perky Female Minion: Shock, the sole female of the group.
• Pet the Dog: For all their troublemaking, they do show shades of this from time to time, which helps them not completely cross a Moral Event Horizon:
  • They care enough about Jack to report to everyone else that he's alright, and lead the Mayor to Oogie's Lair, and earlier than that, they make good on Jack's request to return the Easter Bunny home to his door.
  • They apparently keep various pets, mainly for the purposes of their tricks, but it's telling that the three Scary Scorpions that leap from a box during their song don't immediately sting one of their apparent captors, and instead perch on Barrel's head.
  • Kingdom Hearts games have them as mini#bosses, sure, but they become non-hostile NPCs and don't hold any grudges against Sora and co. themselves, with Lock even being the one to provide the skateboard mini game in II (after they bring back Oogie).
  • Oogie's Revenge shows they don't mistreat their minions like Oogie does, with Barrel even casually enjoying eating pumpkins with some of his skeleton flunkies.
  • They volunteer to get Zero during the Manga Zero's Journey, while they intend to enjoy themselves, it's partially for redemption and they're genuinely happy to find Zero and hang out with the Elves on friendly terms.
• Power Trio: There's three of them and they do the legwork for Oogie Boogie.
• Pragmatic Villainy: After Lock suggests blowing Santa Claus up, Shock objects on the grounds that obliterating him would be inconvenient to them (and to their relationship to Jack).
  Lock: I say that we take a cannon, aim it at his door and then
  Knock three times and when he answers
  Sandy Claws will be no more!
  Shock: You're so stupid, think now
  If we blow him up to smithereens
  We may lose some pieces and then Jack will beat us black and green!
• Punch-Clock Villain: Averted. Yes, they're scared of Oogie Boogie and want to make sure he doesn't turn against them, but they enjoy causing mayhem for the sake of it and their treehouse looks like a torture chamber.
• Punny Name: Collectively, their names are based on the phrase "lock, stock, and barrel", which is used to refer to something total or complete.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: They reappear throughout Oogie's Revenge as boss encounters.
• Sadist: The entirety of "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" is them thinking of unnecessarily violent and gruesome ways to capture Santa Claus.
• Shout-Out: The moment when they first take off their masks to reveal just-as-ghastly faces is a reference to The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "The Masks".
• Sibling Rivalry: An interpretation of the kids' relationship claims that all three of them are siblings.
• Signature Team Transport: All three travel in a walking bathtub.
• Slasher Smile: Barrel. His grin extends from ear-to-ear and it's even reflected in his mask.
• Terrible Trio: Three troublesome brats who serve Oogie Boogie.
• Trademark Favorite Food: They're delighted at the idea that Oogie Boogie might reward them for capturing Santa by making his special snake and spider stew.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Lock and Barrel are boys, Shock is a girl.
• Villainous Friendship: They argue and hit each other a lot, but they do seem to enjoy causing mischief together, and when Jack scares them for bringing him the Easter Bunny instead of Santa, Lock and Barrel hide behind Shock while she raises down her arms in front of them as if to shield them.
• Wicked Witch: Shock's costume.
• Wild Card: They work for both Jack and Oogie, but largely seem to prefer the boss who gives them the most "fun". Seeing as their ideas of fun include criminal mischief and cold-blooded torture, they obviously lean toward Oogie. While the ending reveals that they're willing to help Jack out too, it may well be Pragmatic Villainy, since Oogie has been stewed by this point.
• Women Are Wiser: Shock is the most intelligent of the three. She tells off Lock for suggesting they blow Santa up with a cannon out of Pragmatic Villainy, and she apparently correctly guessed which holiday door was the Christmas door, getting mad at Lock for choosing the Easter door. She also openly states "I wish my cohorts weren't so dumb."

Oogie Boogie

"When Mr. Oogie Boogie says there's trouble close at hand
You better pay attention now, 'cause I'm the Boogie Man
And if you aren't shakin', there's something very wrong
'Cause this may be the last time you hear the Boogie Song!"

Voiced by: Ken Page ^{Other voice actors}Richard Darbois (French)

Oogie Boogie is the main antagonist. He is a self-described "boogieman", and the only resident of Halloween Town who doesn't respect Jack.

