This week on the Total Movie Recall Holiday Special, Steve and Ryan visit the mopey, gothy early 90s when Generation X looked to the high school Gloom King Tim Burton to express their so dark vision of Christmas. Stop motion animation is such a labor intensive craft that creates beautiful visions that aren’t all that interesting, which is going to enrage a bunch of high school Wiccans that love this movie. It does look great, though.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

d. Henry Selick

Starring:
Danny Elfman
Chris Sarandon
Catherine O'Hara
William Hickey
Paul Reubens

The film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown's beloved pumpkin king, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the "real world." When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colors and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life -- he plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry.

Things discussed in the show:

Babe Pig in the City

Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton)

Dark Shadows (Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green)

Dumbo 2019 (Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito)

Beetlejuice 2

Yule logs, holiday presents and the Krampus

Saturn and Jupiter aligning in 2020

Supernatural's final season (Eric Kripke, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins)

Armageddon and kaijus

X-Files (Chris Carter, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi)

power ranking Young Sheldon episodes

Mom (Allison Janney, Anna Faris, Mimi Kennedy)

The internet turning on Chris Pratt

Johnny Depp & Amanda Heard drama

The Straight Story (David Lynch, John Roach, Mary Sweeney, Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane Galloway Heitz)

Tom Cruise freaking out on staff not adhering to covid restrictions and Scientology

Mission Impossible 7 (Christopher McQuarrie, Vanessa Kirby, Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell)

Mission Impossible Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames)

The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams)

Mission Impossible 3 (J.J. Abrams, Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames)

South Park - The Pandemic Special

Cyberpunk 2077

Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis)

The Mandolorian Season 2 (Jon Favreau, Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Temuera Morrison, Amy Sedaris, Bill Burr)

Kathleen Kennedy

Star Wars - The Clone Wars (George Lucas, Tom Kane, Dee Bradley Baker, Matt Lanter)

Star Wars - Rebels (Simon Kinberg, Carrie Beck, Dave Filoni, Taylor Gray, Vanessa Marshall)

Ahsoka Tano

Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache)

James Cameron's Avatar films

The Town (Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon)

Jean-Pierre Melville

No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin)

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell)

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Blood Simple (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya)

The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor)

Fargo season 4 (Noah Hawley, Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley, Jason Schwartzman, Ben Whishaw, Jack Huston)

MacBeth 2021 (Joel Coen, William Shakespeare, Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson)

The Naked Man (J. Todd Anderson, Ethan Coen, Michael Rapaport, Michael Jeter, John Carroll Lynch)

Black Mirror - Nosebleed Season 3, Episode 1 (Michael Schur, Rashida Jones, Bryce Dallas Howard, Alice Eve)

Chinese social credit

Community Meow-Meow Beans - App Development and Condiments - Season 5, Episode 8 (Rob Schrab, Yvette Nicole Brown, Joel McHale, Jim Rash, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, Jonathan Banks, Steve Agee, Brian Posehn, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim)

Disneyland during Covid

Oingo Boingo - "Little Girls" video

Cab Calloway

The Jungle Book (Disney, Wolfgang Reitherman, Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima)

Stop Motion Animation

Goth Girls and the mall

Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, Caroline Thompson, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest)

Frankenweenie (Tim Burton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short)

Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, Linda Woolverton, Lewis Carroll, Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter)

German Expressionism

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, Roald Dahl, John August, Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly)

Corpse Bride (Tim Burton, Mike Johnson, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson)

Big Fish (Tim Burton, Daniel Wallace, John August, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup)

Sweeny Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton, John Logan, Hugh Wheeler, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman)

Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton)

Ed Wood (Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker)

Batman (Tim Burton, Bob Kane, Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Tim Burton, Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson)

The Holiday Movies the Made Us

Ray Harrihausen

Frosty the Snowman (Jackie Vernon, Billy De Wolfe, Jimmy Durante)

Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman, Gene Cunningham, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Virginia Rose, Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman)

Batman Returns (Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer)

Necromancy reindeer

Slenderman & Creepy Pasta

Beware the Slenderman documentary - the story of two 12-year old girls, who attempted to sacrifice one of their friends to Slenderman in a rutal attack

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

The Satanic Panic

The Slender Man Movie (Sylvain White, Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair)

Bad Luck Brian

Next week: Cabin Boy