The Nightmare Before Christmas Wording Question

[Jake Lipson]

I am writing a project that mentions THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, but I've just hit a bit of a snag and wondered if everyone here could give their opinion, or maybe facts that I don't know.

Namely, it's the exact punctuation of Jack's world -- a minor quibble, I know, but I want the book to be as accurate as possible.

From what I remember, everything I've previously read about the movie refer to it as "Halloweentown," and that's what I used when I was mentioning it in my work; simmilarly, I also used "Christmastown." But I just picked up the Nightmare DVD (finally!), and the back cover and production notes inside the booklet both say "Halloween Town." So does the UD review.

Which one is correct for this film? I know that for the three Disney Channel movies, "Halloweentown" is one word, but what about NIGHTMARE? I'm not concerned with those.

I had always naturally taken it as a compound word, but I'm wondering about it; I swear I saw that somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where or when. And I want my work to be as accurate and authentic as possible.

What should I do?

All help is greatly appriciated. Thanks.

[gaysnappercarr]

Generally, in case like this I consider the subtitles to be the "official" way to spell the words in question.

Now you might have a problem if they are spelled two different ways in the movie

Try that to see how it works!

[rexcrk]

I always spell it like "Halloween Town" and "Christmas Town"... whether or not that's the official way is beyond me, sorry.

[Pasta67]

I popped in my DVD of Nightmare to see, and in the scene where Jack sings "What's This?", he reads the town sign. I put in on subtitles and it said "Christmas Town" as two separate words. The sign in the movie has it as two words also. If it has it as two words in the actual movie, I'm pretty sure that proves it is two words and not a compound word. I assume it's the same with "Halloween Town".

I hope I worded that all right. Can everyone understand that?

[Disney 181]

Sorry, I can't help ya with the grammar, i don't own the movie, myself, but you may be interested in incorporating this font in your project: "PS Bluegum Forest"
It's pretty much a replica of the font used in the title. It could make your project look a little more characteristic! (but maybe don't use it depending on how formal the writeup is). Anyway you can get it here, just scroll down the page for the font mentioned above, install it and enjoy!
-ryan

[mvealf]

To me, it sounds like it should be Halloweentown. Just like Disneyworld or Disneyland, not Disney World or Disney Land.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

To me, it sounds like it should be Halloweentown. Just like Disneyworld or Disneyland, not Disney World or Disney Land.

Actually it's more appropriate to say Disney World, not Disneyworld because it's original name is Walt Disney World(WDW)!

As for the original question, I'm pretty sure it's Halloween Town!

[Jake Lipson]

Thanks all. I think I will change it to two seperate words for the time being, and then bring it up again with my editor.

[Lazario]

To me, it sounds like it should be Halloweentown. Just like Disneyworld or Disneyland, not Disney World or Disney Land.

I know Disney World has always been 2 words, but isn't Disney Land usually Disneyland? I know that if you could read subtitles on all the people who answered that, "what are you gonna do now?" question with, "I'm going to...", the captions would read "Disneyland" as one word. And everywhere I see Disney Land in print, in looks like 1 word, Disneyland. Even when it's not in all-capitals.