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• Adaptational Villainy: The original legend of the Boogeyman depicts a monster who gives misbehaving children terrible nightmares to positively influence them while they're awake. Here, he's a sadistic, torturous coward who tries to devour Santa Claus.
• Antagonist Title: Oogie's Revenge, where he's the main villain.
• Arch-Enemy: To Jack. It's strongly implied the two have history and Oogie is petrified of fighting Jack on equal ground.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The final boss battle in Oogie's Revenge has him become gigantic. Overlaps with One-Winged Angel.
• Ax-Crazy: Implied to be the only resident of Halloween Town to have actually killed people in cold blood. He also states that his gambling games are much more fun "when lives are on the line". (But not his, of course. Oogie far prefers preying on helpless victims.)
• Back from the Dead: He was brought back in Oogie's Revenge by Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who gathered enough bugs to sew him back together with.
• Bad Boss: Lock, Shock, and Barrel live in total fear of him, hence why they take their duties to him so seriously. Jack also warns them in their final boss fight that Oogie is just as liable to eat them as a reward for their service, and considering Oogie is a Villainous Glutton, we're given no reason to not believe him.
• Bad Moon Rising: The song This is Halloween has Oogie's shadow appear over the moon, with the video game Oogie's Revenge providing further confirmation.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Takes elements of this, with his body being literally made of cloth and having dark indentations for a face.
• Berserk Button: He gets rather angry when he realizes he's been tricked in some way. Sally tried to distract him with her detached leg to free Santa, only for him to find out the leg fully detaches and immediately become FURIOUS enough to immediately catch her as well.
  "WHAT?! YOU TRYIN' TO MAKE A DUPE OUTTA ME?!"
• Big Bad: Though all the citizens of Halloween Town dedicate their lives to scaring people, they do it purely for laughs and are mostly harmless. Oogie is the only really evil person there, and is implied to have actually killed people. He also serves as this in Oogie's Revenge, where he tries to kidnap all the Holiday Leaders to become the Seven Holidays King.
• Black Eyes of Evil: His eyes are pitch black. Justified because they're holes in his burlap body. His mouth is also usually black, although sometimes you can see the bugs inside it.
• Boisterous Bruiser: A rare evil example. He loves singing and dancing... while he horribly tortures his victims and will later cook 'em and eat 'em.
• Breakout Villain: His popularity led to him being not only the Big Bad of the prequel and sequel games, in which he is no longer a Plot-Irrelevant Villain, and a guest villain in the Kingdom Hearts series, but also the mascot for the Disneyland Halloween event, "Oogie Boogie Bash".
• Bright Is Not Good: In full showtime mode, he and his lair are the brightest things in town... and most certainly the worst.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's big and strong enough to easily overpower his foes, yet spends more time sicking death traps on them. This is subverted in Oogie's Revenge, where he shows just how dangerous he can be when he actually gets up and applies himself. He creates a successful empire to lord over Halloween Town with, swaps Finkelstein's brain to get an Evil Genius to build him a massive army of skeletons and minions, and kidnaps all of the holiday leaders.
  • He's smart enough to build and set up machines of various kinds and has a very clear talent for Big Fun showmanship that rivals Jack, but he wastes these talents that could potentially, positively, shake up Halloween by dedicating them to sadism, gorging himself, and revenge.
• Bugs Herald Evil: He's the most evil monster in Halloween Town, and he has bugs constantly crawling around on and inside him. Justified because he actually is made up of bugs.
• Bullying a Dragon: When he realizes that Jack is furious enough with him as it is, Oogie very unwisely decides to try to kill the more powerful Jack, which does not end well for him.
• Card-Carrying Villain: As he says in his Villain Song, "[He's] a gamblin' boogie man although [he doesn't] play fair!"
• Canon Foreigner:
  • In-universe, Oogie is not a native of Halloween Town, instead hailing from the long-forgotten holiday of Bug Day.
  • He's also an example for the basic story, as he was not present in the original poem.
• The Chessmaster: Masterminded the plot of Oogie's Revenge, and remains one step ahead of Jack up until the very end.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's implied that the skeletons that decorate his lair may not actually be the remains of his victims, but are in fact prisoners that he is currently torturing. Considering how they vocalize and how one slightly reacts to him tossing dice into its sockets, it makes a lot of his actions during his Villain Song, such as crushing a couple of them in a giant vice, stand out as particularly cruel.
• Creepy Jazz Music: Thematically associated with this type of music. It helps him stand out from the other, Dark Is Not Evil citizens of Halloween Town, who get somber orchestral music.
• Deranged Dance: Dances with Santa during his Villain Song if only to show that he's maliciously toying with him.
• Dirty Coward: Despite being a hundred times bigger than Jack (at least in terms of sheer bulk), he whimpers and runs away if he even thinks Jack has the upper hand. Considering he's just a big burlap sack full of bugs, this behavior is reasonably justified. His Villain Song references this: He has a love for high-stakes gambling with the possibility of death, but only when his life isn't at risk.
• Distracted by the Sexy: He was about to kill Santa... until he takes notice of Sally's leg and decides to start caressing it.
• The Dreaded: Even the other residents of Halloween Town are implied to be terrified of him. Oogie says it best. "And if you aren't shaking, there's something very wrong, cause this may be the last time you hear the Boogie song!"
  • There's an inversion of this during the climax: it turns out he's deathly afraid of Jack. The moment he sees him, he starts backing away.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the DVD version of the Brazilian Portuguese dub, he's renamed to "o Monstro Verde" (the Green Monster).
  • The Italian dub calls him "Bau Bau" (after Babau).
• Dying Vocal Change: Once his burlap sack skin is torn off, there's nothing to hold his body together, and as that falls apart, so does his voice — first growing steadily higher, then breaking up into dozens of tiny voices as the insects that compose him fall away. Eventually, he's left with only one bug left, screaming barely-coherent last words... right before Santa Claus squashes him flat.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He makes a quick appearance in "This Is Halloween", appearing as "the shadow on the moon at night". We aren't properly introduced to Oogie until about halfway through the movie, where the shadow returns during "Kidnap the Sandy Claws", and Oogie doesn't appear in person until the final act.
• Evil Counterpart: He's this to Jack — he's just as terrifying (if not more so), but unlike Jack, he's more of a sociopathic monster than a prankster.
• Evil Gloating: Does this frequently. The last few verses of his Villain Song have him boasting to Santa about how his situation is hopeless.
