The Nightmare Before Christmas

Corrected entry: When Sally is stitching herself up after her escape through the window, she pulls the needle from behind her ear, and then goes to her pocket for the thread. She couldn't have threaded the needle that fast, and she threads it incorrectly. When you thread a needle, the thread is doubled over and tied. The thread Sally uses is a single thread.

Correction: Since Sally is a rag doll, it stands to reason that she has far, far more experience threading needles than anyone else. Therefore, no one can say that she couldn't have threaded it that fast or have sewn herself up without doubling the thread over and tying it.

Phixius

Corrected entry: When Jack sings his song on top of that cliff there is a full moon behind him. The next night at the town meeting, the moon is crescent. There would not be that much change in only one night.

Correction: We're talking about a make-believe town with a pumpkin replacing the sun. The moon can very well change to contribute to the fantasy in this movie.

Movie_Freak 1

Corrected entry: After Sally jumps out of her bedroom window, we see her look back up at the Evil Scientist's lair. When her head is turned, you can see where her mask line is. (To change Sally's facial expressions, the animators created masks for each emotion.).

Correction: Even though you're right that the movie makers do use masks, this is not what happened here. As you know, Sally is a rag doll and she "broke" when she fell out the window. This is what caused her face to look like it was coming off, because in reality, it was.

Corrected entry: In the town meeting, the big witch is flying around Jack but when the present is pulled by the clown, she is in the seat behind him. (00:21:50)

Correction: She's a witch, it's possible that she teleported back to her seat after flying around Jack.

Correction: This is more due to the consistency of Tim Burton's vision than any intentional homage. He does sometimes give references to other movies, but they are more specific and pointed.

Correction: The scarecrow too.

sabrinafan17

Corrected entry: When Sally puts the Deadly Nightshade in the Dr.'s soup, she tricks him with a spoon full of holes. In the close up shot, you can see the soup draining through the holes in the spoon. In the next spot, you can see as she is sipping from the spoon that there are no holes.

Correction: Sally had to move the spoon in such a way that the Dr. couldn't see the holes in the spoon, or else he wouldn't have eaten it. The way she was holding the spoon causes us to not be able to see the holes either.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Sally is covering up Dr. Finkelstein after she slips him the deadly nightshade, you can see that his glasses are made of clear glass and you can see his eyes. In any other scene in the film, his glasses are made of solid black glass and his eyes are not visible.

Correction: The glasses are not transparent, it is the reflection of the light from the table, so therefor his eyes are not seen.

Corrected entry: It is never revealed how Jack and the trick-or-treaters are able to come back through the doors of the holiday towns they visit. It may be that there are other doorways in these worlds, but they are never shown and even if there were, how would they know where to find them in a strange place?

Correction: Well, they made it back, so presumably it wasn't as difficult as you suggest - possibly individuals who are out of their particular world have some sort of homing instinct to allow them to return home. They could have wasted time showing the return trip, but what's the point?

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: During Oogie Boogie's song, Oogie has a snake tongue, which snaps at Santa as Oogie sings to him. In the scene where Jack defeats Oogie, Oogie is revealed to be composed of bugs. The snake is not visible.

Correction: The bugs he is composed of are alive, you can tell because they are moving around. The snake doesn't HAVE to be visible because it might've slithered off into another part of the bag that is what holds Oogie Boogie together.

Corrected entry: During the part where Jack describes Christmas at the town hall while singing the "town meeting song" there is a part where the Mayor is adjusting the spotlight on Jack and the Mayor falls out of movement. One moment he's in one position and the next he's in a completely different position with no range of motion in between. It looks like there was a frame cut somewhere between the moves.

Correction: I looked and I looked, but I found no sudden shift in the Mayor's position.

Corrected entry: During the song, "What's This?", Jack knows a bit too much about Christmas. For example: "What's this?/They're hanging mistletoe..." Since the only plants in Halloweentown are poisonous, and mistletoe isn't, how did he know that?

Correction: Mistletoe is poisonous and therefore Jack would be very likely to know what it is. Anyone seen Batman Returns? Mistletoe can be even deadlier if you eat it...

Corrected entry: During the song "This is Halloween" at the beginning, when the bats fly in front of the moon, the strings that they are attached to are visible.

Correction: You can also see the stick to make Jack's dog levitate. That's entirely intentional, and thus not a goof.

Corrected entry: In the scene when Sally the rag doll is trying to rescue Santa, she uses her unstitched leg to distract Oogie Boogie while her unstitched hands climb down the chain to untie Santa. After Oogie Boogie discovers the trick, he captures Sally. A few scenes later, Oogie Boogie has tied Sally and Santa to a table over a boiling pit, and Sally's hands and legs are intact. Did Oogie Boogie just wait a few moments before tying her up so she could pull herself together?

Correction: Oogie Boogie could have stitched Sally back together to prevent her dismembered body parts from attacking him as he got rid of her and Santa.

Other mistake: When Jack first arrives in Christmas Land he doesn't know what is falling from the sky (snow) but he somehow knows that the children are throwing snowballs.

More mistakes in The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Mayor: Jack, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!

More quotes from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Trivia: In the song "This is Halloween," the two children sing "Tender Lumplings everywhere..." This is a reference to a poem from the film's songwriter/composer/Jack's singing voice, Danny Elfman's, former musical theatrical street troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (later to evolve as Oingo Boingo.) The original poem, Tender Lumplings, was "And so my tender lumplings, let my welcome hear you now/Into our flesh-pink home of hearts we greet you with a bow/So entertain we must we may, our pleasure from within/The Oingo Boingo treasure chest of lust and mortal sin."

More trivia for The Nightmare Before Christmas

Question: How did Jack save Sally and Santa Claus in Oogie Boogie's lair by transporting them from the lava pit to the Iron Maiden? Wouldn't they be killed by the Iron Maiden?

Answer: Except they're a reanimated corpse and a skeleton. They are either already dead (or undead), or, given how things seem to work, the normal natural laws don't apply to Halloweentown.

Greg Dwyer

But how did Santa survive the Iron Maiden? Especially with how big he is, he certainly would have been killed.

You're trying to apply the rules of the real world to fictional magical beings.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: He was hiding behind Sally.

sabrinafan17

More questions & answers from The Nightmare Before Christmas

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