-The nightmare before Christmas and re finding love in your passions-
- Azul Flores
- Oct 24, 2025
- 4 min read
While writing this, we are very close to Halloween, so I wanted to take the time to talk about this movie cause it´s one of my favorites of all time, talking about a spooky theme, and I have plenty of reasons why.
Although this movie is not directed by Tim Burton, but by the amazing Henry Selick (director of films like "Coraline" and "James and the giant peach"), it has that "Burtonian style that we all know and love. First, the stop motion technique used for this film, gives it a mor whimsical style.
One of the first things that catches the audience attention is the amazing soundtrack directed by Danny Elfman. Of course, the first song that appears in this movie, "This is Halloween", is the most memorable of all, but I think we can really sense that the movie is going to take once the second song is played.
As we hear Jack singing, we are given a close look to the central theme which is: getting bored of something you were once passionate about. And it is very relatable to every kind of people in this planet because most of us have gotten sick of our partners, job, school, hobbies, and so on. Always looking for something new, an improvement in our life is an inherent human condition. We are a bit like the character of Sally, watching Jack from afar and getting close to him, as we know we have felt exactly the same way.
Character Transformation and Growth
Jack goes on a path of rediscovery where he finds Christmas Town and everything surrounding it, completely different to the world he has known. Obviously, he ends up intrigued, excited and with a lot of questions, but not so many answers so he can, in some way, misinterpret the point of all this.
After he comes back, he tris to explain to the citizens of Halloween Town his new interest. The creatures around Jack cannot understand the meaning behind all of this. Why would Jack want to leave the thing that he is the best at? They cannot comprehend the complexity of his feeling, although they seem very supportive and try to help him.
Sally is the only character we get to know that is very similar to Jack, a girl who wants to explore everything the world has to offer, but who is retained by his creator (kind of an inspiration from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein") but, unlike Jack, she is more cautious with her decisions. She truly wants to understand Jack's new passion, but without putting Halloween Town into danger and making him controle his impulsiveness.
Jack begins to experiment to try and get the key to what makes Christmas, Christmas, without any success. And Sally has a premonition of something sinister happening with Christmas celebration. Also, creatures from Halloween Town start sensing that something has Jack very preoccupied and stressed.
Something crucial to the development of the protagonist is the way in he, at first, gets lost in what he loves the most, due to the fact that it has become very mechanical and the job that he has carries a lot of pressure from other, taking out his time reinvent, explore new ideas and more. (This is something that we all can get in the modern world; things are going so fast that we tend to leave our time for hobbies, family and friends for later. We don´t have time to spend with the people we love, to create community, to daydream...) Entering Christmas as the opportunity to make a new character of himself and demonstrate his new abilities. But the viewer is not yet prepared for what will come next.
Jack takes some bad decisions about the making of this new holiday, such as kidnapping Santa Claus and acting as him, delivering gifts with the traditional Halloween Town touch, making a complete chaos in Christmas Town. He was the one to decide to ignore Sally's advice, being somewhat selfish in just looking at what he wanted the celebration to be and not what it should have been.
Sally was trying to tell him that, just because something might appear to be the thing to complete you, doesn't mean it is. Jack was a complete individual at the beginning of the film, he didn't need something just to stop feeling empty. If he was to put all of his hopes, dreams and happiness in one thing, it would be very fragile and, with time, the cycle repeats itself; Jack would have gotten bored with Christmas. What he could have done was to re-find what was making him passionate about the field in the beginning, what was the thing that made Halloween worth dedicating his life to?
Redemption arc
Jack is finally hit by the police and realizes this might be the end to the whole Christmas thing. Now, begins the redemption arc, figuring out that he has gone too far (like the saying "be careful what you wish for") and he was blind for not predicting the danger that his dreams could bring. He might not have had bad intentions, but he should have meditated his decisions beforehand and take into account others' opinions.
He finds his true self and his voice again as The Pumpkin King. The disaster made him realize that he truly didn't change a lot as he had thought and his love for Halloween was still there, but in a different way. He helps Santa Claus escape the evil Oogie Boogie and accepts his mistakes.
This tale gives us a clear view about re finding your joy in what used to make you happy. Maybe, just maybe, you can still hold love about it, or change, but really, always be true to your own self.
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