The Nightmare Before Christmas

In March 2006, there will be a new set, called Christmas Town, and a Tournament Kit released. Whether Legolas of Gondolin was of Noldorin or Sindarin descent is debatable. Released were starter decks and a base set. The Silmarillion, in describing Turgon's founding of Gondolin, states that Turgon took with him up to a third of the people under Fingolfin, but an even larger number of the Sindar. Sometime during 2005, a card game, titled The Nightmare Before Christmas TCG, was released. But the others, led by one Legolas Greenleaf of the house of the Tree, who knew all that plain by day or by dark, and was night-sighted, made much speed over the vale for all their weariness, and halted only after a great march.
—"The Fall of Gondolin", The Book of Lost Tales, Volume 2. Kingdom Hearts II follows the movie plot, where Jack tries to take over Santa Claus' place on Christmas. The names are very similar, but the characters were different: Legolas of Gondolin was a Ñoldorin Exile, of the House (kindred) of the Tree.

Jack can also join Sora's party whenever they are in Halloween Town. His name (Laiqalassë in its pure form) comes from the primitive Quenya (Qenya) words laica, green, and lassë, leaf. Jack then teams up with Sora and the others to stop Oogie Boogie's plans. The Legolas of Gondolin, who Tolkien would have likely renamed, has a different etymology. In this game, Jack tries to create an artificial heart so he can control the Heartless for use in his "Heartless Halloween," but the plan goes awry when Oogie Boogie (who was one of the Disney villains allied with Maleficent) steals the heart, ingests it, and tries to use it to control the Heartless for his own purposes. Because Tolkien had reused the name in The Lord of the Rings, this Legolas was not included in the published Silmarillion. Halloween Town also appears as one of the worlds in the Square Enix/Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series (in fact, it was the movie's first official video game appearance). The character is mentioned only once and is unrelated to the character discussed above.

Finklestein, and others--to both stop Oogie and save Halloween. The name Legolas Greenleaf first appeared in The Fall of Gondolin, one of the "Lost Tales". With these creepy wheels set in motion, it will be up to Jack and his friends--including characters such as Zero, Sally, Dr. No definitive evidence is given, either way. Jack soon discovers that these nasty insects are under the control of Oogie Boogie, who's looking to take over Halloween himself. Thranduil did let him leave Mirkwood to found a new elf-community in Ithilien, suggesting to some that he was not his heir; but then others opine that given the longevity of Elves and the relative safety of Middle-earth after Sauron's downfall, Thranduil could go on ruling the Woodland Realm as long as he liked or until he felt the sea-longing. The game's plot will kick off with the invasion of some unusual bugs in Halloween Town. Some assume that he is an only child; however, he could be only one of Thranduil's children.

The side-scrolling adventure game centers around the first time Jack faced off against his nemesis, Oogie Boogie, to eventually become the Pumpkin King. (Blond hair was mostly exclusive to the Vanyar.) However, the "blond" camp points out that the above quote takes place at night, and opines that his head may have appeared "dark" due to shadows, rather than his actual hair color. The Pumpkin King is a side-scrolling action platformer in which you'll control Jack Skellington and use a number of different weapons to fight enemies and traverse obstacles. According to this camp, his hair must be either dark brown or black, as was the norm for the Sindar. The opposite of the Playstation and Xbox versions, the GBA game works as a prequel to the movie. However, Tolkien describes his head as "dark" when he shoots down a Ringwraith's fell beast in The Fellowship of the Ring in the following quote, suggesting the contrary to some:.
A GBA game, "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" came out in fall 2005. His father Thranduil was blond, so many assume that Legolas must have been blond also (Indeed, both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson make him blond).

In the game you get other costumes such as "Pumpkin King," and "Santa Jack". For them, this might be a sign that he was born in the First Age, since the Appendices only record dates from the Second Age onwards. The game features a weapon known as a 'Soul Robber'. Also, some readers point out that his birthdate is not recorded in the Appendices. The game features controls similar to Devil May Cry. However, even the minimum figure of 500 can still apply here, since Tolkien could have had the English oak in mind, and it can live up to about 500 years. Now Jack has to stop Oogie Boogie's evil plans as he attempts to take over the other holiday worlds, and the 'real' world. Also, he speaks of watching oaks grow from acorns to "ruinous age", suggesting that he is in fact old, though possibly young for Elves (some kinds of oak can live for a very long time):.

