Halloween Town

Halloween Town (ハロウィンタウン) is a world found in all the Kingdom Hearts games so far, save for Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts coded. It is based on and is the main setting of Tim Burton's classic stop-motion film, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The ruler of this world is Jack Skellington even though he is not the mayor. This is most likely because he is in charge of making Halloween. Santa Claus is the ruler of the Christmas Town section.

Setting and Areas
Based on the holiday of Halloween, Halloween Town is in a constant state of night. The main light comes from the bright full moon overhead. The theme for the area is a twisted, gothic, and creepy appearance. Guillotine Plaza (called Town Square in Kingdom Hearts II) is named after the deadly guillotine in the middle of the area. There is also a fountain full of green water and various ledges to climb on. In Kingdom Hearts II, the area takes on a slightly different appearance, the fountain now squirts water that deals damage if hit, the guillotine can come down on characters for damage if they pass beneath it, one of the gates (with presents behind it) deals damage if Sora and company come near it, and nearby grates spew poisonous gas. In both games, the Square links directly to Dr. Finkelstein's Lab, where much of the exposition for both games is initially given. In Kingdom Hearts, it also links to Guillotine Gate, which serves as the entrance to Halloween Town.

Nearby there is a Graveyard that serves as a connection to the other places in both games. In Kingdom Hearts II, the gravestones can be knocked over for Drive Orbs and damage. In both games, the Graveyard leads to Moonlight Hill (called Curly Hill in Kingdom Hearts II); with a sundae swirl hill that can unfurl in Kingdom Hearts to take the party to the next area. In Kingdom Hearts II, the left fork in the Graveyard also takes the party to the Hinterlands, a quiet wood that leads to the trees carved with various symbols of other holidays. They in fact lead to towns of varying holidays - Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Independence Day and Valentine's Day.

In Kingdom Hearts, travelling over Moonlight Hill takes the party to the Bridge leading to Oogie's Manor and the Evil Playroom within that serves as the hideout of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, as well as Oogie Boogie's own Torture Chamber.

In Kingdom Hearts II, the Hinterlands will take characters to Yuletide Hill, which they can travel down the Candy Cane Lane to reach Christmas Town. In Christmas Town, characters can visit with Santa Claus himself in Santa's House and explore the Shipping & Receiving and Wrapping Rooms of the Toy Factory. Late in the game, characters can also go by Christmas Tree Plaza to fight a boss battle.

Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts, the story isn't like the movie. Instead the plot is about the Doctor making an artificial heart so Jack can control the Heartless. This is because Jack wishes to make the Heartless perform in his plans for Halloween. But working with Maleficent, Lock, Shock and Barrel steal the heart and take it to Oogie. Sora and company chase them and fight them but Oogie already has the heart. They find Oogie and defeat him but then Oogie combines with his Manor and is taken over by darkness and fights Sora. After the battle, the location of the keyhole is revealed.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
The plot in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories oddly stays the same with some key differences.
 * Oogie isn't working with Maleficent
 * Oogie doesn't fuse with his manor
 * Zero, Lock, Shock, and Barrel are absent
 * Instead of an artificial heart, Doctor Finkelstein creates a potion that awakens the "true memories" that are hidden in people's hearts, which Oogie steals instead

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, when Roxas first arrives in Halloween Town, he finds Jack Skellington agonizing on how to make Halloween scarier and more shocking than ever before. He leaves still pondering, and Roxas continues on his mission of collecting hearts. He finishes quickly, and is about to return to the castle when Lock, Shock, and Barrel leap out of nowhere and throw a pumpkin bomb in his face! They run off, giggling, leaving Roxas confused. But he shrugs it off, and returns through the Corridor. But Jack sees him leaving, and is intrigued by his sudden appearance and disappearance. What a wonderful idea for Halloween! Meanwhile, in another area of Halloween Town the trio have found something they find interesting as well...

On Roxas’s next few missions to Halloween Town he finds there are fewer and fewer Heartless, making heart collecting something of a pain. What Heartless are left are in hiding, and Roxas has to enlist the help of Zero’s nose to find them. Meanwhile Lock, Shock and Barrel are up to something. They always throw pumpkin bombs at Roxas, though that’s probably just for a laugh, on his third trip to Halloween Town they try to prevent him from going any further into Boogie’s domain. They attack him, but Roxas smacks some sense into them, or at least smacks them around, and they promise not to play tricks on him anymore. Barrel almost lets something slip about what they’ve been doing, but Lock shuts him up, and they make good their escape.

Obviously having forgotten their promise, the three hooligans pumpkin bomb Roxas immediately on his next arrival into town. Everyone is suspicious of them, but they’ve been hiding what they’ve been doing. After completing his mission, Roxas makes to leave, but is attacked by a strange shadowy plant that burst out of the ground behind him. He defeats it easily, but it’s strange. Could the tricky trio have something to do with this...?

The Organization has got a report that something strange is happening in Halloween Town. There seem to be very few Heartless left. What could be happening? They send Roxas to investigate. When he arrives at Guillotine Plaza, a Heartless suddenly appears, and looks like it’s running away from something. Then the black shadowy plant Roxas fought earlier sprouted out of the ground, and swallowed the Heartless in one gulp! So this must be what has happened to them. Roxas decides to search for the source outside of town, and sees Lock, Shock and Barrel escaping over the wall to Boogie’s place. He quickly dispatches the siege of plants at Curly Hill, before taking on the mother. The battle was tough, but Roxas thought nothing of it. Jack, however, watching from the sidelines became mesmerized with the idea of a Halloween with “a black cloak and black tentacles”...

