Animation film “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, which was somehow released in South Korean theaters a few days ago probably because of its 30th anniversary, is still a joy to behold. When I watched it for the first time via a video tape copy in late 1995, I zealously savored its every wonderfully enchanting moment as a young nascent cinephile, and this lovely memory of mine came back to me again as I found myself drawn back quickly into its memorably creative fantasy world at a local movie theater during last evening.

As many of you know, the story idea of the film came from none other than Tim Burton, who also served as one of its producers. He needed someone good enough to realize his imaginative story and characters on the screen via stop-motion animation, and that was Henry Selick, who would be more prominent as making several other notable stop-motion animation feature films such as “James and the Giant Peach” (1996) and “Coraline” (2009). Just like Burton, Selick has his own dark and twisted artistic sensibility, and that surely made him quite an ideal partner for Burton.

After the brief prologue scene introducing the fantasy world consisting of several different towns representing traditional holidays such as Easter or Thanksgiving Day, the film immediately establishes Halloween Town and its various grotesque denizens including Jack Skellington (voiced by Chirs Sarandon). Under Jack’s confident leadership, everyone in the town has a ball as going through another Halloween as shown from the opening musical sequence of the film, but it subsequently turns out that Jack has been rather tired of doing same things again and again for years. As a result, he cannot help but yearn more for something different enough to excite him out there, so he soon walks out of Halloween Town as dolefully singing his lament.

What do you know, he soon finds what really intrigues and excites him. Jack comes across a mysterious portal spot already introduced to us at the beginning of the film, and then he is sucked into one of several portals, which takes him to Christmas Town. As so agitated and impressed by how much Christmas looks different from Halloween in many aspects, Jack decides to show Christmas to his fellow Halloween denizens, and he even comes to attempt to replace a certain important figure of Christmas Town, whom he incidentally calls “Sandy Claws” to our little amusement.

As Jack and the denizens of Halloween try on Christmas, we surely get a deliciously morbid variation of many stuffs associated with Christmas. We get lots of naughty laughs as observing how Christmas is twisted here and there by your average Halloween fashion, and I particularly like a literally electric moment involved with the creation of the equivalents to those Christmas reindeers by a local mad scientist.

Meanwhile, the film also shows some sincerity and poignancy via a living rag doll named Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara), who comes to care more about Jack after witnessing his personal frustration with old Halloween routines early in the story. She is willing to help Jack at first, but then she becomes quite concerned after having a rather disturbing premonition, and, unfortunately, Jack does not listen to her much while mostly occupied with replacing “Sandy Claws” as much as he can.

All these and other things in the story are presented via the meticulous stop-making animation of the film, and the efforts by Selick and his crew members including cinematographer Pete Kozachik do not feel dated at all even at present. Sure, the stop-motion animation techniques have advanced a lot since the film came out, but Selick and his crew members’ painstaking attention to mood, style, and detail is still a marvel to behold, and the film deservedly garnered an Oscar nomination for its special effects (Unfortunately, it had to compete against that big dinosaur movie from Steven Spielberg in that year).

In addition, Tim Burton’s artistic contribution is often evident throughout the film, and that aspect is particularly evident from the score and songs composed by his usual collaborator Danny Elfman, who also sang several songs by Jack instead of Chirs Sarandon. Just like many of Burton’s early works such as “Beetlejuice” (1988) and “Batman” (1989), the film brought out the best from Elfman’s immense talent, and I must say many of his songs in the film such as the opening song “This Is Halloween” are quite catchy to say the least. As a matter of fact, the soundtrack album of the film is one of the earliest ones I purchased as a young enthusiastic fan of film music, and my personal favorite is “Kidnap the Sandy Claws”, which still tickles a diabolical sense of humor I have privately nurtured for more than 30 years since I was a little precocious smart-ass.

In conclusion, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is an excellent classic animation film which has distinguished itself a lot as a wry crossover between the Halloween and Christmas season, and it will satisfy you regardless of whether you are drawn more to one or the other. Sure, it may look rather modest in terms of scale and technique compared to many notable stop-motion animation films during last 30 years, but the film does not lose any of its awe and wonder at all in my trivial opinion, and I sincerely hope that more local audiences will see it at movie theater during next several days even though it is also currently available on Disney+.