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The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

tomatometer

96

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 74
Fresh: 71 | Rotten: 3

A stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation.

95

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 1

A stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation.

audience

89

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 879,859

My Rating

Movie Info

Despite having recently presided over a very successful Halloween, Jack Skellington, aka the Pumpkin King, is bored with his job and feels that life in Halloweenland lacks meaning. Then he stumbles upon Christmastown and promptly decides to make the Yuletide his own.

Dec 2, 1997

$8.6M

Touchstone Pictures

All Critics (75) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (77) | Rotten (3) | DVD (38)

This cautionary fable (Be True to Your Ghoulish Self) may be a little too twisted for little kids but anyone 8 or older will spot the friendly glint behind jack's empty eye sockets.

November 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Newsweek | Comment
Newsweek
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I'm not sure I've ever seen a fantasy film that's at once so visually amazing and so emotionally dead.

September 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comments (8)
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A work of grand visual wit, clever songs, funny gags and genuine pathos, it is perhaps the greatest stop-motion animated film ever, a painstaking style of model animation that computers have all but completely done away with.

May 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
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A fun house of funereal glamour.

December 5, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The set designs are ingenious and the songs (music and lyrics by Danny Elfman) are fairly good.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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The dazzling techniques employed here create a strikinglook that's never been seen in such sustained form, making this a unique curio that will appeal to kids and film enthusiasts alike.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comments (2)
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tim Burton magic with just a touch of scariness.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

...endlessly delightful, even as it deals in icky bugs and severed limbs.

October 21, 2009 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comment
LarsenOnFilm

O tom divertidamente sombrio da narrative, associado a uma direção de arte magnífica e à ótima trilha de Elfman, acaba resultando num conto de fadas que deve tanto aos Grimm quanto ao Expressionismo Alemão.

March 10, 2009 Comment
Cinema em Cena

Let's hope the next time Disney re-releases this on home video... they will include the 3D version.

September 17, 2008 Full Review Source: FilmJerk.com | Comment
FilmJerk.com

inspiring, wacky, and infused with Burton's unique romanticism suffused with, but not subsumed by, a gothic sensibility

September 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | Comment
Killer Movie Reviews

A twisted revamp of Rankin-Bass by way of Edward Gorey. [Blu-ray]

September 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

a brilliant feat of movie making

August 28, 2008 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

Burton says that he was impressed by the Blu-ray version because it 'brings out all the textures and nuances' of the artwork. And it's true. As good as the DVD looked, the Blu-ray captures the fidelity of details even in the murkiest scenes.

August 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Leave it to Disney to bring a film back to life over and over again just to make a buck. Fortunately, Nightmare Before Christmas is good enough to withstand all of the reanimation.

August 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Tim Burton`s skewered sensibility finds excellent expression through the masterful stop-motion of director Henry Selick. The songs and score by Danny Elfman are wonderful; the characters are engaging; the visuals are enthralling.

July 8, 2008 Full Review Source: ESplatter | Comment
ESplatter

This hugely entertaining horror fable for all the family might suffer from pacing problems, but it's also a true original that still stands out from today's CGI-heavy crowd.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

The result, though refreshingly different from mainstream animated fare, is ultimately more trick than treat.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Nightmare Before Christmas

The animation is absolutely brilliant and the songs are excellent. Its my favorite christmas film of all time.

August 15, 2011
Directors Cat
Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

The problem with this is that it's both a Christmas film and a Halloween film and that doesn't really work. At Halloween it's too early to be thinking about Christmas but at Christmas it's too late to be thinking about Halloween and you just want pure Christmas. It is a good film with a good story and morals but it

July 25, 2006
StarCrossedVoyager
Sophie Burgess

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Nightmare Before Christmas (DE)
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3D (UK)
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