Jack Skellington

Jack Skellington is the patron spirit of Halloween, portrayed as being on par with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny within his own holiday. As a living skeleton, he is supernatural and can remove parts of his body without harm, as is often demonstrated for comic relief. He is the most important of many Halloween spirits, with the implication that their job is to scare people in the real world on Halloween night.

Jack, as the "Pumpkin King" and master of ceremonies, is in charge of Halloween Town's Halloween celebration. He is loved, respected, and even idolized by the other residents for his role, but he has grown weary of celebrating the same holiday endlessly and is depressed about it. The only one who understands Jack's feelings is a lonely rag doll named Sally. She overhears his singing monologue and feels she can relate to his situation.

One morning after the usual annual celebration, Jack enters a forest containing portals to other worlds themed around holidays. He discovers Christmas Town and decides that this new experience is what his life was missing. He makes preparations for his own Christmas celebration in Halloween Town and wants to impersonate Santa Claus in the real world. While his intentions are not malicious, Jack does not understand the true spirit of Christmas. Halloween Town plans to give the holidays a macabre makeover. Sally reveals to Jack a bad premonition, but Jack's basic nature is impulsiveness. He does not seem to register contradictory information. By the end of the film, he notices Sally and her determination to help him. He proves that love can be a part of his nature by calling Sally his "Dearest Friend", telling Sally that they were meant to be together, embracing his future with her and embracing her.

Jack follows the formula of a tragic hero because he begins the story at a lofty position. In spite of all his fame and talent, he yearns for another side of life. While a desire for completeness is not a flaw, his impulsiveness proves to be. He tends to be enthusiastic and inclusive, and his charisma is enough to sway every member of Halloween Town except Sally. His selfish decisions lead to the near destruction of Christmas and himself. The strength of Jack's character is demonstrated by his will to correct his own mistakes.

The official film soundtrack CD contains an epilogue not in the film, stating that "many years later" Santa returned to Halloween Town to visit Jack, where he discovered that Jack had "four or five skeleton children at hand" who play together in a xylophone band.

Jack appears as a meetable character at several Walt Disney Parks and Resorts including Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World, and is located outside The Haunted Mansion in Frontierland. Disneyland during the holidays, Haunted Mansion is taken over by the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas and is turned into Haunted Mansion Holiday. Jack and other characters appear throughout the ride wearing Christmas attire. Additionally, Jack hosts the Halloween Screams and Not So Spooky Spectacular! fireworks shows, as well as the Frightfully Fun Parade.[8] Chris Sarandon reprised the voice for the character in each instance.

• In Vincent, a figure similar to Jack appears as one of the phantasmic imaginisms of the titular character, during the final minutes of the short film.
• In Beetlejuice, during the seance scene, when Betelgeuse rises out of the table he is wearing a carousel adorned with a skull that resembles what would later be the design of Jack.
• During the opening scene of Sleepy Hollow, a scarecrow bearing a strong resemblance to the Pumpkin King scarecrow at the beginning of "This is Halloween" can be seen.
• In the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland, Jack's face can be found on the Mad Hatter's bow tie.
• In James and the Giant Peach, Jack makes a cameo as Captain Jack, an antagonist in the pirate scene. Upon discovering him, Centipede says "A Skellington?".
• A silhouette of Jack is shown in The Princess and the Frog as one of the shadows Dr. Facilier summons.
• Jack Skellington's face made a cameo appearance on a doormat in the first volume of the graphic novel series Lenore, created by Roman Dirge.
• Jack appears in an episode of The Critic in a short parody called "The Nightmare Before Hanukkah", done in the same stop-motion animation style as the original movie. In this parody, Jack wears a red suit rather than his usual black and white striped one.
• Jack also appears in the animated Adult Swim sketch show Robot Chicken. In one sketch, film critic Roger Ebert and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan review a batch of sequels to popular movies. One of which is The Nightmare Before Hanukkah, with Jack finding a place called "Hanukkah Town" and watches children open up presents, but finding out that it is just socks and pencils for their first day of Hanukkah, leading to Jack saying to himself: "Oh, wow, this sucks..." Jack appears again on another sketch called "Grown-Up Halloween" alongside the Mayor of Halloween Town.
• Jack appears in the background in a South Park made-for-TV movie called "Imaginationland".
• Jack appears in the movie Coraline as the yolk of an egg cracked by the Other Mother.
• Jack appears in the Mad episode "Kitchen Nightmares Before Christmas". He also makes a cameo appearance in the short it was paired with, "How I Met Your Mummy".
• A parody of Jack Skellington, in the form of a character named The Pumpkin Guy, appears in the opening of the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Night Ghoulery".
• Jack appears, along with his Halloween Town friends, in one of the cutaway scenes of the Family Guy episode "Peter's Sister". In the scene, a fictional Nightmare sequel entitled Happy 4th of July Jack Skellington, the citizens of Halloween Town sing a short song called "Patriotic Weirdness".
• A Jack plush doll also made an appearance in Stocking's room in the anime Panty and Stocking.
• Jack is included as one of many characters featured in Disney on Ice's production Let's Celebrate!. Mickey Mouse calls upon him to throw a Halloween party, which a number of Disney Villains find their way into. During his appearance, a medley of "Jack's Lament" and "What's This?" are performed, along with the film's opening number "This Is Halloween". Sarandon provided both the speaking and singing for Jack.
• In the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 video game Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, the titular character references the main plot of The Nightmare Before Christmas from the point of view of Jack in the winter/Christmas-themed level, "Christmas Land" as he remarks "Christmas Town? I'm Jack Gexington from Halloween..."
• In an episode of the children's show Tumble Leaf when they are on an adventure to the spider queen's Halloween party. Fig(main character) and friends stop at a neighbors home. On the door of the neighbors home, which is in a tree, it's shaped like the doors in the opening scene of nightmare before Christmas. On the door, Jack and Sally's beloved, iconic spiral mountain peak.
• Some figures of Jack appear on a pavilion in Oh My Disney in the film Ralph Breaks the Internet.
• Two unlockable costumes of Jack Skellington appear in the video game Fall Guys.
• Jack Skellington appears as a purchasable outfit in Fortnite Battle Royale, as part of the game's annual Fortnitemares event in 2023.

Jack Skellington has been made into a Bendies figure,[9] as well as various Funko Pop Vinyl figurines with different variants, such as a Day of the Dead variant. He appeared in the Kingdom Hearts action figure collections, and was also released in Japan's REVOLTECH Sci-fi line in 2010, along with the Japanese monsters, Gamera and Gyaos.[10] Diamond Select Toys also made many action figures of Jack and other characters.[11]

In 2017 a life-size Jack Skellington animatronic prop was released. The prop was six feet tall and sold exclusively at Spirit Halloween.[12] But in 2019 the prop became a wholesale item.

In the Disney Infinity toys-to-life series, Jack appears as part of the second wave of playable figurines.

In 2019, a Lego minifigure of Jack Skellington was released as part of the Lego Minifigures Disney Series 2. A Lego Brickheadz figure of Jack was also released alongside a Brickheadz version of Sally.

Despite the film not being a part of the Disney Animated Canon, Jack has nonetheless become one of Disney's most popular characters. Jamie Frater adds, "Jack is perfectly realized as the 'town hero' who seeks more in his life (or death, as it may be), a place we all find ourselves time to time."[13] UGO Networks listed Jack as one of their best heroes of all time.[14]