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| The Nightmare Before Christmas (Special Edition) | 
 enlarge | Directors: Henry Selick, Tim Burton
Actors: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'hara, William Hickey, Shelley Duvall
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $14.99
You Save: $5.00 (25%)
New (12) Used (47) Collectible (4) from $13.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  505 reviews
Sales Rank: 3408
Format: Animated, Black & White, Color, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 76
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 6305949980
UPC: 717951009395
EAN: 9786305949985
ASIN: 6305949980
Theatrical Release Date: October 29, 1993
Release Date: October 3, 2000
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Blu Ray/ Coll ED Features Below (some info on the ultimate edition). Seems Worth Double Dipping. June 3, 2008
18 out of 24 found this review helpful
I was able to find the information online for this blu ray and figured I'd pass it along. The original dvd contains Burton's short films such as Vincent and I was glad to see these are also on here along with a ton of new features, nothing appears to be left out. If you have a blu ray player and like the film I'd say it is worth it to double dip, with those colors popping off the screen at 1080p or hearing kidnap the sandy claws and Danny Elfman's score (Good Will Hunting (Miramax Collector's Series)) in the newer sound formats (if your lucky enough to have them).
BLU RAY FEATURES (FROM MOVIEWEB)
You can watch a Tim Burton classic in 1080p for the first time this August. The Nightmare Before Christmas is coming to Blu-Ray on August 26. The BD disc will be priced at $39.99 and a new collectors edition of the film will be released in the standard format as well, priced at $32.99 SRP. For the ultimate fan, an Ultimate Collector's Gift Set will also be released that day which will include an individually numbered hand-painted bust of Jack Skellington in all his gory glory equipped with a Jack's "Sandy Claws" hat and beard, a sound chip that plays memorable lines from the film and a letter of authenticity. The Ultimate Collector's Gift Set will be priced at $179.99 SRP. The film stars the voices of Danny Elfman, Chirs Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens.
Special Features
- NEW! What's This? Jack's Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour - Viewers choose the way they want to tour Disneyland's Holiday Haunted Mansion. "On Track" explores a tricked-out version of the Haunted Mansion, while "Off Track" reveals what went into creating all the creepy fun.
- NEW! Tim Burton's Original poem narrated by Christopher Lee - Tim Burton's poem that inspired the creation of the movie. Now, the original verse comes to creepy life as performed by legendary actor Christopher.Lee.
- NEW! Film Commentary - commentary by producer and writer Tim Burton, director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman.
- NEW Introduction To Frankenweenie! - A new un-cut version introduction by Tim Burton.
- The Making of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Go behind the scenes of the very first full-length stop motion animated movie with the filmmakers.
- The Worlds of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Witness the creation of the film's richly imagined dreamscapes, including Halloween Town, Christmas Town and the Real World.
- Deleted Scenes
- Storyboard to Film Comparison
- Original Theatrical Trailers and Posters
- PLUS Tim Burton's Complete Short Film Vincent
- A Special Blu-ray Only Introduction by Tim Burton
THE Blu-Ray film for the holidays June 18, 2008
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
What a great film for Blu-Ray! Crammed with detail and composed like a series of paintings, it demands the high-definition treatment to fully appreciate. On one hand, the scenes are filled with little surprises like tarantula- and bat-shaped neckties and snakes, but on the other hand they are so artistic! Once you watch Jack Skellington's operatic posings against the moon at 1080p, or see the eerie gray backgrounds of Halloweentown or the vivid colors of Christmastown at that resolution, I can't imagine watching this movie any other way.
But that's not all there is to it. In fact, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a feast for the eyes, ears and imagination; a delectable witches' brew of stop-motion animation, catchy show tunes and a seriously warped creative license.
The story -- Halloweentown attempts to annex Christmastown -- comes from the macabre mind of producer Tim Burton, who wrote it in his spare time (as a poem!) while working as a Disney animator in the 1980s. The movie blends the tastiest bits of Burton's earlier Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands with a sprinkling of the stop-motion magic first found in Disney's 1961 Babes in Toyland.
The imaginative cast of characters includes:
* Jack Skellington (the Pumpkin King) (Chris Sarandon), a mischievous misfit who believes his purpose in life is to merge the holidays of Halloween and Christmas.
* His faithful dog Zero, a ghost with a glowing, jack-o'-lantern nose who, like the hound in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, eventually pulls the sleigh.
* Rag-doll heroine Sally (voiced by Catherine O'Hara), Jack's love interest, who sews herself back together when she loses a body part.
* Oogie Boogie (Broadway veteran Ken Page), a slimy, singing bag of bugs who channels the cartoon version of Cab Calloway in the old Betty Boop shorts.
* Lock (Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens), Shock (O'Hara) and Barrel (Danny Elfman, the film's composer), a trio of evil trick-or-treaters who "kidnap the Sandy Claws"
* Wheelchair-bound evil scientist Dr. Finklestein (William Hickey), a duckbilled quack whose flip-top head lets him scratch his brains for inspiration.
* A mayor (Glenn Shadix, the interior director Otho in Beetlejuice) who is literally two-faced.
Director Henry Selick painstakingly created the film over three years. Though he had a production crew of over 100, each minute of footage took a week, as each second required 24 ever-so-slightly different shots.
Devilishly nonconformist, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is an enduring holiday musical for the whole Addams family, or at least those older than, say, 6. Though all of its fright gags are played entirely for laughs, some of the imagery is downright creepy. Teenagers will love it.
