'The nightmare Before Christmas': perspective from a first-time watcher

By: Valerie Menendez

I’ll admit it.

​I’m probably one of the very few who just saw Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm not really sure why I've waited so long to do so, but I'm so glad I did. 

​As most of you are aware, the story begins with Jack Skellington arriving back from celebrating Halloween, and from all the responsibilities he usually partakes in on that night. Jack strolls throughout the forest all night long, even until the morning, pondering if this is all life has to offer him. Accompanied by his pet, who is a fan favorite, Zero is a friendly ghost dog with a bright orange nose that can't help but give off Rudolph vibes.​

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Jack accidentally stumbles onto these obscure looking doors that lay inside tree trunks one around another forming a circle, each door accompanied by a holiday emblem. Jack, acting on his little kid instinct, decides to open up the vibrant Christmas themed one, which sweeps him away into Christmas town.

Burton’s story swept me away, too. 

I was hooked then and there to this seemingly fever-esque dream world, but then they hit me with the song “What's this?” – performed and created by Danny Elfman – and the movie just soared to new heights. And I was here for every second of it. 

At this point in the movie, I knew why it was a classic. From the creative word play to the musicality, from the animation to the impeccable plot, all the directorial choices seemed effortless. The entire viewing experience felt homely and comfortable. 

Sally, a rag doll monster created by evil scientist Dr. Finklestein, instantly became my favorite character from the movie. I love everything about her character, and fell in love with the scene where she begins to sing the plainly titled “Sally's Song.” (And can we please put in a little more consideration with the name of this absolute masterpiece of a song?) Sally, for the first time, opens up about everything she had been going through and feeling throughout the movie. It was truly beautiful and heart-wrenching.

In the end, after Christmas was saved and Jack had learned his lesson, he realized there was one more thing missing: Sally. Throughout the movie, Jack felt a deep emptiness inside his bones longing for something special to make him feel complete. After seeing all that Sally had done for him he began to feel the same care and warmth in him as he did towards Christmas the first time he discovered it. In the last song and last scene you can see the duo singing “Jack and Sally's Song” – at least it’s a title, I guess.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a gut-wrenching cult classic that admittedly made me tear up towards the end. How could I not with the last song being Jack and Sally confiding in each other that they were “simply meant to be.” I love how it took Jack a whole hour and sixteen minutes to finally see Sally for the true beauty she is, and for Sally to have just waited for him throughout it. It has that sort of slow-burn romance appeal towards its audience and I was absolutely here for it.

Tim Burton truly did an inexplicable job with his storytelling; it should be apparent to any viewer that there was a lot of time, care, and attention to detail making every single scene in the movie worthwhile and enjoyable.