• Evil Is Bigger: He's taller than most of the other characters, and although he may not be taller than Jack, Oogie's very full figure makes him look enormous compared to Jack's thin frame. In fact, he was the heaviest puppet for the animators to work with.
• Evil Laugh: Once more! Unlike Jack's high pitched giggle, Oogie has a deep, baritone laugh that conveys his cruelty.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice actor, Ken Page, gives him a sinister baritone that underlines his cruelty but also makes it enjoyable to listen to, especially when he's singing.
• Expy: According to Word of God, he's an expy of Audrey II.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: In a sense; the burlap sack covering his bugs is technically his skin, meaning that his death basically amounts to him being skinned alive and then having the bugs, which serve as his organs, melted alive. It's how people were once punished for High Treason. And Oogie had just tried to kill a king. On the upside, it means he recovers from this pretty easily, as he simply needs to be sewn back together.
• Fat Bastard: Not only is he a big, nasty bag of bugs with a love of torture and casual cannibalism, he cheats at dice. In fact, Oogie Boogie was the biggest, heaviest puppet in the entire cast, needing the tightest joints in his armature skeleton for proper movement. He generally has a very porcine figure, emphasized by a deleted part of his song in which he did a Fat Flex.
  • Ironically, he's canonically the lightest character in the movie (based on the official website) since he's made of nothing but burlap and insects.
• Faux Affably Evil: He may act friendly at first, but he's actually a sadistic monster who slowly torments people with rigged games of chance before cooking them up and eating them.
• For the Evulz: The only Halloween Town resident who is truly evil. He notably takes great pleasure in torturing and attempting to kill Santa Claus.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Cynic. Is well aware of the foolishness of Jack, but takes advantage of it to suit his purposes. He also uses his gambling motif to give his victims false hope that they can escape when he fully intends to kill them.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric. He's hot-tempered and rude, plus he is no slouch when it comes to torturing people.
• The Gambler: Although he doesn't play fair. His personal lair is a demented casino with sharpshooting slot machines and a torture roulette wheel.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Despite the fact that the town shuns him for being a truly evil person, it appears they allow him (or at the least, his shadow, which Oogie's Revenge confirms can function as a separate entity) to participate in their Halloween festivities, given his appearance in the opening musical number.
  • He's also apparently able to take part in the festivities of the Haunted Mansion Holiday as "Oogie Claws".
• Green and Mean: The spotlights in his lair make him appear green, though he's really not.
• Hated by All: He lives just outside Halloweentown, and is clearly despised by Jack and likely feared by the other residents. Not even his own henchmen like him much, only serving him out of fear, and are elated when he's gone.
• The Hermit: Possibly due to his cruelty and by Jack's decree, Oogie Boogie is one of the few monsters who does not live in Halloween Town proper, never leaving his lair and relying on his Co-Dragons Lock, Shock, and Barrel to feed him news (and presumably regular victims) of what is going on.
• Hypocritical Humor: He calls Santa "ugly" during his song. One might wonder if he ever took a look at himself in the mirror.
• Jerkass: A murderous sadist who likes to torment his victims and rub their hopelessness in their faces, can't be bothered to play by the rules when gambling if the outcome isn't in his favor, and is implied to be more than willing to kill his own (child) henchmen if they fail him.
• Knight of Cerebus: The movie is already pretty dark itself. However, not one of the Halloween Town residents is a deranged mass murderer with a taste for torture and gore.
• Lack of Empathy: He thoroughly enjoys torturing and killing people and shows absolutely no remorse for his actions. The words of his Villain Song say all.
• Large Ham: "Large" in every sense of the word.
• Laughably Evil: Downplayed. Though a surprisingly dark character for the setting, Oogie's hamminess, catchy Villain Song, and eagerness to treat eating Santa Claus like an elaborate gambling match give him a few sparse traces of silliness.
• Leitmotif: He has a deranged jazz tune play during his scenes in the movie, plus an instrumental version of "The Oogie Boogie Song" in The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King.
• Living Shadow: His shadow appears on the moon in This Is Halloween, and is fought by Jack in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.
  "I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright!
• Logical Weakness: All he is a festering ball of bugs held together in a burlap sack. All Jack had to do was tug on a loose thread and he literally fell apart.
• Manipulative Bastard: In Oogie's Revenge, he forces Dr. Finkelstein to work for him by switching his brain with another that puts him under Oogie's control.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: He's made up of bugs, spiders, and at least one snake, yet he's shown eating a bug early on and it's mentioned he makes snake and spider stew, which would be cannibalism. It's possible that he incorporates all the creatures he "eats" into his actual body.
• Nested Mouths: Invoked. His tongue is a snake.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He was inspired by Cab Calloway, especially his appearances in Betty Boop cartoons. His exchange with Santa "What're you gonna do?" "I'm gonna do the best I can." is lifted directly from the Betty Boop short The Old Man of the Mountain, where Cabby played the titular character.
• Non-Indicative Name: In the Brazilian Portuguese dub (DVD version), Oogie is renamed to "o Monstro Verde" (the Green Monster), even though he only turns green during his musical number, and is otherwise gray/beige due to being made of burlap.
• Non-Standard Character Design: The rest of the denizens of Halloween Town are more cute than downright scary. Oogie Boogie, by contrast, is specifically designed to be overtly terrifying, driving it home that even among the citizenry of Halloween Town, Oogie Boogie is a creature to be feared.
• Obviously Evil: No eyes, big toothless mouth, stitched-up head, a great fondness for causing pain, a snake for a tongue...
• Oh, Crap!: The minute he finds himself faced with Jack during the climax, Oogie is left a stammering, fearful wreck.
• Paper Tiger: While he's definitely scary and can be a threat to people who can't fight back, he is a total wimp when he has to put up with someone capable of fighting back. He relies on the machines in his lair to try and intimidate Jack, only for Jack to gracefully dance around them and defeat him rather easily.
  • This is averted in Oogie's Revenge when he somehow develops dark powers and an army of malicious monsters for his campaign to conquer the Seven Holidays.
