Well, well, well.
What have we here?
Oogie Boogie huh?
OH!!!
I’m full of fear!
You know him.
You most likely grew up with stories and ominous promises of them nabbing you in the dead of
the night if you mis-behaved during the day.
Into the sack you go!
Hahahaha.
I say you probably did because, it turns out, most everywhere in the world has a Boogie
Man, or Sack Man, or similar entity of its own.
And, maybe that’s why The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Oogie Boogie strikes such a terrifying
collective chord - Oogie Boogie is so frightening because he is a blank canvas (haha… because
presumably he’s a burlap sack?!) for each person to project their fears onto.
He is unpredictable and chaotic, and, I propose, an exact Anti-claws.
Also, his make-up is extremely confusing.
So!
Join me as I confront some early cinematic trauma and attempt to unravel one of the most
interesting and unsettling characters in “The Nightmare Before Christmas:'' the Oooogie
Boogie Man!
He’s the Shadow of the Moon at night, filling you dreams to the brim with FRIGHT!
(And he was not in the original NBC book/poem in this final form, but we’ll get to that
in a bit)
You’re either indifferent to him, love him, or he just really... bugs (haha)... you for
some reason.
Most everywhere under the sun - ERRR under the shadow of the moon at night? - has experiences
and stories relating to a Boogeyman or Sack Man of sorts.
Just do a basic google search and WHAM isn't that Wikipedia page something?!
Most every continent, culture, and country, has a version of kid-napping boogeyman, and
of course, what those entities actually do varies from culture to culture.
Some hide in shadows or under the beds of children, ready to steal them in the dead
of night.
Others eat their victims after carrying them away in a sack, or drowning them in a WASHTUB?
(show lock in tub) Still another licks the feet of it’s victims so they cannot flee.
Some are legless ghosts, others ape-like apparitions, and some are even... large bugs.
Hmm.
Hmm hmm hmm.
Basically everything Lock, Shock, and Barrel sing about doing to Sandy Claws.
The list goes on and on, and is sure to send a shiver or few down your spine!
The Sack Man is of particular interest here (this is “a man with a sack on his back
who carries naughty children away”) and NBC kinda turns the sack man on its head.
The Nightmare Before Christmas’s Oogie Boogie is quite complex - but he was NOT in Tim Burton’s
original book/poem beyond a background fill character shape.
He was introduced as a villain for the film to allow boney old Jack a redemption arc of
sorts.
You know, some character growth.
(Book Jack is a malaise kinda selfish guy who fails at taking over a holiday, and is
still rewarded with “powder everywhere” snow!
Jack does NOT have to risk anything to save the jolly Sandy Claws and/or confront Oogie
Boogie).
((If you’re interested in the book vs. movie analysis animation, check it out, here!
I had a lot of fun doing it, and it’s quite a doozy!))
BUT All that being said, now that Oogie Boogie is here as an antagonist in the movie, I can’t
help but see how much HE is extremely like an Anti-claws!
(Which is probably the point!)
Oogie and Santa are like two sides to the same coin, and that really comes through in
their duet in Oogie’s ah ‘fun’ room.
One begs to be set free in order to make kids happy, the other just wants to have some selfish
fun.
One would rewards “nice” little children for good behavior with a toy from their endless
sack, and the other would traditionally punish “naughty” kids by tossing the INTO their
bottomless sack.
Where Sandy Claws is busy going through the list of “Nice” children to reward with
presents out if his infinite sack of joy, Oogie employs the Naughtiest of kids to kidnap
the Sandy Claws. (which I know JACK assigns them, but these finger-crossing fiends think
only of chaos and Oogie Boogie, really) Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the henchmen (or, “Oogie’s
Boys”) are the very “naughty” kids traditional boogeymen kidnap in sacks and such.
When we first meet Lock, Shock, and Barrel they are pelting the poor mayor with slingshot
projectiles, for Heck’s sake!
But yeah, Oogie Boogie not only is an anti-Claus for seeking out and the “Naugty” children,
but he is also kind of an “Anti-BoogeyMan” too.
Rather than eating them, punishing them, or doing whatever traditional boogeymen do, Oogie
Boogie EMPLOYS the misbehaving rascals to bring HIM sustenance in order to increase
his powers.
He is not a threat to naughty children, but their patron I guess? (and THAT may be because
he’s trapped down there, so they have developed a symbiotic relationship or something.
ANYWAY!)
Oogie Boogie doesn't get much screen time in the film until about 48 minutes into the
118 minute animation.
That leaves a LOT to the overactive imagination.
So, when we finally DO see him, he makes that much more of an impact.
Something that has always bugged my (haha) about Oogie Boogie - he is made of bugs, snakes,
spiders, scorpions, you name it.
