Oogie Boogie is the main antagonist of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. voiced by Ken Page, Oogie Boogie is boogeyman, a burlap sack filled with insects, spiders and a snake for a tongue. He is a legendary boogeyman, as suggested by the Boogie in his name, and how he even tells Santa "you better pay attention now because I'm the Boogeyman" in his song The Oogie Boogie Song.
He commands three not-so-loyal henchmen Lock, Shock, and Barrel. The three live in a Treehouse, above Oogie's Lair. They feed him bugs through a metal chute that leads to his underground lair, and at one point even Santa Claus went through it.
He is also apparently the "Shadow on the Moon at Night" as the shadow shown on the moon was an exact replica of him. He is also said to have been the king of his own holiday, Bug Day, which he ended up ruining somehow, resulting in him moving to Halloween Town, a plot detailed in "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" for the Gameboy Advance.
Character Inspiration
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Oogie Boogie did not appear in Tim Burton's original Poem, but Burton later sketched a portrait of what appeared to be a potato sack man with horrible things inside. In his autobiography Burton on Burton, Burton says that Oogie Boogie was loosely inspired by Cab Calloway's 1932 appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon. In addition to this, Danny Elfman ended up referencing the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain (1933), also featuring Calloway. Santa Claus' line "Well, what are you going to do?" and Oogie Boogie's response of "I'm gonna do the best I can!" are direct quotes from this cartoon. An alternate idea for Oogie's identity was for him to be Dr. Finkelstein in disguise, gaining revenge on Jack and Sally, but it was not pursued past storyboards, this is visible on the Special Edition DVD.
Personality
"I'm really scared." (ironically)
Oogie Boogie is a wicked and voraciously power hungry creature, resembling a large burlap sack shaped like a starfish. Inside of him are thousands of bugs (along with 2 spiders and a snake). His life revolves around gambling, and loves gambling with others' lives. Though, ironically, Oogie has no skills for gambling; on one occasion he rolls snake eyes, and confesses he has to resort to deceiving - he slams his fist upon the table to shake the dice, resulting in eleven. Gambling is really only for theatrics, as Oogie actually takes joy in orchestrating situations with his victims in order to empower himself.
He is also somewhat lecherous, as which is apparent when he is easily sidetracked by Sally's bare (and dismembered) leg.
Oogie Boogie's most dominant emotion of his personality is obviously fear. Whether it's scaring the daylights out of others, or being frightened himself, Oogie is always involved with fear. Despite his menacing appearance, Oogie can mostly be seen as a wimp. He also appears to fear Jack Skellington, as evidenced by their final confrontation when meeting face to face. This fear can also be comprehended as a result of their first meeting, depicted in the Gameboy Advance game: "The Pumpkin King", when Jack Skellington eliminated his bug minions after he attempted to transform Halloween Town into Bug Town.
It can also be argued that Oogie doesn't think Halloween should be a fun holiday like everybody else does; he thinks it should be wicked and harmful, even going as far as to actually harm humans, which all the other citizens are against and strictly forbid.
Snake and Spider Stew
According to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, as well as some of his deleted song material (which is included in the soundtrack version), he is also very good at making a concoction known as Snake and Spider Stew. It is implied he feeds this brew to his henchmen as a reward.
Powers and Abilities
Oogie has many interesting powers and abilities that somewhat vary from appearance to appearance. In his original appearance in the movie, he demonstrates very few to no special powers, but in the video games and other various forms of media he appears in, his powers and abilities are greatly expanded all around.
Heartless Control (Kingdom Hearts exclusive)
Unlike all of the other Disney Villains, Oogie does not possess the ability to control The Heartless. This apparently stems from his lack of a heart of any kind (neither the spiritual concept or the physical), being a sack filled with a colony of bugs. He tries to remedy this by stealing a fake heart Doctor Finkelstein created. Though this did give him the ability to control Heartless, they didn't respond well to the fake heart, so he could only control a small number of weaker variants. After merging with his mansion, his Heartless summoning abilities seemed to increase.
