Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Full-Color Manga Edition (Family Comic Friday)

Let's finish out my Halloween readings for 2025 with a Manga adaptation of a film that has become a classic of not just Halloween, but Christmas as well! 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a holiday classic that people enjoy from October all the way through to the New Year! I didn't see the movie when it first appeared in theaters in 1993. Probably because I went to a Christian school and was too afraid of expressing any interest in a film that was clearly 'pagan'. It wasn't until I was in college working at a shopping mall video store that I became introduced to the film. But even through our showing the film on the myriad of television screens, I didn't really appreciate it until years later. Now I absolutely adore it.

My local library had this book in their new release section and I thought it would be the perfect transition between Halloween and Christmas comic book reading; though I won't be diving into holiday time comics until Thanksgiving week. This is a 2025 release from TokyoPop. Now you might be thinking 'Didn't TokyoPop release an adaption of this movie in 2016?' Well, you would be right. But that was a black and white edition and the artwork was not very faithful to the vision of Tim Burton. It was more sketchy in look and for those not familiar with the Manga style, it was very much maligned.

With this deluxe color hardcover edition, the artwork looks more polished. The format is still traditionally Manga, meaning you read from the right going leftward. Same with interpreting the panels. The sound effects are in Japanese with English subtitles. But compared to that black and white edition, this volume is 10 times better. 

The classic story is still the same. The King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, has become bored with the same old Halloween traditions year after year. A chance encounter into the realm of Christmas Town inspires Jack to celebrate the season of giving. But it's done with Halloween flare. So when Jack has Santa kidnapped in order to take his place as 'Sandy Claws', things go horribly wrong. 

My favorite scene from the movie is when Jack as Sandy gives a human boy a wrapped present. The parents ask the lad about what Santa gave him for Christmas. The boy pulls out a shrunken head and his parents faint. Classic scene. Unfortunately, TokyoPop changed it. Instead of a shrunken head, the kid pulls out a bat. It's not even a scary looking bat. The parents still freak out. But the magic of that scene is no more. 

As with any adaptation, scenes get cut or edited. (But why did they have to change my favorite one?) Another thing  that underwent what I thought was an unnecessary alteration was the antagonist, Oogie Boogie. He just kinda shows up out of nowhere, putting Santa Claus and the rag-doll character Sally in mortal peril for no seeming reason. He's much more developed in the film and there was no prior eference to his one-armed bandits that plays a critical role in the climax of the story. (Russian playwright Chekov would be mortified at this!)

TokyoPop has an origin story about how Jack and Oogie Boogie started out as friends and then had a falling out. Perhaps, they are heavily editing the villain's impact in this volume in hopes of enticing readers to go out and buy it. Thanks to the ad for that volume at the end of this book, I want to read it. But I also feel like cutting out a lot of Oogie Boogie's backstory, of for the sake of additional sales is a little underhanded, if that's what TokyoPop did in fact do.

If you love Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and you can get past the alternate direction of reading that comes with Manga, you'll love this book. In fact, if you are a collector, you might even say that you need this book. The adaptation is decent. They do a fairly good job of trying to portray some of the musical numbers from the film. The coloring was beautiful and I was absolutely enamored by the art until the very last page. Why did artists Jun Asuka and Manuel Puppo decide all of a sudden to make Jack's ghost pup Zero look like he was CGI instead of illustrated pencil and inks as he (and the rest of the Manga) appears in the book? It was an error that ruined a perfect holiday feel-good feel!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

When Tim Burton's Beetlejuice came out in 1988, I didn't really understand it. I liked the concept of a newly deceased couple navigating the afterlife as well as trying to extricate an annoying living family from their home. However, the movie was called Beetlejuice and the title character is only in the movie for 17 minutes! My 11 year old brain couldn't understand why Beetlejuice was so rarely in his own movie. So I ended up becoming a fan of the cartoon series as well as the action figures.  They were amazing sculpts! As I got older and became a fan of Tim Burton movies, I understood the reason behind the character's absence and it eventually became one of those movies I can't pass up if I see it while flipping channels.

