Subject: Jack Skellington
Culture: American pop culture
Setting: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Lavender/Myers 2022-11-27 online
"In October 1993, movie fans were treated to "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and no Halloween since has been complete without at least one re-watch. (Or should that be no Christmas?) The story of Pumpkin King Jack Skellington and his terrifying take on festive cheer was originally given a limited release in theaters by Disney, which was scared stiff of losing its family-friendly reputation. However, the creepy-yet-cute stop-motion musical still managed to draw a respectable crowd, and over the next few decades, it became an indisputable classic. Composer (and Jack's singing voice) Danny Elfman wrote the song's catchy soundtrack in a month, while director Henry Selick (no, not Tim Burton) and his dedicated team storyboarded, modeled, molded, fabricated, and animated hundreds of puppets and their world over three grueling years.
"Disney's disturbing lack of faith in a movie it deemed too dark for children, undermined the film's release. However, the studio's atypical hands-off approach also gave the creators the chance to explore and experiment without having to justify it to nervous executives. That said, bringing Tim Burton's original vision to the screen produced a lot of fun (and nightmarish) challenges. Here's the untold truth of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," through script troubles, voiceover drama, hidden details, and its rise from Disney's unwanted stepchild to a beloved annual theme park attraction."
"Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King — the mascot, inspiration, and frightener-in-charge for Halloween Town. Despite being the best at what he does, Jack's ennui at living a life solely dedicated to Halloween frights takes him on an adventure to Christmas Town, where he discovers the "more" he's looking for. So goes the stop-motion classic that manages to single-handedly combine the opening and closing feasts of the end-of-year holiday season.
"At first glance, Skellington just seems like a bored ruler looking to change things up. Yet everything you notice about him as an adult — all the little details a kid might miss — help make him into the enigmatic, nature-defying, complicated, and frighteningly endearing skeleton man we all know and love."
* Page 2007 p120
"In regards to Jack Skellington, his creativity ... defines his role. Due to his boredom with Halloween he finds an outlet in the newly discovered festivities of Christmas, something which he clearly relishes after the frustration he'd been feeling at going through the same routine year on year. We can understand this boredom of repetition, all of us having been bored by classes at school or jobs in which we feel as though we're just going round in circles. Therefore both children and adults can identify with Jack's excitement at discovering Christmas and at the prospect of trying something new. We empathise with the character, an empathy made all the stronger when we see his good intentions backfire and he is wrongly perceived as a skeleton ruining all the joy of Christmas. When we reach this point in the story we feel sorry for Jack while also being amused by the gruesome presents he's delivered to unsuspecting households. These two emotions create an interesting mix and follow Burton's common use of juxtaposing such things as horror and humour, as seen in Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow."
* Disney News 2024-11-15 online
"Jack Skellington is the main protagonist of the 1993 stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was directed by Tim Burton. He is the “Pumpkin King” of Halloween Town, a fantasy world based entirely on the Halloween holiday.
"Jack Skellington is known for his distinctive skull-like head, his spindly limbs, and his tattered suit. He is a being of great intelligence and imagination, but he becomes bored with the monotony of the annual Halloween celebrations and yearns for something more. He decides to take over Christmas and ends up learning valuable lessons about the true meaning of holidays. He is also known for his iconic song “This is Halloween” and his catchphrase “What’s this?”"
Costume
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