The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney and Touchstone movie directed by Henry Selick, produced and co-written by Tim Burton in 1993. In this film, we find the love of black story, the fascination for the myths, and the defense of a lonely and misunderstood character. The movie is in first a musical comedy.It is from the ten songs composed by Danny Elfman as the architecture of the scenario is established. Although, some musics from the film was covered by popular singers, such exemble “This is Halloween” which had a great success for the famous Marilyn Manson (If you want listen the music, you can here ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU6iP0WLsU8).

The movie tell the story of Jack Skellington (the Pumpkin King in the Halloween town). He was preparing the next Halloween party. But the terrible Jack is tired of this repetitive and monotonous life, decides to leave. Then he discovers the Christmas Town. After this adventure, he returns in his home with an original idea : and if, this year, the Halloween residents would celebrate the strange celebration of Christmas ? I think, the Halloween town is the dark figure of the hidden face of American society is the central context of the film.

The Nightmare Before Christmas show an opposition between two worlds. This film summons two worlds, like Halloween that represents the “city of the excluded”, deprived, with ugly characters. But also the city of “good citizens” who represents all that is clean, perfect, everything is smooth and waited. These two worlds are opposed. First on a symbolic level : these are two legendary symbols of contemporary American society. Secondly, visually because Halloween represents the gothicism who opposes the Christmas sentimentality. The architecture of the image in the Halloween world consists of broken lines, diagonals, architectures and corresponding to the physical aspect of the residents. In the world of Christmas, the architecture obeys the usual horizontal and vertical. Everything is calculated on very rigorous and scientific bases, as the “mathematics” contours of the physical residents. There is desire to show that the unexpected is not appropriate.

At the end, of this super and amazing movie, a question arises : “Who are the monsters ?” Because the character of Jack (a priori the villain) is looking for something positive and his friends too. The “good”people, in the Christmas town, don’t want them, and don’t want learn to know them. Finally, we have a trap but also a moral lesson. It’s not because you don’t look great in the exterior, you are bad in the interior. You can look a beauty people in the exterior but really bad in the interior. The Nightmare Before Christmas is the perfect exemple.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42loWXWMntU[/youtube]