Wow, it’s still adorable even after all these years. The songs are great and even greater in Italian because Renato Zero is amazing.
The story is simple: In the Land of Halloween, everything is Halloween-themed, of course, and that’s what they are and what they do. Still, Jack Skellington, pumpkin king, is not satisfied of doing the same thing over and over, and feels kind of lost, you could say.
One night he stumbles into Christmas Land and is shocked by what he sees, because he has never seen anything like it. There’s snow and lights and colours and joy.
He starts talking about Christmas to his whole town, he tries to understand what it means via scientific methods, and then he wants to try experiencing it, so he has Santa Claus, that he thinks is called Santa Claws, abducted. He asks Sally to sew him a Santa costume, and has the town prepare presents for the children, and the doctor Finkelstein makes him some skeletons reindeers. He flies over the town and leaves his own presents for the poor children, who get attacked by them. After many reports like this, people start blocking their fireplaces and ultimately shoot him down. Finally Jack realises that although he did his best, it was not for him because he’s not Santa Claus, he’s Jack the Pumpkin King, and so he goes back home to get the real Santa so he can put things right. First he has to save him from the Bogeyman, and then Santa is very quick to put things right taking away the monster-presents and replacing them with real ones.
Then Santa flies over Jack’s town yelling Happy Halloween and making it snow.
Jack and Sally finally get together.
Sally is adorable, she’s been created by Finkelstein like the monster of Frankenstein, but she’s more of a rag-doll, her pieces sewn together. She’s also restless like Jack and understands how he feels; being restless, she often puts nightshade in the doctor’s soup so he sleeps and she can run out of the house. When he locks her in, she jumps out of her room, like a Rapunzel in her tower, only she falls down and smashes on the floor, pieces everywhere, but she keeps thread and needle on her just for times like this: she sews herself back together. She tries to stop Jack from his crazy plan, but he won’t listen to her, so sure and obsessed by this new idea.
When Jack is shot down and the mayor thinks he’s dead, Sally hurries to find Santa and free him so he can put things right again, and her idea is quite ingenious, she has one of her legs lure the Boogeyman away from Santa, then she sends her hands to free him from those ropes, and she throws him a rope ladder but before he can get out, big as he is, the Bogeyman sees what they’re doing and captures them. Jack will be just in time to save them.
Jack is adorable too, from his figure like a skeleton to the way he feels lost.
Honestly, I don’t really care much for the rest, the other monsters, the mayor with two faces, the witches, the vampires, or even Jack’s ghost dog, Zero, who will play Rudolph for Jack.
Jack and Sally are the main characters, though, they dominate the film so it doesn’t matter much about the others.
At the end, after he’s been saved, Santa scolds Jack for what he did and tells him to listen to Sally next time he has a crazy idea like this.
Finally Jack notices her, she was really shy with him and never approached him, but she put herself at risk to help him, and he sees that now. They would have maybe kissed but are interrupted by the town finding that Jack is back safe and sound.
At the end, Jack sees that the doctor made himself another one, a woman better dressed who pushes his wheelchair, and he maybe feels bad for Sally who now probably has nowhere to go, so he follows her, and it ends when they kiss.
Like most of animated movies, or probably I could say all western animated movies, it is a musical, they often break into song to express their feelings, but it is really ok because they’re great, really.
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