030. Mr. Oogie Boogie (Intro)

Oogie Boogie is the lead villain in The Nightmare Before Christmas, he represents the infamous Boogeyman and is depicted as a bug filled burlap sack with a penchant for gambling.

Since Oogie's whole theme revolves around gambling for his pose I'm planning on having him throwing his dice forwards in a really cool dynamic pose as though he is throwing them towards us. I also want to make the bugs a part of the model so I'll be incorporating them throughout it. 

I think this one will be a challenge in the sense that the simple shaped ones usually are, but mostly getting all the creases and folds in his fabric just right is probably going to be the hardest part. As with all the villain related stuff though, I'm really excited to work on this one, he's a great character, of course with an incredibly catchy song that will be stuck in my head for the entire duration, and I think the ornamental model is going to be awesome.

I've already started on his head so the wip post will be out tomorrow for a first look at the model so far, followed by the clean version either late tomorrow or sometime Sunday. As always I'll keep the wip post updated as I go, character trivia is below! thanks for subscribing! 

• The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King reveals that Oogie and Jack Skellington's rivalry traces back to one year before the events of the film. After hearing stories about the supposed "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, an envious Oogie Boogie became obsessed with outclassing Jack as the scariest ghoul there is. His manner of doing so developed into a coup to take over Halloween and rebranding it as "Crawloween"—a holiday dedicated to bugs. Oogie's scheme was foiled by Jack, who punished Oogie by confining him to his lair beneath Lock, Shock, and Barrel's treehouse.
• Oogie's life revolves around gambling, and he loves gambling with others' lives. His lair was modeled after casinos, with its architecture taking inspiration from poker tables, slot machines, and the like. Oogie often carries dice on his person, which he uses to decide the fate of his prisoners—though he will always skew the odds in his favour, regardless.
• Ironically, Oogie has no skills for gambling; on three occasions he rolls snake eyes and admits he has to resort to cheating, usually by slamming his fist on the table to change the dice, resulting in a more desirable number.
• Oogie Boogie was not present in Tim Burton's original poem that inspired the movie.
• According to Ken Page, Oogie's vocal performance was a mix between the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 Wizard of Oz, and the demon in the 1973 Exorcist film. 
• Songwriter Danny Elfman was inspired by "St. James Infirmary Blues" when writing Oogie's song.
• While in the actual film his burlap sack's colour is brown grey, in most promotional material, games, merchandising, and the Disney Parks his colour is neon-green, which he only appears as when his casino lair is lit up in black light.
• Oogie Boogie was originally going to be Dr. Finkelstein in a costume, who fabricated the Oogie Boogie persona to get back at Jack and Sally, but this ending was scrapped.
• 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.
• Despite being the main villain of the movie, Tim Burton has stated that he does not see Oogie Boogie as a Villain. He believes that "The Nightmare Before Christmas is a happy story with no truly bad characters. Everyone is trying to do something good and just get a little mixed up along the way".
• 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.

See you in the next post, 

Harley