Conference bookie::movies

    Doesn't open until next week in my area (Worcester MA) I saw the
    critics - Sneak Preview and they both loved the special effects but
    said the story was lame - and its only sloghtly over an hour long (can
    you blame the creators?) 
    
    I saw the previews in a theater before I had ever heard of it and I
    just loved it!  I am looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.
    
    Jt

    Actually, it's opened at White City today.
    
    I plan on going to see it tonite after work.  
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    kim

    A very nicely done movie, as long as one does not sit in front of
    small, non-movie-trained children who don't realize that talking very
    loud during quiet parts means they can be heard into the next county.
    
    I noticed a lot of small (say, under 10) kids in the theaters.  The
    film is funny, very quirky, very much what one would expect from a Tim
    Burtonesque fairy-tale, and the lively parts are enough to keep a small
    child's attention.  What with all the monsters and all.  But "The
    Nightmare Before Christmas" isn't flashy and bright like a Disney
    Cartoon, and indeed, it has some parts which are meant for drama and/or
    poignant moments.  Aka "slow parts", when not much is happening on
    screen.  Fine for many of us, but not for young kids, who seemed to get
    restless and bored.  During these periods, the two kids behind me would
    go into shriek mode most often.  Your kids, of course, may vary.
    
    All that said, I managed to enjoy myself.  The story concerns Jack
    Skellington, the King of Halloweentown, who finds himself wanting a bit
    more than simply scaring people once a year.  He stumbles upon the very
    merry Christmastown, marvels at all the neat presents and the fact that
    no one is scaring each other, and catches a silhoutted glimpse of
    "Sandy Claws".  Jack scampers back to Halloweentown and calls a
    meeting, getting all the various denizens to voice their approval of
    taking over Christmas.  Of course, a Halloweentown resident's idea of a
    neat present is somewhat different than the happy elves of
    Christmastown's.....
    
    Besides Jack, the film features a wide variety of interesting--well,
    things.  Dr. Finklestein, the mad scientist who construts Jack's love
    interest, Sally the Ragdoll.  There's a trio of fairly effete vampires,
    the Oogie Boogie man (the most unpleasant of Halloweentown's
    inhabitants, certainly in personality, if not in looks), Oogie Boogie's
    henchmen, Lock, Shock and Barrel (who I liked best), the literally Two
    Faced Mayor, and many, many more.  There is usually a lot going on in
    any once scene, so much that I'd like to go see it again, to catch some
    details I missed.
    
    There are many songs in the film, none of them particularly catchy, but
    it's Danny Elfman's first time writing a musical.  They grow on you if
    you listen to the tape.  The incidental music is stock Elfman -- but I
    sort of like Elfman's fairy-tale music, so I enjoyed it.  Elfman also
    provides Jack's dramatic singing voice.
    
    The stop-motion puppets are great to look at, highly detailed, and the
    animation is really nicely done.  The film is fairly short (around 70
    minutes), but when you can appreciate that the animators could only
    film about 5 seconds screen time a *day*, you understand how doing
    something the length of oh, Gettysburg, is a bit out.  :)
    
    I'd certainly recommend it.
    
    ***.5 out of ****  
    
    kim
    

    Saw this on Sunday with the kids - it's a fascinating movie and the
    kids (boys, 10 and 11) were enthralled throughout.  Short move - about
    80 minutes, I'd say - done mostly as a musical.  Stop motion animation
    is the smoothest and most life-like I've ever seen.  Wouldn't be
    surprised if this becomes a holiday classic!

    From the ads, I figured this was going to be right up my alley,
    gruesome-wise; the shrunken-head bit had a Gahan Wilson quality, the
    attenuated lines of Jack's character conjured up spiders and skeletons
    and animated scarecrows all at once, the scenery looked vaguely like
    something Edward Gorey would come up with during a bout of indigestion,
    and the Jack-in-Christmastown scenes combined Charles Addams with Dr.
    Suess in an intriguing fashion.

    So - did it work? Mostly yes - but watch out for the Thing Under the
    Bed! <BANG!!! CRASH!!! Excuse me - there will be a brief pause while I
    replace the lightbulb in the lamp that the cat just knocked over.>

    That's better. I enjoyed the film a lot. For the most part, the
    stop-motion and other effects felt seamless. The casting was splendid,
    with William Hickey especially good as the mad scientist (who looked
    like a nightmarish cross between an embryonic Howard the Duck and
    Stephen Hawking, and sounded like - well, like William Hickey, which is
    scary enough for anybody). The music worked well to support the mood
    and - once in a while - to provide a catchy little number ("What's
    This?", one of the more Suess-ian songs, was especially appealling).
    And there were lots of cute bits of business: the vampires forming a
    sort of Greek chorus to one exceptionally dolorous song, Jack chiding
    (ever so gently) one of the townsfolk for trying to gift-wrap a
    road-killed turtle ("That one's a little too far gone; try something
    fresher"), the maid-in-a-tower fable translated into Sally's amiable
    escape techniques, the confrontations between the residents of
    different holidays, the Oogie-Boogie/boogie/bogey/boggle/bug derivation
    (I was immensely pleased when I looked it up), and all manner of stuff
    going on in the background, things it'll take a couple of viewings to see.

