The Nightmare Before Christmas: Special Edition Widescreen: Amazon.ca: Vincent Price, Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern, Barret Oliver, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Edward Ivory, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi, Caroline Thompson, Leonard Ripps, Michael McDowell: DVD

Product Description

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For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." --Jim Emerson

Additional Features

Using the exhaustive laser disc version as a start, the Nightmare DVD is a fascinating disc with more than 450 production and design images, a deft storyboard-to-film example, and deleted scenes. Director Henry Selick delves deep into the making of the film in his audio commentary and in a 20-minute documentary. The film also features two Tim Burton shorts, the stop-motion Vincent (his first film, which is rarely seen) and the half-hour Frankenweenie. In a welcome trend, the disc contains DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks. --Doug Thomas

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Customer Reviews

184 Reviews

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4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (184 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic, May 6 2001

By

Noctem (PRK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nightmare Before Christmas: Special Edition (Widescreen) (DVD)

I remember seeing this back in '93. It was the late showing and I was the only one in the theater, a very cool way to see this film for the first time. The Nightmare Before Christmas showcases two of Tim Burton's trademark influences: German expressionist films and stop-motion animation. The dark, foreboding sets, high-contrast lighting, and stark angles of The Nightmare Before Christmas harken back to German films of the silent era, such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Burton has employed stop-motion animation in several of his earlier films, such as Beetlejuice (by the way, if you look closely in one particular scene, you can see Jack Skellington's head atop Michael Keaton's carousel hat). The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the animated movie tradition of using music and songs to progress the story. Naturally, being a Tim Burton movie, the songs are provided by his frequent collaborator, Danny Elfman. The music and the visuals are inseparable. The wonderful songs breath life into characters who are at home with their dark, sinister nature. Anyone can enjoy Danny Elfman's music, which is easily the best you'll ever hear in an animated musical. The voice talent for The Nightmare Before Christmas is a splendid bunch, drawing from the stable of Tim Burton regulars and improvisational comedy geniuses. Children will be able to grasp the story with little difficulty, and most will be able to grasp that these characters are not at all scary.

The original DVD release, while it contained an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an exemplary video transfer, albeit non-anamorphic, had a dismal lack of extras. It's these extras that make the new DVD worth buying. First up, you get a commentary track with director Henry Selick and director of photography Pete Kozachik. A twenty-five minute documentary highlights the making of the film. Several deleted storyboarded or fully animated sequences are presented. A thorough concept art gallery presents the design work of Tim Burton and the storyboard artists. Two theatrical trailers are included - one is a "teaser" that presents the project as the brainchild of Tim Burton (who was riding high after the success of Batman and Edward Scissorhands), while the other is a more standard theatrical trailer. Also included are his first directorial efforts, the short films Vincent and Frankenweenie. He directed both shorts prior to directing Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Frankenweenie received a video release around the time of Batman Returns, but has been unavailable for many years. This is the first time either film has been available on DVD, and it will probably be the last. If that isn't reason enough to buy this disc, well, nothing will convince you.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A perfect edition of this film, except ..., Dec 24 2000

By

R. Byrd "byrdie" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nightmare Before Christmas (VHS Tape)

So, for the holidays, I decided to buy some of my favorite seasonal films, and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was on my list. I like eye-candy, and thus I like Tim Burton. But I'm not reviewing the film so much as this version of it. This is a special, widescreen edition that includes: an original trailer, a "making of", "Vincent," narrated by Vincent Price, and "Frankenweenie".

What it *doesn't* include, however, is the ending I saw in the theater. This version ends with the song near a pumpkin patch (as I clumsily try not to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't already seen it), and not the closing narration. Okay, so I'm picky. I thought I was getting the entire film, and I didn't. The closing narration wasn't long or even, to my mind, boring. Granted, it probably wasn't necessary either, but then, how was including "Frankenweenie" necessary?

It's a wonderful movie and a really cool edition considering what all you get in it. However, if you intended to get the *complete* film that you may have seen in the theaters, you may want to hunt around for a different version.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A great christmas movie for older children, Oct 27 2002

By

Stephen Verhaeren (Palos Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Nightmare Before Christmas: Special Edition (Widescreen) (DVD)

If you are looking for a film that wold be good for children day older than 7 this would be a good christmas present. But younger children like 6 or under may be scared by this movie. The movie's characters break into songs about 5 minutes after finshing a song. Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon and signing voice is done by Danny Elfman) is the town's head pumkin man, but is diappointed when he doesn't get a prize. So he leaves town, and goes to another town named Chirstmastown. Jack goes back to Halloweentown with the idea of Christmas. Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York's Catherine O'Hara voices Sally a creation of an evil scientist (William Hickey). Okay where is Eastertown, Thanksgvingtown, April Fool's Day Town? Warning for parents this movie was rated PG for mild voilence.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Nightmare
The item was exactly as described and was received very promptly. Having to write a 20 word review is a bit ridiculous.

Published 5 months ago by Dahdeeoh

2.0 out of 5 stars Region 2 defined
I did not realize that region 2 meant UK..and so everytime I watch the movie on my computer, the application has to switch regions. Region 1 is for the US or Canada... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Ti