An Early Christmas Present

The ghoulish, stop-motion-animated sights in Halloween Town have never looked sharper than in "Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas: 2-Disc Collector's Edition" ($32.99), released on DVD this week. The delightfully macabre tale, whose style can best be described as Rankin-Bass meets "Beetlejuice," has become a holiday classic in the 15 years since its theatrical release. And by "holiday," I mean both Christmas and Halloween, which might explain why Disney is pushing the DVD so early in the season. With many kids back in school, apparently it's time, at least from a marketing perspective, to start thinking jack-o'-lanterns and goblins.

"Nightmare," the off-kilter story of Pumpkin King Jack Skellington and his attempt to give Halloween Town a yuletide makeover, has reappeared in theaters in 3-D the past two years. (According to boxofficemojo.com, the 3-D version will hit multiplexes again in October.)

Although the version on the new DVD is not 3-D, it has been digitally remastered, achieving a visual depth as close to 3-D as a movie can get without forcing people to wear those goofy glasses. Viewers will justifiably marvel at the sparkling flecks in the Christmas Town snow and the moody grays that cast creepy-fun shadows throughout Halloween Town. That's just on the regular disc; one assumes the picture is even brighter on the Blu-ray DVD ($39.99). (Also out this week, that set has a few more extras, including an introduction to the movie by Burton.)

So that's the good "Nightmare" news. The bad? Many of the regular DVD's extras, including a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, two early short films by Burton and a series of storyboard-to-film comparisons, have appeared on previous releases. The making-of doc in particular screams for a re-do, as it was clearly filmed in the early '90s. (Exhibit A: Composer Danny Elfman wears a Ren and Stimpy T-shirt.)

The DVD does contains fresh material, including an often engaging commentary by Burton, Elfman and director Henry Selick; an unnecessarily long look at how Disneyland revamps its Haunted Mansion ride, "Nightmare"-style, during the holidays; and an introduction to Burton's short, "Frankenweenie," in which he reveals that production is underway on a full-length, animated adaptation of the family-dog-as-Frankenstein feature.

Also original to the collector's edition: Christopher Lee's reading of the poem that inspired "Nightmare Before Christmas."

Considering that the set comes with a digital copy of the film, allowing its oddball beauty to be uploaded to mobile devices, most will be satisfied with the new collection, especially if they don't own one of the previous incarnations.

But Hollywood is a magical place, where wonderful movies can be resold to consumers again and again. Although no plans have been announced, the likelihood that the 3-D "Nightmare Before Christmas" will arrive on DVD someday, complete with another lineup of extras, is as obvious as the stitched-on smile across Jack Skellington's face.

Best Oingo Boingo Bonus Point: During the commentary, Elfman, former frontman for the '80s band behind New Wave favorites such as "Dead Man's Party," confesses that he related to Jack Skellington's conflicted sense of self because of doubts about his own career. "Halloweenland was Oingo Boingo, and Christmas Town was the world of musical things that I might be doing but I didn't know what they were outside of being in a band," he says.

So that's why Oingo Boingo broke up: It was all the Pumpkin King's fault!

"THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS" is rated PG and runs 76 minutes.