Oogie Boogie was the main antagonist of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, voiced by Ken Page. He was a burlap sack filled with insects, two spiders and a snake for a tongue. It is likely he is the legendary Boogeyman, as suggested by the boogie in his name, and how he tells Santa "you better pay attention now because I'm the boogeyman". The boogeyman was also known to cause sheer horror in the dreams of mortals, as hinted in "This Is Halloween" as 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. He doesn't think Halloween should be a fun holiday like everyone else does. He thinks it should be sinister and harmful, even going as far to actually harm humans, which all the other citizens are against and strictly forbid it. He commands three not-so-loyal minions Lock, Shock, and Barrel. The three live in a Treehouse, above Oogie's Lair. They feed him bugs, and at one point Santa Claus went through a metal chute that leads down below.
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
Oogie Boogie is a sinister 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. 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 eventually fell out of favor, resulting in him moving to Halloween Town, a plot detailed in "The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King" for the Gameboy Advance.
Oogie Boogie's most dominant emotion of his personality is obviously fear. Whether it's scaring the daylights out of others, or being terrified himself, Oogie is always involved with fear. Despite his menacing appearance, Oogie can mostly be seen as a coward. He also appears to fear Jack Skellington, as evidenced by their final confrontation when meeting face to face. This fear can also be interpreted as a result of their first meeting, when Jack Skellington destroyed his bug minions after he attempted to transform Halloween Town into the New Bug Day.
Ironically, Oogie has no skills for gambling; on three occasions he rolls snake eyes, and admits he has to resort to cheating - he slams his fist upon the table to shake the dice, resulting in eleven. He is also somewhat lecherous, as which is evident when he's easily distracted by Sally's bare (and dismembered) leg. 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 it would seem he tends to use people as ingredients. He is a sadist who has his henchmen abduct people and bring them to his lair for him to torture and eventually kill and/or add to his Snake and Spider Stew.[
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, though it would seem he tends to use people as ingredients.
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 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.
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 resoures from the near by 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 form 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 completly 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 capablities have also been greatly incresed he will be able to summon far more then 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. 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.
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).
Riku's story, he appeared (with no dialogue) as one of Riku's dark memories. He is, of course, defeated there as well.
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.
Grim Tales From Down Below
Oogie Boogie is a major antagonist of The Grim Tales From Down Below. He appears in Chapter 2 and 3 as the main villain and is later only mentioned. He is a previous partner of Boogeyman. He originates from the Tim Burton film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. When Lock, Shock and Barrel captured Grim Jr. he KO'd him after telling the story with a baseball bat and tied up up in his Torture Chamber. He wanted to cut open the head of Grim Jr. to see his Reaper powers. Suddenly Minniemandy came in and shot an arrow through his hand. Then he summoned some cards and cowbots that started to attack Minnie, but she destroyed them all. Then she slammed Oogie KO but let him stay alive. When Minnie walked away with Grim Jr., Oogie summoned the Pumpkinator that grabbed Minnie and bisected her. After Grim Jr. got his Demon powers from Minnie, he slayed the Pumpkinator and merged into it and killed Lock, Shock, Barrel, and Oogie.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery for Oogie Boogie.