G321 - Film Opening Analysis - Family/ Fantasy/ Animation: The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The opening sequence of this film begins with the revealing of the "Walt Disney" institution logo. This would have been a decision made by the production company so as to present the audience with an idea of the standard of the film due to Disney's popularity and success within the film industry, as well as eluding towards the film being aimed at children. The animation of the Cinderella castle foreshadows the fantasy aspect of the film.

The opening of the film reveals that the majority of characters in the film will be fantasy animated characters. This is important as it alerts the audience that the events presented in the narrative are fictional and therefore takes away the horror aspect otherwise created by the opening.

From the opening of the film it is evident that the genre of the film is to be fantasy and family. This is due to the animated content and the childish look of the film. However, the scary appearance of the characters and the jagged, sharp looking titles also present the film as a horror. 



The targeted audience of the film appears to be children from the age of 7 despite some of the horrific character appearances and lyrics to the diegetic soundtrack such as "I am the clown with the tear-away face". It also comes across that the film would be targeted at parents as it appears to be a film which would be better suited to showing at home rather than in cinemas and therefore would need to attract parents as they are the ones more likely to be buying the DVD.

The film opens on a celebration and reveals that the narrative of the film is to be based around this matter in some way. Aside from this, the narrative remains quite ambiguous as there is not much information given away about the remainder of the narrative. This causes the audience to start asking questions and foreshadows the narrative including an explanation of this and that this will play a major role in the films narrative.

The opening of this film appears to be passing on a message to be proud of who you are, despite the probability of you being different from everyone around you. This is presented through the characters all pointing out qualities of themselves which make them unique rather than traits they share with others.

The themes made evident from the opening of the film include that of death, violence, fear and terrorisation yet also celebration. The presentation of the Halloween town in conjunction with the singing hinting towards scaring people work together to produce the evidence for a theme of death, terrorisation, fear and violence whilst the singing and the happy appearance of the characters work in combination to provide evidence for the theme of celebration.

The setting of the film is established as being in a fictional place called "Halloween Town". This has evidently been created so as to allow for the narrative of the film to make sense as well as to interest a young audience. This foreshadows the significance of the setting within the narrative of the film. The use of this location makes it appear that the film has a high budget as the location would have had to have been created or edited in using green screens, both of which would cost a lot of money.

The atmosphere within the opening sequence appears to be one of happiness and celebration. This is shown through the character's pride in themselves and their home town as well as the singing which causes them to appear jolly. However, the dark colour palette contrasts with this idea and creates a sense of depression and sadness, making the happiness appear staged and fake and foreshadowing the remainder of the narrative.
The sound remains quite loud for the duration of the opening due to the diegetic song which the characters are singing. This allows the viewer to gain an understanding of the town, the characters and the location as well as an inclination towards the narrative of the film. However, some of the lyrics seem inappropriate for the target audience such as "I am the one hiding under your bed" which could scare children.

Editing within the opening is continuous and slow paced causing the audience to expect this from the rest of the film. This signifies that the films is aimed at children as complex editing could potentially confuse children and distract the from the narrative of the film.

The titles within the opening stand out from the black background and are not integrated into the clip causing them to be easier to read for younger audiences. There are also very few titles so as not to lose the concentration of young audience members and so as not to create confusion. This causes the audience to infer that the film is mainly aimed at young children.

The lighting in the opening sequence is very unnatural and low key which allows the audience to create an idea of the potential horror aspects of the film as well as helping to assert the film as a fantasy. This is, in some ways, a facade due to the film not truly being scary or an intentional horror. 

The variety of different shots used within the opening helps to accentuate the fantasy aspect of the film due to the many different angles used. The close ups of the characters allow the audience to differentiate between them, thus making the film suitable for younger children. This causes the audience to connect with the narrative more effectively and pulls their attention into the film.

The opening represents a fantasy land full of fictional characters which can help younger audience members to differentiate the film from reality. The song tells of how the town and the people in it are all devoted to the celebration of Halloween. This could cause younger audience members to become more careful when it comes to Halloween. 

From the evidence provided I have come to the conclusion that this opening mainly contains aspects to avoid when creating a film opening. The confusion genre portrayal could confuse the audience which is not something that I would like to cause. Further to this, I intend to create a sense of reality and verisimilitude within my film opening so as to allow the audience to connect to the narrative, therefore the use of animation is to be avoided. However, I would like to include the use of a distinct soundtrack to help portray the genre of the film.