On his last mission to Halloween Town, Roxas can do nothing but worry about Xion. He resolves to finish his mission as quickly as possible and return to the castle to speak with her. But as he searches through Halloween Town he senses no Heartless, much less the big one he is supposed to dispatch. He decides to check outside of town, and still feels nothing, when suddenly an Orcus Heartless appears before him! The Heartless is strong, perhaps too strong, and he tries to put all of his strength into one last attack, when Axel comes between him and the Heartless. Why is Axel interfering with his mission? But then he sees, it wasn’t a Heartless he was attacking, it was Xion! Axel tells them the mission was a trap, to make them fight so only the strongest one would survive. They leave for Twilight Town, not sure what to think...

Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, the plot follows much to the original film. Like in the original film, Jack wants to take Santa's place. While at the same time, Maleficent has revived Oogie Boogie (although having amnesia), and has him remake Santa's present making machine into a Heartless making machine. Maleficent has Shock, Barrel, and Lock assist Boogie, even letting them use a fearsome Heartless. Sora, Donald, and Goofy tries to stop Jack's scheme, while trying to shut down the Heartless operation.

On the second visit, Sora, Donald, and Goofy learn from Jack that Christmas Presents are being stolen, and resolve to find out who and to what end, the quartet visit Santa to request making Dummy Presents to draw out the thief, they end up hiding in a huge box (accompanied by some humorous dialogue) and surprise the thief, only to find, as Jack's realization so clearly states: Doctor Finkelstein's Experiment did it! a battle goes on with the raging machine, but Sora and friends come out on top, learning from Finkelstein later, that the Experiment wished only to know the happiness that Christmas brings, Jack, all the while, thinks the box makes the magic, but learns from Sora that it's not about the box, paper, ribbons, or what's inside, what matters is the principle of giving, after this, Jack and Sally share a romantic moment in the snow, with Donald and Goofy teasing Sora about imagining himself and Kairi in the same occurrence.

Areas
Kingdom Hearts:
 * Guillotine Gate
 * Guillotine Square
 * Lab Entryway
 * Lab
 * Graveyard
 * Curly Hill
 * Bridge
 * Oogie's Manor

Kingdom Hearts II:
 * Graveyard
 * Halloween Town Square
 * Dr. Finkelstein's Lab
 * Curly Hill
 * Hinterlands
 * Yuletide Hill
 * Candy Cane Lane
 * Santa's House
 * Toy Factory: Shipping and Receiving
 * Toy Factory: The Wrapping Room
 * Christmas Tree Plaza

Character Design
Sora wears a black outfit quite similar that of a vampire. His hands also have white gloves that are typical to Disney characters. He has fake, skeletal bat wings on his back and wears a pumpkin mask on the right side of his face. He has black makeup all over his face, so as to blend into the gothic atmosphere.
 * Sora

Donald wears mummy-like bandages that cover almost all of his body. A gap in the bandages shows that there is nothing under them. The make-up is used mostly everywhere.
 * Donald

Goofy has the look of Frankenstein's monster, with screws coming out of the sides of his head. His nose is recolored as a tiny jack-o-lantern, similar to Jack Skellington's faithful ghost-dog, Zero.
 * Goofy

In Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, when Riku visits this world in Reverse/Rebirth, he takes on a slightly darker look, such as darker skin and menacing eyes, his outfit also slightly torn around the sleeves.
 * Riku

In Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, when Riku visits this world in Reverse/Rebirth, the King takes on a slightly darker look, such as darker skin. The picture on his Friend Card also lacks a smile.
 * King Mickey

Dalmatians

 * 40, 41, & 42 - On the steep bank in the Bridge area.
 * 64, 65, & 66 - Return to Moonlight Hill after locking the keyhole and go in the door to the right. The chest will be right in front of you.
 * 67, 68, & 69 - Under Jack's house in Guillotine Plaza.
 * 70, 71, & 72 - In Guillotine Plaza, on the high ledge with the two jack o'lanterns to the left of Guillotine Gate. Glide is required.

Trinities
Note: in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix the Red Trinity has been moved to the gate near to Oogie's Manor. This way, it can be activated at any time in the game after gaining the access to this area.

Trivia

 * Halloween Town is one of the only Disney worlds that didn't follow the plot of its original movie (with some alterations to suit the game's story) in its debut. In Kingdom Hearts, it only bore similarities to the beginning of The Nightmare Before Christmas (plot wise) and didn't actually get to the movie's main plot until Kingdom Hearts II which even then, it is implied by certain pieces of dialogue that the events of Halloween Town in the game take place AFTER the movie, such as Santa's "What trouble did you bring about this time, Jack" retort (which Jack, when questioned by Sora, stated that it's a "long story"), as well as Jack's line about how he wasn't even the one who told Lock, Shock, and Barrel to come to Christmas Town this time.
 * In Kingdom Hearts, after the battle against Oogie Boogie (where he fuses with Oogie's Manor), the site is then called "Manor Ruins."
 * The save point at Oogie's Manor, i.e. Evil Playroom, does appear at the landing menu of the gummi sequence as long as the manor is up. After defeating Oogie Boogie and sealing the Keyhole in Halloween Town, the save point at Guillotine Gate is the sole save point in Halloween Town.
 * Halloween Town has more detailed textures because it is based on stop-motion rather than animation. The Heartless in this world change skin texture to match this. Strangely, this does not happen in Port Royal, despite that world's even more realistic graphics.
 * According to the BradyGame's Kingdom Hearts II official strategy guide, The Nightmare Before Christmas world was added again simply because of the overwhelming fanbase.
 * Despite the fact that Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Mickey have changed their appearances in Halloween Town, the Organization XIII members never do during their missions here. This is probably a result of them being Nobodies.
 * In Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Halloween Town is the only world in which Sora changes clothes.

Gallery
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Ville d'Halloween