Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

As good as ever, Tim Burton's magnificently macbre Halloween/Christmas classic, newly released on 3D blu ray/DVD Combo pack, is a worthwhile home video option for those with 3D TVs and blu ray players, but doesn't offer a whole heckuva lot to everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, Jack Skellington's quest to find life and fulfillment beyond Halloweentown is as good as ever, and the set is packed full of extras. It's just that most of those extras were also available in the "Nightmare" blu ray and DVD set released in 2008.

As a film "Nightmare" is a touch underrated as a worthy Christmas/Halloween classic. It remains under the radar as the first full-length stop-motion animated film, where Burton's musical ode to upper-class malaise offers up wonderful songs, a dark, biting wit, and heaping spoonfuls of imagination, providing a film that's in season from September through December.

I won't waste our time recounting the details of this terrific flick, but suffice it to say the voicework is still spot-perfect, the animation remains spectacularly moody and nuanced, and the story is every bit as tremendous as you remember.

The extras, which include two of Burton's fantastic short films "Frankenweenie" and "Vincent," are present as well to continue the mood, along with an audio commentary by Burton, director Henry Selick and Music Designer Danny Elfman, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, a Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour by Jack Skellington, storyboards, and the usual accoutremont, but again most of this is recycled from the previous release.

So if you missed this set last time around (like I did), want to upconvert for your new 3D TV or blu ray player, then you'll certainly want to pick this one up.

If you're content with your creaky old DVD release, then by all means don't bother haunting your local department or electronics store just for this one.

Film: 4.5 Yaps Extras: 4 Yaps