• Pet the Dog: Implied by "Kidnap the Sandy Claws", as Shock, Lock, and Barrel mention that if they do a good job on their mission, he'll cook them his special "snake and spider stew". The way they say this suggests that he's done this for them before.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: In the movie. He has nothing to do with Jack's main arc; his only purpose is to explain what happened to Santa after his kidnapping, something the original poem didn't say.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": His modus operandi is making a fun joke of his cold-blooded and heinous actions of torturing his victims to death. You probably won't meet a lot of characters who recite the passage ashes to ashes and dust to dust with so much mirth.
• Rhyming Names: Oogie Boogie.
• Sadist: Seems to have a sadistic streak, given that he likes to play with his food, so to speak.
• Scary Black Man: In spirit and voice, if not in body (being a vaguely humanoid burlap sack that glows lime green under blacklight).
• Scary Stitches: Sewn together with large stitching.
• Serial Killer: Given all those skeletons we see in his lair, we can deduce he killed other people before trying to do it with Santa and Sally.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Oogie has shown traits of all seven sins in the movie and its spinoffs:
  • Envy: He resents Jack for being the Pumpkin King, and in the video games The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King and The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, he tries to take over Jack's position.
  • Gluttony: Oogie loves cooking his victims into his special snake-and-spider stew.
  • Greed: Oogie is heavily themed after casinos and gambling. In the video games, he also shows a thirst for power.
  • Lust: Oogie is easily Distracted by the Sexy when Sally uses her leg to get his attention.
  • Pride: Oogie considers himself superior to all the other monsters. Much of his Villain Song has him gloating about how great and scary he is.
  • Sloth: In the movie, Oogie never leaves his lair, instead letting Lock, Shock, and Barrel bring victims to him (although this may be justified since he is an outcast; no one in Halloween Town except Lock, Shock, and Barrel wants anything to do with him).
  • Wrath: He gets pissed off at Sally for trying to distract him so she can rescue Santa, so much so that he kidnaps her and plans to drop her into the stew as well. His lair is full of deathtraps, and in the video games, he is a fighter himself. In Kingdom Hearts, his rage over believing Jack tricked him with the amount of control the artificial heart actually gave him sparks the first boss fight, and is implied to have triggered him merging with the treehouse for round two. The reason he goes One-Winged Angel in Oogie's Revenge is because his plans fall apart at the last possible second and he's that fed up with Jack undoing all his work. In The Pumpkin King, he rouses his motorcycle-like bug from its daze by getting angry and smacking it repeatedly with a riding crop.
• Sickly Green Glow: While his body is a plain burlap sack, he glows a vivid green under his casino blacklights.
• Smug Snake: Spends most of his screentime gloating and taunting his captives. Then Jack shows up, and he freaks out. He briefly regains his composure a few times during the ensuing battle, only to lose it every time Jack starts winning again.
• Snakes Are Sinister: He has a snake for a tongue.
• The Sociopath: A cruel and sadistic torturer who delights in causing pain, suffering, and misery to people, so much so that Halloween Town itself wants nothing to do with him.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Implied. While we don't see him exhibit any traits of this trope onscreen, he is meant to be the bogeyman (although it could just be a case of A God Am I, or maybe it was just for the "boogie" pun). However, as the Shadow on the Moon, he states that he specialises in bringing nightmares to mortals, which could land him in this category.
  • His whole deal could also be a reference to the Bag Man, a bogeyman-esqe being of Spanish, Portugese, and South American folklore that kidnaps naughty children, putting them in his burlap sack to eat them later.
• Tickle Torture: When he goes over to admire Sally's leg, Oogie pops off her shoe before subjecting her foot to this. Unfortunately, her foot fidgets from being tickled too much, causing the leg to slip out of the opening, revealing to Oogie that it is not attached to a body.
• Token Evil Teammate: Most of Halloween Town consists of monsters who love scares but would never dream of hurting anyone. Oogie is the only resident who's an evil, sadistic murderer.
• Torture Technician: He has a lot of machines he uses to torture and kill his victims.
• To Serve Man: He wants to eat Santa and Sally.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Downplayed in that the movie itself is not exactly bright and fluffy, but it is optimistic and lighthearted, with most of the monsters being harmless pranksters who may love a good scare, but would never dream of doing actual harm. Oogie Boogie, on the other hand, is a cruel, terrifying creature who's a cannibalistic serial killer, one of the darkest villains in Disney history.
• Villain Song: "The Oogie Boogie Song", which is one of the best.
• Villainous Breakdown: He's big, intimidating, and very full of himself… until Jack makes his entrance. Jack may be the only person that Oogie is afraid of, but boy, is he afraid!
• Villainous Glutton: If his huge girth and fondness for snake and spider stew is any indication. He also planned to make said stew out of both Sally and the very large Santa. In Oogie's Revenge, Jack even warns Lock, Shock, and Barrel that despite all they're doing to help him, Oogie is probably just going to eat them as a reward for their troubles. In the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, he also plans on eating the heavyset Mary Sanderson.
• Villains Love Entertainment: Oogie has a love of gambling. His lair is decorated like a casino where everything glows bright colors under a blacklight. He also likes to make decisions by rolling dice. When preparing to drop Santa Claus and Sally into his stew, Oogie deliberately draws out the moment to relish in his sadistic game (though not with too low of a roll).
• Villains Want Mercy: He can be heard blubbering as Jack catches onto a loose thread in his burlap sack.
• Voice of the Legion: Sort of. He starts off with a deep jazzy voice, but as he loses the bugs which make up his body, his voice becomes higher pitched and squeakier and sounds like multiple voices speaking at once until he only has one bug left.
• Weaksauce Weakness: No matter how scary he is, at the end of the day, he's still just a big burlap sack of stacked bugs. Jack didn't even need to do anything more than pull a loose thread of the sack and he was already S.O.L..
• We Will Meet Again: The prequel game The Pumpkin King ends with him promising to get even with Jack. His shadow also states this trope after the first boss of Oogie's Revenge.
• The Worm That Walks: He's really just a giant burlap sack filled with sentient bugs, the leader of which controls his voice (and a few snakes, for some reason).
• Would Hit a Girl: Tries to cook Sally and eat her along with Santa.
• Would Hurt a Child: Lock, Shock, and Barrel are rather nervous of not staying on Oogie's good side and fear Jack beating them 'black and green' should they screw up, which seems way more Oogie's style.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His Villain Song is essentially him expressing shock and hilarity upon discovering that "Sandy Claws" is actually a harmless old man.
  You're jokin', you're jokin'
  I can't believe my eyes!
  You're jokin' me, you gotta be
  This can't be the right guy!
  He's ancient, he's ugly
  I don't know which is worse!
  I might just split a seam now
  If I don't die laughing first!

