Oogie Boogie

"Are you a gambling man, Sandy? Let's play."

- Oogie Boogie to Santa Claus. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust! Ooh, I'm feeling weak… with hunger! One more roll of the dice outta do it!"

- Oogie Boogie

Oogie Boogie, sometimes shortened to simply Oogie, is the main antagonist of Tim Burton's 1993 animated stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as its 2005 video game prequel The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King, its 2005 video game sequel The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, and a major antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series. He is the personification of the common child's nightmare of the "Boogie Man", resembling a large burlap sack full of bugs, spiders, and snakes. He is Jack Skellington's archenemy.

He was voiced by.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King
In the video game prequel to the film, Oogie's origins and the birth of his rivalry with Jack were revealed. As it turned out, he once had his own holiday known as Bug Day, that was most likely forgotten by the people of the real world and thus vanished. Unfortunately, Oogie escaped, found Halloween Town, and decided that it would be the new Bug Day. He and his army of insects invaded the town and nearly took it over. Jack found out and he defeated the bugs and Oogie. Oogie survived the battle, learned to fear the Pumpkin King, and was banished to his underground lair.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
"Now look what have you done! My bugs! (x10)"

- Oogie Boogie's last words.

Although he is the main antagonist, his role in the film is small. During the time that Oogie was imprisoned in his lair and plotting his revenge, Lock, Shock and Barrel revealed the existence of Santa Claus to him. Later, the trio kidnapped Santa and (against the wishes of Jack Skellington, who held Oogie in great contempt) sent him down to his lair beneath their Treehouse home. Oogie, after introducing himself, binds Santa to a giant roulette wheel and prepares to torture him. Later on, Sally attempts to rescue Santa from Oogie but ends up being captured herself. Following Jack's failed escapade as Santa Claus, Oogie tried to kill his captives by cooking them in his snake and spider stew but was stopped by Jack.

Jack confronts Oogie, who activated his robot killing machines and trapped him in response, but the latter acrobatically evaded the devices and managed to reach Oogie. Oogie tried to escape on a propeller, but Jack shouted "How dare you treat my friends so shamefully!", indicating that Oogie was too dangerous to be left alive. The pumpkin king then pulled a loose thread on him, which opened him up and caused about 90% of his bugs to fall into his own burning stew. He fearfully screamed "My bugs!", then his voice changed to insects, faded from existence, and left only squeaks. Albeit most of the insects fell to their deaths in Oogie's stew, one of them, presumably the leader, tried to escape his fellows' fate, but was ultimately crushed to death by Santa with his feet. It is completely unknown if any bug from Oogie's bag survived the ordeal, but if some of them did so, they most likely escaped from Oogie's lair and went to live normal lives as ordinary insects.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
In the 2005 video game sequel, Oogie was resurrected by his three henchmen, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who sewed him back together. He quickly deceived the residents of Halloween Town and tricked the townsfolk into making traps for his archenemy, Jack Skellington. Oogie attempted to become the "Seven Holidays King". He successfully kidnapped the real leaders and tried to murder Santa Claus again, but his plans were foiled by Jack. Oogie desperately put up a fight by turning into a gigantic, junk-filled version of himself named "Mega-Oogie". He was again destroyed by Jack, reducing into nothing, apparently ending Oogie's threat once and for all. However, he could still be resurrected once more like in the past.

Kingdom Hearts series


"Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"

- Oogie Boogie.

Oogie is one of the Disney antagonists in the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and the main antagonist of most Halloween Town storylines.

Kingdom Hearts
In his first appearance, he is allied with Maleficent in Kingdom Hearts, who wanted the heart that Jack and Doctor Finkelstein created to take control of the Heartless and use them to take over Halloween Town. Oogie succeeded in part, swallowed the artificial Heart, but because the heart was faulty, he couldn't summon as many Heartless as he expected. He tried to destroy Sora, Jack, and the others by trapping them in his giant roulette machine. Aside from throwing explosive dice, all of his attacks depended on what number he rolled. Oogie could summon the Heartless, release a spinning blade wheel, summon a buzzsaw, or activate his healing machine. However, Sora could hit the dice and cancel out Oogie's attack. At the end of the battle, Oogie's seams split, released all of the bugs from inside his body, and left nothing but his empty sack body and the Heart. However, because Oogie had swallowed the Heart, the energies inside of it resurrected him, and merged him with his manor. His weak points were orbs of darkness that sustained his life. However, Sora destroyed them all, and caused Oogie's manor form to crumble into dust.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Oogie returned in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (and its console remaster Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories), as a creation from Sora's memories of Halloween Town. The false Oogie Boogie stole Doctor Finkelstein's special potion that was said to bring "true memories" and drank it, but began to feel intense fear (presumably of what happened to him) and Sora defeated him. He also appeared in Riku's story as a token of the darkness in his heart. Oogie was the boss of Halloween Town in both stories. The strategy to defeating Oogie was to utilize card breaks to lower the bars that protected him until they retracted completely, after which he was entirely vulnerable to any attack.

