The Nightmare Before Christmas Two Disc Collector's Edition Review

Release Date: August 26th, 2008
Publisher: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Price: $22.99 on Amazon
Run Time: 76 Minutes
Genre: Christmas, Halloween, Animation
Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Ken Page
Special Features: What’ This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour, Frankenweenie, Vincent, Tim Burton’s Original Poem Narrated By Christopher Lee, All New Commentaries, Behind the Scenes Making of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”, The Worlds of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”, Deleted Scenes, Storyboard-To-Film Comparison, Original Theatrical Trailers and Posters

The classic Nightmare Before Christmas is back in this 2-disc collector’s edition. The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the tale of Jack Skellington. Jack Skellington has always loved living in Halloween Town and has loved scaring people in the past. Jack gets sick of scaring people though. When Jack discovers Christmas Town things change for him. He decides to try and spread some Christmas cheer. Things go wrong though and Christmas is threatened for everyone.

Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas is a classic for a lot of people. I never really bought into the hype so I didn’t bother watching the movie up until a couple years ago. I enjoyed the movie but I thought it was kind of overrated. Getting the two disc collector’s edition in the mail gave me another chance to watch the movie and I would have to actually say I was really surprised by the DVD set.

Overall the movie wasn’t really any better the second time around (how many movies are?). Nightmare Before Christmas is a pretty good movie to watch between Halloween and Christmas but I wouldn’t call it a classic like some people would. I just didn’t think the story was engaging enough to be anything more than an above average movie.

If you haven’t seen The Nightmare Before Christmas yet (probably not a lot of people) your enjoyment of the movie will pretty much come down to three things. First do you like Christmas movies. Even though it looks like a Halloween movie it is more of a Christmas movie. Second do you like Tim Burton. If you like Tim Burton’s twisted style in his movies you should like Nightmare Before Christmas because it contains the same twisted style of his other movies. Finally do you like animated movies. Nightmare Before Christmas doesn’t use modern animation technology (it was made in 1993 and uses stop animation) but it still holds the same style as more modern animated movies. If you can say yes to at least one or more preferably two of the above you should enjoy Nightmare Before Christmas.

Since this is a two disc collector’s edition I have decided to spend a lot more time than normal on the special features. Before I get to the special features though I have to bring up two things. First the DVD case looks really cool. The picture above doesn’t do the DVD justice. The picture makes it look like a smooth surface but it actually isn’t. You get a clear sheet of plastic and when you remove that Jack Skellington’s face is actually 3D (it isn’t a smooth surface). The second thing is the fact that the movie has been digitally restored. Usually I think this is kind of a gimmick and I rarely notice the difference but that is far from true with this DVD set. This movie might have had the most distinguishable digital restoration I have ever seen in the movie. If you would compare the restored to the old version you could easily tell the differences.

Now we will finally get to the special features. If you like/love The Nightmare Before Christmas this is the DVD set for you. You will most likely be spending hours with just the special features. I am usually skeptical of collector’s editions but I have to say that you get a lot in this collector’s edition. First there is What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour. This special feature actually takes you through the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland after it has been transformed into the Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloween. I have been on the ride before and I have to say that it is pretty much an entirely different ride with the changes and you get to see the whole ride in this special feature. This was probably my favorite special feature since I am a huge fan of Disney World and Disneyland and this feature brought back some great memories.

We are far from done as far as special features are concerned. Next comes two Tim Burton short films. There is Frankenweenie and Vincent. Frankenweenie is around a half hour long while Vincent is around five minutes. Both short films share the same style as the Nightmare Before Christmas so I am assuming you will enjoy them if you like Nightmare Before Christmas. This set also includes a new commentary, Tim Burton’s poem that inspired the movie, theatrical trailers and posters, deleted scenes, and enough behind the scenes featurettes that any Nightmare Before Christmas fan should jump for joy.

I wasn’t actually anticipating this DVD set to be anything more than average but I was surprised. With an above average movie, improved visuals, and a ton of special features you really can’t be disappointed with this DVD set unless you don’t like the Nightmare Before Christmas. Since I am not a huge fan of the movie I didn’t enjoy this set as much as a big fan would so take that into consideration if you are a big fan of the movie. If you really like The Nightmare Before Christmas you are really doing yourself a disservice by not picking up this DVD set since you won’t be disappointed.