Filmtracks: The Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman)


Elfman

The Nightmare Before Christmas: (Danny Elfman) Sometimes films don't receive their due praise until long after their unheralded debuts, and such was definitely the case with Tim Burton's production of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Based on a concept percolating in his head for a decade, the story involves the clashing of two holidays when the inhabitants of the fantasy town of Halloween discover the town of Christmas and attempt to adapt the latter holiday with their own sensibility. Every aspect of the film is unconventional, from the stop-action animation process to the musical format of the soundtrack. A combination of characters and visuals too dark for small children and humor aimed at adults caused The Nightmare Before Christmas to become a favorite of the teenage crowd. The enigma fared relatively well at the time of its 1993 release, but despite being a musical in Disney's line-up at a time when that format could do no wrong for the studio, the film was a box office disappointment. The songs and score by rising star Danny Elfman received little mainstream recognition, failing to garner a single Oscar nomination in either category. Inevitably, the world was enamored with Alan Menken's production for Disney at the time, which made sense given that he had just completed the superior trilogy of soundtracks (ending with Aladdin) that made him famous. But time has been abnormally kind to The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is often remembered today as a hidden gem in the careers of both Burton and Elfman, and its cult following increased to such an extent that the film was transferred by Disney into 3D format and re-released into theatres on its 13th anniversary in 2006. The film has earned its fairly deserved recognition outside teenage circles and, while still too strange for some older audiences and certainly the kind of concept to earn considerable protest from the America's touchy religious right, it continues to develop a strong reputation with another generation of youngsters. For Elfman himself, his music wasn't much applauded by mainstream critics in 1993 (in fact, some denigrated it simply by using Menken as an unfair comparison), but The Nightmare Before Christmas remains a remarkable exhibition of the man's obviously immense talents.

When Elfman changed course with his career later in the 1990's and experimented with orchestral and electronic minimalism, many fans lamented the loss of his Batman and Edward Scissorhands styles. Equal was the loss of The Nightmare Before Christmas, for the composer would never again pour so much overwhelming creativity into one production. His songs and score may not be classics in any corner, but they are distinctly fashioned out his distinctly intoxicating sound. His lyrics are frightfully intelligent and humorous. His vocal performances as several of the characters, including Jack Skellington, are remarkably inflective. By 1993, the scoring community had already tasted its fair share of Danny Elfman's creativity, and yet one can easily get the impression that nobody was fully prepared for The Nightmare Before Christmas. Accentuating the uniqueness of the situation was that all of the above was done by Elfman for a Burton film, making for not only an impressively unconventional effort by Elfman, but also a rather demented one. It truly is impossible to place this work in context with the average run of the mill soundtrack. Because of that fact, it's hard to listen to The Nightmare Before Christmas very often unless you consider yourself a die-hard fan of the concept. It's a great score to dissect and reconstruct, with its so many strong themes, and the main reason to pull this score off the shelf is to admire the complexity of Elfman's creation. The composition itself is superior, with multiple themes interacting seamlessly and complimenting each other with a certain funny elegance. His manipulation of themes to suit the varying emotions of the characters is masterful. His inherent love of tragedy leads to such numbers as "Jack's Lament," "Sally's Song," and "Poor Jack," while his affinity for the bizarre is heard in "This is Halloween," "Kidnap The Sandy Claws," and "Oogie Boogie's Song." The fact that there are ten songs in The Nightmare Before Christmas not only gives the film wall-to-wall melodies but also creates a roller coaster ride that defies a consistent sound for the entire production. The brooding emphasis on lower range instruments and heavy bass in the mix offer a bit of overarching connection, as do the references to previous songs in later ones.

On the whole, though, The Nightmare Before Christmas is all over the map in terms of style. To go from the blues of "Oogie Boogie's Song" to the sparse drama of "Sally's Song" causes obvious problems. While "This is Halloween" is the flashiest, "Jack's Lament" and "What's This" are highlights, if only because of Elfman's vocal performances as Jack. His amusingly expressive performances easily overshadow the vocals by Catherine O'Hara and others. Above and beyond all the other tasks, however, one could get the impression that the vocals especially caused The Nightmare Before Christmas to be one of Elfman's favorite pet projects. Without any single dominant song in the entire work (there is no "title song"), there really was nothing for awards voters to grasp on to. As for the score, Elfman's music is very tightly tied to the melodies of the songs. Outside of parts of "Jack and Sally Montage" and "Christmas Eve Montage," the score tracks are largely unremarkable. In an age when overtures have long since disappeared, it's great to hear a well-constructed one here, and both "Overture" and "End Title" are smart suites that brilliantly provide snippets of most of the songs' themes. The two performances by Patrick Stewart as the narrator provide a great, God-like perspective on the whole affair, but neither was heard in the film. The "Opening" was originally recorded by the actor who plays Santa Claus and it is that performance that exists in the film. The film was released two weeks before Halloween and the album hit the shelves ten days after the pumpkins had been packed away, allowing for the revision. For the 2002 re-release to theatres, Disney offered a 2-CD package with no new material from the film. It does offer demo performances of four songs by Elfman (including "This is Halloween," which appeared on the composer's "Music for a Darkened Theatre, Volume 2" compilation), but the five cover versions by Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, and others are wretched and atrocious. As if Disney hadn't milked this cow enough, the studio's label released yet another album of music from The Nightmare Before Christmas two years later, this time with only cover versions of every track. The 2008 album is the worst that commercial markets can inspire, taking artists of radically different cultures and genres of music and giving each one shot at producing their own version of Elfman's material.


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The spirit of the original performances is usually completely lost in the 2008 cover versions, except in the cases of "Sally's Song" and "Poor Jack," both of which actually marginally resemble the original recording. The Marilyn Manson performance from the 2006 album is reprised. Otherwise, some of these cover renditions are so incongruous with the original that they will be unrecognizable. This isn't like hearing Natalie Merchant perform David Bowie's "Space Oddity," one of many cases in which the cover is gorgeous and the original quite annoying. Elfman and his ensemble nailed these performances in 1993 and anything significantly different is an oddity not worth the money. On the surface, one interesting aspect of this album for the composer's collectors will be the fact that the score tracks are included in this endeavor. The Vitamin String Quartet's version of "Jack and Sally Montage" is listenable, but that's about it. Hearing the remaining score tracks translated into heavy metal or electronica (or, in the case of "End Title," a drug-induced haze) stinks of studio and label greed. If Disney wanted to do this right, they would have taken the original recording, augment it with the minimal score material that still remains unreleased (indeed, after three albums, Disney still can't provide a complete presentation!), and offer a second CD (like the 2006 album) with all of these ridiculous cover versions. The only truly neat aspect of the 2008 "Nightmare Revisited" album is the change in narration during "Opening" and "Closing." For these tracks, the original orchestral underscore is accompanied by new recordings of Elfman performing the narrator role himself. His voice has changed in the last fifteen years, though there's still a hint of that Jack Skellington tone to be heard. Patrick Stewart's version, interestingly enough, is arguably superior, but since The Nightmare Before Christmas is truly Elfman's baby, it's nice to hear him in yet another role. The vocal mix is resounding and he reprises the harsher edge of Jack's spoken voice with the line "Wouldn't you?" to conclude "Closing." In the end, however, no cover version of any of Elfman's songs or score can possibly capture the spirit of the cast of voices and accompanying instrumentation, and the original 1993 album still exists with everything true enthusiasts of the film and music really need. Elfman and Burton would try to tap the same well in 2005 with The Corpse Bride, but the undeniable magic of The Nightmare Before Christmas was gone.

****

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