We jump ahead to 36 years later and Beetlejuice returns to the screen after several decades of rumors of a sequel. While the main character still isn't in every scene, Beetlejuice is in enough of the movie that my younger self would have been satisfied. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice debuted last month, breaking records for films that opened in September. I kept wanting to go to the theaters but I was either too busy or not wanting to fight the crowds. At least my wait wasn't too long as it finally showed up on Amazon Prime and Youtube Premium for my bride and I do give it a Halloween time viewing from the comfort of home. 

In the time since the first film, Lydia Deetz has cashed in on her ability to see ghosts. After helping the Maitlands successfully cross over to the afterlife, Lydia could still see ghosts and became a psychic arbitrator between the living and the dead. Despite starring her own reality TV show, her teenage encounter with Beetlejuice has left Lydia a pill-popping neurotic wreck who has PTSD fears of being reunited with her one-time fiance poltergeist. A widow, Lydia is estranged from her daughter Astrid, who thinks Lydia is a fraud because she never can communicate with her dead husband. Living in New York City, Lydia and her daughter must return to Winter River after the tragic death of her father. However, as Lydia begins to clear the house of her father's possessions, the single mom begins to have horrifying visions of a ghost dressed in a black and white striped suit. With every passing moment, it becomes clear: Beetlejuice is nigh!

Almost the entire original cast returns for this film. Michael Keaton is a treasure! The only major exception is Jeffrey Jones, who played Lydia's father in the original film. However, his criminal past of possessing child pornography meant that his involvement in the film was not to be. Despite this, you do see photos of Jones as Lydia's father at the funeral and his voice is used in at least 1 scene.

There's a few new players to the Beetlejuice universe. Justin Theroux plays Lydia's manager and human fiance. I thought it was interesting having Theroux in this film as it was produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. Both Pitt and Theroux were married to Jennifer Aniston! Imagine the conversations between these two! Monica Bellucci plays Beetlejuice's vengeful wife, thus shedding some light on the main character's origins. Willem Dafoe is an afterlife detective trying to find Beetlejuice's former lover before she can send him to his final reward!

I liked being able to know when and where Beetlejuice came from. But I felt that Monica Bellucci's character was unnecessary. True, without her, that would make Dafoe's character also unneeded and he was some great comic relief. Still, I felt that her parts in this movie didn't really move the plot along other than telling us about the main characters life before the afterlife.

This has got to be one of the most Tim Burton movies filled with the most un-Burton like scenes and music. Thankfully, we get the great Danny Elfman doing the main score. There's stop motion. There's a slew of oddball dead characters. There's another dance scene. But it's no 'Banana Boat' scene. I'm guessing the Harry Belafonte estate wasn't willing to license out other songs of his. 

One thing that I just adored about this film is that it takes place during Halloween. It was seasonal to get to watch it here during the middle of October. Hopefully, it will become an annual favorite. I'd watch it again. It was a nostalgic sequel without being too repetitive of the original. If anything it felt more like a continuation of the Saturday morning cartoon series in which Beetlejuice and Lydia were good friends. Having a 600 year old plus ghost with the hots for a teenage girl is kinda icky. But as friends from differ sides of the doorway to the great beyond felt more comfortable for those of us who got up freakin' early every Saturday to watch a cartoon classic!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 of 10 stars.

Planet of the Apes: Original Trading Card Series

In 1968, 20th Century Fox introduced the world to the futuristic landscape of the Planet of the Apes. Based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, but nowhere near as hi-tech, the film starring Charlton Heston gave birth to a number of sequels, a TV series, comic book, toys, Dr. Zaius bank (for all you Reality Bites fans out there) and not 1 but 2 reboots! Oh, and a trio of trading card sets.

A year after the success of the first film, Topps released a 44 card series based on the film. Due to a licensing agreement with Heston which only allowed Topps to use his image a grand total of 9 times, the company had to get rather creative in the images used. Ironically, 4 of the photos of Heston are of him from behind and you can't even see his face!

After the success of the the Apes films on both screen and being re-aired on TV, CBS decided to produce a live action TV series. To help market the show, Topps was once again tasked to create a trading card set, complete with stick of bubble gum. As the show was currently in production, Topps didn't have any issue showing the likenesses of the main cast. There were just no images of guest stars, unless they were in a monkey suit. Regrettably, the card set did little to promote the show. Despite huge ratings for the 2-hour premiere, the live action Apes series lost viewers pretty quick. According to the author of this chronicle of trading cards, Gary Gerani, almost as soon as cases of wax packs arrived in stores, CBS cancelled the series.

