Fed up with the enforced jolliness of the Yuletide season? Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – conceived by the director (actually based on a poem he wrote), and helmed by Henry Selick, who also made James and the Giant Peach – is the perfect antidote to all that mistletoe and wine.
Featuring stop-motion animation, it’s the dark, twisted and definitely creepy tale of Jack Skellington, a ghoulish character from the nasty Halloweentown who discovers there’s a place called Christmastown that offers something quite different (‘There’s children throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads. They’re busy building toys and absolutely no one’s dead!’).
Although made by Disney, this is definitely not an adventure for young children – Jack kidnaps Santa, for a start! – but should delight older kids and anyone who enjoys Burton’s wickedly dark sense of humour. A fantasy/adventure/musical/horror/comedy that’s essential fare for scrooges.
Is The Nightmare Before Christmas suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
As mentioned above, this film is (deliciously) dark and twisted, so not suitable for the under-10s as many of the images are creepy.
If you like this, why not try: Coraline, James And The Giant Peach, The Addams Family, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice,