This is a hard movie to explain, but let's start off with this. Tim Burton came up with the concept, wrote the story, and directed this movie. If you have ever seen any of Burton's movies, this should either excite you, or scare you to death. "Weird" is a term that just is not grand enough to describe this movie.
Story goes that back in the 70s, Burton was an animator for Disney, working on a film called The Fox and The Hound. If you know anything about Burton, you can only imagine that he must have been misrable on this project. (Don't look in the credits, you will not find him - he is uncredited). One day, he was walking past the display window of a store, and saw the clerk changing the display from Hallloween to Christmas, and his mind just started working. He penciled out a poem called The Nightmare Before Christmas and penciled out some sketches (both of which are included on the Blu-Ray version of this disc), and presented them to Disney. Disney rejected this idea, saying that it would frighten little kids. Come the early 90s, Burton has had success with movies such as Beetlejuice and Batman, and Disney comes knocking at his door. "Remember that idea you presented to us back in the 70s? How about if we let you make it?"
So, in this movie, each holiday has its own "world", and once a year, they somehow penetrate our world. These worlds prepare all year for their one big day. This movie focuses on the world of Halloweentown, and, in particular, its most prominate citizen, Jack Skelington, the Pumpkin King (who is not a Pumpkin at all, he is a skeleton). Anyways, Jack kind of goes through a phase of depression, wondering if there is more to life than this. He starts to wonder out of town, and stumbles upon a "wood between the worlds" (a line I stole from the Narnian book "The Magician's Nephew"). Passing through one of these doors, Jack stumbles upon Christmastown, and has kind of an awakening. He rushes home with his news, and a few items he managed to pick up, and the town is so fascinated, they decide that they are going to take on Christmas this year. They kidnap Santa Clause, and proceed to take over. Problem is, they know absolutely nothing about Christmas, and think that "scary" is something people want all year.
It is a cute movie, and unless your children are incredibly squemish, they will eat this up. Expect to go around for days, if not months or years randomly humming songs from this movie. The only problem is that this movie really is aimed toward children, and now, being much older and going back and watching this again, I find myself not as fascinated with it as I once was. Still, I like this movie, and it is fun to watch with your kids, or even with friends, as many will remember this from when they were younger as well. The friend I was watching this with got all giddy and started acting like a little kid again when Zero appeared (and how can you not love Zero, he is SO cute!)
Video quality
There is only one word to describe the Blu-Ray transfer of this movie - "WOW!" This movie is not only visually stunning, but has been restored to a quality that I do not even remember seeing in the theaters when this movie came out. I dare you to try to find a single dirt speck in this movie, and film grain has been greatly reduced. Details absolutely pop out of the screen at you, and you can clearly see each and every stitch on Jack and his clothing. Colors are brilliant, and contrast is stunning, which is great, considering most of this movie takes place at night.
The ONLY thing I could find issue with is that the 2D animation is not up to snuff with the rest of the movie, but as that is only a few seconds of the movie, it was not enough to lower the score of this from a perfect score. Considering I have seen this movie AFTER I reviewed 2001 and Across The Universe, the idea that I gave this movie a perfect score should really say something. Oh, some people may not like this, as there is still a fair amount of grain in the picture, and purists may be upset because too much grain was removed, but I think it is the perfect tradeoff.
Sound quality
Disney seemed to have leared from their mistakes with earlier Blu-Ray releases and ditched Uncompressed PCM audio, and has started going with Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio (depending on the movie). The 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD track here is absolutely incredible, and makes me with I had an additional 2 channels on my reciever. There are few movies that I would say have that "wall of sound", but this movie sure does. It sounds as if every instrument in the orchestra has their own speaker, with the result of sound like you are in the middle of it. Sound effects are well directionalized, and the sound level on the disc is set to LOUD! I am going to recommend to you to NOT turn your system up as loud as you do on other movies, otherwise you are sure to have a splitting headache really soon.
There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about the sound on this movie. It is incredible! Yet another demo disc! Invite your friends over and pop this in!
Bonus features
Disney is known for loading up their movies with bounus features, and this is no exception. While all the bonus features are included on the first disc, just remember that the movie is only 90 minutes long, so there is plenty of room here on a 50 gig disc. If you are a Tim Burton fan, get ready to be amazed. Two Burton short films are presented here (sadly, both in SD), Frankenweenie, about a young boy who decides to bring his beloved dog back from the dead, and Vincent, which I am not even sure how to describe. You have conceptual art, the Making of feature, and deleted scens and production storyboards. You also have a few new features, presented in HD, including Burton's original poem and storyboards, and a tour of the Haunted Mansion exhibit at Disney World, where around Christmas every year, they transform into this movie. Oh, there is also another feature documenting HOW they do this.
Oh, Burton fans rejoice, for the first time, we have AUDIO COMMENTARY on this movie, from Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, and Henry Selick, whoever that is. However, they are not really in the room together, rather it seems like they interviewed the three people seperately, and then edited the clips together to give us this commentary. Its actually pretty good though.
There is also two other features here, the D-Box feature (no clue what this is, but I THINK a D-Box is a type of chair that vibrates to cues recorded on the disc), and the Digital Copy. Of course, I have no wish to watch this movie on my iPod, so it is a bit pointless to me.
Final Word
All I can say is that this disc is absolutely incredible, from the really unique movie, to the stunning visuals, and the even more stunning soundtrack. The bonus features are well done enough to keep anyone entertained. If you are a Disney fanatic, or a Burton fanatic, this is a must-have movie for your collection.