"Haven't you heard of peace on earth and goodwill toward men?" "NO!"

Jack the Pumpkin is feeling depressed after Halloween, which seems easier and easier year after year. He wanders around and finds himself in Christmastown! He suddenly feels inspired again - and he decides to plan Christmas.

There's that eternal problem with this movie - do you watch it during Halloween or Christmas? Well, we watched it in September.. Which is close enough to Halloween.

I've always liked this movie. Even though I have seen it many times it hasn't lost its magic. It's partly because of the wonderful soundtrack. All the songs are fun, and I know almost every one of them by heart. To be honest, I probably annoyed my sister by singing all the songs. The lyrics are just simply amazing and melodies are simple and catching - and that's all you need in a good musical: lyrics that carry out the story and melody that gets into the audience's head. My favourite songs are probably "This is Halloween", "Jack's lament", "Kidnap The Sandy Claws", "Sally's song" and "Poor Jack". Even though there's this really cool album with all the songs sang again (meaning This is Halloween performed by Marilyn Manson and Sally's Song performed by Amy Lee and what else), the original soundtrack is much better.

But what's more amazing is the animation. Stop motion animation will always be hundred times more impressive than CGI animations. Stop motion looks amazing, it has a lot more 3D feeling than 3D CGI has, which of course only makes sense since the characters and things actually exist, they are actual things rather than inside some computer program. And also... the patience the animators must have. But the animation is one of the reasons for the magic of this movie. I don't think it would have the same eerie feeling in Halloween town if it was simply CGI or the traditional animation. 

All the actors are also well chosen. What I most love is Danny Elfman singing Jack's songs. He has magnificent voice. Though I keep wondering why didn't he do the whole thing - is it because he isn't an actor? I mean voice acting is challenging, so if Elfman hasn't done any acting then I kind of understand. But Chris Sarandon has such a similar voice, which is why it took me a while to even realise there was something different with Jack's singing and speaking. I think accent or something gave it away. Also Catherine O'Hara is marvellous as Sally. I especially love her voice when she sings Sally's song. There's something unique in her singing voice. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9/10