FROM "THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS"
I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas"! I
seriously do! It has to be one of my Top 5 favorite Disney films of all time,
as well as being one my top 5 favorite Burton movies of all time (I know he
didn't direct it, but come on, his finger prints are still all over this movie).
There's just so much to admire about it, such as the songs, the animation, the
designs, the simplistic and yet imaginative story-line, the atmosphere, and of course its large
cast of characters. All the characters that can be found in the movie are all
memorable and stick with you throughout time for both their design and
personality. And while a good half of them are always fun to watch, they're fun
personalities are nothing compared to the scene chewing villain Oogie Boogie!
What's interesting about Oogie Boogie is, even though we remember him, he only gets three scenes total in the whole entire movie. We don't even see him until we're 49 minutes in of this hour and 16 minute film! However, much like villains like the Queen Of Hearts from "Alice In Wonderland" (The original Disney animated classic), or Shere Khan from "The Jungle Book" (Again, the original Disney animated classic) for example, who aren't seen until the film is half-over, but still leave this everlasting impression on for how fun and villainous they are with their twisted motivation, is the same exact case when involving this crazy villain. And it's not like he just appears out of the blue so the film can just have a forced in villain, because there is some build-up to him. Before we see him appear on screen, we usually see his ghost-like shadow with his evil eyes in a couple of scenes of the movie. Anyone who's seen the film always has the shadow image of Oogie Boogie appearing on the moon changing into bats during the song "This Is Halloween", implanted in their brains, as many call it his best and iconic moment when we see him in the shadows. And while I agree that it is a cool and iconic moment during the build-up to this villain, my personal favorite scene involving Oogie Boogie's shadow is the last time we see it. After when he hears his henchmen sing about them kidnapping Santa Claus and bringing Santa to him, we see his shadow smiling saying "Sandy Claws huh" in such an eerie voice while laughing menacingly, as he rolls a pair dice with a snake slithering around it, hinting that he has a love for gambling where he somehow uses it for evil! That for me is the moment that gave me the creeps when it came to building-up to this villain.
Interesting enough regarding his build-up, the film doesn't start building-up to him until his three mischievous Trick-Or-Treat henchmen Lock (The kid dressed as a Devil voiced by Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens. Who coincidentally previously wore a Devil costume as his character Pee-Wee, on a Halloween Special on David Letterman), Shock (The kid dressed as Witch voiced by Catherine O'Hara, who also provided the voice for Sally in the film) and Barrel (The kid dressed as a Skeleton voiced by Danny Elfman, who composed the music and did Jack Skellington's singing voice) appear when they are given a job by the main character Jack to kidnap Santa Claus, so he can take his job this Christmas. The first mention we ever hear of Oogie Boogie is during their first encounter with Jack, as the Mayor nervously refers to them as "Oogie's boys", as Jack later on in the scene angrily tells them to leave Oogie Boogie out of the plan involving Santa, which the kids lie to Jack as they promise him that they won't. What follows after their false promise, is the song "Kidnapp The Sandy Claws" (By the way, if Jack read everything about Santa and Christmas, wouldn't you think he'd know Santa's actual name, let alone be shocked that he has "no Claws at all"? Ahh who am I kidding, I still love listening to the characters mispronounce Santa's name) which without a doubt is the best scene in the film involving these three mischievous tricksters because it shows and tell us everything about them as they sing this catchy villain song. Honestly when you get down to these characters, and what they are singing about, these kids are actually pretty messed up! These are three little kids who slave over a monster by giving him bugs to feed on (Which by the way, is it just me, or is anyone else thinking about Beetlejuice eating a poor innocent bug, as we watch Oogie do the same?) and victims for him to torture as they seem to almost worship him like a god (Notice that Lock and Barrel appear to be bowing, before Shock sends the caged bug through a mask that leads down a chute to Oogie's lair), who also love to hurt each other with their dangerous weapons. On top of it, the things that the kids sing about of what they want to do Santa, before finally deciding to just send Santa down to Oogie Boogie's lair so he can cook him for his "Snake And Spider Stew", are pretty sadistic! Just read some of these lyrics and tell me that it doesn't at all sound a little disturbing.
"Wait! I've got a better plan, to catch this big red lobster man. Let's pop him in a boiling pot. And when he's done we'll butter him up"
"I say that we take a cannon, aim it at his door, and then Knock three times, and when he answers Sandy Claws will be no more"
"Kidnap the Sandy Claws, Tie him in a bag. Throw him in the ocean, then see if he is sad".
