Creepy 'Christmas'

Tim Burton's movies are continually faulted for being visual feasts without plots. More like cartoons than live-action films, they are heavy on surreal style and light on story development. Luckily, his leads are generally more cartoonish than real anyway: Pee Wee Herman, Beetlejuice and Batman. But as "Batman Returns" hinted, even these films are too limiting for Burton. With "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Burton may have found the ideal vehicle for his sensibilities: an actual animated feature totally free from the constraints of actors.

Though not directed by Burton, "Nightmare" is the most fully realized execution of his brooding fantasies. Director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman have produced a Christmas special gone terribly wrong. All the expected cliches are here: the despairing soul who doesn't understand the holidays, the possibility of a Christmas that almost isn't, a jolly but befuddled Santa Claus and...a mad scientist with a flip-top skull? "Nightmare" is a decidedly different celebration of the season.

Based on a story by Burton, the film centers on Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. After a perfectly executed Halloween--another one--Jack experiences a mid-death crisis. He longs for something to take away the monotony of endlessly scaring boys and girls. So when Jack discovers neighboring Christmastown, where children dream of sugarplums sans monsters under the bed, he will not rest until he has conquered the secret of this strange "Christmas."

The story is a nasty, gross-out take on the old stop-motion Christmas specials which run as regularly as "It's a Wonderful Life." But oddly enough, it has more in common with that movie than the Mad magazine spreads it visually resembles. Uplifting to the last, the film maintains a child's-eye-view of the wonder of Christmas. And like those television specials it is a very secular celebration of Christmas. With the blending of the holiday with Halloween, it's probably just as well that Burton steers clear of the disturbing religious overtones of the plot.

Danny Elfman is as much in his element here as Burton. A frequent Burton contributor, his soundtracks have finally found the most ideal visuals possible. Blending the hurdy-gurdy eeriness of Halloween with the jingle-bell enthusiasm of Christmas songs yields a varied collection of hysterical musical numbers. They range from festive yuletide riffs to a Cab Calloway parody sung by the aptly named Oogie Boogie.

Catherine O'Hara, Paul Reubens and Elfman provide voiceovers which match the exaggerated style and music. The cackling trio of children voiced by these three are the standouts. The humans and Christmas characters are suitably subdued. The actors voicing them wisely refrain from trying to keep up with their ghoulish co-stars.

Unfortunately, with so much of the film perfectly fitting Tim Burton's talents, it suffers from Burton's perenial downfall: weak continuity. Poor Jack's character shifts a few too many times for comfort. The romantic subplot is weakly developed, tedious and extraneous. Interestingly, in Burton's book version of the film, Iushly illustrated by the author himself, the romance angle is completely excised. It is tragic that with every other aspect so fully realized, Burton could not muster up a solid storyline once and for all.

"Nightmare" will leave children in awe and the childish among us fairly impressed. It lacks the fully adult sensibilities of a good Simpsons episode but is light-years away from the earnest treacle of "The Night Before Christmas." You know, the one with the big-eyed mice.

The Nightmare Before Christmas; directed by Henry Selick; based on a story by Tim Burton; Touchstone Pictures; Rated PG