Jack Skellington
Jack Skellington is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town. He is responsible for coming up with new and exciting ideas for each year's Halloween festivities. He is the main character in Disney's 1993 stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas and the storybook it is based on.
Role in the film[1]Edit[]
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 terror 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.
Other appearances[2]Edit[]
The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King[3]Edit[]
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[4]Edit[]
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.
Role in the series[]
Jack Skellington is the leader of the good Halloween monsters, and is an ally to Spongebob in the series set to appear in Spongebob and Friends and the Nightmare before chrismas. He is currently in conflict with Dracula and the Horned King on what should the tone of Halloween truly be. He will return in Spirited Away as an ally to Haku, having led the entire population of Halloween Town over to the Bathhouse to take a vacation from their yearly scaring.