The Nightmare Before Christmas Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Villains We Love: Oogie Boogie
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Music & Musicals », Disney », Fandom », Family Films », Trailers and Clips »
Oogie Boogie, the glow-in-the-dark boogeyman in The Nightmare Before Christmas, has it all. He's a singing, dancing sack full of worms with a striped tongue, and when it comes to Santa's fate, he has no qualms about leaving it up to a roll of the dice. His henchfolks, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, put the trick in trick or treat; they were supposed to kidnap Sandy Claws (aka Santa Claws) so Jack Skellington could take over Christmas, but instead delivered him right to Oogie's lair.
Oogie likes to gamble – mostly with lives, but always in style, as he ties Santa to a giant roulette wheel in his hallucinogenic underground lair and serenades Santa about his fate. Oogie, even though he's an anthropomorphized sackcloth, has a dapper demeanor because of his sonorous voice and jazzy vocal stylings. I could totally see him kicking back in a smoking jacket, martini and stogie in hand (paw?) after a long day of being bad.
Oogie also loves the ladies; Sally, who gets wind of Santa's predicament, dismantles one of her legs (being both a rag doll and a seamstress) and dangles it down into his lair. Boy is he angry when he finds out it's not connected to anything else. In the end, though, it all unravels for Oogie Boogie. Every villain has his or her weak spot; unfortunately, Oogie's was that he just wasn't put together that well.
Check out his song and dance in a clip after the jump.
Holiday Movie Junk: Save 50% on Blu-ray Discs
Filed under: Fandom », Home Entertainment », Holiday Movie Junk »
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Well, it's the day after Christmas -- Santa has packed up his sh*t and ditched town for another whole year -- and we're left with some stuff we want, some stuff we don't want and some stuff we haven't yet figured out. Like me, most of you will probably head on back to the mall today or over the weekend to do some returning, and with that extra cash in your pocket you might be looking for something film-related to pick up. Well, those new and old Blu-ray costumers should seriously run on over to Amazon.com, who have put roughly 200 titles on sale for 50% off.
There's no time like the present to stock your Blu-ray library, and if you haven't picked them up already, here are a few titles we definitely recommend WALL-E ($24.49), Bottle Rocket Criterion Collection ($23.99), The Thing ($16.49), The Shining ($13.99), A Clockwork Orange ($13.99) and The Nightmare Before Christmas. That should get you started ... now head on over to Amazon.com to check out the rest.
We here at Cinematical hope you're having a wonderful holiday season!
Cinematical Seven: Cult and Campy Holiday Movies
Filed under: Cinematical Seven », Lists »
(This month we're bringing back some of our favorite holiday-related posts, as well as sharing some new ones. Happy Holidays!)
By: Jette Kernion (reprinted from December 18, 2007)
Do you like a little dark twist with your holiday movies? Maybe you're tired of always seeing Santa as the good guy, or watching some grouchy old holiday hater redeemed at the end of the movie. Perhaps you're a fan of cult movies with early appearances by unusual acting talent, bizarre and inappropriate music, or acting so amateurish you either have to laugh or run screaming from the room. In other words, you need cult films to get you through the holidays, not that contemporary Hollywood blockbuster stuff.
Originally this post was entitled "Cult Christmas Movies," but I got lucky and remembered a certain Hanukkah-related cult favorite from a few years ago. Once I started, there were so many movies to choose from. I had to decide whether Kiss Kiss Bang Bang counted as a holiday cult film (not yet), whether it was worth including Santa Claus: The Movie just because the title character is played by the actor who played the elder Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), and whether I should include The Poseidon Adventure (or its remake) simply because I didn't have a New Year's Eve movie on the list.
Feel free to share any favorite holiday-themed cult movies that aren't on this list. 'Tis the season for some of us to enjoy some really good bad movies.
Exclusive: Groovy 'Nightmare Before Christmas' Featurette
Filed under: Animation », Fandom », Home Entertainment », Trailers and Clips »
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Cinematical is pretty stoked to have received this exclusive never-before-seen featurette from the recently-released The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector's Edition DVD. I'll never get tired of watching this flick, and fans out there (I know there's tons of you) will totally dig the video below, which is all about the storyboarding process. In fact, I believe it's actually called The Storyboarding Process. My favorite part of it is watching how they create this sort of comic book out of the film before they actually dive in to everything else. Not only is it fascinating to watch in relation to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's just a cool little video in general for anyone who, like me, is a fan of the process. So check it out below.