In the story, Jack leaves Halloween Town to satisfy his curiosity, but during his absence, Oogie Boogie is reconstructed and by the time Jack returns he has taken over Halloween Town and tricked its people into thinking Jack has abandoned them. He does call Aragorn (87) and Gimli (139) "children" while in Fangorn Forest, and says that he does not feel young:. Intended to be a sequel to the movie, the game features the return of all the well-known characters in a new and arguably darker story with upgraded versions of the movie's songs. It is certainly possible that he was older than what many fans imagine him to be, at least (probably due to the influence of Bloom and his portrayal). The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is an action/adventure game developed by Capcom from Japan for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox systems. At face value, his statement says nothing about his age - to go further would only be speculation. A video game based on the original movie was released in 2005. However, he could be merely commenting on the contrasting viewpoints of Men and Elves on time ("and but a little while does that seem to us"); also, 500 years is here clearly the time elapsed since Meduseld was built.

There has been a great deal of speculation recently that 2006 will be last year for the event, allegedly at Tim Burton's request. If we are to infer that Elves can have concrete memories at a younger age than humans do, Legolas could conceivably have remembered the last 500 autumns that have passed, starting when he was very young. Starting in 2001, the ride has included a score that was written specifically for the ride by film composer Danny Elfman. By their first year, elf-children can already walk, speak, and even sing. The attraction generally has a one night opening event each year that includes special guests, a dinner, special merchandise, and a ride through the attraction, although the Happiest Celebration on Earth halted that in Disneyland in 2005. In his essay Laws and Customs among the Eldar, found in Morgoth’s Ring, one of the volumes of The History of Middle-earth, Tolkien states that the mental development of elf-children is much quicker than those of human children. The attractions are closed in October each year for themes to be completely overhauled, and open until January of the next year. To see their reasoning for an age of 800-900 years, see the articles referred to below.

For the past five years, the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in California and Japan have received a Nightmare Before Christmas themed overlay, called Haunted Mansion Holiday, for their Haunted Mansion attractions. The figure of 500 years minimum was derived from the following — at one point he says that the leaves have fallen in Mirkwood 500 times since Meduseld was built, and he appears to be describing it as if he actually experienced this:. A second poem, also read by Stewart, is included before the "End Credits" music; in this passage, Santa Claus describes a visit he made to Halloween Town many years after the events of the film. While Legolas' age is never given in Tolkien's writings, some Tolkien scholars have estimated he is at the most 800–900 years old by the time of the War of the Ring, and at least 500, though probably more; however, many others disagree on the maximum figure. On the soundtrack album, Patrick Stewart voices the opening narrative poem. He is absent from the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King. Starfield Creations. Legolas was voiced by David Collings in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation.

In the past few years many retail stores like Hot Topic have obtained the rights to sell products and have flooded the market with what some believe to be cheap and uninspired merchandise. However, many viewers have criticized his performance as wooden; ironically (and humorously, one might add), his character is fittingly a Wood-elf. Much of the original merchandise has become highly collectible and rare. Although the disproportionate popular reaction to Legolas met with mixed reactions from fans, many debaters on the Internet during earlier stages of production were worried, like Tolkien's complaint above, that a film portrayal of Legolas might render him as far too effeminate for popular consumption, and many were simply happy that Orlando Bloom was able to avoid this entirely. Currently, 'Nightmare Before Christmas' has become one of the most sucessful franchises in terms of selling merchandise, and the film has developed a group of very dedicated collectors. His good looks and Legolas' "coolness", so to speak, as depicted in the film, have led to the character becoming a unprecedented fan favorite with both fangirls and fanboys, not to mention other Tolkien fans. In 2005, Tim Burton returned to the media of stop motion with his new film, Corpse Bride. Playing Legolas in the trilogy was Orlando Bloom's breakout route to superstardom.