    But I was very much surprised to find that, about a third of the way
    through, I was getting a teensy bit... queasy. Halloweentown was so
    loaded with "the horribles," some of which were in an advanced state of
    decomposition (and yet, unlike the turtle, were still roaming around),
    that for a while there it felt like I could smell 'em, hear the
    squelching sounds... Yechhh. [This eased up a bit when Jack got to
    Christmastown, but I was no end astonished at my reaction. Maybe Tim
    Burton built a better nightmareland than I'd expected.]

    The Christmas-eve segment triggered another twinge of queasiness (the
    recipients of Jack's largesse were really, really scared and
    bewildered), but was also a hoot; Jack looked just like that Gahan
    Wilson cartoon of a skeleton dressed in a Santa suit (caption: "Well,
    Mrs. Jones, I think we know what's been blocking your chimney since
    last winter."). The blend of the sweet guy we know him to be and the
    really horrible monster he looked like to all the kiddies was very...
    interesting. [I haven't had any nightmares about him yet, though I
    expected to; Burton managed to get nearly all of the Things That Scare
    Me into that one cartoon figure, from the empty eyes to the skeletal
    shape. I haven't even gotten too nervous about that half-open closet...
    so far.]

    All in all, I think the movie's a wonderful piece of animation, and
    very cleverly assembled; if the story's a little thin (especially the
    Jack/Sally romance), well, so are the main characters, so it suits 'em.
    I don't know if this will become a warm family holiday tradition, but
    *I'll* probably watch it again.
    
    -b

	Well I  have to write despite having no time since my take of the movie
	doesn't agree with the reviews so far...

	I didn't think much of this film, and was rather disappointed by it.
	My three theatre companions felt exactly the same.  In short, we were
	all terribly bored after the first ten minutes.  The movie seemed to be
	over two hours instead of only 80 minutes (was it really only that
	short?).  The story line was very very weak, as were the characters.
	It was a B-grade half-hour Saturday morning cartoon put into
	technically superior animation and stretched out to over an hour.

	Now, I am a huge fan of animation.  After just having attended this
	year's annual animation film festival, I was expecting animation on par
	with many of the better shorts I've seen.  This year the festival
	contained the long short called "The Sandman," which was creepy and
	gruesome while sweet and endearing at the same time.  It was my
	favorite, and the commercials for "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
	seemed to have a similar look (especially the boy opening the xmas
	gift).  But upon seeing it, Nightmare just did not hold up.
	Technically, it was indeed amoung the smoothest animation I have seen.
	And Burton's attention to detail was painstaking and remarkable (yet I
	would not call it beautiful).  However, after the initial ten minutes
	where I was involved with looking at the animation, the characters, and
	the Halloween-town scenery, I became bored.  The scenes often had the
	same exact background (naturally, since it happened 'in town') and once
	you got used to the characters, the new-ness of their animation wore
	off, and you watched the character _for_ the character and his/her
	storyline as if s/he were a real life actor and not for their animation
	anymore (perhaps to the animator's credit).  And since I found the
	characters to be cardboard-cutout weak and the story weak, that
	explains why I became bored.

	The animation  film  festival  shorts  held  me riveted, watching every
	frame  with  anticipation  and  delight.  Nightmare dragged on, and the
	animation  lost  its  appeal  with a feeling of sameness after a while.
	The film was gruesome and dark feeling, but you became used to it after
	a while.  And unlike "Sandman", it did not have any endearing qualities
	to  fill  in  any  holes.   I  did  not feel for any of the characters,
	including  absolutely  nothing  for the main character Jack (unlike the
	adorably-done  little boy in "Sandman").  In Sandman, scenes were taken
	(gorgeous  motion shots) from the angle of a little boy, where you felt
	like  you  were  experiencing  the  story  along with the boy, from his
	viewpoint.  Nightmare was flat and cardboard.  I felt I didn't know any
	of  the  characters  well, and therefore didn't particularly care about
	them  or  what  happened  to  them.   I  was  'watching' them on a flat
	artificial  surface, like physically looking at a storybook's pictures,
	removed from the action and not involved in it.  The music was also not
	memorable in any sense, it was almost a non-entity.

