Jack Skellington

Jack Skellington is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town and the main protagonist in Disney's 1993 stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas and the storybook it is based on. He is voiced by both Chris Sarandon and singing voiced by Danny Elfman. He is responsible for coming up with new and exciting ideas for each year's Halloween festivities.

Personality
Jack is very much an (undead) gentleman, graceful and patient in equal measures Jack never loses his temper or calm and can usually be counted upon to do what is in everyone's best interest.

Though his logic is sound his reasoning can be questioned at times, he was quite thorough in his christmas research but opted to go with what he and his friends knew when he decided to give Sandy Claws this year off and take over for him. He was also oblivious to Sally's feelings for him throughout most of the story, showing that while among the more intelligent citizens of Halloween Town he is a bit of a dope at reading people's feelings. This is backed up by the fact that he barely even recognized Santa Claus's distress when they first met. It seems that Jack might be slightly naive at times, as shown that he trusted Lock, Shock, and Barrel enough that he believed that they would simply get him Santa Claus without causing trouble, despite them being allied with Oogie Boogie. And he didn't realize all the chaos he was causing on Christmas Eve before it was too late.

He is rare to anger and hardly ever raise his voice, but Jack was unable to contain his contempt for Oogie Boogie and did not hesitate to severely punish his old foe for endangering his friends with grim dedication.

It is also shown that Jack enjoys things that are new to him. He quickly become delighted with Christmas and grew increasingly excited as Christmas was being remade in Halloween Town just as he pictured, even giddily laughing as he gave out presents on Christmas Eve.

Role in The Nightmare Before Christmas
The film commences with the grand finale of Halloween Town's Halloween celebrations, which are hailed by Jack as being "the most horrible yet". However, when Jack sneaks away from the adoring citizens, it is revealed that he is tired of the same old Halloween, and he wanders off into the woods with his ghost dog, Zero. Accidentally sleepwalking through the Hinterlands, Jack stumbles upon a place in the forest he's never been before, revealing to be a grove of trees that have doors leading to different holiday towns. Jack is drawn towards the Christmas tree shaped door and opened it, thence finds his way into Christmas Town. Soonafter, he becomes infatuated with the holiday. After obsessively researching it, he decides that this year the citizens of Halloween Town will manage Christmas, in the hopes of "improving" it. Sally, an animated rag doll who secretly loves Jack, has a premonition that his plans for Christmas will be a disaster and attempts to warn him, but he politely dismisses her fear. Sally's premonition proves to be right. Not really understanding the "spirit" of Christmas, the citizens of Halloween Town create a celebration of the macabre rather than a "season to be jolly"; Jack, dressed as Santa Claus, unintentionally brings fear rather than joy to the children of the world. Wanting Santa Claus to rest, Jack had ordered the local trick-or-treaters Lock, Shock, and Barrel to bring Santa to Halloween Town; however, after Santa was firstly brought to Jack and greeted by him, the three kids took him to Oogie Boogie. He teased and eventually planned to kill Santa. Sally attempts to rescue Santa Claus after discovering that military forces are planning to defeat Jack, but she too is captured. Upon realising the error of his ways, Jack overcomes his identity crisis and reaffirms himself as the Pumpkin King. With determination to set things right, Jack promptly returns to Halloween Town, where he discovers that Santa has been taken to Oogie's Lair. He manages to rescue Santa and Sally, and defeats Oogie Boogie. Santa Claus returns to the real world to save Christmas and, as a sign of no hard feelings, gives Halloween Town a taste of true Christmas spirit, fulfilling his former desire to a limited extent. Jack finds Sally atop of Halloween Hill blanketed in snow and reveals his own affection for her, ending the film. The official film soundtrack CD contains an epilogue not in the film, stating that "many years later" Santa returned to Halloween Town to visit Jack, where he discovered that Jack had "four or five skeleton children at hand" who play together in a xylophone band. Given the ending of the movie, it can be assumed that the children are Jack and Sally's offspring.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King
Jack Skellington is shown to have had a rivalry with Oogie Boogie. Oogie makes plans to turn Halloween Town into a New Bug Day.After Jack learns of Dr. Finklestein's daughter's kidnapping, Jack takes it upon himself to save Sally (for the first time)and restore Halloween Town. Jack confronts Oogie's plan and thwarts him from taking over the town. Few of the Townsfolk actually saw Oogie himself, and so assume terrifying ideas about him. After Jack defeats Oogie, he banishes him to his underground lair. So, Jack defeated this threat and saved Sally ,thus enticing her love interest in him, and the town declares Jack, Pumpkin King, the king of Halloween and all things scary.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
Tired of using the same old themes over and over on Halloween, Jack Skellington goes to Doctor Finkelstein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shape. Jack decided to leave Halloween Town to get new ideas for Halloween frights. When Jack comes back to town, he finds that Oogie Boogie has been resurrected. Now Jack has to set things right again. Jack dances, fights, and sings in this game to attack Oogie Boogie's minions. Jack is portrayed as inept to some degree in this game. It should be noted that Chris Sarandon did both the speaking and singing voice of Jack in this game.