Zero

"Ruff ruff!"

Voiced by: Frank Welker

Zero is Jack's ghost-dog.

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• Bedsheet Ghost: A dog version. That said, he is very small. More of a handkerchief ghost, really.
• Canine Companion: He's Jack's dog.
• Empathy Pet: His mood and expressions often mirror Jack's, particularly whenever the latter is singing. When Jack's lyrics slip into melancholy, Zero looks sad, but when they become happy and uplifting, the ghost dog gets excited.
• Expy: What Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would probably be like if he were a ghost and had a jack-o-lantern for a nose. Even used to lead Jack Skellington's sleigh at one point.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Apathetic. He literally is just along for the ride.
• Ghostly Animals: He's a ghostly dog (or rather, a Bedsheet Ghost form of one, as mentioned above).
• My Hero, Zero: His name is Zero.
• Non-Human Sidekick: For Jack, although technically Jack isn't human either.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: For a ghost dog, he's really adorable.
• Spanner in the Works: He ruins Sally's plan to sabotage Jack's Christmas present delivery by way of his glowing nose providing illumination through the fog she created. If not for Zero, the disastrous celebration might very well have never happened.
• Undying Loyalty: Pun aside, Zero is always faithful to Jack, even when his obsession with Christmas is consuming him.

Santa Claus

"Release me now, or you must face the dire consequences
The children are expecting me, so please, come to your senses!"

Voiced by: Ed Ivory (movie), Corey Burton (video games) ^{Other voice actors}Henri Poirier (French)

The old benevolent man in red who sports a white beard and lives in Christmas Town. He famously delivers gifts to all children once a year for, well, Christmas. Jack Skellington decides to kidnap him to put his own spin on the festival...

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• Accidental Misnaming: Jack and the other residents of Halloween Town call him "Sandy Claws".
• Acrofatic: Noticeably wide and heavy, but he can move fast on Christmas.
• Badass Boast: When Jack states that he hopes there is still time to fix Christmas, Santa replies with "Of course there is! I'm Santa Claus!"
• Badass Santa: Openly and fearlessly defies Oogie Boogie while being held captive and threatened with murder. He also successfully undoes the damage Jack caused in practically no time at all.
  Release me fast or you will have to answer for this heinous act!
• Beware the Nice Ones: The ultimate representation of goodwill and holiday cheer, but a formidable foe who squashes the final bug that makes up Oogie Boogie. He's also not afraid of bluntly calling people out on their bad decisions. After Jack rescues him from Oogie Boogie, Santa gives him a good chewing out for up and deciding to take over another holiday on his own.

  Bumpy sleigh ride, JACK? The next time you get the urge to take over someone else's holiday, I'd listen to her (Sally). She's the only one who makes any sense around this insane asylum!

• Big Eater: A brief one, but we see his wife packing an entire pie into his lunch box.
• Big Good: Once freed, he is able to solve all the problems caused by Jack literally overnight.
• Cool Old Guy: He's old, he's awesome, he's Santa Claus.
• Distressed Dude: Gets held hostage by Oogie Boogie for most of the movie.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Santa seems unable to contemplate when someone genuinely means him harm. He does not realize how dangerous Oogie Boogie is at first, even when Oogie is singing about how Santa is unlikely to leave his lair alive.
• Friend to All Children: He's Santa Claus! Notably, when Oogie Boogie is planning to murder him, Santa is more concerned for the children expecting him than for himself.
• Living MacGuffin: Rescuing him is a major plot point.
• Nice Guy: A bit gruff when pushed, but a loving figure who delights in gifting good children with presents. He also forgives Jack and Halloween Town for their harebrained scheme quite quickly.
• Odd Friendship: The novelization of the movie reveals in its epilogue that Jack and Santa Claus actually became friends after the events of the movie, with Jack slipping away from Halloweentown to visit Christmastown with Santa's permission and even hanging out with Santa so they can discuss their respective holidays. They'd be a pretty strange set of friends to begin with, but given how they met, it's even weirder that they became friends. Santa is described as actually having come to found Halloween a fascinating concept after his brief exposure, so he enjoys their chats as a chance to learn more about the strange holiday.
• Santa Claus: Duh. Who else would he be?
• Signature Headgear: The classic Santa Claus hat, which is taken from him when Jack forgets to make his own.

Citizens of Halloween Town

The Mayor

Voiced by: Glenn Shadix (movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, Kingdom Hearts II), Jeff Bennett (Kingdom Hearts) ^{Other voice actors}Daniel Beretta (French)

"In this town, don't we love it now
Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!"

The Mayor of Halloween Town, though his position is unclear due to Jack's status of King. He has a conical body and wears a tall top-hat and suit with a spider bow-tie. He also wears a ribbon that says "Mayor" on it. Being a politician, he is naturally "two-faced" and can rotate his head to appear as either happy or sad, to reflect his mood.

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• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: His two-faced head allows his body to spin while his head stays in place, demonstrated in "This is Halloween".
• Adipose Rex: He's conical, though he's a mayor rather than a king. Unlike most examples this also stems more from him not being reliable despite being Jack's Arguable second hand man.
• Authority in Name Only: "Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!"
• Big Fancy House: Oogie's Revenge reveals he lives down town in a huge towering house that has a bunch of structures shaped like his hat. By the time you arrive, Lock Shock and Barrel have wrecked a lot of it and held him captive with a rope.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's not at all competent when faced with any pressure. But he's a respected Town figure who is the one who seems to actually care about and have talent for planning and organizing for Halloween. It seems he's the only one doing that too, since he begins asking for Jack's help the day after the celebration happens.
• Butt-Monkey: Where to begin...
  • When he's pleading for Jack to come from his home he leans so far back that he rolls down the stairway and hits Jack's fence.
  • He exhausts himself and the townsfolk with a wild goose chase overnight
  • When trying to eavesdrop on Jack's secret mission to Lock Shock and Barrel, his spider bow-tie crawls into and clogs his speaking cone, then bites him when he reaches in to unclog it.
  • Oogies Revenge sees him held captive in his own home, tied by the waist and suspended in the air.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: On his "happy" face, he has a large toothy smile. The other face has a Cheshire Cat frown.
• The Ditherer: He needs Jack's help in planning every Halloween, proclaiming he's only an elected official and can't make decisions by himself.
• Exorcist Head: His head can spin around, allowing him to use whichever one of his two faces he needs to.
• Extreme Doormat: Despite his supposed authority, the Mayor rarely, if ever exercises any power. He has no wants or needs of his own (that we see) and always follows along with whatever Jack wants to do. He at least does it with a lot of enthusiasm, though.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Conflicted. He literally cannot make up his mind.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic. — He's affable and indecisive.
• Large Ham: Very loud and dramatic.
• Mad Eye: Has one spiral eye and one dark eye with a white pupil on his "happy" face.
• Mood-Swinger: It comes naturally when the mood changes as quickly as a clockwork head that turns 180 degrees.
• Nervous Wreck: His bad mood face displays a pessimism and a tendency to fall to pieces over anything not going according to plan. For example he immediately panics just because the Pumpkin King has left his home without any clear indication about where he went and when he would return.
• No Name Given: Though some of the merch gives him the name Hizzonor.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Invoked by the ratcheting noise that occurs whenever his head spins.
• Sleazy Politician: Subverted. He exhibits many traits that real-life politicians have, but he's rather submissive and doesn't have any real power.
• Small Role, Big Impact: It's implied that part of the reason Jack is bored out of his mind and burning out is that he is constantly planning with the Mayor, who's so dependent on him that he comes to Jack's front door with plans for next Halloween first thing in the morning after the previous Halloween happened.
• Stealth Pun: He's a two-faced politician. Especially evident with "Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!"
• Tombstone Teeth: The Mayor's happy face has a too-wide smile with far too many block-shaped teeth, contrasting the fangs sported by his unhappy face.
• Two-Faced:
  • He has two faces; one colorful and happy, one ashen and distressed. It's more of a facial mood ring than a split personality, though; whenever his emotions change, his head swivels around to display the correct face for the occasion while the one not in use seemingly falls asleep until it's needed again.
  • When Jack is showing off the idea of Christmas, he's all for it, right up until he sees Jack shot out of the sky. He then states he had a gut feeling that Christmas was a bad idea.
• Ultimate Authority Mayor: Played with; while he is evidently the only mayor Halloween Town had, he also doesn't have a lot of power. As an elected official, he can't make decisions without Jack (the king)'s help.