The same studio that produced Nightmare later created another stop motion movie based on the Roald Dahl book, James and the Giant Peach (1996), though it did not receive the same amount of success. This idea subsequently spread to fanfiction; however, it is pure fanon, and is nowhere to be found in Tolkien's writings, and is often simply meant as a joke; in any case, Elven eye color was most likely restricted to grey, as no other color is explicitly stated in Tolkien's writings. However, when it was released on video a new audience began to discover it and slowly it began to grow a cult following. This was justified by the notion that Elves' eyes change colour with their mood. When the movie originally was released it failed to live up to expectations and was considered a flop. Due to technical mishaps involving Orlando Bloom's contact lenses, in the films Legolas' eye colour sometimes changes between brown, purple, and blue. Finally, Sally reveals her true feelings to Jack and in the end of the movie the two begin a relationship. Curiously, this directly contradicts The Hobbit, where his father's own servants are shown to pass out after drinking powerfully heady Dorwinion wine (a brief line in the same passage mentions that drinks must be "powerful indeed" to affect Elves, like the Dorwinion wine, but still this does nothing to validate the implication that it is impossible for Elves to become intoxicated).

Once Santa has delivered all the presents he brings the Christmas spirit to Halloween Town, including snow, and the citizens are amazed by the new sensations. He wins, because Elves are not affected by alcohol. After Jack destroys Oogie, revealing him to be nothing more that a burlap monster full of bugs, Santa Claus hurries to deliver the correct presents and save Christmas. In the Extended Edition of The Return of the King, Legolas and Gimli have a drinking contest at Meduseld after the events at Helm's Deep. In order to salvage Christmas Jack hurries back to Halloween Town and confronts Oogie Boogie. He bears two long knives, while in the book he bears only one. When Jack finds himself and his sleigh crashed in a graveyard and his vision of Christmas wrecked, he realizes that he is the Pumpkin King and that he should stick to what he knows best, namely Halloween. He wears green and grey clothes and uses boots, in contrast to Tolkien's "light shoes".

At the same time, Sally goes to try and rescue Santa Claus but is captured by Oogie Boogie and the two are in risk of their lives. The film-makers later stated that the entire scene of Legolas killing the Oliphaunt and its entire crew was filmed during pick-ups (months after original filming) to insert a major action scene showcasing him, because at that point they realized that he simply doesn't get to do much in the third part of the trilogy. In not too long, Jack is targeted by the military and shot down. Aside from shooting the fell beast, he undertakes no major actions other than to make peace with Gimli, overcoming their longstanding mutual racial animosity — he and Gimli are followers, rather than leaders. Jack's scary and sometimes dangerous presents put the people in the real world in a panic and they begin to call the police with reports of attacking Christmas toys and an imposter Santa Claus. However, in the books Legolas's exploits in battle are not presented in great detail. On Christmas Eve, Jack embarks on his makeshift sleigh flanked by skeleton reindeers and his ghost dog, Zero. For example, in the Battle of the Hornburg, he slides down a staircase using a shield, shooting arrows all the while, and in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, he takes down an Oliphaunt all by himself.

The children take him to a villainous monster named Oogie Boogie. He is presented as an unstoppable fighter, arguably to the point of stealing the show; he performs show-stopping yet implausible stunts in battle scenes. In order to successfully take over Christmas, Jack enlists the help of a trio of misfits named Lock, Shock, and Barrel to kidnap Santa Claus. Curiously, the year 2931 of the Third Age is the year Aragorn was born; the writers may have picked the number at random from the Tale of Years (the timeline) in the Appendices. Sally, a close friend and admirer of Jack, tries to warn him that she thinks it is a bad idea to take over something he knows nothing about, but Jack is too wrapped in his fantasies to listen. 3018. All of the townspeople pitch in to create their own twisted version of the holiday. This date for Legolas' birth was made up by the movie writers, as in the books there are no known dates concerning Legolas before T.A.

Soon Jack calls a meeting in Town Hall and reveals his plans to takeover Christmas. This would make him 2931 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. When Jack returns to Halloween Town he locks himself in his home and performs countless experiments to try and better understand Christmas Town. In the "official movie guide" for The Lord of the Rings, a birthdate for Legolas is set to 87 of the Third Age. Jack is mesmerized by the color and cheerfulness of the holiday, and realizes that this is exactly what he has been searching for. In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001–2003), Legolas was portrayed by Orlando Bloom. When Jack opens the Christmas door he is sucked into the wonderful world of Christmas Town. Here, he is apparently from Rivendell, because he answers to Elrond; he is not identified as a Wood-elf.

