(Editor’s note: Columns often contain, and those opinions belong to their author.)
When I have seen Halloween decorations next to Christmas ones at stores, I have stated, looking at a witch beside a Santa figurine, “another nightmare before Christmas.”
Then, I have often thought about the stop-motion film, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which is coming to the Miller on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. And I have remembered one autumn in particular that was far from perfect for me – the autumn I first saw the film. Appropriately, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” came out two days before Halloween in the fall of 1993 – a little over 32 years ago.
Anyway, it turns out that director Tim Burton was inspired by seeing Halloween decorations beside Christmas ones when he first came up with the poem version of his film’s script. Decades later, Disney finally agreed to the film. But Burton was the producer, and long-time animator Henry Selick was the director.
Selick had experience with stop-motion animation in “Return to Oz” and for some companies that made commercials in addition to doing traditional animation. (The stop-motion process is meticulous, and the animators have a lot of patience as they move the characters one step at a time and film each step. The finished product is a truly impressive work of visual art.)
Both Burton and Selick were not traditionally successful at Disney when they were animators according to several sources. And it was only when they broke away with different studios and projects and returned there that they gained success.
In fact, I, too, felt like I had to break away from a projected path at age 18 in fall of my freshman year at Clemson University. And at times, like composer Danny Elfman who played Jack Skellington, the skeletal pumpkin king, for the singing parts in “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, I related to that character. (Chris Sarandon did his non-singing parts.)
I first saw the film in a cinema surrounded by the golden and red leaves of upstate South Carolina trees. The vivid autumnal setting matched that of the movie’s Halloween Town. At Clemson, though I was sending off stories to literary and science fiction and fantasy magazines and reading as many speculative fiction novels, magazines, journals and literary novels as I could get my hands on, I was in a computer science major spurred by my father. (Interestingly, the few people who happened to be in the Sunday showing of the film I was in were all upperclassmen staff of the on-campus literary magazine where I did some readings for the selection committee. We spoke briefly, but I was terribly shy then.) For years from childhood, I was a good computer programmer, but I was not the most adept at math. What I really wanted to do was write stories and novels and help make computer adventure games – particularly becoming involved in the creative aspects. But the bottom dropped out of desktop computer adventure games in the early 90s. Also, as per my drive to change, my freshman composition professor, upon seeing my narrative essay, asked me why in the world I was majoring in computer science with writing talent like that. That was one impetus to change as were hand-written encouraging notes from editors on early rejection slips.
After I saw “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, I bought the soundtrack because one song in particular spoke to me, “Jack’s Lament” in which he sings about a growing emptiness and longing.
Going through depression and not knowing it, I did not really want to be in the major I was in and probably would have been a lot happier at Clemson were it not for that. I think I may have even sang the song along with the soundtrack a time or two in the thin metallic walls of what we called The Tincans at Clemson – the cheapest freshmen dorms which I heard used to be military barracks. I did this probably much to the chagrin of a neighbor.
Thankfully, I could escape to who is now my long-time friend, Lex Spoon’s dorm. It resembled a skyscraper hotel compared to where I stayed. We would play the adventure games I mentioned, and I had many fond memories with him talking about just about everything under the proverbial sun. On campus, though I did have a background in Basic and Pascal, he also showed me how to do some rudimentary programming in a multi-user dungeon on the server (a kind of role-playing networked game).
And I think at that time in the early ’90s he introduced me to early aspects of email. Were it not for him and just a couple of other friends I made and a huge library befitting a geeky reader, Clemson University would have been truly depressing (I do have a story or two about a Marine on the G.I. Bill there who got some of us on his hall to socialize more, but I was still quite shy.)
Anyway, back to the film that inspired me that fall at Clemson, whether reminding me of festive Christmas Eve parties at my Grandma Hattie’s or wonderful mornings of presents, the “What’s This?” song reminded me of the joys of childhood. Jack sings this after he first discovers Christmas Town through a portal in a magic door in a tree. The décor, the baked goods and the many colors reminded me of holidays at home. Those memories evoked pure joy.
Jack eventually tries to make Halloween Town and even himself be the controllers of Christmas, and he even has three nefarious trick or treaters kidnap Santa Claus for a while (the trick or treaters are played by Paul Reubens, Catherine O’Hara and composer Danny Elfman himself).
By the way, Elfman formed the rock band Oingo Boingo in 1979 and was a somewhat unorthodox choice for a film soundtrack in 1985 when Tim Burton chose him for “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” However, the chemistry worked. And they joined in many collaborations after this, including Elfman lobbying to do the singing part for Jack Skellington in addition to composing “…Nightmare…” ‘s soundtrack in the 90s.
Toward the end of the film, Jack does not intend for the infamous Oogie Boogie, the Boogie Man of Halloween Town, to get involved. Oogie Boogie, bouncing around like a big seed sack, sings in delightfully jazzy ways while singing about his own villainy. The late Broadway veteran Ken Page, who played Old Deuteronomy in “Cats” and the Cowardly Lion in the original production of “The Wiz,” brought his years of singing diverse characters to the voiceover role. (I met him at an Oz festival decades later, and he was very kind, down to earth, and a gentleman. I think he even graciously sang a song or two.)
Jack also meets Sally, a ragdoll controlled by a mad scientist who created her (she was played by veteran actress Catherine O’Hara who also sang for the voiceover role). Sally continues to break away from the mad scientist as best she can and begins to fall in love with Jack. People have made this comparison before, by the way, but I often saw Jack as being like Jack Pumpkinhead from the Oz series of books and Sally as being like Scraps, the brought-to-life ragdoll from L. Frank Baum’s series of books as well. Years later, in my late twenties to early thirties, one of my other best friends had a rough time in life and was quite scrappy in other ways, so she did not mind when I nicknamed her Scraps. And, though she is no longer alive, I will always remember her when I see Scraps or Sally.
Next, Sally has a premonition about Jack trying to be something he is not when she sings about wonder what will become of her friend.
My best friend, who was like Sally, warned me about not being who I was meant to be and encouraged me to be myself. So, hearing that song is especially poignant.
I eventually learned to be who I was truly meant to be. And you will have to see what becomes of Jack and his friends in Halloween Town when you watch the film at the Miller on Sunday.
South Carolina author, former teacher and veteran journalist Ron Baxley, Jr. is a social media manager working on a Southern television series. His latest novel, “O.Z. Diggs the Fifth Estate” is available in regional comics shops, bookstores and gift shops. Reach him at ronbaxleyjr.com.
