Parent reviews for The Nightmare Before Christmas

My daughter insisted on watching this movie for months. I told her she can watch it when she is 8, and when she turned 8 she reminded me about this, so I let her watch it. I read some of the reviews saying that it was scary and had some questionable scenes, but I honestly thought they were exaggerating since I found few other movies that weren't rated so highly on this site quite pleasant to watch with my child. But this time the reviewers weren't exaggerating. Even my daughter said after watching it that it was scary and some scenes she really didn't like. Particularly, the scene where Boogie Man turns into a sack full of disgusting warms crawling everywhere was very disturbing to her (and to me). The first 5 minutes of the movie are pretty disturbing, and my daughter covered her eyes (without me prompting) when she was watching it. This movie uses very dark humor and has pretty dark, disturbing characters in it. As an adult, I think that the idea is very original, and there is some art to the movie and it's very unique. That being said, I would never, ever recommend it for children who are only 7 years old. I think this movie is more appropriate for kids over 10.

Great movie ! Even it’s full of “monsters” and the main character is a skeleton it’s not spookey at all.

This movie seems hip, artsy happy dark holiday. But the old man scientist (who kept the young pretty thing in bondage and removed her limbs when she tried to escape him)- in the original story, he was an evil mastermind working the boogieman puppet. Burton reshaped the original story and made the scientist into just another town leader and friend of Jack’s who happens to view/create/keep women as his toys - with no judgement from our hero Jack. And Button’s “oogie boogie man” becomes a standalone character w name tied to old southern racial slur, a Black actor’s voice, and stereotypical gambling/drinking/financial problems that fuel his drive to steal Christmas. The racism and misogyny was pointed out to burton who doubled down instead of course correcting. This is readily available background. I wish it were more commonly incorporated into the movie’s reviews and summaries.

I watched with my 5 and 8 year olds and really regretted it. It is very macabre, violent and dark. The main characters are dead and have eyes falling out with worms coming out and body parts that fall off. There are scary evil kids who kidnap santa and sing a song about hitting santa with a stick, boiling him alive, and chopping santa into bits. I think it is probably ok for teens. But if there were a way for me to undo my children seeing that I would.

If you or your kids really enjoy Halloween and all the spooky creepy macabre stuff, maybe this is for you. Our family doesn't get into all that, and this isn't something we'll be watching again. I almost turned it off with only 20 minutes left (I would've if my wife hadn't pointed out how little was left). Talking about Jack and his desire to do good and how he failed had some meaning for us as a family, but mostly I reminded them if they are with a friend watching something that just makes them feel yuck inside, it's okay to say, "This isn't for me." and then leave. We can all choose what we watch or don't, and it's okay to be different. If you really like this movie, that's okay with me. It just wasn't for me or my family. Even though it's all claymation art and generally doesn't dive into scary background music, it still shows lots of creepy stuff -- a fat butcher with a cleaver stuck in his head, a Doctor who opens the metal bowel covering his brain and then plops half his brain into the Franken-creation he is making, Sally purposefully unstitching and letting her arm tear off, witches, a werewolf, vampires, and on and on. I've now had enough Halloween in just an hour and fifteen minutes to last me another decade or more.

Obviously, there are many people to whom this type of movie appeals. I am not one of them. My son had to watch it for his 11th-grade English class, so we watched it together for the first time. I was so thankful that I had not allowed him or his younger sister to watch it when they were 7 (the suggested starting age according to Common Sense Media) for this movie. Even stop-motion claymation can be scary and graphic. I found very few redeeming qualities in this film. For my son, he didn't dislike it as much as I did, but he didn't care for it.

I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who felt this was too dark and macabre for younger audiences.

I read the reviews on here and couldn’t help but laugh a little. I had to make this account. My daughter was 2 when we sat and watched it. She has watched this movie over and over and she is 5 now reciting the movie and singing the songs. She even dressed up as Sally and jack. I think it’s how you introduce these kind of movies to your children. My daughter knows there is no such things of monsters. She loves Coraline since age 2 as well, the corpse bride and hocus pocus. I guess we are just a spooky family. Lol

If you don't want traditional Christmas Spirit then this is for you . Not our cup of tea. Just creepy and weird. That said, my kid chose to watch it around Christmas but maybe it's a Halloween movie? That'd make more sense .. I probably could enjoy watching it in October.

I never enjoyed this movie as much as I did when watching it alongside my 4-yr old twins. I was iffy on what they'd think about it. I knew there was some questionable subject matter within, the kids were pretty mean, Jack had a few situations where he got pretty nasty towards others and the obvious of Jack getting shot out of the sky and Oogie Boogie shooting at Jack with his contraptions. However, I was willing to risk it, sit with my girls and explain the situation. In the end, it was worth it. I think they appreciated that the kids there were being nasty. That Oogie Boogie was bad, and that Jack was just confused about what he really wanted. I know there are some things they don't FULLY get, but as long as you're willing to sit, explain and stress that there are things inappropriate about the BAD things, there are SO many good things about the movie. The music, the end morals of wanting to be different, better and of course, the love story. Give it a try by yourself. You know your kids the best, and will know if this is right for them. But heck, if you haven't seen it... DO. It's great for adults, too!