A couple of years later, the Planet of the Apes returned to TV as an animated series. It lasted about as long as the live action version. Burnt by the poor sales of the second batch of trading cards, Topps passed on a set based on the Saturday morning cartoon. With the toons demise, no new Planet of the Apes were released for decades. 

Jump ahead to 1994 and the Universal Pictures film and Generation X opus, Reality Bites. The main character played by Winona Ryder accidentally breaks Ben Stiller's vintage Dr. Zaius bank. Immediately, I'm floored with a rush of Planet of the Apes nostalgia. It had been years since I even thought of those movies. Almost immediately, a new wave of toys, clothes, and VHS/DVD sets devoted to the original 5 movies seemed to begin flooding the market in the late 90s and I took full advantage of the revival.

By the new millennium, it appeared that the world was ready for a return to the Planet of the Apes. Tim Burton was allowed to reboot the franchise and he put his unique touch on the franchise. Aside from that twist ending that rivals the iconic twist of the 1968 original, the reboot wasn't all that great. But once again, Topps was there to capture the action. This time with artifact cards, a rare coin card (that I really want one of) and autograph cards that include original stars Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison, who I did not know this, has a cameo in the 2001 feature.

I really liked this book. Both the front and backs of all the cards are presented, making it the next best, and most affordable, thing to actually owning all 3 original sets. I wasn't so keen on how the back of the card is presented on the opposite left to the front of each card. I felt that the front should be on the left side with the back switched to the other side. Though I guess Abrams Books or Topps felt doing it the other way was more aesthetically pleasing.

I think I found this book for mega cheap at Ollie's. Or maybe a used book store. Though I don't think I am going to keep this book, my interest has peaked on several other trading card book releases. There are collections similar to this one of Garbage Pail Kids, Star Trek, Wacky Packages and more. Plus several Star Wars ones. All of which I want to read. Plus, I think my wife will appreciate me owning them. I think I can get away with owning books about card sets as opposed to filling the house with a bunch of cardboard clutter.

Perfect for fans of Planet of the Apes, trading cards and Topps. Even if you own all 3 sets, this book is a must as it includes an exclusive set of cards that were produced just for this collection!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Dark Shadows

Though my mom watched the original series and I watched the 90s remake, I’m in no way an expert on Dark Shadows. I’m not sure how faithful the movie was to those projects.

The film takes a little while to really get going and at times, you wonder where it’s going next and how long will it get there. The scenes which actually move the plot forward are quite good, but to make a 2 hour movie on a 1200 plus episode soap opera, it’s not wonder things happen suddenly coming from far left field or that some plots threads are left dangling. For instance, when one characters transforms into another creature in order to fit the main villain, you scratch you head because there really wasn’t any plot development leading to the transformation.

Also, some characters pop up for no really purpose, like a 60 some odd year old Alice Cooper performing a trio of hits while heavily made-up to look like he was in his 20s. Sure, the songs used are motifs for parts of the movie occurring at that time. But, why not just have his music play during a montage- he’s not really needed in person.

Yet, the acting is what really makes this film. Johnny Depp is both charming and aloft as the suddenly out of his time period vampire Barnabas. He brings a wisp of magic to the film. Michelle Pfeiffer is a chameleon, making you think she’s a Joans Collins type character but is in fact a true matriarch who knows blood is thicker than water.

Then there’s the always wonderful Grace Chloe Morentz playing her usual bratty and way too smart for you rich girl with problems role. And the girl who plays the witch, Angelique is crazy good with her perverse devotion to Barnabas while trying to single-handedly bankrupt the Collins family. There’s times I thought to myself “She’d make an awesome Harley Quinn.”

Yes, it’s a Tim Burton film. But at times, you feel like he’s given up his normal film style to make a film as close to the original. The movie doesn’t suffer because he’s a faithful fan of Dark Shadows, but it’s easy to forget it’s one of Burton’s film.

Though it wasn’t a huge it, it had lots of laughs and a really good soundtrack, that’s strangely limited of Danny Elfman pieces. Not too scary, but a little too sexualized for my tastes.

Wicked fun though.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars