Textual Analysis on The Nightmare Before Christmas

Looking at the opening scene of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' By Tim Burton in terms of sound right at the beginning there is music which sounds rather classical and soft using a lot of orchestral sounds, we have taken inspiration from this for our animation and using soft eerie piano sounds to set the scene and this also creates the sense of fantasy which Tim Burton exaggerates in his piece also. The Audience is then introduced to the narrator whom tells the story using Rhyme "as this story you're about to be told took place in the holiday place of old" we have also decided to use this idea for our Animation as it makes the audience question the realism again giving that sense of Mystery. Tim Burton then uses deep orchestral music to create tension and to bring the Animation into song in our piece we have decided not to make it a musical as we would like to put our own ideas into it and creating songs would be challenging with the short time that we have not to mention the fact that our piece is 5 minutes long and the average song consists of an average of 3 minutes per musical score.


In terms of lighting Tim Burton uses a lot of shadows to create his creepy alternative look which we will also be adapting into our piece using the light we have which can change colour and brightness to fit the mood we want to create but the lighting overall in Tim Burton's piece is very low-key but we have decided to contrast the lighting in ours by having the park scene in high key lighting to show the outside world as bright whereas in the Orphanage the lighting will be dull low key night and day. Tim Burton also emphasises the moon light in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" this creates a Gothic creepy look carrying on the theme we also want to use the idea of moonlight being a main source of light especially for the graveyard scene as it will create the perfect creepy mood we are looking for.


In terms of camerawork Tim Burton uses a long take all the way through taking us through the different parts of the Halloween town slowly revealing different parts while panning fast at the same time, we have adapted this idea for our piece at the opening to take us through our sets of the old Victorian town swooping into the Orphanage. Tim Burton also has his characters acknowledging the camera and introducing themselves to it in song, we will not be doing this in our piece as it would not fit with our storyline.


In terms of Mise-en-Scene Tim Burton uses mostly plasticine for his characters and to line his sets with, we will be doing this also as it is the style of Animation we have chosen to do this allows us to manipulate it to how we want. The audience are taken through a grave yard which is highly exaggerated using long tall skinny grave stones and big exaggerated skulls, we are going to adapt this for our piece as it creates that Gothic creepy look which we are trying to achieve. The Characters are very exaggerated and un realistic they're either really fat and round or really long and stick thin. We have decided to use this look for our characters but they're more realistic then Tim Burton's Characters as his are monsters and we are using actual people. Tim Burton often uses black skinny cats in his animations and "The nightmare before Christmas" is no exception we have decided to use the idea of using an animal in our piece and to use a black cat as they have creepy Myths behind them but are also realistic to have a pet who is Lucy Firrs companion in our animation.