Movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas

[odklizec]

In the current Halloween (and before Christmas) time I would recommend you to see Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". A very nice stop-motion animated movie with original release date in 1993. It's probably not the latest movie, but in my opinion, it's one of the best interpretations of Halloween theme. Do you want to know what would happen if the Halloween creatures kidnap the Santa and take over the Christmas? Then go to your local DVD rental store and borrow it for you or for your kids I'm sure you will enjoy it.

[leews2001]

A fantastic stop-motion animation film indeed, this has always been one of my favorite Burton's work, more so than the recent "Corpse Bride". The DVD of this film includes another darkly beautiful classic animation of his early days in Disney Studio : "Vincent"

The details of the animation is really breathtaking and the songs are really catchy!! I end up getting both the dvd and soundtrack

any one seen or would recommend the stop-motion work of Jan Svankmajer?

[odklizec]

Definitely! The "Nightmare" is much better than overhyped Corpse Bride! Corpse Bride is not bad in terms of animation. But in term of story, soundtrack and fun it's far behind the Nightmare. I would say it's just another commercial "sequel"

As for Svankmajer, I can recommend you "Faust". Also "Otesanek" (Greedy Guts/Little Otik) is great stop-motion! Oh yes and "Spiklenci slasti" (Conspirators of Pleasure) is great movie too! These were from the latest Svankmajer's works. But his older works are great too! Search for "Moznosti dialogu" (Dimensions of Dialogue) or "Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta" (Jabberwocky). It's hard to select the best one

BTW, stop-motion movies have a great tradion in Czech Republic (Svankmajer's and my homeland). If you like stop-motion style movies, check also Jiri Barta's films! For example his great "Zaniklý Svet Rukavic" (The Vanished World of Gloves) or "Krysar" (The Pied Piper). And we have not to forget about probably the greatest Czech stop-motion artist Jiri Trnka (also known as "Walt Disney Of The East")!

There are plenty of old Czech stop motion and puppet motion movies at youtube and some are also here:
http://www.darkstrider.net/gallery2a.html

[leews2001]

wow what recommendations! thank you! that will keep me busy for sometime!!!

For Jan's work, i've only seen Neco z Alenky which i enjoyed alot. Have been wanting to get Spiklenci slasti too... CDJapan sells them all, but its very expensive to collect!

I've heard from my friends that Otesanek is not that nice. (of course they have not seen his earlier works either, nor do they enjoy Nightmare before Christmas...)

I've been to Czech Rep. once, the tradition of stop-motion animation is indeed obvious with the popularity of puppetry theatre. That reminds me of Karel Capek, but i spin that off in another thread later. Its a shame i do not have the time to explore more of the magic around Czech Rep. and Slovakia...

you might also like to try out works of José Miguel Ribeiro from Portugal. i would recommend "A Suspeita". The most frightening stop-motion animation i've seen is "Clash of the Titans"..

[odklizec]

Of course, Svankmajer's movies are not for everyone In my opinion, Faust is much harder to watch and understand than Otesanek. But the Otesanek is a traditional Czech/Slovak horror fairy tale for kids I would say in brother Grim's or maybe Andersen's style. But I like it.

BTW speaking of horror fairy tales, there is another great Czech movie Kytice. There is not much stop-motion animation in this movie but it's really great! 7 short and very dark fairy tales in verses. They may be hard to understand for foreigners but the camera and soundtrack is great and all 7 stories and characters are very strong. In fact, are stories in this movie are about a crime/misdoing and punishment so they are very easy to understand. I'm sure, with enabled EN subtitles, it will be a great experience for all true lovers of good films with strong story (in this case 7 strong stories ).

Thanks for tip on José Miguel Ribeiro! I will definitely check his works!

[leews2001]

I saw the trailer and absolutely must see it! (well ordering from Botonland.cz now

There must have been so many great film works (other than Emir Kusturica's) from Central/Eastern Europe that deserve attention from the international community... do share with us some gems now and then!

thank you again!

ps: discussing about cinema/films may seem out of topic in this photographic forum, but i find it very relevant since one can learn alot from the cinematography work too!

[hiro]

Re. Jan Svankmajer, I recommend his stop motion film "Alice", which is the best adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I have seen, it is very dark and surreal, with that slightly disturbing illogical quality that dreams tend to have. An English dub of it was done by Channel Four TV in the UK some years ago. The white rabbit is a stuffed rabbit which leaks sawdust, and the caterpillar is a stuffed sock which sits on a wooden darning mushroom with buttons for eyes. The girl however is real.