Mr. Hyde

Voiced by: Randy Crenshaw ^{Other voice actors}Michel Elias (French)

A ghoulish looking man dressed in a top hat and trench coat. Underneath his hat, he has a small version of himself, and under that smaller versions hat, is an even tinier Hyde.

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• Ambiguously Human: Like his namesake, the only indication we have that Mr. Hyde is a "monster" are somewhat odd features like greenish skin and bulging eyes. However, his tiny duplicates are pretty Unambiguously Inhuman.
• Cowardly Lion: He serves as the save points in the video game Oogie's Revenge. Whenever enemy monsters appear he'll immediately run, but will just as quickly return once the fighting is over.
• Character Catchphrase: In the game he has a motto he recites every time you talk to him. It's also said in sequence with his smaller versions making this possibly one of the only examples that doubles as a Phrase Catcher.
  Mr.Hyde: Don't forget-
  Smaller Hyde: -Save it now...-
  Smallest Hyde:-Or risk doing it again!
• Decomposite Character: From what we see, this Hyde has no Doctor Jekyll to him at all.
• In Name Only: He bears little connection to his literary namesake (one would imagine the Two-Faced Mayor a better fit for the name).
• Matryoshka Object: He has several smaller versions of himself all hidden under his hat, and each one has a smaller one hidden under their hat. Naturally, the toy the Hydes make in "Making Christmas" is a matryoshka.
• Mini-Me: The smaller Hydes underneath his hat.
• Mr. Exposition: In the game, he's the first friendly face Jack encounters after being away for so long, and explains what happened to everyone. He also tends to have something to say on each new area he's encountered at.
• Took a Shortcut: In the video game, he gets everywhere before Jack, no matter how hard it was for him to get there.

Behemoth

Voiced by: Randy Crenshaw ^{Other voice actors}Michel Elias (French)

A large zombie in overalls and gloves with an axe lodged in the top of his head.

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• All There in the Manual: The name of the woodcutter zombie with an axe in his head is revealed through merchandise.
• Dumb Muscle: He shows very little intelligence and is often seen doing physical work. His dumbness might be because of the axe embedded in his head.
• Expy: Patterned after B-movie actor and wrestler Tor Johnson as shown in Plan 9 from Outer Space.
• Friendly Zombie: Undead, but harmless, like most of the other citizens.
• Gentle Giant: He's big and brutish, but not malevolent nor mean.
• Hidden Depths: Aside from apparently liking bunnies, which is unusual the more one thinks about it, he's also in charge of the pumpkin patch of Halloween Town, which, considering their relevance to Halloween, means he's deceptively important. It also makes Barrel and his minions eating them and the insides of his prized giant pumpkin come across as particularly Kick the Dog like. A deleted storyboard sequence of "Making Christmas" shows that he has a beautiful operatic singing voice.
• Hillbilly Horrors: Implied by his overalls-and-ax costume.
• Pet the Dog: In an unintentionally scary way. He seems to be genuinely interested in the Easter Bunny, who he unwittingly scares away.

Clown With the Tearaway Face

Voiced by: Danny Elfman (movie), Dee Bradley Baker (The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge) ^{Other voice actors}Philippe Videcoq (French)

"I am the clown with the tear-away face, here in a flash and gone without a trace!"

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• Acrofatic: Despite his considerable girth, he's amazingly speedy and agile on that unicycle of his, to the point where he claims he can appear and vanish in an instant.
• Almighty Janitor: Oogie's Revenge reveals he's the holder of the key to the main gate, meaning no one can get in or out of town without his permission.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: All his skin is pale blue, which is unusual even for clowns.
• Big Fun: He juggles (no pun intended) with it. He's definitely fat and not actually a bad guy, but he represents a sinister clown rather than an innocent one.
• Body Horror: He can tear away his face and apparently the front part of his entire skull. What's especially unsettling is that the inside of his head is shown to be hollow.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: As you would expect from a creepy clown, he has a very screechy voice. However, when he tears off his face, it quickly sinks to a far more deep and menacing tone.
• Jump Scare: Implied to be his modus operandi by his lines in "This Is Halloween": "Here in a flash and gone without a trace!"
• Monster Clown: He's a scary-looking clown. Subverted though as he's just as nice as the other residents, making him a Non-Ironic Clown in personality.
• Nothing Is Scarier: when he removes his face, there's nothing particularly scary "looking," rather there's just a clean hole with a pitch-black void that also changes his tone of voice completely.
• One-Wheeled Wonder: He's always riding around on a unicycle, no matter where he is.
• Slasher Smile: He sports a perpetual devious-looking grin full of sharp teeth.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He claims to be "here in a flash and gone without a trace," which he demonstrates by vanishing in a puff of smoke.
• Tear Off Your Face: It's right there in the name.

Melting Man

Voiced by: Unknown

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• All There in the Manual: His name is revealed through merchandise.
• Body Horror: His body is constantly in a state of melting. It comes off as truly disgusting.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a man that's melting.
• Gag Nose: He has a large, long nose that could also be the upper half of a beak-like mouth, the eternal meltingness makes it difficult to tell.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's wearing a suit. Don't ask us how.

