नाइटमेयर बिफोर क्रिसमस

The Halloween City has its customs greatly exalted by its residents, peculiar individuals who hum in all corners. All spread the spooky spirit through their shapes and features: the rolling heads, sticky worms and sharp teeth through the shadows. This is definitely a magical place that few would like to visit. But what does all this have to do with Christmas? This is precisely the questioning of the protagonist of "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

Considered the ultimate celebrity of his city, Jack Skellington (played by Chris Sarandon, from the series "Orange is the New Black", and Danny Elfman, composer of "The Simpsons" and "Justice League", among others) is one of the organizers of Halloween. Every year he and the ambiguous Mayor (Glenn Shadix, "The Ghosts Have Fun") organize the festive plight the locals so love, spreading the dark spirit around the world. But Jack is in one of those phases of life where everyone questions themselves. On a walk in search of what may be his epiphany, he discovers a peculiar colored door: green, shaped like a tree, with colorful acorns and a star at its tip. Jack discovers Christmas Town.

When we think of horror aimed at children, The Nightmare Before Christmas is the first work we imagine, always associated with the name of Tim Burton. Despite not being exactly a horror movie, we have, in the creation of this universe, a fantastic gothic feeling that assimilates many of the worst nightmares that children have, without ever causing repulsion, but without being easily digestible by them. For the kids Jack's Strange World frightens as much as it delights, allowing the tape to be an unforgettable milestone in their childhood. The name of Tim Burton, producer of the film, although not related to the direction, the responsibility of Henry Sellick, remains quite highlighted and in a fair way, as he has credit for the creation of the story and the world, with an aesthetic signature clearly his own. . Most interesting of all, in a behind-the-scenes thought, is the information that the film was produced by Skellington Productions, in a joint venture with Disney Studios. The reality is that, on second thought, it would be extremely complicated for a work with a villain composed of disgusting insects and worms to be directly linked to Disney, which is very different from the company. The creativity of Sellick and Burton, at least, is free from any ties, ready to give rise to a remarkable musical work, with peculiar and extraordinary characteristics in several of the areas in which we can analyze the work.

The construction of the world, above all, is one of the great initial successes of the filmmakers. The stop-motion technique, while in other cases it would be an ally for image creation, here it is the basis for what is manufactured in terms of the universe. No wonder that Tim Burton and Henry Sellick would be involved in other animations with this style, such as The Corpse Bride and Coraline and the Secret World. Stop-motion is "weird" in itself, deforming nature in a way that doesn't make it rejectable, but extremely special, not to mention charming. Skeleton Jack's Strange World (Chris Sarandon) is an impressive visual composition, giving rise to a stunning contrast when, later, we see the work's protagonist, saddened, discover another universe, and, consequently, discover Christmas. We're talking about a scrawny being, contradicting himself when his posture is so elegant, but his ability to be terrifying is revealed later as he converses with some demonic children in his world.

We are so used to thinking of terror, haunting or dark as elements aimed at an adult audience that we forget, or deny the fact that children can also feel fear and, in many cases, like that of little Izabel who discovered a new world to her. Coming across a film about a talking skeleton, much more than frightening or terrifying, ended up highlighting a universe where the different is also appreciated and does not cause any surprise or discomfort, but it becomes loved. Along with very few other examples of animations with details characteristic of horror, The Nightmare Before Christmas integrates small lessons and messages to a film whose visual aspect enchants and surprises precisely because we are so used to accompanying enchanted princesses or inanimate objects coming to life. Here, good intentions can lead to chaos, but knowing we made mistakes is part of the trajectory, and repairing our mistakes becomes even more important than admitting that we made mistakes. It's what we do with our mistakes that counts and, no one can deny that Jack, while creating the greatest chaos that Christmas has ever seen, was sincere and humble enough to look for a way to repair his mistake.