YET his snake and spider stew is INFAMOUS, and a prospective reward for his henchmen!
Does he put his own body bugs into the mix, or does he add new ones, like the special
deliveries down the chute, and cook those before ingesting them?
Is he made up of only the bugs he eats - after cooking them, or after the henchmen dip them
in poison, so I guess it’s their re-animated corpses?
Does that make him really just a sack of burlap… a Literal SACK MAN?!
DUn DUn DUNNNN.
Or is he a hive mind of bugs acting as one entity?
When he unravels and loses bug after bug, (which freaked me out as a kid, but hey MAJOR
KUDOS TO THE ANIMATION TEAM who spent SO LONG on this scene!) his voice breaks down, multiplies
and gets higher pitched until it seems he is just the one itty bitty Oogie boogie bug.
So, are we to think that this little bug is so charismatic that all the bugs want to join
up? ehhhh...
BUt, what about that bug from earlier that was super scared?
I feel it was super reluctant to join Oogie Boogie’s body bugs, so what magic is binding
and compelling the minds and bodies of the bugs together?
My hunch is that it’s the Boogie Bag.
I think this buggy Oogie is nothing more than an enchanted bag, or sack, and that this is
hinted at in the intro to the movie.
When the voice says “I am the shadow of the moon at night, filling your dreams to
the brim with fright” - bats form from its shape and fly out from its mouth, and the
shadow face dissolves to nothingness at the same time.
This is eerily similar to what actually happens later in the movie - the bag rips and the
bugs pour out, and Oogie Boogie dissolves to nothingness.
Super foreshadowing of the shadow of the moon at night?
Or just a spooky cool transition?
Hm!
And that’s some many legged food for thought.
It also sheds some light onto Oogie’s seemingly chaotic desire to ingest Sandy Claws - he
wants to use him to “add a little spice” to his snake and spider stew, afterall!
By adding Sandy Claws to his sentient sack body, he could become more powerful!
Mwahaha.
Which, actually brings us to the NBC Videogames!
Oogie Bogie was around and already ordering about Lock, Shock, and Barrel in the video
game prequel: “THE Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King.”
(Which came out after the movie, but takes place the year before it) Here, Oogie lives
in the familiar tree-house, and is decreed to dwell below it forever more when (spoiler?)
Jack defeats him, foils Oogie’s “Crawloween” dreams, and claims the familiar “Pumpkin
King” title for himself.
From this we know that Oogie Boogie is bug-focused, and is already an Anti-Traditional Boogeyman
of sorts, as LSB are his “Employees.”
In the sequel video game, “THE Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge,” which
takes place the year after the movie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel are so bored that they REVIVE
Oogie Boogie.
How they do this, I don’t know but it seems an EXTREMELY important key to figuring out
just what makes up Oogie Boogie ? Did they retrieve the sack that ripped off?
Ah well, that’s just something that we cannot grasp.
Anyway, to make short of it, Oogie Boogie wants to become the “Seven-Holidays King”
and kidnaps all the holiday leaders.
He is thwarted when he falls into a world of garbage and ABSORBS THE WASTE AND INSECTS
into himself, powering him up for battle.
This confirms to me that Oogie Boogie is actually a magical sack that gains power from whatever
it ingests.
A literal Sack Man.
A “Man” made of an enchanted Sack and whatever that sack contains.
And to me, that’s all really fascinating!
Like, all this power, the Over-powered power to absorb what he eats (beyond nutritional
content, of course!) the power to keep ingested creatures alive (or re-animate them in the
sack body?)
The confusing Luigi’s Mansion Poltergust wind tunnel breath power, and especially the
power to keep people quaking in fear without leaving his tree-house basement, all add up
to make Oogie Boogie one of the most interesting characters in Nightmare Before Christmas to
me.
Also the Bugs.
All of those bugs made a lasting impression for decades!
But this is now the end of our Oogie Boogie song!
What are some of your thoughts?
What are some of the boogeymen stories you grew up hearing about?
Go ahead and fill our dreams to the brim with fright and tell all about them in the comments
below!
I had no plans to sleep like, ever again mwa hahaha.
BUT if YOU need to sleep, might I suggest checking out my second channel, A BIT LATE,
where I read 2 stories per week!?
I recently uploaded the story that inspired “Coraline,” and I’m currently reading
through all of the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (you know, the “headless horseman and Ichabod
Crane story) for spooky season!
I hope to see you there, friends, fiends and night owl supremes!
But thank you for tuning into this creepy bug-tastic dive into Oogie Boogie’s origin
and chaotic powers!
Don’t forget to subscribe (and say hello!) so you won’t miss the next one!
See you soooooon!
Goodbye!