Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not truly dazzling, the transfer impressed.
Sharpness was positive, though not as tremendous as I expected. While no soft spots occurred, some wide shots were a little less precise than I anticipated. Nonetheless, much of the definition looked excellent, and the image always remained pretty concise.
No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement was absent. Source flaws also failed to pop up during this clean transfer.
Black levels seemed solid and deep, with fine definition and darkness. Shadow detail also appeared clean and appropriately dense, but it lacked any concerns related to excessive opacity, so the many dimly-lit sequences came through well.
Those latter areas were of great importance in Halloween Town, where a limited palette remained in place. It offered a fairly monochromatic environment where the orange was the only color we see that's not a variation on black, gray or brown, and even that hue looked subdued.
However, bright, shiny colors came into play in the Christmas Town segments. Some of those objects spilled over into the Halloween Town scenes - when Jack brings back tokens from Christmas Town - and they looked pretty nice across the board.
At no point did the hues dazzle, but they provided satisfying tones. Overall, the transfer worked.
In terms of audio, we get a DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack. It offered a nicely blended soundfield in which music and ambient effects cozily surrounded the listener. The forward channels spread out the audio nicely and created a fairly involving image.
It wasn't a tremendously aggressive mix, but the split surrounds provided some useful embellishment of the forward spectrum. The entire track seemed well balanced and complemented the material.
The quality of the audio also seemed great. All aspects of the mix sounded clear, clean and natural.
I detected no signs of distortion, and it showed a nice dynamic range. Dialogue was crisp and natural, and the speech blended well with the images.
Effects were clean and distinct and seemed appropriately realistic. The music appeared especially solid, which was great since the movie featured so many songs. The audio felt strong.
How did this 25th anniversary “Sing Along” Blu-ray compare to the 2008 BD? Both showed improvements. Even with a shift from Dolby TrueHD on the old disc to DTS-HD MA here, both seemed virtually identical, so I discerned no obvious changes between the two.
Most of the prior BD’s extras repeat, and we get one new feature: a Sing Along Mode. I thought this would offer a Karaoke option as the movie played, but instead, we just get a “Song Selection” option on the menu.
This allows you to jump to any of the movie’s 11 musical numbers or watch them as one 31-minute, 43-second package via “Play All”. Lyrics appear on screen as well. This does nothing for me but others may enjoy it.
Everything else pops up under “Classic Bonus”, and we start with an audio commentary from director Henry Selick, producer Tim Burton, and composer Danny Elfman. All three sit separately for this edited piece.
We learn about the story’s origins, influences and development, script issues, cast, characters and performances, stop-motion animation and various technical elements, the collaboration among the primary participants, songs and score, and a few other production elements.
Some will feel disappointed that the three participants don’t sit together for the chat, but I hope that doesn’t lead to too much negativity since the actual commentary proves quite winning. It offers a broad but reasonably complete view of the film’s creation, as it touches on a variety of subjects with just enough detail to satisfy us. You’ll learn plenty about the flick in this very good track.
Next comes The Making of The Nightmare Before Christmas, a 24-minute, 44-second program. We find notes from Selick, Burton, Elfman, co-producer Kathleen Gavin, storyboard supervisor Joe Ranft, supervising animator Eric Leighton, art director Deane Taylor, set designer Gregg Olsson, director of photography Pete Kozachik, motion control camera operator Dave Hanks, sculptors Greg Dykstra and Mike Belzer, armature engineer Blair Clark, character fabrication supervisor Bonita DeCarlo, animator Anthony Scott, and track reader Dan Mason.
They discuss the film’s story and origins, visual design, music, and various technical aspects for the flick. “Making” functions as a pretty solid tutorial in the art of stop-motion animation.
The show also discusses the creative aspects of the movie, but those technical elements take up most of its time. That works well, as we get a very nice hands-on glimpse of how they make stop-motion films.
What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour looks at how the folks at the Disney parks give the Haunted Mansion ride a Nightmare twist every holiday season. This 37-minute, 24-second program features comments from Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment VP Steve Davison, senior art director Brian Sandahl, original Haunted Mansion Imagineering designer Francis X. Attencio, and illustrator Tim Wollweber.
They tell us how Disney decided to make a Nightmare adaptation for the Mansion and go into many details of its design and execution. We also find out how the attraction differs from year to year. The program covers virtually every major portion of the ride, so we get a fine picture of the various elements.
Next comes Tim Burton’s Original Poem Narrated by Christopher Lee (11:36). In an intro, Burton tells us of the piece’s origins, and we then hear Lee read the poem. It’s an interesting piece, and it becomes especially fun to compare Burton’s original work with the film that it spawned.
The Storyboard to Film Comparison (3:47) provides exactly what the title implies. We see the evolution of one film scene; the boards appear on the top half of the TV image while the movie runs on the bottom segment of your screen. Interestingly, although some of the art is well executed, much of it seems quite sketchy - even more so than usual for storyboard work.
Deleted Storyboards span two minutes, 56 seconds and are accompanied by audio introductions from Selick. We see three scenes: "Behemoth Singing", "Oogie Boogie With Dancing Bugs", "Alternate Identity of Oogie Boogie”.
The musical segments appeared to come from composer Danny Elfman's demo recordings, so it doesn't sound like those parts of the tunes ever made it to the studio stage.
As with the "Deleted Storyboards", each of the three Deleted Animated Sequences (3:04) segment includes an audio introduction from Selick. These show minor but interesting moments.
Posters and Trailers includes a still gallery of printed publicity materials which offers five posters. We also get both a "teaser" trailer - which pushes the groundbreaking nature of the project quite aggressively - and a full theatrical ad for Nightmare.
Under Tim Burton’s Early Film. we find 1984's Frankenweenie, a live-action piece that goes for 29 minutes, 59 seconds. Like Nightmare, it sticks to the macabre.
It tells the story of young suburban Victor Frankenstein (Barret Oliver), who finds a way to restore life to his dead pooch Sparky. I don't think the movie is a complete success, but it's generally interesting and entertaining.
Note that this 2018 Blu-ray loses materials from the 2008 release. It drops a look at the Haunted Mansion attraction that lets you experience the ride virtually as well as one deleted animated sequence, a short film titled Vincent and a slew of art under “Worlds of Nightmare Before Christmas”. I don’t know why this release drops all that stuff, but it stinks.
After 30 years, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas holds up well. It creates a fun, inventive tale that consistently entertains. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio plus a good roster of supplements, though it loses a lot from the prior release. The 2008 Blu-ray remains the superior version.
To rate this film, visit the prior review of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
