Halloween Town

Halloween Town is the primary setting of the film ''The Nightmare Before Christmas. ''Both the scenery and the characters are based on imagery commonly associated with Halloween, including skeletons, ghouls, monsters, black cats, and more. Every year on Halloween, the residents throw a big song and dance which ends with Jack Skellington emerging out of the town fountain. This is also the opening of the movie, as well as the song This is Halloween. The inhabitants include Jack Skellington (the "Pumpkin King" in charge of yearly Halloween festivities), Sally the Ragdoll, Dr. Finkelstein, the Mayor, and Lock, Shock and Barrel. The town is one of seven holiday worlds seen in the film (with Christmas Town being the only other holiday world featured in the story).

Kingdom Hearts
Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in Halloween Town and notice several Heartless immobile. They soon spot their true purpose after the immobile introduce Jack Skellington. However, the Pumpkin King is not pleased with the results and decides to consult Dr. Finkelstein in an effort to make the Heartless even more terrifying. Sora, Donald, and Goofy follow him and watch as the two discuss a way to fit Jack's needs. They decide to give the Heartless a heart, but their first attempt fails to work. The doctor sends Jack to find Sally and the Mayor, as they have the missing ingredients. As they are searching for the ingredients, Lock, Shock, and Barrel learn about their plans and inform Oogie Boogie. The villain orders his henchman to steal the artificial heart, which they promptly do after the group return. Jack sends his ghost dog, Zero, to follow them and they, in turn, pursue the spirit. Their hunt leads them to Oogie Boogie's Manor where they defeat the thieves, but Oogie is nowhere to be found. They search the Torture Chamber, hidden underneath the manor, and find the villain, who devours the experiment in a bid to control the Heartless. Due to the artificial state of the heart, not many Heartless answer the call and, in a fit of rage, Oogie Boogie attacks. The group prevail in defeating him before departing the manor. However, Oogie Boogie fuses with his manor to extract revenge. He is defeated once more by the combined powers of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack. Returning to the lab, Jack decides to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival and invites Sora to return next year.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Halloween Town appears as a figment of Sora's memories within Castle Oblivion, created from one of the World Cards. Using forget-me-nots as the main ingredients, Dr. Finkelstein has created a potion to retrieve "true memories"; according to the doctor "the heart isn't a recording device. All memories warp and fade with time; some grow ugly, while others grow more beautiful. "Unfortunately, after getting a single whiff of the potion, Heartless started popping up everywhere".

Sora, Donald and Goofy arrive in the middle of this mess, meeting Jack, who explains the doctor would know something about the Heartless. When the doc decides to double-check his potion, he finds it gone; he suspects Sally stole it. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jack find Sally hiding in the cemetery, where they ask for the potion back. However, though Sally is willing to comply, she worriedly asks what would happen if someone actually drank it; all the doctor. did was smell it and Heartless started popping up in Halloween Town. Sora and Jack ponder what to do as Oogie Boogie steals the potion from Sally, deciding to use it to spread pain and despair the likes of which Halloween Town has never seen. hey follow him back to his lair, where he downs the potion in a single gulp. However, he begins freaking out; he says that something scary is welling up from deep inside him. Jack asks him what's happening, but Oogie tells him to get away in fear.

The group defeats Oogie and brings the bottle back to Dr. Finkelstein, who is angry that only a few drops of potion are left. Though Goofy suggests that Sora should drink the rest, Sora decides against it as he promised Axel that he would find the truth on his own. Sally suspects that the potion was a failure due to all the negative effects that came from it. However, the doctor is adamant that the potion works, saying that Oogie must have gained his true memories from drinking the potion; however, it would seem that the awakening of true memories unbalances the heart and leaves it in a confused state. Jack explains to a worried Sora that fear and doubt are signs that his heart is strong; without them pushing your heart to strike out in new directions, your zest for life would fade along.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
During Roxas's first mission to Halloween Town, he finds Jack Skellington pondering on how to make Halloween scarier and more shocking than ever before. Roxas leaves him there to think, and continues on his mission of collecting hearts. On Roxas's next few missions to Halloween Town he finds there are fewer and fewer Heartless, making heart collecting more difficult. Roxas uses Zero, who is able to locate hidden Heartless, to help him finish his mission. After a few more visits to Halloween Town, Roxas grows tired of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who had been playing tricks on him, and attempts to stop them. They attack him, but Roxas defeats them, and they promise not to play tricks on him anymore.

