When I heard about this film, I was expecting great things. I got good things.
The positives? The character designs and sets are very good. Lots of pure Burton in here, with ideas both traditional and completely new. The music is fantastic, with Danny Elfman capturing the feeling of Halloween like no other. "What's This?" is the perfect kid-in-a-candy-store song, "Sally's Song" is a performance arguably enhanced by its roughness, and there are many other great numbers. The plot's overall theme is nice, too, stating that people have limits and understanding is key to effective adaptation. This could be applied to a great deal of Burton's later films, ironically. The general animation is pretty good, and definitely revolutionary for the medium, and there are lots of really clever shots.
The negatives? Well, the plot isn't the tightest thing ever. Oogie Boogie is only there as a plot-hole filler, explaining what happened to Santa. Sally, who is a great character for her actions, suffers from incredibly weak dialogue, which could be omitted and nothing about the audience's perception would change. There's a huge cast of characters, but few of them have prominent roles. Finkelstein serves almost no purpose as a character, and doesn't serve as a convincing motivation for Sally's own loneliness. If anything, there may be too many songs, which, despite giving it the rare title of animated operetta, might have been left out for more character development or plot work. The romance between Jack and Sally isn't exactly a bad idea, but it feels like a spare plot thread that doesn't have enough room to be developed. These, I suspect, are all problems had when you try to construct a feature-length story from a relatively short poem and also from turning background doodles into characters.
Overall, though, I find Nightmare to be very charming. It's not perfect, but its imperfections may add to it. Don't go in expecting the best film ever, but don't lower your expectations to zero. It's a fun holiday film for the latter half of the year, whichever of its two seasons you watch it for.
It's no masterpiece, but it's a true classic.
When I heard about this film, I was expecting great things. I got good things.
The positives? The character designs and sets are very good. Lots of pure Burton in here, with ideas both traditional and completely new. The music is fantastic, with Danny Elfman capturing the feeling of Halloween like no other. "What's This?" is the perfect kid-in-a-candy-store song, "Sally's Song" is a performance arguably enhanced by its roughness, and there are many other great numbers. The plot's overall theme is nice, too, stating that people have limits and understanding is key to effective adaptation. This could be applied to a great deal of Burton's later films, ironically. The general animation is pretty good, and definitely revolutionary for the medium, and there are lots of really clever shots.
The negatives? Well, the plot isn't the tightest thing ever. Oogie Boogie is only there as a plot-hole filler, explaining what happened to Santa. Sally, who is a great character for her actions, suffers from incredibly weak dialogue, which could be omitted and nothing about the audience's perception would change. There's a huge cast of characters, but few of them have prominent roles. Finkelstein serves almost no purpose as a character, and doesn't serve as a convincing motivation for Sally's own loneliness. If anything, there may be too many songs, which, despite giving it the rare title of animated operetta, might have been left out for more character development or plot work. The romance between Jack and Sally isn't exactly a bad idea, but it feels like a spare plot thread that doesn't have enough room to be developed. These, I suspect, are all problems had when you try to construct a feature-length story from a relatively short poem and also from turning background doodles into characters.
Overall, though, I find Nightmare to be very charming. It's not perfect, but its imperfections may add to it. Don't go in expecting the best film ever, but don't lower your expectations to zero. It's a fun holiday film for the latter half of the year, whichever of its two seasons you watch it for.