Dr. Finkelstein

Dr. Finklestein is a resident of Halloween Town, the wheelchair-bound mad scientist and the "father" of Sally in Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion Disney film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He was voiced by the late William Hickey in the original film and later by Jess Harnell. His Japanese voice is provided by Yuji Mitsuya.

Personality
He is a pale-as-a-sheet mad scientist with a duckbill-like mouth and a hinged skullcap that he can open up to reveal his brain. For unknown reasons, he uses a motorized wheelchair (early drawings of Finklestein depict him standing freely, and his original action figure followed this example, implying he was not always intended to be a wheelchair user). Dr. Finklestein lives in a large observatory with his living rag doll creation Sally and his hunchbacked assistant Igor. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finklestein's line, "I made you with my own hands", which is ironic as Finklestein's body appears to be largely if not entirely artificial. Unlike Frankenstein, who takes no responsibility for his creations and disowns them almost as soon as they are completed (much like the original Dr. Frankenstein), Finklestein takes full responsibility over Sally and acts as an over-protective father, and in some ways an overbearing husband (thus explaining Sally's attempts to run away) by keeping her under lock and key under the pretext of sheltering her from the world.

He also has a passion for inventing, though showing no skill at inventing whatsoever, shown by the following things: Sally was obviously not supposed to be a "good for nothing girl," and the heart, the potion, and the experiment all turned out wrong. In addition, he has somewhat of an ego, repeatedly insisting that his designs and inventions are flawless and finding ways to blame his failures on others, such as a shortage of ingredients for the artificial heart or a need of better assistants to construct The Experiment.

Physical Appearance
Dr. Finkelstein is a frail-looking person, with thin, spindly limbs and very small hands and feet, but a disproportionately large head. He is confined to a black, electric wheelchair that seems to be rather old and difficult to operate. The chair is almost entirely metal and lacks any sort of cushioning, and it sports two levers, one on either arm rest, that Finkelstein uses to move it. Finkelstein himself dresses in a white lab coat that buttons up on the right side, pants of the same color, black shoes, and black gloves that are a good deal wider than his arms. His skin is an unhealthy white color and he has small, beady black eyes, normally covered by his goggles, as well as thin black eyebrows. His mouth is beak-like in structure and he seems to be missing a few teeth. Finkelstein's ears and nose are so small as to be almost nonexistent, and his nostrils point forward. Easily, Dr. Finkelstein's most prominent feature in his skull, which bears several obvious bolts and a clear horizontal seam going around the middle. Finkelstein can literally flip his skull open via a hinge in the back, exposing his pink brain, which he often scratches when attempting to figure something out.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
Doctor Finklestein lives in a large observatory with his living rag doll creation Sally and his hunchbacked assistant Igor. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finklestein's line "I made you with my own hands" which is ironic as Finklestein's body appears to be largely if not entirely artificial. Unlike Frankenstein who takes no responsibility for his creations and disowns them almost as soon as they are completed (much like the original Dr. Frankenstein), Finklestein takes full responsibility over Sally and acts as an over-protective father and in some ways an overbearing husband (thus explaining Sally's attempts to run away) by keeping her under lock and key under the pretext of sheltering her from the world. In addition to being an overbearing and antagonistic father figure for Sally to overcome, Finklestein also has a hand in helping Jack Skellington (of whom he seems to be very fond) with his plan to take over Christmas by bringing to life several skeletal reindeer to pull Jack's sleigh. At the end of the film, Finklestein, deciding that Sally is too much of a handful, creates a wife for himself using a portion of his own brain.

Oogie's Revenge
Dr. Finklestein is featured in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge. When Jack is tired of doing the same thing at Halloween, Dr. Finklestein helps him by giving him the Soul Robber, a weapon that allows Jack to change it's shape. Jack also tells Dr. Finklestein to watch over the town while he is away. After Oogie Boogie's revival, Dr. Finklestein was under Oogie's control by switching his brain to a different one and created monsters that obey Oogie Boogie's every command. Fortunately, Jack was able to put Dr. Finklestein's original brain back in place making Dr. Finklestein break from Oogie's control. In the game spin-offs, Finklestein's name is pronounced "steen" instead of "stein". For some reason, his wife creation "Jewel" is not present in the game, and Sally appears to still be living with him even though in the movie she appeared to be free at the end. Sally even says "He insists on keeping me locked up" while next to the Hanging Tree in the Graveyard.

