Burton’s ‘Nightmare’ returns just in time for Halloween

Jack Skellington is back — and this time he and his friends get a 3D transformation.

By NANCY CHURNIN

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Fourteen years after its debut, “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” returns again in 3D, which makes a good thing even better. The film not only stands up, it stands out thanks to its digital 3D effect transformation, which makes the pumpkins swirl overhead and gives a closer look at the texture of the remarkable puppets.

When the film first came out, adults expressed concern that this strange tale would scare children. Actually, it delighted them. Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon), the skeletal head of Halloweentown, discovers a wood with doors to different holidays: Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine’s Day and — the one he can’t resist — Christmas. Jack falls in love with the happy feelings, the twinkling lights, the presents, the treats. He returns to Halloweentown determined to wrest the holiday from Santa.

Stop-motion seemed dead in American animation until this film revived it under Henry Selick’s mesmerizing direction. It also makes you nostalgic for the days before celebs took over animation voicing and quality actors served the vision rather than the other way around. Sally (Catherine O’Hara) infuses melancholy passion into Sally, the resourceful, stitched-up Franken-girl rag doll who anticipates “The Corpse Bride” (also from Tim Burton). Composer Danny Elfman not only creates the haunting score, he sings for Jack and voices a naughty trick or treater who kidnaps Santa.

One element that deepens this film is how Jack resembles tender-hearted scaremeister Tim Burton. They both long for the sweet center but can’t resist coating it in (deliciously dark) creepiness.