Tim Burton's story, at first glance, is not intended to reflect on the breaking of stereotypes, although, in the path he decides to navigate, it begins a subversive thought, in which a monster is capable, as well as any person, of fall in love with a festivity that you didn't know before. The doors are theoretically open for exploring the new. We actually have, despite this anti-conservative surface, a split with thoughts of social integration. Each little world in this created universe is far from the other, reaching the point where the union between two different ones, Halloween and Christmas, causes chaos and not harmony. The onslaught is somewhat tragic, whereas Skeleton Jack fails to translate Christmas into the creatures of Halloween City, failing to be the character Santa Claus (Ed Ivory) who ultimately fixes the mistakes made by the protagonist. Tim Burton's cinema is, in a way, excluding, but not with a malice, arising, however, from a more saddened and pessimistic view of reality. By being seen as different, Tim Burton ends up looking at his own characters, sort of versions of himself, like Edward Scissorhands, and putting them apart from society, which cannot, even at the end of the story, accept them. Children, for example, completely reject Jack's gifts in Strange World.

As good a fable as it is, this film takes us to Jack's questions when he finds himself creatively exhausted. On the other hand, we follow the rag doll Sally (Catherine O'Hara, "Frankenweenie"), whose curiosity complements what the Christmas spirit means so that it never becomes repetitive: a little creativity here; a bit of curiosity over there.

But the big difference is in the direction of Henry Selick ("Coraline"), who takes us from Halloween City to Christmas City, composing characteristics of the characters, which are intertwined in the feelings of scary and cuteness. In this story, the stranger not only doesn't fit, but allows himself to be many things. But the central issue in this permissiveness is the problem of putting it above all in favor of self-acceptance. The protagonist Jack has a crisis with Halloween because he should accept himself and so he could also love himself and also be able to love. Soon the character Sally has her narrative counterpoint parallel with her visions, being oppressed by the scientist who created her, in her capacity to self-destruct and build, apart from empathic understanding. She is the symbol of love that the screenwriter is so fond of, as can be seen in the writer's work in the film "Edwards Scissorhands". She, Sally, puts fatality in front of Jack's fake, emulative, blind belief. Because in your project there is the ego, even if it glimpses your image, believe in the simplicity of recreating Christmas. The result is that with immoral means, even the convincing innocence in Jack's work, it still doesn't determine his understanding of what Christmas is, much less what happiness is, since the film is almost a theft of festivity, with each party having its way of being happy.

Because "The Nightmare Before Christmas" recreates the Christmas spirit with the traditional gothic touches of Burton and Selick, without failing, with that, to lose its essence. Counting on the subtlety of the director and the inventiveness of the creator of this story, the apex of the film is precisely when we discover that the Christmas spirit here is also present in the union of individuals, whoever they may be. But what moves the most in the film is Sally's platonic passion (voice of Catherine O'Hara), a kind of monster of Frankenstein who is treated like a daughter by the mad scientist Dr. Finklestein (voice of William Hickey), for Jack. The most sensitive songs are on account of Sally, but the best ones are on account of Boggarts (voice of Ken Page), including the best musical number too, with a backdrop full of fluorescent colors. By the way, the entire art direction of the film is fantastic.

Technical elements aside, the movie's greatest asset is really its brilliant story. Able to please the whole family, the tale of the skeleton who wanted to be Santa Claus for a day takes us back to the famous popular saying that people are what they are born for. In Jack's case, he passes on and renounces his status as the horror king in search of a world he has discovered and idealized and which he thinks is happy in it. And it will be from this new perception that he will look back and value his own universe and his real condition, as well as all of Burton's characters who look for nothing but ways to be happy. And isn't that exactly what we're all looking for? And that we are often blinded by the discoveries we make and only later realize the reality? That would be a good thought for everyone who comes to see the movie. Analogies aside, The Nightmare Before Christmas works very well as entertainment. A great movie that came from the imagination of a great character creator and excellent storyteller.