This Is Halloween

Tim Burton’s Classic Claymation Film is a Halloween Movie

Photo by Brecht Bug on Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Once the holiday season starts, people are faced with what is perhaps one of the most heated debates in the realm of film: is “The Nightmare before Christmas” a Halloween or Christmas movie? The movie follows its main protagonist, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, and his efforts to rule his town while also exploring Christmas Town. Ever since the movie aired in 1993, the public has argued over which holiday embodies the movie more. However, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” captures the true essence of the spooky celebration through its songs, animation style, release date and the opinions of its creators. 

When the movie first begins, the title of the movie appears on the screen in a vibrant orange, a color closely associated with autumn. The camera then follows into Halloween Town, passing through cemeteries, ghosts, pumpkin patches and a haunted house. While the viewers are being presented with blatantly Halloween objects, the film’s first song is named “This is Halloween.” To have an entire three minute song which has the title and chorus “This is Halloween” without it actually being a Halloween movie would be ridiculous. How a movie starts is very important when setting up the tone of the film, and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” begins in an eerie, Halloween-like way. 

Along with the opening images and songs of the movie, the animation style also exhibits the Halloween mood. Tim Burton signature claymation style displays gothic components, along with heavy emphasis on autumnal color pallets. The animation style is composed of sharp angles and shapes, all which move in a slightly unnerving manner. The characters of the film are disproportionate to reality, with abnormally long limbs, large heads or anything else of the sort. This exudes a scary feel to the viewers, as people associate sharp objects with fear. The film also incorporates a large variety of reds, oranges, browns, blacks and grays, which fall into the ‘fall’ colors. For example,  Jack Skellington is always shown wearing either black or grays. Also, the setting is always at night. 

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” was released to the theaters on Oct. 29, 1993. The date, which is only two days from Halloween, is far too early to release a Christmas film. On average, new Christmas releases go from around early  November to early December. Netflix’s first holiday movie of the season is set to release on Nov. 19, following the patterns of its previous years. So, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was released too early to be considered a movie for the Christmas season. 

Arguably the two people who dictate what the movie should feel like both stated that the movie was a halloween movie, Henry Selick, the director, and Danny Elfman, the composer. 

“It’s a Halloween movie,” 

Eventually, the film’s director, Henry Selick, originally declared it was a Halloween movie in 2015 during an interview at Colorado’s Telluride Horror Show film festival. Not only the director, but also the composer shared this opinion.

Danny Elfman said during a 2019 interview with USA today,  “It’s obviously about Christmas, but for me, it’s a Halloween movie,” 

 Selick was in charge of the creative vision of the film, which includes making choices on artistic and dramatic aspects. Movie directors additionally collaborate with department heads on visual style, camera work and editing to ensure a solid final product. If the director wanted it to be a Christmas movie, Spelick would have put in more themes that fit the flow of the film. 

Music is what makes a great movie happen. It’s what determines the mood and feelings of each individual moment, as well as the overarching plot. Elfman chose to have the music of the movie go along with the spooky elements of the characters, animation and plot, which is shown by his statement about the Halloween nature of the movie. 

Overall, Tim Burton’s claymation classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a movie for the spooky season. This is shown through his opening shots of the movie, the animation style and color choices and the opinions of major contributors of the film. The film perfectly captures the Halloween spirits through its unique style and characters.