Jack Skellington

"I'm a master of fright, and a demon of light, and I'll scare you right out of your pants. To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mister Unlucky and I'm known throughout England and France."

- Jack Skellington "Fear and doubt are signs of a strong heart. They push your heart, strike out in new directions! Without them, your zest for life might fade... as would your taste for fear. And believe me, that would really ruin my fun."

- Jack explaining his reasons for scaring people to Sora in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

Jack Skellington is the main protagonist of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is voiced by Chris Sarandon with Danny Elfman doing his singing voice.

Appearance
Jack is an extremely thin and equally tall being, his legs being over twice as long as his torso. He is a skeleton, and so his head lacks hair and sports empty eye sockets and nostrils. Strangely, his neck is solid, not showing vertebrae segmentation. His skull is similar, showing no distinction between his upper and lower jaws. His mouth is thin and wide, marked by a number of small "seams", similar to a Glasgow smile. Jack is missing several teeth in a number of different places. Unlike his head and neck, Jack's hands do show joints.

Jack's usual attire is a macabre black suit with white pinstripes. The top has a single white button, and a white shirt is visible underneath. His black dress shoes are bizarrely small in comparison to the rest of his body. The coat tails of Jack's coat reach to about knee-length, and he wears a large, black bow-tie shaped like a bat with several white veins in its wings and white eyes.

When masquerading as Santa Claus, Jack dons an obviously fake white beard (the part of the beard that should attach to his chin dangles a few inches from it) that reaches to the top of his thighs. His faded red pants have a vertical seam on the front, and his black, knee-high boots have fur lining at the top. Jack's tails in this outfit are about the same length as his normal ones, and he wears a maroon belt around his waist. His long sleeves are also fur lined at the cuffs. Finally, his faded red Santa hat also has white fur lining around the rim and a white fur ball at the tip.

Personality
Jack is very much an undead gentleman, graceful and patient in equal measures and can usually be counted on to do what is in everyone's best interest.

Though his logic is sound, his reasoning can be questioned at times - he was quite thorough in his Christmas research, but opted to go with what he and his friends knew when he decided to give Santa Claus the year off and take over for him.

He was also oblivious to Sally's feelings for him throughout most of the story, showing that while among the more intelligent citizens of Halloween Town, he is very oblivious at reading people's feelings. This is backed up by the fact that he barely even recognized Santa's distress when they first met.

It seems that Jack might be slightly naive at times, as shown that he trusted Lock, Shock, and Barrel enough that he believed that they would simply bring Santa Claus to him without causing trouble, despite them being in cahoots with Oogie Boogie, as well as not realizing all the chaos he was causing on Christmas Eve before it was too late.

Jack almost never loses his temper and hardly ever raises his voice, but Jack was unable to contain his contempt for Oogie Boogie and did not hesitate to severely punish his old foe for endangering his friends with grim dedication.

It is also shown that Jack enjoys things that are new to him. He quickly became delighted with Christmas and grew increasingly excited as Christmas was being remade in Halloween Town just as he pictured, even giddily laughing as he gave out presents on Christmas Eve.

He is also highly optimistic, as he is very certain everything will go perfectly...that is, until he realizes how "Everything's gone all wrong." Even when in despair after ruining Christmas, he is able to cheer himself up by realizing he didn't mean to do what he did and that "nobody really understood" (whether he is referring to Halloween Town not understanding Christmas or humans not understanding his intentions is unclear, though he could mean both). He is also humble enough to admit that he has failed and is willing to hand back the reins to Santa Claus in order to rectify everything.

Powers and Abilities
Being an undead creature gives Jack one major advantage that most other Disney protagonists don't have; near-invincibility. Dismembered body parts can easily be re-attached, as well as remotely controlled by his mind. Though this doesn't mean he can't be killed, as in the film Jack states that for him, death would be his bones being ground to dust, this is supported by the fact that after his sleigh is shot down, everyone assumes he's dead. The Mayor even stating on his microphone that "Jack Skellington is naught but a pile of dust" while everyone, but Oogie, is lamenting over the supposed loss of Jack.

He is also shown being very agile and light on his feet. Being nothing but a skeleton, he has no muscles or organic tissue weighing him down, so he can perform great leaps and bounds through the air effortlessly, and despite having no muscles, he seems to be quite strong, one would think that without muscles he wouldn't be able to move or even lift things. Yet he has no issues lifting glass containers, presents, or even the rotund child of the corpse family as seen in the end of the film.

In his video game appearances, he is shown to be a very capable fighter as well. The Kingdom Hearts series shows him to be a very powerful mage, capable of using fire, ice, electricity, and gravity magic. He's also shown being able to use dance moves, such as twirling about and striking with his legs, or performing knee slides, as effective physical attacks, and he is also shown using his skeletal fingers like claws to slash at enemies as well.

