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The Nightmare Before Christmas Composed by Danny Elfman |
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Track Listing | |||
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01 - Overture
(1:47) 10 - Kidnap the Sandy Claws (3:02) |
11 - Making
Christmas (3:57) |
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Orchestrated by Steve Bartek, Marc Mann, and Mark McKenzie Conducted by Chris Boardman and JAC Reford Produced by Danny Elfman Released by Walt Disney Records on October 12, 2003 |
Total Running Time: 61:16 |
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As a kid, I was “shielded” from popular culture as much as possible. Part of this included not being able to watch movies in a theater and certain movies and TV shows being banned from the house. A lot of these I managed to sneak around and view, but there’s still a substantial list of things I have missed out on (for instance, to this day I still have only seen a fractured five minutes of The Goonies). Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, with its “demonic” imagery was obviously banned, and I recently decided to watch it for this holiday season (I realize I am much older now, but I watch these movies that I missed out on when the mood strikes me). Part of me is glad to wait for the maturity to appreciate the artistic sensibilities, instead of just being suckered in by the fantastical element as children are apt to be. The fantasy behind the film is very strong, coming from Burton’s morbidly dark imagination, yet it feels refreshingly creative and the dark side of it is never overpowering. Stylistically, this film just drips with creativity, from the idea that every holiday has its own “town”, to the design of the corrupted minions that populate the town devoted to Holloween. The stop motion animation is wonderful and still holds up against modern CG films. It is its own style after all, just like CG is, and will never be supplanted (but that’s a different discussion altogether). The only element where the film failed was in the story. Yes, the idea behind it is strong and unique, but it seemed a little thin to me. Not that I was expecting an epic storyline, but I felt like there was more to the story than what we were seeing. The third act seemed very rushed, and this doesn’t help either. One place where the film doesn’t disappoint is in the music. For years I had heard that this was a good score by Elfman, and the viewing of the film immediately made that apparent. So much so that I immediately went out and bought a copy. And understand that this isn’t so much of a typical score as it is a musical. So many key portions of the film are sung that any other description would not adequately describe how the music essentially serves the film. And a delightful, sometimes twisted, but expertly composed and performed musical it is. Elfman himself provides the singing voice of Jack Skellington (among other various roles), and it’s curious that with Jack’s screen time being overwhelmed with musical numbers that Elfman simply wasn’t used for the whole process, especially since his voice is virtually indistinguishable from Chris Sarandon’s (Jack’s speaking voice). It isn’t everyday that the lead singer is also the composer, and especially when both roles are done with aplomb. Outside of Elfman, the rest of the cast performs their roles equally well, especially Ken Page and his outlandish Oogie Boogie number. The score itself is vibrant and stylistically matches the film with its light-hearted texturing amongst the minor chords. It works thematically just like a musical, with the opening “Overture” providing a rousing performance of the main theme (which is highlighted in the delightful number, “What’s This?”) The score occasionally gets edged out by the songs in the first half as the majority of the isolated score cues aren’t around until the last third of the album. That said, the CD follows the events of the film chronologically, and since the structure of the movie flows similarly, this is understandable. Also, the CD has the added bonus of being bookended by narration from Patrick Stewart, which was removed from the finished film. A wonderful work by Elfman and assembled vocal cast, A Nightmare Before Christmas is definitely a classic score from a great period of output by Elfman and is not to be missed. Definitely be sure to check this one out this holiday season, or any other time of the year for that matter. Reviewed on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 |
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