MovieChat Forums > The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Discussion > Terrible movie...am I the only one?

Terrible movie...am I the only one?


I saw this movie for the first time last night, and I was very excited to see what is often considered to be one of the best animated films of the modern era...wow, to say I was dissapointed would be an understatement.

All of the characters are incredibly boring in flat. There is little to no character development featured in the film whatsoever. Jack Skellington suddenly decides that he hates Halloween seemingly out of nowhere, and midway through the film Tim Burton decided that Sally was able to see into the future? Where did this come from? N all of the characters are incredibly boring and flat. There is little to no character development featured in the film whatsoever. Jack Skellington suddenly decides that he hates Halloween seemingly out of nowhere, and midway through the film Tim Burton decided that Sally was able to see into the future? Where did this come from? Is that one of her powers or something? Do rag dolls have the ability to see premonitions or something? It comes out of nowhere an hour into the movie and is never mentioned again.

I also hated how old the movie threw in a completely new villain in the last 10 minutes of the movie. I thought the phone was trying to set up the evil scientist as the main villain, but then he just disappears and is replaced by the Boogeyman...who loves casinos? What’s the connection there? Are boogeymen known to love Vegas? The movie literally just forgets about the evil scientist duck guy after all of his buildup; all the times he abuses and mistreats Sally result in nothing. It just comes off as bad screenwriting. Also, why does the boogeyman want to torture Santa? Are they rivals or something? Another thing that just happens without explanation. I guess emo kids don’t need explanation?

The movie is also incredibly boring. There are so many pointless songs in the movie that grind the film into a hole. The only song I had any sort of enjoyment out of was the opening song while the rest are all generic and forgettable. Jack has a song about being frustrated at not understanding Christmas, and then he “suddenly” realizes he just needs to dress up like Santa, and that’s more than enough to give him all the answers. What? Why did this confusing scene need a song? I won’t complain too much about the film being boring because at least the movie is only like 74 minutes and in this pretty quickly.

The art style is real good but who cares if the story is terrible? This movie has no story. You could probably edit this down into a 9 minute short film.

EDIT: How the fuck did Jack Skellington wander into the forest with all of the holiday trees? Aren’t the holiday trees equal to planets or something? What would’ve happened if he looked into his own Halloween tree? That would be like if I was driving down the highway and the road took me into outer space and was I able to drive past a small planet earth. And where are these trees in relation to the real world seen at the end of the movie? Did Burton just not use his head? Do edgy goth kids not like thinking?

reply

[deleted]

I can't believe I didn't mention this but they originally wanted this to end with Oogie Boogie turning out to be Dr. Finklestein but they decided not to go with it. The story board for it is on the DVD and Bluray. It even has voice acting in it.

reply

I don't hate this, far from it, but I do believe it can be a tad overrated. It's the definition of style over substance and if you aren't completely overwhelmed by that style, I can see how one would find this film average at best. I enjoy it for it's music and visuals, but yeah, it's gets pretty low points in the story and character department for the most part.

reply

Yeah I never cared for it, I honestly don’t see what the big deal is with this movie, it’s not that good.

reply

Fantastic movie. One of my all time favorites!

reply

No OP, you're not the only one. I don't get what the BFD is about this cartoon movie. As rational people, we might just shrug and say "to each his own", but to some others we will be regarded as TROLLS!

reply

If it makes you feel better my dad doesn't like this movie but mainly cause he hates the horror genre.

reply