Each tree has a door on it representing a different holiday. In the film, he takes Glorfindel's place in the Flight to the Ford sequence; he meets Strider and the hobbits on their way to Rivendell, and sets Frodo on his horse before he is chased by the Nazgûl to the ford of Bruinen (In Peter Jackson's version, Arwen takes Glorfindel's place and rides to the Ford herself with Frodo). One day while wandering in the woods with his dog zero, Jack discovers a circle of trees unlike anything that he has seen before. Legolas was voiced by Anthony Daniels (who had voiced the droid C-3PO of Star Wars fame) in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Although Jack is loved and respected by the townspeople, he feels that there is something unknown to him that is missing from his life. In Sindarin, that would be Legolas Thranduilion, -ion meaning "son of". The film centers around Jack Skellington, the much adored leader of Halloween Town. In English, therefore, a fuller name would be "Legolas son of Thranduil" or "Legolas Thranduil's son".

. Men and Elves alike used the patronymic (son of) formula. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures, a film studio owned by the Walt Disney Company, after the main Walt Disney Pictures division balked at some of the darker content. Apparently, only Hobbits (and the Men of Bree) used surnames (like Baggins or Gamgee), as recorded in the Red Book. He did not direct the film as is sometimes believed, but he was still heavily involved. It may be that Thranduil named his son Legolas to at least in part refer to this people, who were remote kin and ancestors of the later Silvan Elves, the people Thranduil ruled and to whom - very likely - Thranduil's wife belonged. The film is loosely based on drawings and a poem by Tim Burton, and he served as co-producer. Calenhad, mutated Parth Galen and plural Pinnath Gelin) and is otherwise almost only preserved in Laegrim, Laegel(d)rim (Sindarin form of Quenya Laiquendi), the Green Elves of the First Age.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is a stop-action animated musical film about the inhabitants of Halloween Town who take over Christmas one year, directed by stop-motion animator Henry Selick. There might, however, be a certain meaning to his name: laeg is a very rare, archaic word for green, which is normally replaced by calen (cf. Ken Page: Oogie Boogie. The Quenya form (mentioned in the Book of Lost Tales in the context of another character of that name) is Laiqualassë. Paul Reubens: Lock. It consists of the Sindarin words laeg, green; and golas, a collection of leaves, foliage (being a prefixed collective form of las(s), leaf). Glenn Shadix: Mayor. The name Legolas is a Silvan dialect form of pure Sindarin Laegolas, which means Greenleaf (thus, Greenleaf is not his surname, as is sometimes erroneously believed; nor is it an epithet (like Oakenshield), but a translation of his name).

Finklestein. Logically, as a retcon he could quite conceivably have been present in his father's halls at the time, and may have even fought at Erebor. William Hickey: Dr. The events in The Hobbit take place less than one hundred years before the Quest of Mount Doom, and at that point Legolas was at least 500 years old, and possibly older. Catherine O'Hara: Sally, Shock. However, some have theorized that he may well have fought in the Battle of the Five Armies. Danny Elfman: Jack Skellington (singing), Barrel, The Clown with the tearawayface. Of course, his character had not been created yet (though his name had; see below).

Chris Sarandon: Jack Skellington (speaking). Though his father and his kingdom appear in The Hobbit, he does not appear himself. MPAA rating: PG. However, as given in Unfinished Tales, the author himself states that Legolas "probably accomplished the least of the Fellowship", compared to the rest (Frodo endured the Ring's temptations and took it to the Crack of Doom, Gandalf was an angelic agent from Valinor who worked against Sauron for centuries, Aragorn restored his ancestors' old kingdom, and even Merry helped kill the Witch-king, et cetera). Runtime: 76 minutes. 2), his father wrote the following comment protesting a "pretty" or "ladylike" illustration of Legolas:. Genre: animation, fantasy, satire, musical. As Christopher Tolkien recounts in The Book of Lost Tales (Vol.

Specifications: Technicolor, 35 mm 1.66:1 (colours, Dolby digital sound). In Lothlórien, he receives a new longbow from the Galadhrim, along with the other gifts that Galadriel and Celeborn give him and the rest of the Fellowship, such as special cloaks and lembas. American picture. As the Fellowship sets out, he is armed with a short bow, and a long knife. Released on: October 13, 1993. Tolkien first describes him as "a strange Elf, clad in green and brown". Music by: Danny Elfman. The Sindarin minority in that realm, who should have been more noble and wise than the Silvan Elves, can be seen as having "gone native" at the end of the First Age: after Morgoth was defeated and all of the grand Elf-kingdoms of Beleriand were destroyed, they can be seen as going back to "a simpler time" in their culture.

