I was heavily underwhelmed by this manga adaptation of Nightmare Before Christmas. The text was all over the place, time jumps were poorly executed, some of the characters are drawn out of Tim Burton’s style in some panels but in it in others which makes little sense, some sections seemed like they were out of order, etc. Even as someone who is familiar with both manga and Nightmare Before Christmas, it was confusing. This all just seems like a lazy money grab from Disney (I know all adaptations kind of are, but this one seemed like zero effort was put into it).

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

Tim Burton book? I was sold!
I love the nIghtmare before christmas and was interested in this manga version of it.
It was interesting and cool to read.

Not my cup of tea I'm afraid. I got a little confused from panel to panel and it just didn't feel cohesive. For hard fans of the film in my opinion.

Thank you Netgalley for my review copy.

Loved it - who couldn't with the perfect illustration and Jack as the main character - so creative and fun

It was fun reading a manga with some of my favorite Disney characters. The story was good and the drawing was great. Very engaging.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a holiday tradition, though there is still some debate about which holiday. I was a big fan of the movie when it first came out, especially the music, so when I saw there was a manga available, I had to check it out.

The manga follows the movie fairly faithfully. Jack Skellington, the ruler of Halloweentown, isn’t satisfied with the yearly scares, and he stumbles upon several doors that lead to other holidays. He goes through the door to Christmastown and is so enchanted with it that he decides he wants to make his own. While the manga hits all the important scenes, there were some changes made to fit the manga format. The story is told in part from the perspective of Sally, a rag doll creation of the town’s resident mad scientist. We see several scenes through her eyes and are privy to her inner thoughts. She has a crush on Jack, and while this is just a subplot in the movie, it is emphasized more in the manga. Some scenes are switched around at the end to better fit Sally’s narrative, but nothing is greatly changed.

The movie was a musical, and several scenes were musical numbers featuring Jack, Sally, the big bad Oogie Boogie, and the townspeople of Halloweentown. The manga fit in these scenes and included lines from the songs, which sometimes worked—but not always. The songs were truncated to scattered lines that didn’t always connect, and if you’re like me and want to sing along, this made them feel stunted and unsatisfying. A special font is used to make the lyrics stand out, so at least you know which lines are from songs.

The art captures the look of the movie perfectly, from the characters to the backgrounds. It does a good job replicating the scenes. The experiments montage worked particularly well, as did the montage of Jack delivering the presents and the kids reactions to them. I would have liked to have seen more of “Jack’s Lament” since that is a big scene for Jack and a turning point in the movie. Here, it’s treated as a flashback and downplays Jack’s motivation for returning to Halloweentown.

I did enjoy this manga interpretation of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Making Sally the perspective character and playing up the romantic elements was an interesting choice that made this more than just a retelling of the story. I’m glad they acknowledged the musical part of the story, even if it didn’t work as well. Fans of the movie, and of Jack and Sally as a couple, should pick this volume up.

Completely unputdownable! Highly enjoyable! It's almost as good as the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I will definitely be buying this manga.

I love this movie, so when I saw the comic I fell in love with it.
I loved the drawings for this story!!!

Great manga rendition of a beloved Burton classic! I loved it!

I loved Tim Burton's film A Nightmare Before Christmas and was pleased that the manga stayed true to the original. I could practically hear the songs in my head as I read the story of Jack Skellington's quest to find something he felt was missing from his life, something even better than Halloween. Lost in his thoughts, Jack, the Pumpkin King, wanders into Christmas Town which houses the only holiday that could surpass Halloween in its celebratory flavor. Thinking to capture this essence Jack has Santa kidnapped and tries to transform the Christmas tradition, but everything backfires when Jack applies his Halloween knowhow to an already fine-tuned holiday, while back in Halloween Town avarice and greed threaten a possible turn around to the inevitable chaos. A parallel story has Patchwork Doll Sally, a devotee of Jack, trying to help him overcome his mounting difficulties, hoping he'll notice her in a more romantic way. She has problems of her own as she must finagle her way out of the clutches of her creator who wants her all to himself.

While the illustrations remain true to Tim Burton's representations, the black and white sketches, although detailed, don't have the depth of the original. I strongly feel this is the disadvantage of an electronic version of this title. Even if this could be overlooked, the plot itself doesn't quite carry over, leaving some gaps in our understanding of events.

Still, after reading the 176 page graphic novel, I am ready to revisit the movie which is currently available on Netflix. I was never quite sure whether this was a Halloween or Christmas story, but I'll be watching it in time for Ground Hog's Day. Scary Christmas!

Three and a half stars. A thank you for the temporary ARC of Disney Manga: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas adapted by Jun Asuka sent to me by Tokyopop and Netgalley (in exchange for an honest review).

RATING: 3.5 STARS
I am not a huge fan of Manga drawings but I loved revisiting the story!

Unfortunately, this book was not readable on my adobe digital. The lower half was cut off so I could not read each panel. Nightmare Before Christmas is an amazing movie and I'm sure if I could reach each page, I would love this.

