Jack as he appears in Kingdom Hearts II.
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King is the main protagonist of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has become a pop culture icon as well as entering both gothic and Halloween culture. Because he is a popular Disney-owned character, he has appeared many times in the company's other media, such as cameos in other films (most notably in James and the Giant Peach) as well as video games, primarily the Kingdom Hearts series, which is a crossover between Disney and Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft, before its merger with Enix in 2003). According to The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, Jack is a non-corporeal being.
Known as the Pumpkin King in his homeland of Halloween Town, Jack is the patron spirit of Halloween and is seen to be a tall, eerily thin skeleton dressed in a black pin-striped suit and a bat-shaped bow tie. However, he is known to dress up as a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern on his head during parades. He owns a pet ghost dog named Zero, who is little more than a sheet and a glowing nose which resembles a jack-o-lantern. He also has a romantic interest in the rag doll Sally, who was created by the evil scientist Dr. Finklestein.
Speculation[]
Interestingly, many similarities can be drawn between Skellington and the other two of Tim Burton's animated characters, Victor Van Dort from Corpse Bride and Victor Frankenstein from Frankenweenie; this includes not only overall physical appearance but also a protagonist and his undead dog (Scraps and Sparky, respectively).
Behind the scenes[]
- Jack Skellington's last name is a play on the word "skeleton".