Nightmare Before Christmas: known throughout England, France, Italy ...
November 13, 2013 12:07 PM   Subscribe

If you've like Jack, the Pumpkin King, and you've grown so tired of the same old thing, you know all the songs from the The Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack (YT Playlist), and you're done with the covers in the 2006 reissue bonus CD (featuring Fiona Apple, Fall Out Boy, She Wants Revenge and Panic! at the Disco) and the 2008 cover album, Nightmare Revisited (YT Playlist), why not check out the official translated versions? There's L'Étrange Noël de Monsieur Jack, Pesadilla Antes De Navidad, and ナイトメアー·ビフォア·クリスマス, to name a few versions. posted by filthy light thief (12 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Covered in part previously.

If you want more (ridiculously un-)Halloweeny/Christmasy music, I present DJ Dub Floyd's The Nightmare Before Christmas mixtape (direct link to the Mixcloud stream).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:10 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


From the less-than-official Persian dub... In chist?
posted by Gordafarin at 12:14 PM on November 13, 2013


I love this post and The Nightmare Before Christmas! The book's 20th anniversary edition is out too. I feel old.

If and when I ever have a home-space to decorate in a festive way, I will be doing all of the trimmings in TNBC-theme, because I can leave them up from September to January. The perfect lazy person's holiday cheer.
posted by nicebookrack at 12:36 PM on November 13, 2013


Marilyn Manson's cover of "This Is Halloween" is the best matchup of artist and material ever.
posted by jfuller at 1:44 PM on November 13, 2013


Great. Now I'll be singing all the songs to myself for a week.... I've listened to the soundtrack so much that it's weird to watch the movie and not have Patrick Stewart doing the intro. And nickebookrack, in my house the giant Jack bust stays up year round!
posted by gemmy at 1:44 PM on November 13, 2013


It's one of my favourite movies ever. I watch it at least twice or three times a year, but I mute the songs. They turn my stomach.

Sorry.
posted by Trochanter at 1:45 PM on November 13, 2013


Trochanter, then you might enjoy the Angrysvn Special Edition, a fan edit of the film with various cover versions of the songs replacing the movie versions. As is the case for most fan edits, the only way to get it is on bittorrent sites.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:58 PM on November 13, 2013


And I agree with gemmy, why limit Spooky Christmas/Halloween to a few months a year, when it can be year-round? Our set of Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees Hockey Mask Lights That Play the "Halloween" Theme Song* are always up.

*Yes, we realize that they merged two movies, but they're so festive!
posted by filthy light thief at 2:01 PM on November 13, 2013


I'm glad you did this. I am still obsessed with this, in any language you care to put forward. And yes, I too felt terribly old when I saw a 20th-anniversary sign near the Nightmare Before Christmas merch in the store recently. That was my first date movie.

I still don't understand, what with Disney's relentless self-cannibalization, why Nightmare has never been made into a big Broadway stage musical. The dull answer is probably that somebody crunched the numbers and decided it was too Christmasy for Halloween and too Halloweeny for Christmas, so they wouldn't pack enough butts into the seats.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:11 PM on November 13, 2013


I unashamedly love the Elfman score; but hate most of the covers in the extended reissue except for the Fiona Apple Sally's Song.

On Disney:

too Christmasy for Halloween and too Halloweeny for Christmas

OTOH, Disneyland takes advantage of its holiday-spanning by applying the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay to the Haunted Mansion for 4 months of the year. And by shifting a lot of merchandise in their shops.

My guess is that it'd be hard to translate its distinctive visual style -- Jack's spindly limbs etc -- to the stage without disappointing fans. Maybe with some sort of Lion King-style re-imagining?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:35 PM on November 13, 2013


I always half-wished that Disney would pull a Lion King, and transition Nightmare Before Christmas into a stage musical. Think of the crazy puppets and outfits! And the songs!
posted by themadthinker at 4:53 PM on November 13, 2013


Went to a live performance of the full soundtrack by Portland's Saloon Ensemble on Nov. 1st. This year was the second they've done it, and all indications are that it will be back next year.
posted by polymath at 8:59 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


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