Disney Parks
At Disneyland in California the ride was called the Haunted Mansion Hoiday.It featured the characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Kingdom Hearts series
Jack Skellington appears in four 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 the Heartless and also Oogie Boogie. In combat, Jack uses some of his scary powers with demonstrations of some magic, making him a formidable sorcerer.

His magical powers include spells:
 * Blazing Fury
 * Icy Terror
 * Bolts of Sorrow
 * Ghostly Scream
 * Applause, Applause!

Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts, Jack takes a liberal role of performing a scary Halloween, in this case, using the Heartless. He asks Dr. Finkelstein to make a heart for the creatures so they can dance, but the Heartless get loose and wreak havoc in Halloween Town. He requests the help of Sora to find a solution. However, they take so long to fight Oogie Boogie, he regretfully has to cancel Halloween for a year due to a lack of material to go on, promising something terrifying next year.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Jack makes an appearance as a figment of Sora's memory in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories his role this time remains relatively the same. He requested Dr. Finkelstein to make a memory potion, hoping that it would help in teaching the Heartless new Halloween tricks. Like in Kingdom Hearts, Donald was not very fond of Jack, especially since he scared Donald.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Jack appears once more, planning the perfect Halloween. He is at a loss of ideas, however, finally getting one when he catches Roxas leaving the world through a Dark Corridor. Upon Roxas's next visit, Jack is seen in the Town Square with Doctor Finkelstein, displaying decorated balloons that contained a horrifying surprise. The doctor liked the idea, Jack still not satisfied. Roxas later encountered the Pumpkin King and his dog Zero in the Graveyard, the ghost-dog showing Jack that Heartless could now be found in the balloons. Not recalling having put the Heartless in the balloons, he deciphered that another mind had decided to place the dark creatures in them to add an extra level of terror. Jack then continued brainstorming, hoping to prevent this other "great mind" from coming up with better ideas before he did. He then awarded Zero a bone after realizing the dog had given him a hint, Jack heading straight to Dr. Finkelstein's lab to tell him of a brand new, great idea.

Kingdom Hearts II
Jack in his Santa costume in Kingdom Hearts II, he takes a comparable role to his character in the movie. He tries to take Santa's place (for the second time), and helps save him from a resurrected Oogie. Eventually, thanks to Santa, he realized that it his duty to take care of Halloween, as much as it is for Santa and Christmas. His Santa suit then helps Sora open a new pathway to the Pride Lands.

Later, Jack is blamed for stealing the presents from Santa's factory. He teams up with Sora again to help solve the mystery and clear his name. They do this by hiding in a giant present and tricking the thief into stealing it. Jack and Sora then defeat the thief, who turns out to be Dr. Finkelstein's Experiment, and save Christmas. After that, Santa lets Jack ride in his sleigh. Later, Sally helps him realize that the most important thing of Christmas is not the gift box, nor the present inside it, but the wish of the giver to make someone happy.

Cameos
Jack Skellington once made 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.

Jack Skellington made his first onscreen appearance in Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" (1988, Warner Bros./ The Geffen Co.). As Beetlejuice rises from the ground, a canopied miniature merry-go-round rests on his head; at the very top of the canopy is a comical white skull that would later become Jack Skellington's head.

A silhouette of Jack is shown in The Princess and the Frog as one of the shadows Dr. Facilier summons.

Trivia

 * Jack's head appeared on Beetlejuice's carnival hat.
 * Jack makes a cameo appearance in James and the Giant Peach, when Mr. Centipede goes to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean to retrieve a compass from an army of pirate skeletons; Jack (in pirate attire) is the captain who fights back.
 * Jack's "Corpse Bride" counterparts are Victor Van Dort and Bonejangles.
 * In the original film by a personal request Danny Elfman does Jack's singing voice, Chris Sarandon wouldn't do his character's singing until "Oogie's Revenge".
 * Jack Skellington makes an appearance in Bleedman's webcomic: Grim Tales Down Below.It is revealed that Jack is the younger brother of Grim (Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy).
 * Jack was listed #22 in Empire Magazine's The 50 Best Animated Movie Characters. Stating as his stroke of genius The song "What's this", as Jack - accustomed as he is to the dark, twisted Halloween Town, tries to get his head around the sweetness and light of Christmas Town.

Gallery
Jack Skelleton