The world of realistic visual arts recently gained a new interactive, immersive seasonal experience. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail takes place until November 30 at New York’s Botanical Garden in the Bronx. This show features gyrating compositions of lights spread over 8,300 square feet complete with 3D characters from the film, with music and spooky sounds. A kaleidoscope of color highlights the autumn foliage of the garden. The 1993 film, an endearing work of art, comes to life as do the characters in this spectacular experience.
In 2011, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held a tribute to Burton in the show Tim Burton: The Artist’s Process. The catalogue entry reads, “After studying at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Burton worked as an animator at the Walt Disney Studios before breaking out on his own. Taking inspiration from popular culture, fairy tales, and gothic traditions, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of a personal vision.” This new show at the Botanical Garden is testimony to the longevity of his craft.
Experiencing the Trail
Enter the jaw-dropping show through the lighted outline of a HUGE pumpkin, which sucks you into a tunnel of rainbow lights and sounds. Burton’s beloved Skinny Scarecrow welcomes you with simmering flaming-orange torches. He introduces you to the dead Mayor of Halloween Town, who utters words of “shade” as you walk. Pass characters from the film, such as the Corpse Kid, that wonderful ball-nosed dog, Dr Finkelstein, and lovely Sally. Jack Skellington shows you into a pile of glowing headstones and gestures towards a thirty-foot long projection tunnel of creepy-crawlies, such as projected spiders which seem to crawl all over your body. Here we witness Jack plotting to sabotage Christmas Town. Soon, the huge bright green blob known as Oogie Boogie stands before you, glowing with UV light, in his own Las Vegas gambling parlor.
The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail is the brainchild of Spanish entrepreneur Inaki Fernandez and Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller (Rent, Hamilton). Fernandez previously mounted Tim Burton’s Labyrinth, an immersive show in Berlin.
Critics of popular visual culture say the best “installation” in this remarkable show is the Botanical Garden’s 30,000 species of trees, as the best sights are of nature herself lit with projected images, bathed in colored lights to show the autumn leaves this time of year. The show is open till November 30 and costs $49 per ticket. A wonderful tribute to a great artist.