Kingdom Hearts II
Oogie was resurrected by Maleficent in Kingdom Hearts II as part of her plan to take over Christmas Town while turning Santa Claus into "Santa Heartless". However, Oogie Boogie, still weak from being revived and suffering from retrograde amnesia, drove Maleficent away after he insulted her as he did not remember that she was the one who brought him back to life. Oogie converted Santa's Present Machine into a machine that summoned Heartless Presents. Oogie's fate in the end was similar to his initial fate from the first game, only that time Donald Duck squashed the final bug in the hopes that Oogie would not return (as Santa did in the film). Oogie Boogie was the only villain besides Pete in the game that Maleficent interacted with directly, instead of sending Pete to enforce her will.

Kingdom Hearts χ
Oogie Boogie appears on medals in Kingdom Hearts χ and Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ/Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross].

Disney Crossy Road
Oogie Boogie appears as an unlockable character in The Nightmare Before Christmas event for Disney Crossy Road.

As Told By Emoji
Oogie Boogie appears in "The Nightmare Before Christmas As Told By Emoji", which recounts the events of the film in a quick, comical fashion.

Disney Universe
Oogie Boogie appears as an unlockable costume in Disney Universe.

Disney Parks
Oogie Boogie appears at a few Disney Parks attractions, including:
 * The Villains Tonight! Halloween stage show
 * The Hocus Pocus Villains Spectacular Halloween stage show
 * The Halloween Screams firework show during HalloWishes
 * The Haunted Mansion during its seasonal "Haunted Mansion Holiday" overlay, where he replaces the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

He also appears as a popular meet and greet character around Halloween.

Oogie Boogie was also prominently featured in a commercial for Disneyland Resorts, casting a spell over the Resorts and transforming them for the Halloween season.

Personality
Oogie Boogie is the sadistic, villainous, manipulative and power-hungry boogeyman who resembles a large burlap sack. Inside of him are thousands of bugs (along with two spiders and a snake). His life revolves around gambling and loves gambling with others' lives. He is also a dangerous and cruel monster who likes to torture people. He is also said to have been the king of his own holiday, "Bug Day", which eventually fell out of favor, resulting in him moving to Halloween Town in "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" for Gameboy Advance. He also appears to fear Jack Skellington, as evidenced by their final confrontation when meeting face to face. This fear can be seen to be a result of their first meeting in "Pumpkin King", when Jack Skellington destroyed a majority of his bug minions after he attempted to transform Halloween Town into the new Bug Day.

Ironically, Oogie is powerless for gambling; on three occasions, he rolls snake eyes, and admits that he has to resort to cheating. He slams his fist upon the table to shake the dice, resulting in eleven. He is also a somewhat lecherous and provocative individual, which is evident when he is easily distracted by Sally's bare (and dismembered) leg. According to Lock, Shoc, 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 it would seem he tends to use people as ingredients. He is a loathsome and opprobrious sadist who has his henchmen abduct people and bring them to his lair for him to torture and eventually kill and/or eat and/or add to his snake and spider stew.

Vices
Oogie's life revolved around gambling, and he loved gambling with others' lives. Ironically, Oogie was unskillful for gambling; on three occasions he rolled snake eyes (although some say he was looking at Santa's chances the first two times, because he laughed after looking at the results), and admitted that he had to resort to cheating - he slammed his fist upon the table to shake the dice the third time, which resulted in eleven. Oogie was also apparently somewhat lecherous and provocative, which was evident when he is easily distracted by Sally's bare (and dismembered) leg.

Oogie was a sadist who had Lock, Shock, and Barrel abduct people and bring them to his lair for him to torture and eventually kill and/or add to his Snake and Spider Stew. Unlike all of the other inhabitants of Halloween Town, who were merely innocent monsters who scared people for a living, and as a profession, and for whom "life's no fun without a good scare", Oogie was truly evil. It was suggested that his sadistic nature had resulted in his exile from the mainstream Halloween Town.

Lair
Oogie lived in an underground lair, which was full of traps and torture devices with a casino-like twist. Oogie Boogie's lair, during his theme song, was lit with blacklights in the style of a cheap funhouse. Under those, Oogie himself glowed bright green. However, after the lights dimmed, the bright color was sapped from his lair, and transformed its appearance into that of a dank, cellar-like dungeon. Above his lair was the clubhouse of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who fed him bugs regularly via a metal chute.

Trivia

 * Oogie Boogie is meant to represent one of the worst things that anyone can get on Halloween: a bag full of bugs.
 * Oogie Boogie does 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", Tim Burton says that Oogie Boogie was loosely inspired by the late Cab Calloway's 1932 appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon. In addition to this, Danny Elfman ended up referencing the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon, The Old Man of the Mountain, 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.
 * Tim Burton has stated that he does not see Oogie Boogie as "evil". 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".
 * An alternate idea for Oogie's identity was for him to be Dr. Finkelstein in disguise, gaining revenge on Jack and Sally. However, it was not pursued past storyboards; this is visible on the Special Edition DVD.
 * Lines in both "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" and "Oogie Boogie's Song" state that Oogie eats "snake and spider stew". Because snakes and spiders are some of the creatures that compose his innards, this would mean Oogie is also a cannibal.
 * In The Nightmare Before Christmas edition of the Hasbro board game Operation, Oogie Boogie takes Cavity Sam's role as the patient that anyone must cure.
 * Oogie is also the only Disney Villain to be a patient in Operation.
 * Oogie Boogie appears as a costume in "The Nightmare Before Christmas Pack" DLC for the 2014 puzzle-platformer video game Little Big Planet 3.