Tim Burton’s animation classic, A Nightmare Before Christmas, has been re-released in limited form for the Halloween holiday. Unlike re-releases of the past, such as ET and more recently Poltergeist, this re-release offers something that cannot be created by the phosphor glow of your television set; 3-D.
Although I have been a critic of 3-D movies before (please reference my blog on special effects), A Nightmare Before Christmas is an ideal medium for this translation. Because it was already a 2-D movie, it does not attempt to overwhelm the audience with “just how cool 3-D is” by repeatedly over-using the effect. In fact, the only over-use of the effect comes at the very beginning, when a jack in the box falls over and a pumpkin-head shoots forward toward the screen.
A Nightmare Before Christmas is the perfect movie for 3-D adaptation. It already has a rich visual style that only seems accentuated by the use of 3-D. In fact, I found myself marveling not just at the 3-D, but at how crisp everything looked in certain scenes. I almost had the feeling that having twice the visual information on the screen (with each eye receiving half) actually produced a marked increase in the resolution of the image, although I do not know if this was true or simply an impression.
As mentioned previously, the visual impression of the film was stunning. When the 1993 original was created, it provided a visual spectacle that had remained unsurpassed for many years. The addition of 3-D to this presentation just added to the style and quality of the presentation.
On the other hand, with a few exceptions, I found much of the music to be a little staid and uncreative. Despite two great numbers, the Oogie Boogie Song and the song sung by the three child trick-or-treater characters, I was unimpressed with the score. Although I am a fan of Danny Elfman’s original and eclectic work on Beetlejuice and numerous other Burton creations, I did not enjoy this as much as I would have liked.
From an overall standpoint, I would give the visual presentation a **** Jessicas out of 4 and the music ** Jessicas for an average of ***Jessicas out of 4.
Definitely worth matinee price.
EK
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