30 Days of Halloween – Day 9: "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

I am a sucker for the Disney Renaissance. The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin—those are the best animated Disney movies. Bar none. Yes, I will watch Cinderella or The Little Mermaid (no thanks, Pocahontas), and sure, I love the trippiness of Alice in Wonderland as much as anyone else. But Simba/Mufasa, Belle/Beast, Aladdin/Jasmine. Done and done.

Well … and Jack/Sally. Because it still blows my mind that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney movie that came out around the same time as the Disney Renaissance—1993, under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures—even though I should really know better. Why else would Tim Burton be so beloved by Disney, beloved enough to give us clunkers like Dark Shadows and the remade Alice in Wonderland? Why else would Johnny Depp be drawn into Disney’s web, but Burton? Basically what I’m saying is you can blame Tim Burton for Johnny Depp only playing versions of Jack Sparrow in every movie he’s made in recent memory. You’re an asshole, Tim Burton.

But before he was an asshole, man, he was fantastic. Edward Scissorhands: Yes! And The Nightmare Before Christmas, which actually wasn’t directed by Burton but was enough his movie that it has his name before it on movie posters: Double yes! I know of no animated film that is more perfect for Halloween, and of course, Disney knows this; that’s why there are officially licensed Jack and Sally Halloween costumes, why Jack and Sally merchandise gets an uptick at places like Hot Topic come October, why that annoying teenager who lives on your street and insists on having, like, four lip rings and is still wearing JNCOs is humming “This is Halloween” under his breath for the next three weeks. Fuck that kid! Even though that song is amazing, fuck that kid.

Because as much as The Nightmare Before Christmas has going for it—the macabre design, the endless work that went into the stop motion, the adorableness of ghost dog Zero, who weirdly and always reminds me of Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins—it is that first song (which I can't embed here, but at least I can link you to it on YouTube) that sets the tone for everything that comes afterward. It is that introduction into this world of Halloween Town, of monstrous-but-loveable ghouls and vampires and witches and the like, that lets you know how this film is going to go. It is going to be self-aware. It is going to take delight in the things that go bump in the night. And it is going to argue for love and affection amid this world of darkness; it is going to make a case for finding that special someone, even in your weird community, even with your weird neighbors, even with those weird kids (Lock, Stock, and Barrel, naturally), who won’t leave you alone.

Perhaps you could argue (as my brother vehemently does, even though he likes this movie quite a lot) that the conclusion is actually kind of depressing, that it tells viewers that they can’t change who you are, that you’re stuck with something, that you can’t strive for anything new. But I don’t think the movie is a rejection of aspiration; I think it’s an acceptance and appreciation for what you have. And sometimes what you have is Halloween Town. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

This is Halloween, bitches. Get ready.