Additionally, after the jump, we've included video of the Hand-Painted Nightmare Before Christmas Collector's Bust that we're giving away as part of our Fourth Annual Halloween Costume Contest. If you were on the fence about entering, something tells me that little nugget of awesomeness may sway your decision.
New DVD Picks of the Week: 'Nightmare Before Christmas' & 'Lynch'
Filed under: Animation », Documentary », New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment »
The Nightmare Before ChristmasLast week, I alerted you to a few sneak previews for the new Collector's Edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and now you can see the discs in all their glory for yourselves!
The stop-motion classic stars Chris Sarandon as the voice of Jack Skellington -- the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. He gets bored with the town's work of scaring humans on Halloween, and when he accidentally falls into Christmas and sees all the good tidings, he comes back with a plan to nab Santa and have Christmas Halloween-style. This, of course, leads to a whole big mess of kidnapping and stolen paramours.
Being a real Collector's Edition (and not a crappy re-release preying on our collector mindsets), there's a ton of special features to enjoy. There's a commentary, a tour of the Haunted Mansion done up for a holiday tour, a featurette on the seasonal transformation, Tim Burton's original poem narrated by Christopher Lee, and a making-of featurette -- just on the first disc! The second mainly includes the goodies from the previous release. There's Frankenweenie, Vincent, deleted scenes,art galleries and animation tests, a storyboard/film comparison, and a selection of posters and trailers. The blu-ray disc only offers an extra 30-second intro, but the ultimate contains a digital copy on a third disc, plus funky keepsake packaging and collectible extras.
Check out Patrick's Review | Buy the Collector's Edition DVD, the Ultimate Set, or the Blu-Ray disc
Sneak Preview for Upcoming 'Nightmare Before Christmas' Collector's Edition
Filed under: New Releases », Home Entertainment », Trailers and Clips »
It's hard to believe that it's been a whopping 15 years since Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was released. The Buttercup-stealing Humperdink, or Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Catherine O'Hara as Sally, plus a little bit of PeeWee and the wacky Greg Proops -- the days before Johnny and Helena were in everything Burtonesque.In commemoration of the anniversary, the Collector's Edition DVD hits shelves next week, but to whet our hungry appetites, ShockTillYouDrop has got three clips from the new disc. Check out how they made the Haunted Mansion as a holiday tour led by Jack, the process of shooting the film, and finally, Tim Burton's original poem of The Nightmare Before Christmas, all funky and animated.
It's looking to be one heck of a great re-release. From seeing how Jack's version of the Haunted Mansion played out, to how the film was made, to Burton's old short film Vincent, it's all there. Will it be in your basket come Tuesday?
Dawn of the Dead Re-Released in 3-D
Filed under: Horror », Exhibition », George Lucas », Remakes and Sequels »
Despite the slower-than-expected installation of digital projectors into theaters, yet another movie is slated to be released in digital 3-D (which of course requires digital projection plus additional equipment such as a special screen). According to The Hollywood Reporter, New Amsterdam Entertainment plans to re-release George Romero's 1978 zombie classic Dawn of the Dead into theaters after the film is modified, or "dimensionalized," to be shown in stereoscopic 3-D. The transition from 2-D to 3-D will be handled by In-Three, the company that handled George Lucas' presentation of a segment of Star Wars in 3-D at ShoWest back in 2005. The project is expected to be finished within the year. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which New Amsterdam remade in 2004, will likely be only the second film to be re-released with a 3-D version, the first being The Nightmare Before Christmas.As wonderful as it is, the original Dawn of the Dead seems like an odd choice for 3-D, which often capitalizes on the gimmick of having objects jump out at the audience. With this film, we'll instead get to see zombies ever-so-slowly coming towards us as we nonchalantly continue eating our popcorn without fear. Perhaps we'll even have time to head to the restroom before the zombies actually seemingly make their way out into the space of the auditorium. See, that was part of the humor of Romero's Night of the Living Dead sequel, that the characters had time to run in circles around the undead mallrats. It would be much more frightening to see a dimensionalized version of the remake, which featured much quicker zombies. Presently there appears to be no set release date for the re-release, but depending on how crowded the 3-D marketplace is a year from now, I'd guess New Amsterdam is hoping for a 2009 bow.