Barrel almost divulges information on what they've been doing, but Lock quiets him and they escape. Disregarding their promise, the three play the same trick on Roxas immediately on his next arrival. After completing his mission, Roxas tries to leave, but is attacked by a Tentaclaw. He defeats it and returns. The Organization reports that the Heartless population in Halloween Town is unusually low, so Roxas is sent to investigate. When he arrives at Guillotine Plaza, a Heartless appears, fleeing from something. Another Tentaclaw sprouts from the ground and swallows the Heartless, a Creepworm. Roxas searches for the source outside of town and sees Lock, Shock, and Barrel escaping over the wall to Boogie's home.

He defeats the Tentaclaws at Curly Hill, before taking on the source of the cannibalistic appendages, the Leechgrave. However, Jack - watching from outside the zone of battle - likes the idea of a Halloween with "a black cloak and black tentacles". On his last mission to Halloween Town, Roxas is shown to be worrying about Xion. He resolves to finish his mission as quickly as possible and return to the castle to speak with her. As he searches through Halloween Town, Roxas is unable to find any Heartless. He decides to check outside of town, and encounters what he believes is an Orcus. The Heartless proves hard to handle, but Axel arrives and intervenes between the two. Axel reveals the Orcus as Xion, explaining that the battle was a trap to get the two to fight to the death, disposing of the weakest one. They leave for Twilight Town, disturbed by the Organization's intentions.

Sometime later, Roxas is transported here by Xion at the Manor Ruins. Xion uses the Organization's device to summon a sword to attack Roxas. However, Roxas manages to destroy the sword. Xion then transports herself and Roxas to Agrabah to continue the fight.

Kingdom Hearts II
When Sora, Donald, and Goofy return to Halloween Town, they find Jack trying to take Santa's place. While at the same time, Maleficent has revived Oogie Boogie (although suffering from amnesia), and has him remake Santa's present-making machine into a Heartless-making machine. Maleficent has Lock, Shock, and Barrel assist Oogie, even letting them use a fearsome Heartless. Sora, Donald, and Goofy try to stop Jack's scheme, while trying to shut down the Heartless operation.

On their second visit, Sora, Donald, and Goofy learn from Jack that Christmas presents are being stolen, and resolve to find out who and to what end, the quartet visit Santa to request making Dummy Presents to draw out the thief, they end up hiding in a huge box (accompanied by some humorous dialogue) and surprise the thief, only to find, as Jack's realization so clearly states, "Doctor Finkelstein's Experiment did it!" A battle goes on with the raging machine, but Sora and friends come out on top, learning from Finkelstein later that the Experiment wished only to know the happiness that Christmas brings. Jack, all the while, thinks the box makes the magic, but learns from Sora that it's not about the box, paper, ribbons, or what's inside, what matters is the principle of giving. After this, Jack and Sally share a romantic moment in the snow, with Donald and Goofy comforting Sora about giving Kairi a real Christmas present, one that comes from his heart.

Sometime after Xemnas's defeat, Jack is seen discussing plans for the next Halloween with everyone in Dr. Finkelstein's lab.

Disney INFINITY
Halloween Town is currently unavailable on the Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Disney INFINITY. But it is available as a game board in the 3DS version. In the 3DS version, it is a large forest maze with many paths that lead the player to other parts of the creepy forests that make up the game board. There is a secret start hidden on top of a hill where the player must get to unlock the hidden star for this board.

Trivia

 * Halloween Town makes an appearance in Grim Tales from Down Below. The town gets destroyed (only half) by the Pumpkinator Ghost (The Fairly OddParents) and Dark Danny (Danny Phantom).
 * One of the levels from the PlayStation game MediEvil called "The Sleeping Village" may have been look similar to Halloween Town.
 * In the Kingdom Hearts series, Sora, Donald and Goofy use magic to turn into a vampire, mummy and patchwork person to blend in with the locals. However, their appeances alter upon going to Christmas Town.