Harlequin Demon

Voiced by: Greg Proops ^{Other voice actors}Michel Elias (French)

"Won't they be impressed, I am a gen-i-us!"

A something-or-other who's characteristics bring to mind a harlequin in a puffy suit.

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• The Dandy: Seems very happy to make a "most deeelightful hat" made out of a dead rat as a Christmas present.
• Monster Clown: Downplayed. He's a monster who is loosely designed after a harlequin.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: If only due to his mouth wrapping all the way around his face, resulting in his head taking on a tambourine hi-hat shape.
• Our Demons Are Different: While "demon" is in his title, he bears little resemblance to traditional demon depictions.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: Given how uniquely strange he looks◊, he comes off as an oddity among oddities.
• Prehensile Hair: His hair is a set of wavy tentacles.
• Tentacle Hair: He has three large tentacles for hair. They often wave about or curl up in unusual ways. They are just a few of the features that make his design incredibly bizarre.
• Tentacled Terror: Downplayed. He's a monster with tentacles for hair. However, they're far from being the only noticeably strange parts of his design. Also, like most of the other residents of Halloween Town, he's not at all evil or dangerous, although he loves to scare people. His tentacles are not Combat Tentacles, but basically just for show.
• Villainous Harlequin: Downplayed. He's modeled after a harlequin, and he's creepy, full of himself, and forces the Saxophone Player to try on hats against his will, but he's really not malicious or dangerous.

Tall Witch and Short Witch

Voiced by: Susan McBride (Tall Witch, movie), Susanne Blakeslee (Tall Witch, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge), Debi Durst (Small Witch) ^{Other voice actors}Danièle Hazan [Tall Witch], Jackie Berger [Short Witch] (French)

"Say it once, say it twice
Take a chance and roll the dice
Ride with the moon in the dead of night"

• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: One's a tall witch and the other is a short witch.
• Fangirls: They're implied to have crushes on Jack.
• Those Two Guys: They're often seen together.
• Wicked Witch: Subverted. They are typically witches in every sense of the word but they're not wicked.
• Witch Classic: They both closely follow the typical witch design.

The Vampire Quartet

Voiced by: Randy Crenshaw, Kerry Katz, and Sherwood Ball ^{Other voice actors}Michel Elias and Jean-Pierre Leroux (French)

"In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song!"

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• Ambiguously Evil: They seemingly only want to scare people and not hurt them, like the other Halloweentown residents. But then, at one point they're given an award for "Most Blood Drained in a Single Evening".
  • Although, to be fair. The fact that they were being awarded for drinking blood, and that no one seems bothered by this, leans towards them not being evil, and there is probably an innocent explanation for the "blood drained". Most likely, it's animal blood.
• Barbershop Quartets Are Funny: Downplayed. Though they don't look like stereotypical barbershop quartet members, they are still a singing quartet of vampires. They are less funny in a "gut-busting, laugh out loud" way, and more in a quirky, droll way.
• Classical Movie Vampire: They all resemble traditional vampires, although the one on the left looks the most like Bela Lugosi's Dracula.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: The high pitches of their singing voices (and the speaking voices of a couple of them) compliment their creepy designs.
• Eye Pop: One of the vampires is able to pull one of his eyes right out of his head, which he used to search for Jack behind the Cyclops' eye.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampires: They all are Halloweentown's resident vampires.
• Greek Chorus: Of all the Halloweentown citizens, they are the ones who most often comment on events in their songs or back up the songs of other characters.
• Looks Like Orlok: The third vampire is bald, has long, pointed ears, and has fangs and pale skin like the other vampires.
• Vampire Vords: Averted, they can speak "w"s without an accent.
• Weakened by the Light: The vampires dislike sunlight, as they cover themselves with their sleeves and flee as the sun starts to rise. They're fine going out in the day so long as they carry parasols.

Corpse Family

Voiced by: Kerry Katz (Corpse Dad) and Debi Durst (Corpse Mom and Corpse Kid)

"Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare
That's our job, but we're not mean
In our town of Halloween"

• All There in the Manual: According to the trading card Game, Corpse Dad is named "Ned", Corpse Mom is named "Bertha", and Corpse Kid is named "Ethan".
• Butt-Monkey: The Corpse Dad. He's eaten by a snake during the "Making Christmas" montage (although he comes back later).
• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: The Corpse Mom is very corpulent, while the Corpse Dad is practically emaciated.
• Creepy Child: The Corpse Kid. Being a walking corpse whose eyes are stitched shut kind of lends itself to that.
• Dead Weight: The Corpse Mom and Corpse Kid are both obese as heck.
• Eye Scream: The Corpse Kid's eyes are sewn shut.
• Fat and Skinny: The Corpse Mom is very heavy while the Corpse Dad is very thin.
• Friendly Zombie: During the opening song, they're the ones who say that scaring is "[their] job, but [they're] not mean".
• Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: Corpse Dad has a clown nose and hair.
• Monster Clown: The Corpse Dad appears to have a clown nose.
• Undead Child: The Corpse Kid, obviously, is a zombie child. Probably best not to ask how…
• Unexplained Recovery: We never see exactly how the Corpse Dad got out of that giant snake.

Creature Under the Bed

Voiced by: Carmen Twilie

"I am the one hiding under your bed, teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red!"

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• Ambiguous Gender: It's impossible to tell what the Creature's gender is, if it even has one. The dialogue doesn't give us any hints, and we can only see its eyes and teeth. The Creature is voiced by a woman, but she uses a very husky voice that sounds rather androgynous.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Its eyes, glowing in the darkness under the bed, are one of the few things that are visible.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: What we hear of its voice is surprisingly high-pitched (if the creature is male), but it's still a creepy creature. This trope is inverted in the Russian dub, which gives it a terrifyingly deep voice.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The creature specifically says that it's under your bed.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: These shine out from its hiding spot under the bed.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: One of the few features we can see of it is its set of many sharp teeth.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We can't actually see most of it, only some of its ghastly facial features.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eyes glow red.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: As its name implies, it lurks under beds.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After its brief segment in "This is Halloween," the Creature never appears again for the rest of the movie.