Strength
Since Oogie was strong enough to subdue Sandy and throw around a huge "Sandy Claws", it's to be assumed that he must have great strength. However, his lack of endurance limits this considerably. This lack of endurance is shown in "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" during the first part of the boss fight when Oogie is walking on the moving pathway and gets tired as Jack attacks him with the Frog Gun.
Fright
The boogeyman was also known to cause sheer horror in the dreams of mortals and it would seem Oogie is no exception to this legend. As hinted in "This Is Halloween", the shadow on the moon is described as filling the dreams of mortals "to the brim with fright". If this is the case, then he is likely able to have the power to generate fear in humans.
Implied Abilities
These are abilities that Oogie is suggested to have, but has never been seen using.
Vacuum Morph
Oogie is shown to have the ability to suck in air with the power of a jet engine.
Ghost Control
Oogie's shadow has demonstrated the ability to control ghosts and summon ghosts in "The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge". This is the only time in the game where ghosts have the ability to throw dice. It has been speculated that the real Oogie (i.e. not the shadow version) can possibly do this as well.
Forms
Oogie goes through many transformations during "Oogie's Revenge".
Mega Oogie
Mega Oogie is the form Oogie takes to make his last stand in the game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge. After chasing Oogie through both Halloween and Christmas Town, Jack finally corners Oogie in an old dump. Angered, Oogie tries to put up a fight, he summons all the bugs in the dump and using the resources from the nearby trash piles to turn in to a giant trash filled version of himself. Mega Oogie is ten stories tall and very strong. He has the power to shoot out the various pieces of garbage he is made up of either by spitting it out of his mouth or by just ejecting them from various parts of his body, such as his arm. His weak spot is his head if Jack strikes his feet enough times he will fall and his head can be struck. Being made from garbage, he is also flammable.
After sustaining enough damage Mega Oogie's legs dissolve causing him to become stationary, but he can still spit trash and cause girders to erupt from the ground. He can also summon other bugs into himself which will cause him to attack much faster.
Mansion Oogie
Oogie's Manor is a Disney boss original to the Kingdom Hearts series. After Oogie Boogie is defeated for the first time in Kingdom Hearts, he'll fuse with his manor to create a giant boss. In this form, Oogie is completely immobile, but also invulnerable to any of the party's attacks. His weak spots are the dark orbs surrounding his body and the only way to defeat him is to destroy them all. Hanging from Oogie's body are large magic lanterns which will shoot fire at the player as he scales Oogie's body. In this form, his Heartless summoning capabilities have also been greatly increased. He will be able to summon far more than he once could. When all the orbs are destroyed, Oogie will perish.
Shadow Oogie
Oogie Boogie can detach his shadow and use it for fighting. He has it at one point disguise itself as him. He also uses it to participate in the Halloween Festival. It was also supposedly going to be in the Oogie Boogie Song as a dancer, but was canceled to save time. To some, this made no sense since its appearance in the song was only going to be 17 seconds long and since they finished it they could have edited it in.
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
Unlike all the other inhabitants of Halloween Town, who are merely docile monsters who scare people simply as a celebration of their skill and for fun, Oogie's concept of fear is different. It is suggested that his sadistic nature had resulted in his exile from the mainstream Halloween Town, although he is permitted to participate in the 'This is Halloween' music number as the shadow on the moon.
He lives in an underground Lair full of torture devices, each of which features a gambling theme. This lair, during his theme song, is lit with blacklights in the style of a funhouse. Under these, Oogie himself glows bright green. After the lights dim, however, the bright color is sapped from his lair, transforming its appearance into that of a dank, cellar-like dungeon. Above his Lair is the Treehouse of Lock, Shock, & Barrel, who feed him bugs regularly via a metal chute. In the movie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel kidnap Santa Claus and (against the wishes of Jack, who held Oogie in great contempt) send him down to Oogie Boogie's Lair, where he is bound to a giant roulette wheel. According to deleted song material (found in the soundtrack version), Oogie plans to add "Sandy Claws" to his new batch of Snake and Spider Stew, to "add a little spice". Sally, after finding out Santa's fate, attempts to rescue him by distracting Oogie with her disassembled leg.
