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- What Is Dream Town?
- What Happens When Sally Journeys To Dream Town?
- The Nightmare Before Christmas Sequel Yet To Be Told
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is rich with wildly imaginative and speculative mythology that Disney has not further explored onscreen since its premiere for various reasons. It is an animated classic that is perfect as a standalone film not just for Halloween and Christmas. But thanks to the 2022 young adult novel, fans get a peek into what comes next for Jack Skellington and Sally. This suggests that there’s more to the “happily ever after” ending of the movie.
The novel, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, details the history surrounding the Holiday Doors in the Hinterlands. The film introduced these passageways to holiday realms. It was initially assumed that the seven featured holidays were the only realms in the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, Sally Skellington’s venture into the forest reveals not only another door and realm but also a few other surprises.
What Is Dream Town?
After marrying Jack and becoming Queen of Halloween Town, Sally begins to struggle with her new role and identity as Pumpkin Queen. Fans of the film will already notice the similarity between Sally’s identity crisis and Jack’s. Like Jack, Sally goes off into the forest for introspection, but she finds a crescent moon-shaped door covered in foliage. When Sally opens the door, she releases the Sandman into Halloween Town where he puts everyone under a deep sleeping spell to steal their dreams. Unable to awaken the residents, Sally journeys into this new realm from where the Sandman was released to hopefully learn how to undo his sleeping spell.
In this town, Sally stumbles across pajama-wearing inhabitants who speak in riddles and rhymes reminiscent of lullabies. This is the nature of Dream Town, an ancient realm where the full moon always shines in the night sky. Much like it is Jack’s responsibility as Pumpkin King to bring the tricks and treats of Halloween to the Human World on their holiday, Dream Town’s responsibility is to employ sleep weavers, including teddy bears and rag dolls, who lull humans to sleep. Naturally, Sally felt initially out of place in Dream Town because of the way they speak. But Sally’s patchwork linen-skin soon helped her realize the truth and learn a few other things along the way.
What Happens When Sally Journeys To Dream Town?
The Nightmare Before Christmas characterizes Sally as Dr. Finkelstein’s invented daughter. Once Sally meets Albert and Greta, the rag doll governors of Dream Town, however, it’s revealed that she is their long-lost daughter. Though Sally’s hesitant to believe them. While the revelation may be good news considering how unkind of a “father” Dr. Finkelstein was to Sally, it also brings up some startling questions. Kidnapping is certainly unsettling in a children’s story; but then again, in the grim, strange world of The Nightmare Before Christmas, it also isn’t the first time it’s happened.
Dr. Finkelstein’s crimes aside, Sally still must learn how to break the Sandman’s sleeping spell. More fearsome than the villainous Oogie Boogie, the Sandman is described as a merciless dream thief who once ruled Dream Town. His thirst for stealing dreams was never quenched, and his dream sand never worked on Dream Town residents. So he was banished to the outskirts of the Town, but he longed to escape to places where he could steal dreams. Upon hearing this, Sally fully comes to accept that Albert and Greta speak the truth.
She must be their missing rag doll daughter because that is the only explanation for why the Sandman’s dream sand also didn’t work on her in Halloween Town. Unfortunately, this heartwarming reunion takes a different turn when Albert and Greta reveal the only way to keep Dream Town safe from the Sandman’s madness is to destroy the doorways for him to return. This would also mean Sally would have no way of returning to Halloween Town and will never see her beloved Jack Skellington again.
RELATED: Why The Nightmare Before Christmas Is A Perfect November Watch
The Nightmare Before Christmas Sequel Yet To Be Told
Without spoiling too much of the story, which is well worth reading, it’s safe to assume the climax will pit Sally against the Sandman in a way that fans have come to love and expect from the potion-concocting rag doll. The other amazing facets of the story finally answer some questions regarding what’s behind the other holiday doors and if there are more. By the start of the book, Jack has been to all of the Holiday Towns featured in Tim Burton’s original movie except Valentine’s Town. He specifically saved that one to be an adventure he’d share together with Sally.
Clearly, Disney intends to continue expounding upon the lore and characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas in a variety of formats beyond motion pictures. There are several routes for future adaptions that could take shape. This novelized continuation of the film shifts the focus of the protagonist from Jack to Sally. Telling a story of love and courage as Sally learns to embrace her new identity and some hard truths, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen is very much the sequel fans have been clamoring for, even if only in literary form. Perhaps this will entice Tim Burton to return to the franchise. The ending of the novel creates more opportunities for new stories. And if Sally’s story is any indication, it may be worth telling the grim and strange tales of other characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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