Written by: Caroline Thompson and Michael McDowell. A small minority of Sindarin Elves ruled the predominantly Silvan Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, a minority which Thranduil headed. Directed by: Henry Selick. His father Thranduil had originally come from Doriath; he and his son were actually Sindarin Elves. Title: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Although he lived among them and was exposed to their culture, Legolas was not one of the Silvan Elves (Wood-elves). It is told in the Red Book (first written by Bilbo Baggins, continued by Frodo Baggins and supposedly finished by Samwise Gamgee) that after the death of King Elessar, Legolas builds a grey ship in Ithilien, and leaves Middle-earth to go over the Sea to Valinor, the Blessed Realm, and Gimli the Dwarf goes with him.

Eventually, Legolas comes to Ithilien with some of his people, with his father's leave, to live out his remaining time in Middle-earth helping to restore the devastated forests of that war-ravaged land. Later, Legolas and Gimli go off travelling together through Fangorn Forest. After the destruction of the One Ring, he stays in Minas Tirith for some time, as Aragorn is crowned King of the Reunited Kingdom as King Elessar and marries his love Arwen. He fights in the Battles of the Pelennor Fields and the Morannon, and watches as Sauron is defeated and Barad-dûr collapses.

After Aragorn summons the Dead Men of Dunharrow to fight for him, he watches them scare away the Corsairs of Umbar from their ships at Pelargir. In The Return of the King, he and Gimli accompany Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, along with the Grey Company. In the Battle of the Hornburg, he and Gimli engage in an Orc-slaying contest (Gimli wins by one with 42, but the real result is stronger mutual respect). They meet the revived Gandalf and the Rohirrim, fight in the Battle of the Hornburg, and witness Saruman's (partial) downfall at Isengard, where they are reunited with the two.

After Boromir is killed and Merry and Pippin are captured by Orcs in The Two Towers, he, Aragorn and Gimli set forth in pursuit of the two (Frodo the Ring-bearer and Sam had gone ahead on the road to Mordor). While the Fellowship is travelling over the River Anduin, he shoots down a nearby fell beast with one shot. They take leave of Lothlórien, but not before recieving several gifts. Legolas and Gimli become friends, however, when Gimli greets the Lady of the Golden Wood with gentle words.

Within the Fellowship, there is friction between Legolas and the dwarf Gimli, because of the ancient quarrel between Elves and Dwarves after the destruction of Doriath in the First Age, and also because his father, Thranduil, once threw Gimli's father, Glóin, in prison (as described in The Hobbit). Legolas serves as the initial spokesperson for the company, speaking with the inhabitants, the Galadhrim. After Gandalf is lost while facing the Balrog, Aragorn takes charge of the Fellowship and leads them to the Elven realm of Lothlórien, the Golden Wood. Once in Moria, he helps fight off the Orcs whom they encounter there, and recognizes Durin's Bane as a Balrog of Morgoth.

Before they reach Moria, however, Legolas helps fend off an attack of Sauron's wolves. After their attempt to cross Caradhras is foiled, their leader Gandalf takes them on an underground journey through Moria, an ancient Dwarf-kingdom, though some (including Legolas) do not wish to go there. Unlike them, he is little affected by the blowing winds and snow; he does not even wear boots, only light shoes, and his feet scarcely make imprints on the snow. When the Fellowship is snowed down while crossing Caradhras, he scouts ahead to find the Sun, while Aragorn and Boromir drive a path through the snow.

He accompanies the others in their travels from Rivendell to Amon Hen. Legolas volunteers or is chosen to become one of the members of the Fellowship that sets out to destroy the One Ring. He is introduced in the first part of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, at the council of Elrond of Rivendell, where he comes as a messenger from his father to discuss the escape of Gollum from their guard. Legolas is the son of King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, who appears as "the Elvenking" in The Hobbit; his father rules over the Silvan Elves who dwell there.

. Legolas serves as a link to the earlier story, The Hobbit, because he (like Gimli the Dwarf) is the son of a character from the previous tale. Tolkien himself states, however, that Legolas accomplishes the least of the nine members of the Fellowship. With his keen telescopic eyesight, sensitive hearing, and great skill at arms, particularly bowmanship, Legolas is a valuable resource to the other eight members of the Fellowship.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Legolas Greenleaf is a Sindarin Elven prince who becomes a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. R. R. In J.