Cinematical Seven: Cult and Campy Holiday Movies
Filed under: Animation », Horror », Music & Musicals », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Family Films », Quentin Tarantino », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Seven », 12 Days of Cinematicalmas »
Do you like a little dark twist with your holiday movies? Maybe you're tired of always seeing Santa as the good guy, or watching some grouchy old holiday hater redeemed at the end of the movie. Perhaps you're a fan of cult movies with early appearances by unusual acting talent, bizarre and inappropriate music, or acting so amateurish you either have to laugh or run screaming from the room. In other words, you need cult films to get you through the holidays, not that contemporary Hollywood blockbuster stuff.
Originally this post was entitled "Cult Christmas Movies," but I got lucky and remembered a certain Hanukkah-related cult favorite from a few years ago. Once I started, there were so many movies to choose from. I had to decide whether Kiss Kiss Bang Bang counted as a holiday cult film (not yet), whether it was worth including Santa Claus: The Movie just because the title character is played by the actor who played the elder Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), and whether I should include The Poseidon Adventure (or its remake) simply because I didn't have a New Year's Eve movie on the list.
Feel free to share any favorite holiday-themed cult movies that aren't on this list. 'Tis the season for some of us to enjoy some really good bad movies.
Retro Cinema: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Music & Musicals », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Family Films », Home Entertainment », Comic/Superhero/Geek », 12 Days of Cinematicalmas », Retro Cinema »
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is not technically Tim Burton's. He produced the film and conceived it, but it was, in fact, written by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) and directed by Henry Selick (who later helmed the bizarre but unjustly hated Monkeybone). Still, you feel Burton in every single frame. As audiences eagerly await Burton's Sweeney Todd, I thought this would be an ideal time to look back at his previous stab at the musical genre.
The story of Nightmare is a simple one. Jack Skellington (voiced by Prince Humperdinck himself -- Chris Sarandon, with composer Danny Elfman handling singing duties) is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloweentown, but he has become bored in the role. He literally stumbles into a place called Christmas Town, loves what he sees, and decides to hijack the holiday. Skellington even (in the film's funniest segment) takes over the gift delivery duties for Santa Claus ("Sandy Claws"). And of course, there's a not entirely necessary love interest -- Sally, voiced by an unrecognizable Catherine O'Hara.
Speaking of Elfman, the scores he has written for Tim Burton's films are some of the most memorable in modern film. Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman/Batman Returns, and Edward Scissorhands wouldn't have been nearly as wonderful without Elfman's glorious music. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, the music of Elfman is front and center, and his songs -- whose staccato rhythms and mixture of singing and speaking certainly owe a debt to Sweeney Todd composer Stephen Sondheim -- suit the film perfectly. The catchiest of Elfman's tunes is "What's This?" It's the kind of song you'll find yourself singing days later, during the most mundane of activities. Just this morning, I walked into the bathroom singing "What's this, what's this? My toothbrush on the sink! What's this, what's this? I'll brush my teeth I think!" Thank God I live alone.
The Exhibitionist: Beowillyou or Beowontyou?
Filed under: Action », Animation », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Paramount », Warner Brothers », Exhibition », Angelina Jolie », Columns »
Before I get to the meat of this week's column, I have a little appetizer of an issue to discuss. The other day, I went to see American Gangster at a Regal theater and once again participated in the Guest Response System. But unlike my first experience, I actually had to use the thing this time. While pressing the "Other Disturbance" button over and over and over because of a loud toddler, then finally after too long a time receiving responses in the forms of, first, a security guard and, second, a crew of ushers, I eventually realized that there is no way to communicate what exactly is the disturbance you're alerting the staff about. I don't want to say the parents of the toddler were covering the kid's mouth each time a Regal employee scoped out the auditorium, but coincidentally there was no disturbance whenever someone was monitoring the audience. And so, despite my having the little complainer pager, I put up with two-and-a-half hours of a sporadically loud child who should have never been brought to American Gangster in the first place.
Okay, now that I've got that off my plate, it's time to address the main topic of the week:
Beowulf.
On Friday, Robert Zemeckis' new performance-capture "animated" film hits 2,800 screens across the U.S. More than 700 of those screens will show the film in digital 3-D, via IMAX, Real D or Dolby systems (yes, there's three different 3-D systems). It's apparently the largest rollout of a 3-D release ever, and it could mean big things for both Hollywood and the exhibition industry. Or it could be just another 3-D movie, no more an event than when Disney's Chicken Little came out a couple years ago touted as the first digital 3-D release to hit regular cinemas.
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
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Exclusive 'Nine' Poster Premiere!
Exclusive: Title Track for 'The Road' Soundtrack
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