While Oogie is busy tickling Sally's foot, Sally frees Santa but is captured herself when Oogie sees that her leg is not attached. Oogie then ties up Sally and Santa Claus and tries to dump them into the stew, but is stopped by Jack, as he confronts Oogie. However, Oogie activates his gun-wielding robot slot machines but Jack evades the machines and manages to reach Oogie. Oogie tries to escape on a machine but Jack pulls a thread loose from him, which tears him open and causes the majority of his bugs to fall into the stew and die. The one that doesn't fall in is instead crushed under Santa's boot. It has been said by Stan Webb, the editor of The Nightmare Before Christmas, that at the end of the Oogie Boogie Song, Oogie was supposed to eat Santa; and after Jack destroys him, Santa was set free. This was scrapped because it was used for the Extended Edition.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
In "The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge", Oogie was resurrected by his henchmen Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who sewed him together after Jack left town searching for new ideas for Halloween. He immediately began planning to seize power and vengeance, beginning with Dr. Finkelstein, who Jack left in charge in his absence. Oogie replaced Finkelstein's brain with one of his own creation that bent the Doctor to his will, and quickly deceived the residents of Halloween Town and tricked the townspeople into making traps for Jack, stating that Jack wouldn't return if they couldn't make an even scarier Halloween for next year.
Oogie's plan was to become the Seven Holidays King, by usurping Jack's position as the leader of Halloween Town and kidnapping the Holiday Leaders for the other holidays: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and Easter. The remaining holiday was Christmas, which he planned to secure himself due to a personal vendetta against Santa. With help from Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Oogie successfully kidnapped the real leaders and imprisoned them in the Oogie Corridor, a series of treacherous subterranean caverns teeming with lava and booby traps. He then had the trio hide each Holiday Door in a different area of the town so that they wouldn't be discovered, and the leaders could not return home. By December 23rd, his plan nearing fruition, the entire town has been booby-trapped and the citizens are afraid to set foot on the streets.
Shadow Oogie Boogie
Jack returns to town on Christmas Eve afternoon, shortly before Oogie broadcasts a message saying that he is now the ruler of Halloween Town, which he renames "Oogie Town". Jack battles a few skeletons, and after learning of the situation from the Three Mr. Hydes, confronts Oogie's shadow in Town Hall. Oogie loses, but puts it down to beginner's luck, and retreats while promising that they'll meet again, with Jack collecting the Halloween Holiday Door as a result.
He occasionally comes on the loud speaker and broadcasts messages while Jack goes to work undoing the damage he caused, defeating the monsters and claiming the Holiday Doors in each area: the Valentine's Day Door from the Graveyard, the St. Patrick's Day Door from the Doctor's Lab, the Thanksgiving Door from the Pumpkin Patch, and the Independence Day Door from the Residential Area, despite Lock, Shock, and Barrel's best efforts to deter his progress. After defeating the trio on the Mayor's roof, they open a void that sends him to the Oogie Corridor. While navigating the maze of caverns, Jack finds the imprisoned Holiday Leaders and an elevator that leads to the Town Square. He finds Oogie at the end of the maze, in a casino-esque setting, and battles him.
Upon his defeat, Oogie reveals that Jack had only defeated his shadow, and that the real Oogie was already in Christmas Town. Jack collects the Easter Holiday Door after defeating him, leaving the Christmas door as the only one out of his possession, and returns to the plaza via a sewage line beneath the casino. After instructing the Mayor to free the other Holiday Leaders, Jack heads to the Hinterlands to restore the Holiday Doors and follow Oogie. Partway through this process, he confronts Oogie's two strongest monsters, the Fire King and the Ice King, and claims the Christmas Door from them. After restoring the seven trees, he heads to Christmas Town, where he finds that Oogie has already wreaked havoc. After fixing it, he heads to another part of the town, where the real Oogie is standing in Santa's sleigh and watching a rig that he has created to murder Santa Claus.