Creature Under the Stairs

Voiced by: Kerry Katz

"I am the one hiding under your stairs, fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair!"

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• Creepy Long Fingers: His fingers are literally snakes.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He's a creepy Snake Person with pale gray skin and stringy black hair.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Like the Creature Under the Bed, he says that he's under your stairs.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: Even among the other Halloweentown citizens, his design is unusual. His neck is segmented like an accordion, his head is long and wormlike, his fingers are like snakes and he has spiders in his hair, and from the waist down his body tapers down to a tiny wheeled platform.
• Snake People: In addition to his snake fingers, his head and neck look rather snakelike as well. His head and neck resemble the giant snake that is delivered as a present later in the movie.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Having snakes for fingers is one of his creepy features.
• Spiders Are Scary: He has spiders crawling in his hair.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: He hides in the spaces underneath stairs, presumably in people's homes.

The Cyclops

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• Big Eyes, Little Eyes: Its eye takes up a large part of its face.
• Black Dot Pupils: With how large his eye is, this is particularly noticeable.
• Cyclops: He only has one eye, the trait that he's named for.
• Major Injury Underreaction: A vampire mentions that he looked behind the Cyclops's eye, but Cyclops seems no worse for wear.
• Our Goblins Are Different: While he's called a cyclops, after his single eye, the rest of his design invokes the traditional goblin, with green, wrinkled skin, pointy ears, and small thin stature.

Most of the Residents

• Amazing Technicolor Population: Even the more human-looking creatures have unnatural skin tones.
• Bedsheet Ghost: A bunch of them live in the town. For a given definition of the word "live", of course.
• Big Red Devil: Kinda; of the residents is a typical red devil, but he's rather short.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: They don't quite grasp that "scary" is not what people look for on Christmas.
• Cat Stereotype: The only cats in Halloweentown are, of course, black.
• Creepy Child: The Corpse Kid, the Mummy and the Bat. They're all actually kind of adorable, when you get past the fact that they're undead monsters.
• Dark Is Not Evil: As the opening song says, "That's our job, but we're not mean."
• Defanged Horrors: While monsters that delight in frightening people, they are not malicious about it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Sure, they enjoy giving people scares, but they would never dream of actually hurting anybody. Oogie Boogie, on the other hand...
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: They aren't evil, really, but they don't seem to understand anything outside of Halloweentown, and tend to unwittingly make their Christmas decorations and toys Darker and Edgier, and even outright harmful, albeit unintentionally.
• The Faceless: The "Who" When You Call "Who's There?" and The Wind Blowing Through Your Hair are both heard but never seen. It's possible that both of them are invisible or non-corporeal, given what they each represent.
  • Ditto with the Grim Reaper as his face is hidden by his hood.
• Frankenstein's Monster: It makes a Freeze-Frame Bonus cameo in the opening song. How it might be connected with Dr. Finkelstein is unknown.
• Friendly Zombie: All of the zombie characters are this, such as the Corpse Family and Behemoth.
• The Grim Reaper: Is seen in the back row of the town meeting.
• Large Ham: Halloween Town is basically a World of Ham.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Undersea Gal resembles a female version of the Gill-Man, but with a mermaid's tail instead of legs.
• Living Shadow: Several of these appear on graves in the opening song.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The Halloweentown residents are made up of monster types from folklore and pop culture alongside famous literary monsters like Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein's Monster. A witch resembling the old hag form of Queen Grimhilde also makes a brief appearance.
• Monster Mash: They include almost every well-known kind of monster from pop culture.
• Our Monsters Are Different: They come in many different shapes, sizes and colors and they're all so aesthetically pleasing!
• Nightmare Fetishist: It's a given that they'd enjoy scary and horrifying things, since they live in a town that's all about Halloween.
• No Name Given: Very few of them have names.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: The Creature Under The Bed and The Man Under The Stairs are both based on two common monster archetypes that children fear. The "Who" When You Call "Who's There?" might also qualify.
• When Trees Attack: The Hanging Tree, complete with hangman skeletons on his branches.
• Wolf Man: One of the residents is a wolf man, simply called Wolf Man. He could be a werewolf, but we never see him transform.

Others

The Elves

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• Christmas Elves: Obviously, and they fit the classic image of them.
• Suddenly Voiced: While silent for the most part in the movie, two of them have dialogue in the video game Oogie's Revenge.
• The Voiceless: Though a few can be heard caroling during "What's This?", none of them say a word.

The Easter Bunny

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• Easter Bunny: The name says all.
• The Voiceless: He never says a word. Then again, he might just be too frightened to speak.

The Children

• Butt-Monkey: While everyone is freaked out by Jack's "gifts", the children are the ones who get tormented the most, as the gifts were meant for them.
• Given Name Reveal: If you pay attention, the kid with the Shrunken Head is named Timmy (it says so on his stocking behind him), and in the book, The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, The Art, The Vision, the fat kid is referred to as Howie in concept art.
• No Name Given: None of them are directly named on-screen. The kid who gets the big snake is simply referred to as "The Infant" in The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, The Art, The Vision. Others, like the Japanese Twins, aren't even named in the concept art.
• Stunned Silence: Timmy does deserve credit for not screaming when he finds his gift, instead reacting with an understated and silent look of shock as he pulls out the Shrunken Head.

The Sandman

The main antagonist of The Nightmare Before Christmas: Long Live The Pumpkin Queen. The former ruler of Dream Town, he is accidentally released when Sally discovers the door to the ancient realm.

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• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the book with his plan of stealing all the dreams in the seven realms.
• Dream Stealer: His modus operandi and what creates the conflict of the sequel book.
• The Dreaded: The denizens of Dream Town greatly feared him so much so his name was never to be uttered.
• Evil Overlord: Originally ruled Dream Town but always ventured to the human realm to harvest dreams.
• Heel–Face Turn: After experiencing dreaming when he was put to sleep with a sleep potion, the Sandman repents of his actions and agrees to never steal dreams again as long as Sally provided him with her sleep tonic.
• Humanoid Abomination: Resembles an old man except for having an extra set of arms.

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