The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 26, 2023

Due to the vagaries of my review queue, I've been watching some interesting documentaries on the history of the Disney studios, and also following up that watching with some background reading, and for those similarly interested in how a legendary studio might attempt to "rebrand" itself, there's some fascinating information available about Touchstone, the imprint Disney created to handle ostensibly more "adult" fare than films or television properties typically associated with the venerable Disney name. The Nightmare Before Christmas was indeed at least partially a Touchstone presentation, and if its surface "weirdnesses" might seem to make it a rather ill fit for Disney, Touchstone imprint aside, despite its obviously dark and comically sinister tone, it has a surplus of what has always made the best Disney films, well, most Disney-like, namely a lot of heart. As is its standard operating procedure, Disney has released the film in several formats over the years and is now visiting it again with both this standard packaging 4K UHD release as well as another of its Best Buy SteelBooks.

Those interested are encouraged to red both Ken Brown's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D Blu-ray review and Martin Liebman's The Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-ray review. Marty's review is especially salient since the 1080 disc included in this package is the so-called "Sing Along Edition" that Marty reviewed. As I so often seem to repeat, different reviewers means differing opinions, and I'm evidently even more of a fan of this delightfully wicked motion picture than Ken and Marty are.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc included with this release.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.67:1. Perhaps surprisingly given the fact that so much of the film plays out in near monochromatic tones, HDR actually adds a good deal of nuance, actually from the get go where the orange tinged title credits have a somewhat more peach infused hue in this version. The near black and white moments that typically feature Jack pop with real authority and there is at least some marginal improvement in shadow detail in this often mostly black framings, though I'd argue perhaps not quite as much as some might be expecting. Little pops of color like ghoulish greens in these darker, quasi-black and white, moments also look incredibly vivid. Once the film gets to Santa's domain, the colors simply explode, with incredibly bright blues and reds looking especially resplendent. Some of the later material featuring the Mayor has an almost sepia toned look to it in this version. All of this palette discussion aside, it was really in the detail levels, and especially fine detail levels, that I found this 4K presentation to be the most consistently impressive. All sorts of textures I had never really noticed before are almost palpable now, including a lot of the fabrics or just features of various characters (like, what exactly is the Mayor's body made out of, which is considerably more palpable looking now).

The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This release sports that same DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that Marty reviewed, and I echo his positive comments about both the track's immersive capabilities as well as its general fluidity and fidelity. Some regular readers of my reviews know I'm a bit of a musical theater nerd, and so I will say as much as I enjoy Danny Elfman's score (and I absolutely love it), it's not exactly a model of tight, Broadway-esque rhyme schemes and amazing songcraft, but it's incredibly colorful and playfully menacing, much like the film itself, and it sounds great throughout this presentation. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K UHD disc has no supplementary material, and the score above reflects that fact. The 1080 disc in this package has the same supplements that are covered in both of the above linked reviews.

A digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My home state of Oregon and especially my hometown of Portland (and environs) has enjoyed some significant filming activity over the course of the decades, but one of the most "keep Portland weird"-esque sidebars to that activity has been the prevalence of stop motion productions here, dating back to the work of the late, great Will Vinton, which morphed (more or less, anyway) into Laika Studios, which kind of picked up the mantle that Henry Selick had assumed. Selick of course went on to work at Laika (one of my younger son's most prized possessions is a personally inscribed Coraline poster from Selick that a friend arranged for him to get), but this earlier film has all of the hallmarks of his inimitable style, combined of course with the lunatic genius of Tim Burton. This 4K UHD presentation offers solid technical merits and comes Highly recommended.