Once again, Jack foils his plans, and Sally brings the coffin sleigh and skeleton reindeer so that Santa can still deliver the presents on time. Oogie flies away on the sleigh, but falls out of it thanks to a Halloween present that Jack had an elf slip into the bag, landing in the seven holidays' junkyard. Infuriated, he calls all of the nearby bugs to him, and with the materials in the junkyard, he becomes Mega-Oogie, a ten story version of himself. Jack confronts him in the junkyard, and with an effort, defeats him at last. Oogie is forced to watch as his bugs spill out of his body, leaving nothing more than a giant, empty patchwork sack as he once again meets his end at the hands of the Pumpkin King.
Kingdom Hearts
Oogie Boogie, as he appears in the Kingdom Hearts series
In Kingdom Hearts, Oogie Boogie is one of the allies that Pete recruited for Maleficent. He is usually seen annoying the rest of his allies in meetings, but cares about their common goal of total world domination. Soon after Jafar and Ursula are defeated by Sora, Oogie has been bringing Heartless into Halloween Town. However, they are soon tamed by Jack Skellington and Doctor Finkelstein using one of the doctor's inventions. Upon hearing from his minions, Lock, Shock and Barrel, that Jack was making an artificial heart to help guide the Heartless in the Halloween Festival, Oogie ordered them to steal it. Upon receiving the heart, Oogie swallowed it as soon as his uninvited guests, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack Skellington arrived. He tried to summon an army of Heartless to due them in, but as the heart was not genuine, not as many Heartless flocked around him. Out of anger of being disrespected by such lower life forms, Oogie activated his Torture Chamber weapons and battled the group with his few Heartless. Ken Page returns to do the voice of Oogie.
Soon after being defeated by having his bugs spilt out of his body, Oogie succumbed to the powers of darkness (just as Jafar had) and took control over his entire manor. Merging with it, he attacked Sora and his friends once more. Sora battled the manor, and destroyed it (and Oogie Boogie) by destroying all the orbs of darkness covering him.
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Oogie Boogie appears as a figment of Sora's memories. He, like in the original game, attempts to steal Jack's research project, in this case, the Memory Potion. Eventually he succeeds in his plan, but fails again when he drank the potion and became terrified of what he remembered (though it is never quite explained what).
In Kingdom Hearts II, Maleficent revived Oogie Boogie with the help of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Unfortunately, Oogie Boogie suffered from anterograde amnesia and has difficulty remembering things since his resurrection. While he is capable of remembering Jack from before his defeat in Kingdom Hearts, and Maleficent as well, he forgets Sandy Claws' identity quickly, having just met him. Under Maleficent's orders, Oogie Boogie captured Santa Claus in Christmas Town to turn him into a Heartless and converts the present making machine into a Heartless making machine. Just as Sora, Donald, and Goofy discovered Oogie's plans, Oogie abandoned Maleficent's plans, saying that she was just cramping his style. Angered, Maleficent left, and Oogie once again battled against the heroes, failing once again, coming apart at the seams just like last time. This time, Donald stomped on Oogie's brain bug to ensure he would never come back again, but as Oogie has a tendency to return from the dead, his demise is still questionable.
The Pumpkin King
Oogie Boogie in The Pumpkin King.
Oogie Boogie also appears as the main antagonist of the prequel video game, The Pumpkin King. He challenges Jack's role as Pumpkin King and sends Lock, Shock, and Barrel to kidnap him. When they accidentally capture Sally instead, Oogie decides to keep her hostage and sends bugs to infest Halloween Town. He plans to take over the Town and convert Halloween into his own holiday, "Crawloween". He eventually meets Jack Skellington for the first time in the game". After getting his bug defeated, Oogie flees and sends Jack on a goose chase with his henchman.
After Jack learns the whereabouts of his Lair's location, he comes across Oogie again. Boogie threatens to dethrone Jack and hops on his specially-designed motorbike to fight him. He eventually gets defeated and scolded by Jack, who banishes him to his Lair and restricts him from coming into Halloween Town ever again. At the end of the game, Oogie tells the player that his business isn't done and that he will soon return, hinting to the events of the movie. He claims his return will be a "nightmare".