In Oogie's Revenge, he is given a gel like weapon called the Soul Robber, which functions as a multipurpose shape shifting weapon, most commonly used as a whip, as well as a grappling hook. In The Pumpkin King, he's also shown to have access to other weapons such as the Frog Gun, the Bat Boomerang, and Pumpkin Bombs.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
The story begins with the grand finale of Halloween Town's Halloween celebration, which is hailed by the return of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. When Jack sneaks away from the adoring citizens, it is revealed that he longs for something different to make the same old Halloween routine something more. He wanders off to the Graveyard to lament over his unfulfilled desires, which is heard by Sally, hiding behind a tombstone. Sally understands how Jack feels, but before she can reveal herself, he enters the Hinterlands with Zero. Accidentally sleepwalking through the Hinterlands, Jack stumbles upon a place in the forest he has never been before. What he finds is a grove of trees with colorful doors leading to other Holiday Worlds. Jack is drawn toward the Christmas door and opens it, finding Christmas Town. Inspired by and infatuated with the holiday, he attempts with little success to explain it to the citizens of Halloween Town. After obsessively researching it, he decides that this year the citizens of Halloween Town will manage Christmas, in the hopes of "improving" it. Sally on the other hand, has a premonition that his plans for Christmas will be a disaster. She attempts to warn him, but Jack is too wrapped up in "his" Christmas to recognize her warnings and 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 of joy. Jack, dressed as Santa Claus ("Sandy Claws" as Jack calls him) unintentionally brings terror rather than joy to the children of the world. Wanting "Sandy Claws" to rest, Jack had ordered a trio of trick-or-treaters, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, to bring Santa to Halloween Town. However, after Santa is first brought to Jack and greeted warmly by him, the three take him to their master, Oogie Boogie, who mocks, tortures, and plans to eventually kill Santa with his sadistic games. Sally attempts to rescue Santa Claus after discovering that military forces are planning to defeat Jack, but she is captured too. Upon realizing the error of his ways, Jack overcomes his identity crisis and reaffirms himself as the Pumpkin King.

Determined to set things right, Jack returns to Halloween Town, where he discovers that Santa has been taken to Oogie's Lair and that Sally is also there. He manages to rescue Santa and Sally, and defeat Oogie Boogie. Jack asks Sally how she ended up in his lair and realizes her feelings for him, while also possibly realizing his own feelings for her. Before being able to say anything to her, they are interrupted. 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 Jack's former desire to a limited extent. Jack sees Sally heading for the graveyard and realizes that what has been missing from his life might have just been someone who understood him, like Sally did. He finds her on the Spiral Hill blanketed in snow and reveals his own affections for her. At the film's end, the two embrace and share a kiss while Zero looks on.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
Disappointed with this year's theme on Halloween, Jack Skellington goes to Doctor Finkelstein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shape. Jack decides 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.

Kingdom Hearts
Jack Skellington appears in four installments of the Kingdom Hearts video game series. He inhabits the world of Halloween Town, where the evil Heartless threaten its denizens. The games' main protagonists, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy, befriend Jack and together they battle the Heartless and also Oogie Boogie. In combat, Jack uses some of his scary powers with demonstrations of some magic, making him a formidable sorcerer.

Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts, Jack takes a liberal role of performing a scary Halloween, in this case, using the Heartless. He asks Dr. Finkelstein to make a heart for the creatures so they can dance, but the Heartless get loose and wreak havoc in Halloween Town. He requests the help of Sora to find a solution. However, they take so long to fight Oogie Boogie, he regretfully has to cancel Halloween for a year due to a lack of material to go on, promising something terrifying next year.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Jack Skellington appears after scaring Donald Duck. He asks them if he can help them if he can help him and suddenly Heartless jump out of the ground and attack the group. When asked by Donald why he commanded the Heartless to attack them, he replies that he did not call them and that in fact he wants to get rid of them. He then joins you as a friend card that will cast spells like Gravity, Fire, and Thunder.

Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, Jack Skellington is starting to try and take control of Christmas to help give Santa a break. But Maleficent decides to raise Oogie Boogie from the dead to help her take over Christmas Town and make Santa a Heartless. Jack Skellington, unaware of the event, helps Santa get rid of Oogie Boogie and save Christmas, then decides that Halloween needs his immediate attention.

When Sora returns to Halloween Town, the professor's experiment has left and no one knows where it went. They decide to go to Santa's house and find that someone has been stealing presents. They come up with a plan to make decoy presents and place them out for the thief to find. The thief ended up being the experiment who stole presents because it wanted a heart.