Normally, the particular animation style of this short isn't something that I'd personally tend to go for at all, even as a kid I never liked "The Nightmare Before Christmas" whatsoever, but this was immediately just so visually fantastic and enchanting to me that those ten minutes just flew by and it turned out that my only real complaint is that it doesn't go on just that little bit longer! I love how the scale of everything is so stretched out and askew, especially the foreboding staircase and the child's bedroom with the crescent moon shining brightly through the window, it's so marvelously spooky and gives it a great, weird fable-like tone. There's something in the classically scary imagery and atmosphere that I think is very recognisable to anyone who as a child ever felt the sudden inexplicable need to run a bit faster to their bed and dive under the covers for instant guaranteed protection against imaginary terrors of the dark in the dead of night every time! The way the titular Sandman's every silent step and stealthy hop is played out perfectly to the piano keys is especially eerie and somehow also beautiful. His movements are instantly recognisable as any child's bogeyman. A lot of it is dark yet whimsical, but when it's revealed just what the Sandman actually snatched from the poor boy as the colour flashes the telltale red twice at the end of his little dance of nightmares, for me totally confirmed this short as a stone-cold horror! You can feel that it's building up to something, but it turns violent so quickly that you really won't see it coming. ~Food for the babies!~ The Sandman starts out looking like a freakish aristocratic man but seems to become more bird-like as it goes on, especially when he puts his arms back and does that silly buk-a-buk chicken motion! I think it's meant to subtly fill you in on the final twist. The closing image is so chilling. I thought the boy was actually dead and that was him with all the other lost blind souls forever. I'd say to go right ahead and show this to the little brats, just don't be surprised if demand to sleep with pistols under their pillows afterwards! Dark, twisted, and ultimately gruesome, but it sure does work. This is one mini work of grim art that is vastly deserving of your attention. Sleep tight now!
Review of The Sandman