"Kidnap the Sandy Claws, chop him into bits"
These are three little kids thinking about different ways of MURDERING SANTA, the jolly happy fat man who gives children around the world presents, IN A DISNEY FILM ! I love the song and the dark humorous edge that it has to it, but it's still pretty disturbing when you really get down to it! Speaking of them kidnapping Santa, even though they manage to catch the Easter Bunny in their large Trick-Or-Treat sack in one day, it takes them a month in a half to catch jolly old Saint Nick himself! Now I'm not going to say that this plot hole bothers me, because after all they are trying to catch him as he's constantly running around trying to prepare for Christmas, when with the Easter Bunny he's probably easy to find considering that his Holiday is months away. But I will say that while I side with Burton in not doing a sequel to this movie, I would love to see him do a spin-off short movie of the kids trying various attempts to kidnap Santa, only to find themselves constantly failing at it, because in all honesty, I would be more then interested in seeing what the kids were doing all this time. While we're on the topic of things that we don't see in this movie, there's a deleted scene on the Two Disc Special Edition DVD involving these three tricksters that was animated, but cut out of the movie for time, that I actually felt like should have been in the theatrical cut. The kids start to wonder what's going on in Oogie's lair and decide to watch Oogie torture Santa and Sally by looking through one of the entrances to his lair in their Elevator cage after garbing a few snacks (Like Popcorn, Soda, and Candy). When they hear the Mayor announce that Jack “has been blown to smithereens”, they cheerful gloat about Jack's demise, until Jack suddenly shows up to scare them away, so they don't interfere with him saving Santa and Sally. It's not just that its fun seeing the kids grab a snack and watch Oogie torture his victims as if they're at the movies. It's not even just for the fact that we see Jack use his cool talent for scaring to his advantage. It's mainly because it makes more sense for the kids to go and fetch the Mayor to tell him that Jack is alive, after being spooked by him as Jack discovers that they went against their promise of leaving Oogie out of the plan. In the theatrical cut, I can assume that the kids heard of Jack's presence, and probably went to get the Mayor after hearing (Or seeing) their master get killed. But since their was already a scene actually explaining these characters change of heart, that was fun and had a cool moment involving Jack, it would make sense to keep it in the movie. Especially when considering that the movie is really not that long.
After all this build-up to our main villain, we finally get our first glance of him when Lock, Shock, and Barrel push Santa down the chute leading to his lair. And what's cool about his first on-screen entrance is, he appears when you least expect it. As Santa looks around Oogie's lair, he hears the sound of somebody rolling a pair of dice behind a neon lit gate. Once the gate opens up, a pair dice come rolling out smacking Santa in the face. And just when we think Oogie is about to enter right through the gate where the dice rolled out of, he suddenly appears right behind Santa in the shadows with his eyes and mouth glowing in the dark. We then get a full reveal of this villain as he taunts Santa, he spits out bugs into Santa's beard while laughing. His on-screen reveal is a cool and frightening entrance that catches you by surprise. But lets be honest, it's not really just the entrance that he makes that we find cool about his first on-screen appearance. It's actually the whole entire song sequence that involves his first appearance, as he sings and dances like Cab Calloway in his lair, as he taunts Santa by telling him that he's doomed and will not be leaving his lair once he's through with him, which is a fun and catchy villain song that has cool visuals, and is perfectly sung by the actor voicing Oogie, Ken Page. And to cast the same actor who voiced a random and an over the top big-lipped singing alligator in "All Dogs Go To Heaven", to have him voice a sadistic fun loving monster like Oogie is without doubt perfect casting. He gives the character so much weight and personality, that it's almost as if Page was thinking that he's just going to have fun voicing the character and sell-out every single little scene he's in to make this villain stand-out. And there's no doubt that he perfectly succeeded in making this villain become memorable as he's having a blast voicing the character. Sure he can make Oogie sound both scary and intimidating, but for the most part he's yucking things up with his mean and sassy personality just as much as someone like Levi Stubbs was yucking things up when he voiced Audrey 2 in "Little Shop Of Horrors". Scenes with him taunting Santa and Sally, tickling Sally's feet (Rather than creasing her leg), and running away from his own booby-traps for me are just priceless moments that never seem to stop being funny after the many times I’ve watched this movie. I also have to give credit for an actor like Ken Page, and creative geniuses like Tim Burton and the film's director Henry Selick for making a stupid idea of a monster being a talking sack full of bugs, and making it look plausible, by giving him a cool design that look like a ghost as bugs would occasionally crawl out of him, and getting a talented actor who loves to ham things up without getting to the point where you want smack him for being so loud and obnoxious.
What also makes this villain stand-out is his obsessed love for gambling, as he uses this method to torture and kill people, which many of us who grew up with this movie have found to be creatively twisted. The fact that Oogie's lair is a torture chamber that's made to resemble a Las Vegas Casino with its neon lights and torture devices that revolve around gambling (Such as robotic gun wielding skeletons in the form of a slot machine, giant robotic cards with spinning swords, and a roulette wheel with spikes on it,) is a very cool and creative concept. But as we admire the creativity of his lair while also having fun watching Oogie play around with his pair of dice and his victim, there is still a dark and twisted edge to it that feels rather uncomfortable. Sure the idea of gambling with your life is already twisted enough as it is, but when gambling with Oogie "you haven't got a prayer" because this monster loves to cheat. If he rolls a pair of dice, and doesn't like where the dice lands on, he'll cheat by slamming his fist on the table to shake the dice, and try to make it look like he didn't mean too, when it's so obvious that he did. You don't even have a fighting a chance of trying to roll for your life either, since you'll be tied up as Oogie pretty much rolls for you, where it's a 100 to 1 chance that he'll ever consider of letting you win. His lair is also full of singing skeletons that can barely sing, who are more than likely his past victims that he gambled with. Keep in mind that this is Santa who is suffering this horror that many of us would never dream to experience. Oogie may have other special abilities and sick methods for killing, such as being able to suck things up like a vacuum cleaner, eating people after cooking them in lava, and his hinted ability to stitch (When Sally was first seen entering Oogie's lair, her hands and leg are dismembered so that she can to try to free Santa. But when she's captured by Oogie, you'll easily notice that her hands and leg are reattached to her as she's tied-up. Some would consider this to be a plot hole, but given the fact that Oogie is a monster who is full of stitches, it would seem possible that he would have the knowledge to stitch, and may have probably stitched Sally back together to prevent her separate body parts from attacking him, or trying to help her and Santa escape). But it's his love for gambling, and how he uses it for his evil deeds that stands-out the most out of all the skills and abilities that he has.
