I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time on Blu-ray. To give a bit of context, their previous "special edition" was nearly insulting. Somehow it seems to have been a transfer from a VHS release, meaning a 16:9 ratio with black bars at the top and bottom because it's inside a 4:3 ratio in the middle of the screen. To compare here's a photo of how the DVD looks like on my 720p TV, and the new Blu-ray transfer. After the 2008 re-release in 3D done with the help of ILM, the following Blu-raw release is nothing short of spectacular.
Regardless on the publicity materials's insistence that this is a Tim Burton movie, it is a stop-motion animated movie directed by Henry Selick and a whole cadre of talented animators and artists. It is based on an original poem and drawings made by Burton in the 80s which was adapted to a feature-length movie. Design-wise, it may be the most inspired Burton movie after Beetle Juice and Danny Elfman's most inspired music after Batman.
But most of the praise should go to the animation. The lighting, the sets, the flawless character and object movements would all put Robot Chicken to shame. Iconic scenes are like moving paintings, while the scenes in the world of humans, with their surreal isometric effects, are fascinating. Even if the movie is short at less that 95 minutes, there is no visually dull moment.
Put simply, it is worthy of its cult-like status amongst each new generation of "emo" kids. It is some of Burton's, Elfman's and Selick's greatest works, in a movie of great contrasts between the darkness of the world Halloween and the joy of the world Christmas, all combined in a timeless classic of animation.
Published on May 21, 2012 at 21:43 EDT
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