Jack Skellington in Christmas Town
Jack Skellington is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack was voiced by Chris Sarandon during speech and by Danny Elfman when singing. He has become more and more popular after the release of the film, and appeared in several video games.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington is a skeleton known as the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, a fictional world oriented solely on the holiday of Halloween. In the beginning of the movie, he wears a costume based on a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head. Normally, he is dressed in a black suit with thin gray stripes and a bowtie deisigned to look like a bat. He has a pet ghost dog named Zero and is in love with the rag doll Sally. In the film, he inadvertently finds his way into Christmas Town and becomes infatuated with the holiday, bringing it back to Halloween Town for its denizens to partake in. However, not really understanding the "point" of Christmas, they twist it into a celebration of the macabre rather than a season to be jolly, effectively ruining Christmas. In the process, Santa Claus is even captured by the evil Oogie Boogie. Determined to save Christmas, Jack journeys to Oogie Boogie's lair and destroys the villain, saving Santa Claus and also Christmas.
Video games
The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King
Jack Skellington had a rivalry with Oogie Boogie. When Oogie plans to turn Halloween Town into a new Bug Day, Jack must stop him and his army of insects from taking over his town.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
Tired of doing the same thing at Halloween, Jack goes to Doctor Finklestein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shape. Jack decided to leave Halloween Town to get new Halloween frights. When Jack came back to town, he finds that Oogie Boogie has resurrected. Now Jack has to set things right again.
It should be noted that Chris Saradon did both the speaking and singing voice of Jack in the game.
Kingdom Hearts series
Jack Skellington appears in all three installments of the Kingdom Hearts video game series. He inhabits the world of Halloween Town, where the evil Heartless threatens its denizens. The games' main protagonists, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy, befriend Jack and together they battle with Heartless and Oogie Boogie.
The strangest thing about Jack Skellington in the Kingdom Hearts series is not his place in the story or his actions, but the way he fights. Jack Skellington is a very definite "mage" style character in both games; whereas most secondary characters in Kingdom Hearts have a "signature" move (often a physical, non-element attack) and then one elemental attack based on their character (Mulan's fire attacks, for example) or what is most useful for their world (Ariel, of The Little Mermaid, possesses a lightning based attack, useful against the monsters in Atlantica, but making little sense for her character), Jack Skellington defies this order by possessing all three attack elements; in fact, all of his moves are rough analogues of the basic magic Sora learns (Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder). This makes him an interesting character; he is exceptionally quick in battle and often the very first person to reach the enemy. This, combined with his magical attack style, makes Jack a kind of "aggressive mage"; his style is basically to rush up to the opponent and use his magic against them. In Kingdom Hearts II, where Fire magic has changed into a shield around a character, he will often enter combat by lighting himself on fire and rushing foes.
His Limit Break is, fittingly enough for his movie, entitled "Applause, Applause"; it summons the ghosts that show up throughout Nightmare Before Christmas's opening scenes to strike foes and is particularly good against large groups. Because of his magical nature, and the physical-resistant powers of most Halloween Town monsters, he and Donald make a particularly powerful combo with Sora, essentially giving your team two powerful spellcasters.
Kingdom Hearts
Jack Skellington introduces himself to Sora, Goofy, and Donald Duck as the ruler of Halloween Town. Jack plans to use the heart that Finklestein created to control the Heartless to make a festival called "Heartless Halloween" so that Halloween can be frightening, but the plan failed when Oogie Boogie steals it and plans to use it to take over Halloween Town. At Oogie's manor, Jack, Sora, and the gang confronts him. After Oogie was defeated, Jack has found out that Oogie used the dark orbs as his source of life, which Oogie combined himself and his manor to become a giant boss. Then, he stopped Oogie again, which Oogie's manor form crumpled.
Chain of Memories
"Created" from Sora's memories of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington wanted to ask Finklestein what happened when he sniffs the potion that can bring "true memories", Heartless appeared. When Jack Skellington had found out that Oogie Boogie had stolen Finklestein's potion, he must stop him before Oogie drinks the whole potion. They fail to reach him before he does, but they defeat him. Sora becomes worried about what will happen when he discovers his true memories, but Jack reassures him that fear is a sign of a strong heart.
Jack also appears as a Friend card. He is similar to Donald, except he casts Gravity instead of Cure. Additionally, while he only casts a spell once when a single Friend Card is played, he casts two -ra series spells when the player uses a sleight with two cards, and three -ga series spells when a sleight includes three cards, making him considerably more effective.
Kingdom Hearts II
Following the film loosely to some degree, Jack tries to take Santa Claus' place again. To that end, Jack asks Sora and gang to help him be Santa's bodyguards. But after fighting the Heartless and Oogie Boogie, Santa, in a more calm manner, explains to Jack that they each have a job to do with their repective holidays. In the 2nd trip, Jack still wore the Santa suit and was still wanting to deliver presents despite his claim not to. But once he and Sora defeated the Experiment, Santa let Jack ride his sleigh. After that, Jack learns the meaning behind Chirstmas by understanding the act of giving. Also his dance with Sally at the very end makes Sora (the game's main character) question and contemplate his relationship with Kairi (Sora's friend, and his not so subtly hinted love-interest).
Cameos
Jack Skellington once did a cameo as a pirate in the stop-motion animated movie James and the Giant Peach. He was the captain of the sunken ship that Centipede boarded in search of a compass. Perhaps in testament to his Shakespearean tribute, his head comes off during the movie.
He also makes a cameo apperance in Beetlejuice (which was actually released before Nightmare) on the top of Beetlejuice's head when he turned into the 'carnival' near the end of the movie.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Jack Skellington. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |