The Nightmare Before Christmas review

 Number 292 on the top 1000 films of all time is Henry Selik's stop-motion animated musical-fantasy the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Produced by Tim Burton - often being more associated with him than Selik, the Nightmare before Christmas focusses on Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon) the king of Halloween Town. Becoming sick of the annual Halloween celebration, he is looking for a change. That change comes when he discovers Christmas and he aims to hijack the holiday for his own goals with disastrous consequences.

I was really looking forward to this film. Being well-versed with Burton's other work like Corpse Bride, with its trippy visuals, memorable songs and creative storyline, I had high hopes for a Nightmare Before Christmas, but the end result left me feeling more dead than alive.

While the actual labour that goes into stop-motion animation will always be impressive with the assorted animated characters being spooky and creative, it wasn't at the eye-popping level I was expecting. Instead of vivid colours, we were treated to a bland and lifeless colour palette. Rather the visuals were dull, even in Halloweenland. It made the trademark surrealism that we have come to expect from Burton fall flat. The visuals didn't contribute anything to the film from either a story or a visual perspective.

The musical numbers were lacking and uninspired. None of them were memorable. I watched this film only two nights ago and if I really scratch my head, I think I can remember the "this is Halloween" song and that's it. The songs were composed by frequent Burton collaborate Danny Elfman, but like the surreal animation, I'm not convinced the songs added much to the film. In some cases, it seemed to stray into song-musical territory like Sweeney Todd. The songs in that film were painfully mundane. The same can be said for the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Any storyline was buried underneath the lifeless visuals and banal songs. I'm not sure how well I can explain the narrative. This un-dead king is going through a mid-death crisis and falls through this trap door into some Christmas land where he decides to bring Christmas to his home, but, for some reason, also kidnaps Father Christmas and goes onto impersonate him. For some reason, there's a weird gambling monster made out of bugs and a  Dr Frankenstein-esque character who has created some Bride of Frankenstein who becomes Jack's love-interest.

I didn't care for this film too. I had high-hopes, but I was left disappointed.

Corpse Bride review

 Number 911 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tim Burton's stop-motion, dark-fantasy 'Corpse Bride.'

Set in Victorian London, Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is a respectable young man who is betrothed Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) a sweet-natured, young woman. However, cold feet leads to him messing up the ceremony and running into the nearby forest in shame. While rehearsing his vows, he inadvertently awakens the titular corpse bride Emily (Helena Bonham Carter.) She believes the two are now married and Victor finds himself caught between his alive bride Victoria and his dead bride Emily.

In Corpse Bride, Tim Burton blended together a charming, but strange narrative with some brilliant visuals. The animation was absolutely gorgeous if surreal at times. Stop-motion is always so impressive due to its pain-staking nature. Production for this film lasted for over a year and there were over 100,000 individual frames to be animated. But the finished product was a visual feast for the eyes. I loved the colour scheme. In the Land of the Dead, everything is so bright and colourful, whereas in the real world, everything is daub and downtrodden.

But it's in the Land of the Dead where things get really weird. Especially during the musical numbers, it was like watching an acid-trip. But it's this trademark surrealism that made this film so memorable. It was so creative; I can safely say that I haven't seen a film quite like it. And although the musical numbers are few and far between, they are catchy and thoroughly entertaining. The Remains of the Day was one of my favourites especially with its striking visuals.

Corpse Bride is also littered with acting talent. We've already mentioned Johnny Depp, Emily Watson and Helena Bonham Carter, but Christopher Lee, Richard E.Grant, Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney all lend their voices to this fun little flight of fancy. Johnny Depp sounded almost unrecognisable as he lacks the same accent he adorns for the Pirates of the Caribbean series or Sweeney Todd.  It was also a great script with plenty of jokes as well as some real emotional notes. I particularly loved the final image of the eponymous Corpse Bride dissolving into a group of butterflies. I thought this was a touching and elegant image.

Overall, I really enjoyed Corpse Bride. It was so creative, so colourful with some great musical numbers and voice performances. And the stop-motion animation was absolutely brilliant. It proved that stop-motion animation should be respected as much as any other medium within cinema.

The Princess Bride review

 Number 176 on the top 1000 films of all time is Rob Reiner's fantasy drama 'The Princess Bride. Although this film is on the aforementioned list, that's not why I'm reviewing it. It recently appeared on my top ten movie list so I will give my thoughts here.

A young boy (Fred Savage) is sick and tucked up in bed. To cheer him up, his grandfather (Peter Falk) reads him the book ' The Princess Bride.' The book tells the story of the true love between Westley (Cary Elwes) and Buttercup (Robin Wright) who have been separated by fate. When Westley seemingly dies, Buttercup becomes engaged to Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon) but she is then kidnapped before the wedding can take place. Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Wallace Shawn and Billy Crystal all co-star.

This film has always been one of my favourites so I wondered whether it was blind nostalgia that influenced me to add it to my top ten list. However, upon a recent rewatch, it most definitely holds up. Firstly, it is hilarious. I must have seen it a hundred times, but it still had me in fits of giggles. Sure at times it was cheesy and unbelievable but by the same admission it's supposed to be. It's a fantasy fairy-tale after all. Further, the meta-narrative helps to combat some of the cheesiness whenever things get too lovey-dovey between Westley and Buttercup, we always cut back tot he grandson pleading that he doesn't have to hear the kissing scene.

We see the metaness continue with the subversion of traditional fairy tale tropes. Our supposed Prince Charming seemingly dies soon into the film, the ginormous Fezzik turns out to be a gentle giant rather than a mindless killing machine and even the albino who tortures Westley just has a frog in his throat. We might also expect Westley and Prince Humperdink to fight to the death but instead Westley outbluffs the prince and spareshis life. In fact, the big climatic scene takes place between Inigo Matoya and Count Rugen which I'll come to in a moment. 

And these subversions is what made this film so fun to watch. Although Buttercup did fall a little too neatly inoto the damsel in distress trope. other than screaming and getting into trouble, she was pretty useless. She wasn't exactly and Ellen Ripley or sarah O'Connor.

But the Princess Bride also had real heart. And I don't mean the cheesy true love story between Westley and Buttercup. Rather I am speaking about the Inigo Montoya subplot where the Spaniard is on a quest to avenge his father's killer - the villainous Count Rugen who was played brilliant by Christopher Guest. Guest was just the perfect amount of stone-cold severity.

The film climaxes with Inigo duelling Rugen where the former finally gains his revenge. Reportedly Mandy Painkin's father died of cancer shortly before filming. Patinkin took the role of Inigo as he connected with the character. When he kills Rugen, he imagined, he was killing the cancer that killed his father. This led to one of the film's most badass lines: "I want my father back, you son of a bitch."

    The music was also great Every composition matched up perfectly with its corresponding scene. in Westley and Inigo's duel, the music punctuates fight choreography brilliantly. The same goes for Inigo and Rugen's duel.

   Finally I have to acknowledge the amazing supporting cast who stole every scene they were in. We've already talked about Andre the Giant who stopped Fezzik from being sheer comic relief. Wallace Shawn was also great as the villainous Vizzini. He was delightfully over the top without being pantomimy. And of course we have Billy Crystal and Carol Kane who provided some of the film's funniest scenes as Miracle Max and his wife Valerie. reportedly, director Rob Reiner had to leave the set when filming as his laughter kept ruining the takes.

This film is a timeless classic that has stood up for over three decades. It's hilarious with real heart and iconic dialogue. I shall end on one of the film's most recognisable lines: "hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.You killed my father. Prepare to die."