Jack Skellington is the protagonist of Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion Disney and Touchstone film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town. He appears in the sequel, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.

Physical appearance

Jack is a tall and extremely slender white skeleton with a skull sporting a cross-stitch mouth and bony fingers. He sports a black-and-white, pinstripe formal tuxedo with a bat-themed bowtie. When temporarily taking over for Santa with delivering presents, Jack wore a Santa Claus suit sewn by Sally with a long, fake beard, but borrowed Santa's hat to wear himself. The suit was left badly burnt, charred, and tattered after Jack was shot down by the military's artillery guns, and Jack tore off what was left to reveal his normal, undamaged, attire underneath as he redeclared himself the Pumpkin King once more.

Powers and Abilities

Being an undead creature gives Jack one major advantage that most other Disney protagonists don't have; near-invincibility. Dismembered body parts can easily be re-attached, as well as remotely controlled by his mind. Largely because of this advantage, he often makes it a hobby to remove his own head to "recite Shakespearian quotations". Though this doesn't mean he can't be killed, as in the film Jack states that for him, death would be his bones being ground to dust, this is supported by the fact that after his sleigh is shot down, everyone assumes he's dead. The Mayor even stating on his microphone that "Jack Skellington is naught but a pile of dust" while everyone but Oogie is lamenting over the supposed loss of Jack.

He is also shown being very agile and light on his feet. Being nothing but a skeleton, he has no muscles or organic tissue weighing him down, so he can perform great leaps and bounds through the air effortlessly, and despite having no muscles, he seems to be quite strong, one would think that without muscles he wouldn't be able to lift things or even move. Yet he has no issues lifting glass containers, presents, or even the rotund child of the corpse family as seen at the end of the film.

In Oogie's Revenge, he is given a gel-like weapon called the Soul Robber, which functions as a multipurpose shape-shifting weapon, most commonly used as a whip, as well as a grappling hook. In The Pumpkin King, he's also shown to have access to other weapons such as the Frog Gun, the Bat Boomerang, and Pumpkin Bombs.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge

Jack in Oogie's Revenge.

Tired of using the same old themes over and over on Halloween, Jack Skellington goes to Dr. Finkelstein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shapes.

Jack decides to leave Halloween Town to get new ideas for Halloween frights. When Jack comes back to town, he finds that Oogie Boogie has been resurrected. Now, Jack has to set things right once again.

Jack dances, fights, and sings in this game as he attacks Oogie and his minions. Jack is also portrayed as being inept to some degree in this game.

It should be noted that Chris Sarandon did both the speaking and singing voice of Jack in this game, except for the "Spiral Hill finale", where his singing was done by Steve Amerson.