BONUS FEATURES
* An audio commentary with Burton, Selick and Elfman.
* A downloadable digital copy of the film, which you can transfer to an iPod or similar device.
* Burton's first short, 1982's 6-minute "Vincent," a black-and-white stop-action film about a boy who dreams of being Vincent Price, who narrates.
* Burton's 1994 Disney live-action short "Frankenweenie." In this 30-minute black-and-white film that re-imagines the Frankenstein story as the tale of a young boy and his car-struck pet dog in suburban America (introduced by Burton himself).
* A reading of Burton's original "Nightmare Before Christmas" poem by actor Christopher Lee
* A promotional film for the annual "Nightmare" makeover of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
* Promotional and making-of featurettes, a storyboard to film comparison, deleted scenes and theatrical trailers and posters.
OTHER VERSIONS AVAILABLE
There are two other new "Nightmare" DVDs available -- a two-disc standard-resolution set that includes a downloadable digital copy and a collector's edition that comes with a hand-painted bust of Jack Skellington.
One of the craziest movies I've ever seen, lotsof nice extras December 29, 2005
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
I loved this movie, from the first time I saw it, and the DVD has a good amount of extras in it which fans will appreciate.
This movie is one of the most amazing, wierd, inspired movies I have seen. It is animated, and is about what would happened if the people of Halloween land stole Christmas. Jack O Lantern is depressed, Halloween has just passed and it is the same old same old - he is looking for something but just doesn't know what. He strays into Christmasland and is suddenly reviatlised.
Returning to Halloweenland he tries to explain just what Christmas is, the joy the presents - but the residents don't quite grasp the happiness and joy - they see the 'stalkings' instead of stockings and so on. So Jack gives up explaining it to them and instead allows them to do Christmas as they see fit . They make presents - snakes which swallow family pets - jack in the boxes which attack, and other horrible things.
The songs are amazing, I love the music - even my two small children do and I am always surprised when my 4 year old requests to watch this. I would actually have thought they should be quite frightened of it at that age, maybe the scary bits are too unreal.
Nice romance underlying it and the whole thing is filmed in the usual Burton-esque almost monochrome darkness world.
There are great extras available, including scenes which were cut or shortened from the original and interviews with Burton.
What's this? What's this? May 23, 2002
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
It's "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas," of course. It was the movie that made the record of the first stop motion animated film. The story is of a character who has never heard of Christmas before and somehow "discovers" it. I think it is always worth view, unless your one of those... individuals who doesn't appreciate Tim Burton's "dark humor." The story is of Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, but lately, he's pretty much grown tired of the same old tricks and treats, deep in lamentation. (Hence the name of the song, "Jack's Lament.") One night, while he's wandering around in a forest, head filled with his thoughts of misery and woe, he finds a clearing where every tree is decorated with some holiday symbol. They all seem to interest him, but what fascinates Jack the most is none other than the Christmas tree. Danny Elfman, who provides Jack's gorgeous singing voice, is a master with "Nightmare's" music and songs. Who wouldn't mind going out on Halloween night, singing "This is Halloween" at the top of their lungs? (That's what my friends and I did last Halloween.) Anyway, you have ten songs to choose from. The cast of characters is awesome too. Sally (Catherine O'Hara) is sweet and sensitive and is always willing to help Jack, even it means literally risking an arm and a leg. Lock, Shock, and Barrel (Paul Rubeuns, Catherine O'Hara, and Danny Elfman) help make up "Nightmare's" interesting plot. Without this terrible threesome, Santa Claus (Ed Ivory) would have no place in the story. Now, every movie needs a villain, and who would be better than the notorious Oogie Boogie (Ken Page)? Overall, I think this movie deserves all five stars. One for animation, one for music, one for charcters, one for the story, and one for everone who pitched in and worked on this movie for three years.
It's flawless! December 22, 1999
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
It's no secret that the majority of Europeans see American cultural import as something highly entertaining but not very complex and sophisticated. The plots are simplistic, the characters lacking individuality,etc. I am not talking here about the well-known masterpieces but the everyday Hollywood produce make this opinion well-deserved. On the other hand today's European cinema is often anemic and uninspired. Of course I generalize but for the most part it's true.Living in Moscow I try to get the best of both worlds and in The Nightmare Before Christmas I found something that can be called flawless. It's very entertaining, the music is the classic of the genre, the visuals are just unbelievable! It's complex, it's fun, it's perfect in form and content. Frankly, you can hardly expect all that from the American animation industry lately represented by Anastasia, The Hercules and other sodomizations of the world history. So the Nightmare's team did a great job of creating this surprisingly original piece of art. The main idea are the perspectives of communication between the worlds that are so much different. What happens if one of them come uninvited to visit the other with the best intentions and gifts designed to please. The result is far from idyllic. What happens if the extraordinary person is tired of his world and thinks that the real life is elsewhere. So he travels abroad and finally finds the happiness at home. It's strange that some of the reviewers consider the Haloween creatures too violent. They are no more violent that Maurice Sendac's Wild Things or the monsters our children like to invent when they exchage the self-made horror stories. The portrayal of children of the Halloween Town is very accurate - the little ones are unexhaustable, inventive and ready to do anything just to see what comes out of it- just like my 7-year old son. So this DVD is an ideal investment and do not regret.
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