Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Staff Review
Please note that this review contains certain elements that relate to the 2006 3D Release of this film.
Jack is back! No not that swashbuckler! The dead guy with the big grin. Yes Jack Skellington made his way back to the big screen along with some magic called Disney 3D! And just in time for Halloween.
Now on a pure and simple level, if you have never seen Nightmare on the big screen, just do the right thing and go see this. Ok now that I said my public service announcement I can get to the review. 3D and animation really can work with some movies. And in my opinion this was a no brainer. Well mostly because this Tim Burton masterpiece is a 3D world. All the sets, puppets, etc, are actual 3 dimensional objects. That's why this movie plays perfect to this technology. You are seeing it the way it actually looked!
For starters seeing the new Disney logo in 3D was just down right goosebump inducing. Then you get to see Meet the Robinsons trailer in 3D, and then the classic Pixar short Knick-Knack in 3D! Knick-Knack looked great, very sharp, and seeing it in 3D was beautiful. Oh and the 3D glasses that Disney gives you to view the film…. Well let's just say if you look around you will have a theatre full of Drew Carey impersonators! No really it looks like that! Mine also had a hard time fitting over my glasses, and actually ended up breaking about 1/3 into the movie. Was not too much of a problem since I just placed them over one ear, and they sat pretty well on my nose.
The movie itself looked great. Some areas looked very "Enhanced" for 3D, while most of the movie just had a great "Depth" feel to it. I personally enjoy seeing a movie that pulls off 3D as mostly just great Depth of perception. I was glad they did not add any visual tricks just to get the most out of the technology. Zero and any particular hand drawn ghosts looked fantastic up against Burton's 3D world. I really enjoyed the whole " What's this? " song because the Christmas Town looked excellent in this technology. Also I must say the audio was incredible, many times it fooled me to look left or right, and wondering where the sound was coming from.
Jack, Sally and the crew of Halloween Town, could not have looked any better. If you have seen Nightmare before and loved it, try this on for size, Disney did a great job turning this world into 3 dimensions. Perfect time of year for a perfect movie to be turned into a perfect 3D masterpiece. If you don't agree.. . . . You don't know Jack!
--Carl Nordstrom
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