Kingdom Hearts series
Finklestein also appears in the Kingdom Hearts video game series.

Kingdom Hearts
When the Heartless appear in Halloween Town, Jack thinks of adding them to the Halloween celebrations and asks Finklestein for advice. Realizing that the Heartless need a heart, the two find the ingredients for one: pulse and emotion (terror, fear, hope, and despair). Their initial experiment fails, and Finklestein sends Jack off with Sora and the gang to retrieve 2 more ingredients, memory and surprise, thus completing the heart. However, the heart is stolen by Oogie Boogie.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In Chain of Memories, created from Sora's memories, Finklestein creates a potion that allows people to see their true memory. The only problem is that once he sniffed the potion, Heartless appeared.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Dr. Finkelstein appears once again in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, helping Jack with his new ideas for Halloween. He is seen in the Town Square with the Pumpkin King on Roxas's second visit to Halloween Town, examining Jack's Heartless-filled balloons.

Kingdom Hearts II
In Sora's first visit, Dr. Finkelstein is first seen looking at his book on constructing a robotic creature. When Jack arrives and ask him on the whereabouts on Sally is, Finkelstein tells him he was busy working on the experiment with the help of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Eventually, however, their mischievous ways are annoying him as the trio soon tossed the robot arm on the table causing it to explode, and angrily called them "imbeciles".

Prior to Sora's second visit, Finkelstein has finished his experiment and tries to bring it to life but doesn't work. Realizing that their is nothing wrong with his design, along with Lock, Shock, and Barrel continuously dropping the parts they are meant to bring him, Finkelstein believes the Experiment to be a failure and decides to find "better assistants". However, just as he turns around to start new designs, the creation comes to life and attacks the doctor, leaving him unconscious in his laboratory. After regaining conscious, Dr. Finkelstein pleads for help that his experiment is missing. When he tells Jack and friends the full story Sora believes the Heartless might have taken the experiment, in which Finkelstein tells him that it was nothing like a Heartless. After defeating the Experiment, they return back to Halloween Town and tell the doctor that the experiment wasn't stolen, much to his surprise, and concluding it was an "overwhelming success". Sora then says that Santa Claus theorizes that the machine left, because it was probably looking for a heart, in which Dr. Finkelstein agrees, stating that he did not give the creature a heart of its own, as he did with Sally, and returns back into his lab.

Sometime after Xemnas's defeat, Dr. Finkelstein along with everyone else in the lab listen to Jack discussing plans for next Halloween.

Disney Parks
In 2003, along with the other The Nightmare Before Christmas characters, Dr. Finkelstein made a special, one time appearance in Disneyland for the Haunted Mansion Holiday opening event.

Trivia

 * In the game spin-offs, Finklestein's name is pronounced "steen" instead of "stein".
 * Finklestein is only referred to as the 'Evil Scientist' in the credits. His true name is only mentioned in the movie when the Mayor calls him up to the front of the line for his Christmas assignment.
 * Finklestein's "Corpse Bride" counterpart is Elder Gutknecht.
 * Finklestein makes an appearance in on of Bleedman's popular webcomic: Grim Tales Down Below. Finklestein bring MinniMandy's new ragdoll body to life.
 * Usually, Finklestein looks very duck-like in appearance. However, when portrayed at the Disney theme parks, he is more human-like, and the costume has no duck-like features.
 * Originally, in the movie, Oogie Boogie was going to be a disguised Finklestein. Finklestein, upon defeat, would admit that he was doing this because he was jealous that Sally chose Jack over him. This hints that Sally might have, originally, been more of a love interest of Finklestein's rather than a daughter.

Gallery
Dr. Finkelstein