The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Ultra HD

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a stop-motion animation classic, which spent years germinating in the creative mind of Tim Burton. Jack Skellington (Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon), the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, is bored with the same old tricks and treats and yearns for something more than things that go bump in the night. After another stale Halloween celebration, while on a walk with his ghostly canine Zero, Jack stumbles upon the glorious magic of Christmas Town—and decides to bring this joyful holiday back to Halloween Town. (Gary Reber)

Special features include song selections, "What's This? Jack's Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour" (HD 37:24) where viewers are given the choice of how they want to tour Disneyland's Holiday Haunted Mansion, either "On Track" or "Off Track"; Tim Burton's early black-and-white film "Frankenweenie" (HD 29:59), Tim Burton's Original Poem Narrated By Christopher Lee (HD 11:37); a fasinating making-of featurette (HD 24:44), commentary by Producer Tim Burton, Director Henry Selick, and Music Composer Danny Elfman; "Frankenweenie," with an all-new intro by Burton; the "Vincent" short film (SD 05:55); three deleted storyboards (SD 02:56); four deleted animated sequences (SD 05:06); "The Making Of Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (SD 24:44); "Halloween Town," "Christmas Town," and "The Real World" poster galleries; a storyboard-to-film comparison (SD 03:47); posters; trailers; sneak peeks and a Movies Anywhere digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 4K Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, was animated and released on 35 mm Eastman film stock and sourced from a 4K Digital Intermediate. Picture quality is superb. The color palette is artfully saturated and exhibits warm, and rich pastel hues. The nuanced hue shadings stand out as they exhibit wonderful textural composition of the dazzling stop-motion characters and the background settings in which they perform. HDR contrast is excellent with a wide distinctions between the deep black levels and the brilliant white levels. Shadow delineation is superb with impressive depth. Of course the original was designed to be converted and presented in 3D, which it was on the 3D Blu-ray edition reviewed in Issue 160, October 2011. The 4K Ultra HD edition does a satisfying job of presenting image depth but it is not the same dimensional experience as presented on the 3D Blu-ray, Resolution is outstanding with fine detail exhibited throughout. Characters and environments are incredibility detailed in terms of textural composition. This is a terrific release of this stop-motion animated classic from Tim Burton. (Gary Reber)

The repurposed DTS-HD master Audio 7.1-channel soundtrack delivers an engrossing, entertaining listening experience. This is a terrific spatially dimensional holosonic® showcase,The presentation delivers wonderful fixed and panned sound effects. Atmospherics nicely enhance the sense of dimension as well. Danny Elfman's orchestral score is extremely fluid in the stereo soundstage and soundfield surround imaging. Instrumentation is nicely defined and positioned across the soundstage with excellent surround depth. Dynamics are excellent with deep bass along with gentle .1 LFE engagement. complementing the music and sound effects. As well, fidelity is exemplary, HDR dialogue is remarkably spatially integrated and multi-dimensional throughout the soundfield. The sining and choral arrangements are presented with superb directional spacing and dynamics. This is an impressively produced soundtrack that is highly effective in providing the essential entertainment and storytelling aspects of this stop-motion classic. (Gary Reber)