by Chris Feil
To some degree, The Nightmare Before Christmas feels like the bastard child of Disney’s animated musicals. Granted the film was originally released under the Touchstone label due to concerns of frightened children and timid brand alignment. But in the years since, it’s grown beyond its cult following into full Mouse House acceptance, certainly one of the most merchandised of its era and most revisited thanks to inherent traditions in its duel holiday premise. So why does its music not get discussed alongside its peers?
What Danny Elfman creates with the film’s songs and score is much more of a gothic operetta than the Broadway of Disney’s 90s balladry, so some of this can be reduced simply to musical style. It’s no surprise then that the number with the most cultural impact are its catchiest and accessible to children, like the opening earworm “This Is Halloween”. But this is hardly the film’s best musical offering, more of a visual extravaganza with a rudimentary refrain repeated ad nauseum. You’re probably singing it to yourself right now and will be stuck with it for the day, and for that, I apologize.
A better option for its musical cultural significance is instead Jack’s pattering discovery of Christmas, “What’s This?”. Here Elfman takes Nightmare closest to more traditional musical stylings, and it’s no surprise that it comes when the hero in introduced to this more “wholesome” of holidays. With a ghoulish Gilbert and Sullivan flair, “What’s This?” is Jack abandoning both his ornamental identity and his musical one, trading in somber soliloquies for festive buoyancy.
Nightmare would oddly have to settle for its Visual Effects Oscar nomination (still an impressive feat, the first animated film in the category), for it oddly missed an Original Song nomination. All due respect to what Beethoven’s 2nd fans must be out there, but the omission is odd given “What’s This?”’s instant iconography and verbal dexterity. You can see why some of the less catchy lyricism of the rest of the film’s numbers could miss out, but this song had to have been close to a nomination. How deep did the hesitation go regarding the film’s scary, demonic elements operating in a kid-focused genre? Because this, and its overall musical acceptance, feels like a byproduct of that.
No matter, because where the film has been musically embraced as essential also keeps the film firmly in the realm of cult phenomena. This film will always belong to the goth set, no matter how much they align to the merchandising engines in the Disney machine. And they are the fans that have also given the film its musical due, elevating tracks like “Sally’s Song” and “Jack’s Lament” along with their general affection for the film. It’s kind of a movie musical built for Tumblr before Tumblr existed.
Along with the merchandising came an homage to this very specific section of the film’s fandom, a Nightmare Revisited album of covers from artists spooky, eccentric, or simply melancholy. Though some of these rehashes feel more like niche fan service (remember when Korn was a thing?), the overall effect is an oddly appropriate glow up taking the songbook to its musical madhouse max. It did it before it was cool.
Happy Halloween!
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