	I give Nightmare a *1/2 (one and a half) stars out of ***** stars.
	Might be good for mid-to-older school boys who might revel in the
	bathroom-humor dripping-ooze 'gore' (became tiresome toward the middle
	of the film).  The theatre seemed to be 90% children, mostly elementary
	school aged (we felt like the oldest people there).  But "Nightmare" is
	definitely NOT a children's film in my mind.  (Some parents walked out
	with their children mid-way, I would guess that the look and feel of
	the film would be disturbing to quite a few of the younger children, I
	would not recommend it personally either).  And my word, to mention
	the word "classic" in the same sentence as "Nightmare" is the most
	absurd thing I have heard in a very long time.  An emphatic "Absolutely
	no way" from me.  Unless I was asleep and missed it when "Betelgeuse"
	became a Children's Classic.  And that has more chance by far than
	Nightmare. Animation does not always mean "for kids".

	This is all my own opinion upon the seeing the film.  Usually I agree
	with the previous people on film reviews and when Gene and Roger both
	give thumbs up, but not this time.  Your viewing may vary...

	-Erik

    
    Saw it last weekend. I didn't like it much, but then, I'm not a fan of 
    that type of animation. I also detected more than a passing similarity
    to Edward Gorey and Charles Addams in the backgrounds.
    
    I especially didn't like the blending on Christmas and Halloween, and
    the typically "dark" Burtonesque sets. Why did I go see a movie I knew
    I probably wouldn't like? I was overruled by my son and husband. Only
    my son enjoyed it, though, although he did sit on my lap a couple of
    times when the action got a little too weird for him.
    
    *** 1/2 stars out of 4 for special effects
    * for family viewing
    
    
    Marilyn

    Loved it!!!!
    
    Even though it had some real slow moments (like several of the songs) I
    thought the pace was good, storyline o.k. (a major twist on the Grinch
    Who Stole Christmas) some good songs, alot of funny one liners - but 
    awesome animation!!!  Basically the only thing I really 'loved' about
    it was the stop action animation stuff.
    
    If you want a great story, don't bother - don't even bother if you want
    a "love story"...but to me this is one of those movies that plays well
    on the big screen.
    
    ** out of *****
    Jt

    I really liked it, fun, colorful, great music. A rudolf story for
    Halloween. 
    
    all three thumbs up!
    
    John

    
    I went to see it last night and didn't think my time misspent. 
    Terrific craftsmanship, and enough attention paid to other parts of
    film-making so that it wasn't just visually interesting.  I didn't find
    any of the songs particularly objectionable.
    
    A holiday special for the nineties.  A sort of Rankin-Bass on crack.  I
    noticed that one of the Oogy-Boogy's henchcreatures had a voice that
    was very much like that of Hermie, the elf with dental school
    aspirations, in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I don't know if that
    was intentional, but it's a sort of homage.  However, I don't think I'd
    pay full price to see it again.  It's a question of it being less up
    my street, not a comment on the quality of the film.
    
    DFW

    
    Saw it last night ... LOVED IT!!  But, I feel this is one of those
    love/hate movies...to me, one of the best films I've seen in ages
    -- I can't wait to go again!  But, I saw a few couples actually walk
    out mid-movie.  So, I guess it's not for everyone (like the noter
    who rated this movie a * "for family viewing" ... that is exactly
    why I absolutly loved it!!)
    
    **** out of *****
    Buck

    ...YES!!!!! I loved it as well....so much imagination and talent on the
    part of Tim Burton and his crew...I picked up the soundtrack as well..
    when we (my wife and I) we there, we completely forgot all other
    issues....that's a mark of a great "fantasy" movie...
    
    ****1/2 out of *****
    
    mac
    ("Making Christmas...)
    

    Count me in as one of the "pro" people.  I do, however, have 
    some less-positive thoughts:
    
    1.	As noted, it drags a bit towards the end, as the scenery
    	(wonderful though it is) doesn't change and the story is
    	lightweight for the time it has to occupy;
    
    2.	The other holiday towns aren't different enough--I think
    	it'd have been stronger if Christmas Town weren't done by
    	Burton (whose natural style fits Halloween Town well), but
    	by someone else whose natural style was warm and hearty;
    
    3.	The skip into the "real" world is jarring to me, necessary
    	though it was--it would have worked better if we never saw
    	peoples' faces, I think;
    
    4.	Santa shouldn't look like that--that was the Tim Burton 
    	Halloween version of Santa, quite wrong;
    
    5.	Santa shouldn't be powerless.  He's the top guy in one of
    	the towns, he should be able to fluff off the Boogey causually.
    	This really didn't make internal sense to me;
    
    6.	Halloween isn't just rotting zombies and the like--it's also
    	kids in costume and the "cute spooky" stuff we get inundated
    	with.  
    
    That said, it's worth watching for the Halloween Town sets alone.
    Burton's heart is clearly in his work there (as it was in the "waiting
    room" part of Beatlejuice).
    
    		-John Bishop

    Just a side note...I had a great time in "Newbury Comics" (The one in
    Shrewsbury Mass on route 9) yesterday and saw some great little TNBC 
    stuff.....wind up toys, coffee mugs stickers...cute stuff for an avid fan.
    
    all disclaimers apply - just passing on some info...
    
    Jt