You know for a villain like Oogie Boogie who's given very little screen-time, they sure do give him a very harsh and gruesome death. When he tries to make his escape after his failed attempts of killing Jack, Jack grabs a loose thin thread attached to Oogie and starts to pull on it. At first we begin to see bugs’ leaking out of his arm as Oogie watches this horror in disbelief. And when Jack finally unravels Oogie's sack, we see all the bugs inside Oogie in his ghost like shape crying as the majority of his bugs fall into the molten lava that Santa and Sally we're originally going to be boiled in. I know his death doesn't sound gruesome, but really think about it. The bugs inside Oogie’s sack are what keep him alive, and the sack that the bugs are kept in, is actually Oogie's skin. So what Jack pretty much did to Oogie was skin him alive as we come to realize that the bugs that fall out of him are actually his guts! Sure there's no blood or anything, but it still a dark and pretty disturbing death for this villain, especially when we watch this villain cry as he's falling apart. Plus one of his crying bugs actually gets squashed by Santa which looks and sounds just brutal as seeing Ray the firefly in "The Princess And The Frog" get squashed by Dr.Facilier, only here we see the bugs remain smear around as he's being squished. Now that's REALLY a harsh way to go!
As cool as Oogie Boogie is as a villain, who carry's out so much awesomeness in every little scene he's in, the reason why I had to put him low on the list is NOT because he has little screen-time, but because we hardly know that much about him. We don't know exactly know why he and Jack are enemies, why he lives faraway from "Halloween Town", or why he is who he is. The only clue that we ever get of why he's so hated upon the others in "Halloween Town" is because of his sadistic nature, while all the residents just scare for fun and celebration of the Holiday. Even when they made those Christmas toys that scared and attacked children on Christmas weren't intended to bring any harm to them as they planed, they just didn't know better since the toys seemed normal and harmless to them. And since Oogie Boogie's actual intention is to flat out murder people, instead of just playfully scare them, it seems to make sense why the residents disapprove his methods. However, while getting a hint of why he's hated upon others; his overall motivation is just killing Santa. I'm not at all saying that it isn't a twisted one or even a threatening one for that matter since it would mean the end of "Christmas Town". But he doesn't kill him to take away Christmas or anything, he just does it because he wants to, and while still a sadistic motivation, comparing him to other Disney villains that actually do have a motivation and a bit of back story, his overall character and motivation falls pretty short. Originally there was going to be an alternate ending explaining Oogie Boogie's origins and actual motives by having him in a twist be Sally's creator Dr.Finklestein in a costume to set an example for Sally of why she isn't allowed outside of the lab. And THANK GOD that they didn't go with that ending because it really makes no sense. If Dr.Finklestein was Oogie Boogie this whole entire time, why go through the trouble of putting bugs inside him; it seems rather pointless? Also how long has he been keeping up this act, because it seems that his Oogie Boogie identity has been around way before Sally was ever created, due to his reputation? As a matter of fact, do his henchmen Lock, Shock, and Barrel know about his plan? There's just too much B.S. surrounding this alternate ending! And the fact that a supposedly white doctor is impersonating a monster with a deep voice that talks in jive, and has a soulful singing voice, almost seems like he's giving a black face performance! Seriously, if they actually went with this twist ending, it would totally ruin this great villain.
As little that we know of Oogie, as he's given a very simple motivation, he's still an awesome villain. His build-up is great. His henchmen are enjoyable. The design he has is unique. His methods of killing people are both creative and twisted. The death that he suffers is brutal. And the actor voicing him does a perfect job of making this villain leave a large impression on you, as you'd almost swear that this character was in more than just a few scenes in the movie. Sure he doesn't have a big motivation like many other Disney villains, but the fact that he'll kill anyone his henchmen has capture (Especially when you put a Holiday icon like Santa as his victim) is still pretty dark and insane. And even though we hardly know that much about it, the vagueness of his origins are what I think make him so fascinating.
"It's hopeless, your finished, you haven't got a prayer. Cause I'm Mr.Oogie Boogie, and you ain't going nowhere"!
-Oogie Boogie
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