The Nightmare Before Christmas light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" does what it intends to: entertain." Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" enjoyed stylistic features in common with Oscar Wilde, German Expressionism, the Brothers Grimm and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Michael A. Morrison discusses the influence of Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" on the film, writing that Jack parallels the Grinch and Zero parallels Max, the Grinch's dog. Philip Nel writes that the film "challenges the wisdom of adults through
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas [and] classic comedy episodes including, "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas." DVD.net called "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" a "classic" standalone episode. "SFX" named the episode the sixth best "SF [Sci-Fi] & Fantasy Christmas Episodes" and noted that it was full of "classic lines, some neat tricks". Zack Handlen from "The A.V. Club" gave the episode a largely positive review and awarded it a grade of an A. He noted that the episode was written in a similar manner to the earlier, Carter-penned "The Post-Modern Prometheus". Handlen wrote that both entries "have a gleeful, everybody-gets-out-okay-in-the-end vibe". He, however, concluded that the