The El Capitan Theater marquee for the next two weeks. Photo by Alex Stroup.
To a certain degree, offering up a review of The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wasted exercise. The movie has been out for 13 years so most of you have already seen it or decided you’re not interested in it. And if by some chance it is a new opportunity for you, you’ll have plenty of more trusted sources to query than some guy writing on the Internet.
Personally, I am not a big fan of the movie. It is good, but in the realm where “once every 13 years” seems about right (and I’d seen it last much more recently than that). The story is cute and the visuals are fantastic, but to my tastes most of the musical numbers are tediously repetitive and overlong. I know that is sacrilege to Danny Elfman’s legion of fans, but there it is.
But while I certainly don’t want to see it every year, a lot of people do, and it is a good seasonal movie for kids of a certain age. That is, the age between being to old for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and being old enough to not care about being too old for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. There may be some imagery that is too intense for younger kids but most of the 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds I’ve seen watch it have been fine with it. All the violence (very little) is cartoonish, and there are no language, sex, or drug issues. Kids are ooged out, but in the good way that kids enjoy.
So since a review is pointless beyond briefly giving my perspective above, let’s focus on why The Nightmare Before Christmas is getting a limited nationwide release after 14 years.
The theater itself has been decorated with two figured, including this Jack Skellington in his Pumpkin King costume. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Last summer, Disney released Chicken Little 3-D to some theaters with a new process called Disney Digital 3-D. Reviews were good and project managers decided to go back and put The Nightmare Before Christmas through the same process, showing off its ability to handle something more than 3-D computer animation. The film otherwise is unchanged so if you don’t like the movie, this new edition will offer nothing appealing. Oh, the title is also changed, it is now officially Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D. The only thing missing from that title is “as presented by Brawny.”
This was my first experience with the Disney Digital 3-D and, for the most part, I came away extremely impressed. The worst thing about the 3-D movies from the 1960s was that they were almost universally filmed with that gimmick in mind and focused on throwing stuff at the screen (Dial “M” for Murder being a pleasing exception). Gimmicks have a way of quickly growing tiresome.
If 3-D movies are ever going to become remotely mainstream the focus has to be not on a gimmick but instead on creating a visual fidelity that comes with true depth perception. By applying the 3-D process to a film that was never intended for such a presentation, that is exactly what happens. At no point is the “fourth wall” broken with the director trying to make us flinch. Instead, the world we’re watching still ends at the edge of the screen but feels more like a window than simply a picture.
In the theaters basement, rarely seen puppets from the making of the movie will exhibited through the movie’s main run at the El Capitan. Shown here are Shock, Lock, and Barrel. Photo by Alex Stroup (exhibit photographed with permission).
While the result is a huge step forward from the bad 3-D we remember from childhood, however, it still isn’t perfect. I’ve always found that watching 3-D movies causes me a fair amount of eye strain and while it wasn’t so bad for me here as it was for Shark Boy and Lava Girl, I still needed to take off the 3-D glasses every once in a while to let my eyes relax. Also, while the alignment of the left and right images was perfect (the glasses work by separating the images seen by each eye, creating a parallax view of what is on screen and creating the 3-D result) 99 percent of the time when it came to small details moving in the foreground, I still saw some ghosting and double images that were distracting.
Talking to a few others after the show, though, I seemed to be the only one to notice these things, so they may just be differences of perception that will vary from person to person. The glasses they are providing are also a huge step forward. Unlike the cardboard lenses provided for Shark Boy and Lava Girl, these are mostly comfortable to wear and look almost like regular thick black rim glasses (think Marty McFly’s dad in Back to the Future).
If you’re already a fan of the movie or are interested in checking it out for the first time, the 3-D process has done essentially nothing to detract from the film so you can be confident in checking out this new version rather than just popping in the DVD one more time. Unfortunately this film won’t be readily accessible to everyone. Because the film requires a special digitial projector, it will only be making it to about 200 screens nationwide.
In reality, the puppets filmed for the movie are no more than a foot or so tall. Photo by Alex Stroup (exhibit photographed with permission).
As a final note, wherever the movie is being shown it will be accompanied by two other 3-D items. The Pixar short “Knick-Knack,” the story of a snowglobe snow man trying to hook up with an attractive beach bunny, has also gained an extra dimension and will be exhibited. Among the trailer before the movie, most people should also get a chance to see a 3-D version of the trailer for next year’s Meet the Robinsons, the second CGI-animated film from Walt Disney Feature Animation.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you may want to consider taking in the movie at Disney’s El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. From today through November 1, The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D will be the only movie showing at the theater. In addition to providing a first-rate moviewatching experience, the basement is also housing the first-ever exhibit of actual puppets from the production of the movie.
From November 2 through January 4, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause will become the main show but The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D will continue showing with two late-night screenings every night of the week. You have to wonder how many people will want to go to a midnight screening on a Tuesday night but if you’re one of them the option will be there for you.
The puppet exhibit is currently scheduled to be available only until November 1.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D is a Walt Disney Pictures release (the original was a Touchstone Pictures release.
Limited theatrical release October 20.
Directed by Tim Burton.
Screenplay by Caroline Thompson.
Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara.
Rated PG for some scary images.
Running time: 76 minutes
Alex’s Rating: 7 (out of 10).