Disney Magic Kingdoms
Oogie Boogie in Disney Magic Kingdoms.
Oogie Boogie returns in the This is Halloween event in the game Disney Magic Kingdoms, who tries to overrun Kingdom with bugs and hides in a miniature version of his Lair. After hearing Jack Skellington and Sally boast that the bug infestation was their idea and not his, Oogie surfaces and angrily accuses them of taking his credit. He accidentally reveals his Lair and gets attacked. He results back into hiding and only comes back to scold Jack for stepping on his bugs.
He engages in the final battle with Jack Skellington and ends up losing. After his defeat, he can be welcomed into the Kingdom. He has side quests of his own in the game.
Zero's Journey
Oogie Boogie's tombstone in Zero's Journey.
Oogie makes a small cameo-like appearance in the sequel comic book, Zero's Journey. He is shown as a statue for his tombstone as Zero rumbles inside of it, with a gambling-like design on the bottom and a saw in the back. He is seen holding a pair of dice in his right hand.
This may possibly be a reference to the original Nightmare Before Christmas script, where the Citizens gave Jack Skellington a tombstone after temporarily believing he was "double-dead".
Disney Sorcerer's Arena
Oogie Boogie makes an appearance in another Disney game, Disney
Oogie Boogie in Disney Sorcerer's Arena.
Sorcerer's Arena, as a playable villain. He first makes his appearance in the game's trailer, alongside other Disney Villains, confronting the heroes, before getting attacked by them.
He was also featured in one of the game's events, Wicked Villains, appearing in a banner with the Headless Horseman. He was also featured as apart of The Nightmare Before Christmas event, where players needed to defeat him and his allies in order to earn tokens for Jack Skellington and Sally.
Cameos
Oogie Boogie possibly makes a cameo appearance in the anime, Death Note, where a toy that is very similar to his character's figure is seen with an arrange of dominos.
Oogie also makes a subtle cameo in the show Panty and Stocking, where his figure is seen arranged on a shelf right by Jack Skellington.
Oogie Boogie Bash
Oogie was the host and main focus for Disney California Adventure's 2019 Halloween Party, the Oogie
Oogie Boogie promoting the Villainous! show.
Boogie Bash. He played as the narrator for the World of Color show, Villainous!, alongside a new character named Marie Shelley. The Halloween Party featured trick-or-treat trails where Oogie helped oversee the candy gathering. There was also a huge release of merchandise based on Oogie, including an Oogie Boogie Bash Sipper, Oogie-inspired funnel cakes, and more.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery for Oogie Boogie.
Trivia
- Occasionally, Oogie Boogie can be met at Disneyland through exclusive or private events. He can also be seen with other Disney Villains in Disney Magical Kingdoms and apart of shows.
- Although there hasn't been an official chart of his information, he refers to himself as "twelve-thousand bugs in a 10-foot bag" in Disney Magic Kingdoms.
- According to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, as well as some of his deleted song material (which is included in the soundtrack version), he is also very good at making a concoction known as Snake and Spider Stew, though he - perhaps jokingly - hints he would like to add Sandy Claws to the brew!
- He can be seen next to a prize wheel in the Disneyland ride, The Haunted Mansion Holiday.
- His character was briefly argued as a racist stereotype for including references to The Old Man of the Mountain, but was defended by director Henry Selick as apart of Danny Elfman's inspiration of Cab Calloway.
- There was an extension of his dance in Oogie Boogie's song that was deleted due to the difficulties animating it.
- Oogie Boogie's name along with the "Tender Lumplings" mention in the This is Halloween song is a reference to the Halloween singer, Oingo Boingo.
- In the Oogie Boogie song, Santa saying "What are ya going to do?" and Oogie replying with "I'm gonna do the best I can!" are quotes from the Betty Boop cartoon "The Old Man of the Mountain".