I really enjoyed reading The Nightmare Before Christmas in manga form, as I believe Tim Burton's grotesque art style fits the manga aesthetics quite nicely. The overall aesthetics and feel of Tim Burton's film translates very well into the manga form, in which the character designs seem very natural and fitting. The manga follows the film's plot very faithfully, so much so that even the songs have been added as part of the characters' dialogue/monologues. This is something I feel could have been avoided, since for someone who isn't familiar with the film and the songs themselves, this addition is of little to no value, and suddenly moving from normal dialogue to rhyming one might even confuse some. Although the story seemed a bit rushed, it was still as intriguing as the original film and certainly a great read for Halloween or pre-Christmas time. I would definitely recommend it to any Tim Burton fans and to anyone who would like to add a short, fun read to their Halloween reading list.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all-time favorite movies. The music, the atmosphere, the characters, everything about it is captivating and I enjoy it immensely.

When I saw a manga adaptation, there was no way I could pass up reading it. The art style is very similar to the movie and I think the style works well in manga form. Long time fans of the film should enjoy this adaptation as it felt just like watching the movie.

The only downside to the story in this form is the lack of music. The music is such a huge part of the movie, it's a bit of a disappointment to not have it. The adaptor did a good job at filling in that hole with dialogue from the songs plus a bit extra and while reading those sections, I found myself humming the songs or singing the words in my head.

Overall, this is an enjoyable manga and I would definitely recommend it for fans of the movie. Plus, if you're restricted for time but need a dose of TNBC, this manga only takes approximately thirty minutes to read!

4.5 stars

Introduction:

Now, I will start going into fangirl mode here since I will be talking about one of my most favorite animated movies of all time! I will admit that when I was little, I was actually terrified of Tim Burton’s classic animated movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” due to the scary visuals presented in the film. But, when I started watching this film way back in high school, I suddenly fell in love with this creepy yet memorable movie and it has become one of my most favorite films to watch during Halloween (next to “Hocus Pocus,” of course)! So, when both NetGalley and Edelweiss gave me a copy of the manga adaptation of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which was adapted by Jun Asuka, I was jumping around with glee since I never would have thought that a manga version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” would ever be made!

What is this story about?

Based off the classic animated film, Jack Skellington is the scariest creature in Halloween Town, but unfortunately, he has started to get tired of doing the same old things every year for Halloween and he goes out into the woods to discover more things to do. One day, while he was out in the woods, he discovers a door that has a Christmas tree on it and he ends up going through the door and discovering Christmas Town and Santa Claus. It was then that Jack decided to become Santa Claus that year and deliver some “presents” to all of the girls and boys in the world. Unfortunately, Sally, the ragdoll that loves him, has a terrible premonition about Jack’s Christmas turning into a disaster and Sally has to stop Jack from becoming Santa Claus and delivering the presents to the kids before it is too late!

What I loved about this story:

The story: Wow! I was quite impressed with this story! “The Nightmare Before Christmas” has always been one of my most favorite animated movies of all time and I was so excited to finally be able to check out the manga version of this movie! As I come to expect, the manga version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was completely faithful to the original movie, from the dialogue to the situations that happened in the film. I loved revisiting the movie in manga format since it was quite unexpected for me to see this movie in manga form rather than in a regular graphic novel format and it just made this manga so original to read through! I also loved the fact that this manga focused more on Jack and Sally’s relationship with each other than the movie did and I loved the fact that we get more focus on Sally’s perspective of the whole situation in this manga since I wanted to see more from her character in the movie and this manga did a great job at fleshing out Sally’s character even further.

Jun Asuka’s artwork: Jun Asuka’s artwork was both creative and adorable to look at! I loved how Jun Asuka’s artwork was faithful to original designs of the characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” movie as they look just as creepy as in the movie, but with a bit more anime style added for effect! I also loved the way that Jun Asuka designed Sally in this manga as Sally is drawn in a much cuter style than in the movie and it makes her into a more endearing character to read about in this manga!

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I took off half a point from the star rating was because the copy I got seemed a bit incomplete. It seemed like the bottom half of the pages were cut off a bit and there was a bit of dialogue that I ended up missing because it got cut off at the bottom. Luckily, I have seen the movie enough times to figure out what is going on and I probably would have given this manga a five-star rating if I had not received an incomplete copy of this manga.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” manga is a joy to read if you are a fan of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and of manga in general! I would highly recommend it to manga and horror fans alike!

Was this just a sample?
The story is incomplete!
Not only that but the artwork was really not to my tastes :(

Very disappointing.

This one archived before I could properly read/review it. However, I love manga style and I LOVE Nightmare Before Christmas so it's a fantastic mash up. This is one that is on my personal wish list and I hope to own it soon. Thanks for the chance to check it out! I would suggest fans check it out.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Unfortunately I didn't read it in time so I finally just went out and got the book instead.

I am a huge fan of Tim Burton & The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all time favorite movies. When I saw this up for review on Netgalley, I just knew I had to read it. The best thing about Mangas are the fact that you read it backwards. It's pretty fun to go the opposite way and experience something different.

When reading this book, I realized just how much I love the movie and I'm now thinking that I haven't spent nearly enough time watching or listening to this movie. The artwork that Jun Asuka did was spectacular. It was extremely well done and did honor to the movie. The only thing that drove me a little crazy was that the entire songs were missing. I know, I shouldn't need to read them all but it just felt like something was missing every time a song would come up and then be glossed over.

Ultimately, this was a lot of fun, the artwork was beautiful and it was a fun way to go back to one of my favorite movies.

This is was such a fun read! Anyone who is a fan of the classic movie will fall in love with story all over again. The art is absolutely beautiful. The story did feel slightly condensed but all of my favorite parts where there. Grab a cup of your favorite drink, curl up in comfy blanket, and dive in!

A fantastic adaptation of one of my favorite Tim Burton films.