Hungry Maxzilla

MY TOUY

so i feel very silly about this but i've never been clear on this. nightmare before christmas starts out with a parade where jack skellington comes in as a scarecrow with a pumpkin head. moments later he swallows a torch and catches on fire then emerges from a fountain as a skeleton, a look he keeps for the rest of the film. now i imagine the common interpretation is he was merely dressed as a scarecrow for the occasion, but this is never mentioned outright and ever since i was a kid it kind of always felt to me that he previously lived most of his life up to that point as a scarecrow but chooses to burn off his scarecrow flesh 3 seconds into the movie? leaving only his scarecrow skeleton beneath and burnished suit? just for the bit, because it's a party and he's just that much of a mad lad? am i reaching. i mean they literally call him the pumpkin king of the pumpkin patch

fuck me i forgot to mention of course the version i watched as a kid was in french and in the dub he's literally called Jack l'épouvantail (ie. the scarecrow) which might explain my bias. while i'm here the danny elfman songs are very nice but i'd say the writing on the french lyrics is superior. it's one of those "the Simpsons is better in french" situations