Blu-ray disc of the week: The Nightmare Before Christmas

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Blu-ray, Movies, Uncategorized · Comment

Nothing has ever looked better in Hi-Def

Plot

Bored of his yearly Halloween conquests, scare-master Jack Skellington branches out by kidnapping Santa Claus and adding a frightful flavour to the Christmas festivities.

The Review

If High Definition video ever needed a character witness in court, then we’d call to the stand that misguided old festive thief, Mr Jack Skellington.

Quite simply, the Pumpkin King and his town of Halloween offer the finest exponent of the Blu-ray format to date. Tim Burton’s classic stop-motion musical has always been visually stunning, but this re-mastering could take the breath away from a corpse.

We brushed off the festering cobwebs off our old VHS copy and it’s easy to see how blessed we are by this technology. Paired with a HDTV boasting decent motion flow, the spider-like staccato movements of characters like Sally and Sandy Claws are accentuated spellbindingly

The film itself spawned (and continues to spawn) a legion of macabre teenage obsessives, mostly sporting decapitated Jack heads on tatty black hoodies. Its appeal as a witty, dark and beautifully idealistic, romantic movie remains absolutely timeless. Who could grow out of watching this?

The original score from Danny Elfman cemented a relationship with Burton that followed them through Batman, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands and 15 years later Nightmare’s amimation is still a flag bearer for stop-motion.

All together now: “Kidnap the Sandy Claws, beat him with a stick, lock him up for ninety years, see what makes him tick.”

A Blu-ray buy?

The most compelling argument for upgrading your movie collection yet. Buy it.

Extras

An excellent selection here, including two fledgling films from Burton and an extensive making of documentary, which shows the painstaking precision needed to create Halloween Town. There’s also a spooky reading of the poem from Christopher Lee.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is available on Blu-ray now from Play.com

Also available in standard def in this aweseome Jack bust set