Jack Skellington

Jack Skellington is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, acting as the leader of his world even though there is a Mayor. He is responsible for coming up with new and exciting ideas for each year's Halloween festivities, but sometims finds himself struggling to think of some ideas or coming up with ones that will end badly. He first appeared in Tim Burton's . He has appeared in all games of the series aside from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts coded, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts, Jack decides to use the newest arrivals to Halloween Town, the Heartless, to take terror to a new level for the year's festival. Oddly finding a book that tells all about them, Jack worked alongide Doctor Finkelstein to create a guidnace system that coordinated the Heartless's movements for a dance introducing him at the festival. However, at rehersal, he found their movements not to be scary enough and went to consult the doctor about it.

Reading the book, Jack decided the Heartless needed a heart and the doctor provided a heart-like container to use for putting in ingrediants; it was locked, however. This is what lead Jack to meet Sora, Donald and Goofy for the first time; Sora unlocked the "heart" for them out of curiosty of seeing the Heartless dance. Their attmept to add the heart onto the device backfired; the Heartless they barely had under their control had reverted to their natural selves and were attacking everyone in town.

Sent by Dr. Finkelstein to collect more ingrediants, Jack helped Soara fight off the Heartless and found Sally, who had the "memory" needed for the heart. Though she tried to persaude him from not going any further with his plans for the Heartless, Jack ignored her and continued his work. Once more ingrediants were placed in the heart and it was about to be tested again, Jack was forced to chase after Lock, Shock and Barrel, who stole it. Chasing them to Oogie's manor, Jack helped give the pranksters a sound beating before learning they sent the heart below to Oogie himself.

Confronting Oogie in his torture chamber, Jack demanded the return of the heart. However, Oogie swallowed it and uses its power to summon Heartless. Defeating the foul villain, Jack retreived the heart and left. However, Oogie returned, merging together with his manor to become a gaint monster. Jack worked with Sora to defeat him and watched as he sealed the Keyhole of Halloween Town.

Jack then appologised to Sally for not listening to her warnings. However, she told him they could think of a new idea for halloween together. Jack reluctantly canceled the "Heartless Halloween" and gave Sora the Pumpkinhead keychain.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Jack makes an appearance as a figment of Sora's memory in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. His role this time remains relatively the same. He requested Dr. Finkelstein to make a memory potion, hoping that it would help in teaching the Heartless new Halloween tricks. Like in Kingdom Hearts, Donald was not very fond of Jack, especially since he scared Donald.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Jack appears once more, planning the perfect Halloween. He is at a loss of ideas, however, finally getting one when he catches Roxas leaving the world through a Dark Corridor. Upon Roxas's next visit, Jack is seen in the Town Square with Doctor Finkelstein, displaying decorated balloons that contained a horrifying surprise. The doctor liked the idea, Jack still not satisfied. Roxas later encountered the Pumpkin King and his dog Zero in the Graveyard, the ghost-dog showing Jack that Heartless could now be found in the balloons. Not recalling having put the Heartless in the balloons, he deciphered that another mind had decided to place the dark creatures in them to add an extra level of terror.

Jack then continued brainstorming, hoping to prevent this other "great mind" from coming up with better ideas before he did. He then awarded Zero a bone after realizing the dog had given him a hint, Jack heading straight to Dr. Finkelstein's lab to tell him of a brand new, great idea. He later shows Dr. Finkelstein a scarecrow he has made, that resembles Roxas in its hairstyle, as he saw Roxas briefly leaving an area.

Kingdom Hearts II
Jack in his Santa costume in Kingdom Hearts II, he takes a comparable role to his character in the movie. However, this time, he wishes only to help Santa Claus deliver presents (instead of taking his place as in the movie). Reuniting with Sora, Jack appoints him and his freins bodyguards for Santa so he can bring him to Halloween Town to see all he's done for the holiday.

However, when they arrive in Christmas Town, Jack is questioned about what his intentions are THIS time. Finding Lock, Shock and Barrel escaping the toy factory, Jack chases them back to Curly Hill, where he helps fight off the Prisoner Keeper. After its defeat, it's learned Oogie was brought back to life by Maleficent. Heading back to Christmas Town, Jack helps defeat Oogie for good.

Donning his new Santa Claus suit, Jack explains to Santa that he only wishes to assist as he must be tired from preparing for the holiday. Though Santa is thankful for the kind offer, he reminds Jack he must take care of Halloween; it's his duty to children to come up with frightening ideas, mcuh as it is for Santa to give children presents at Christmas. His Santa suit then helps Sora open a new pathway to the Pride Lands.

Later, Jack is blamed for stealing the presents from Santa's factory. He teams up with Sora again to help solve the mystery and clear his name. They do this by hiding in a giant present and tricking the thief into stealing it. Jack and Sora then defeat the thief, who turns out to be Dr. Finkelstein's Experiment, and save Christmas. After that, Santa lets Jack ride in his sleigh, giving him the idea of what it's like to be him. Later, Sally helps him realize that the most important thing of Christmas is not the gift box, nor the present inside it, but the wish of the giver to make someone happy.

Ending
Jack is seen in his normal outfit, discussing his plans for the next halloween with everyone in the doctor's lab; he's learned his lesson about trying to help with other holidays.

Personality
Jack is shown to be incredibly eccentric, always alive and active. He is somewhat of an optimist; when he puts his mind to something, he will not stop until he achieves it. He tends to be slightly oblivious, and never thinks things through, which usually leads to disaster. But he is an overall cheerful character who is greatly respected by all, with the exception of Oogie.

Appearance
Jack is an extremely thin and equally tall being, his legs being over twice as long as his torso. He is a skeleton, and so his head lacks hair and sports empty eye sockets and nostrils. Strangely, his neck is solid, not showing vertebrae segmentation. His skull is similar, showing no distinction between his upper and lower jaws. His mouth is thin and wide, marked by a number of small "seams", similar to a Glascow smile. Jack is missing several teeth in a number of different places. Unlike his head and neck, Jack's hands do show joints.

Jack's usual attire is a macabre black suit with white pinstripes. The top has a single white button, and a white shirt is visible underneath. His black dress shoes are bizarrely small in comparison to the rest of his body. The coat tails of Jack's coat reach to about knee-length, and he wears a large, black bow-tie shaped like a bat with several white veins in its wings and white eyes.

When masquerading as Santa Claus, Jack dons an obviously fake white beard (the part of the beard that should attach to his chin dangles a few inches from it) that reaches to the top of his thighs. His faded red pants have a vertical seam on the front, and his black, knee-high boots have fur lining at the top. Jack's tails in this outfit are about the same length as his normal ones, and he wears a maroon belt around his waist. His long sleeves are also fur lined at the cuffs. Finally, his faded red Santa hat also has white fur lining around the rim and a white fur ball at the tip.

Because of Jack's extreme height, he doesn't need to run to keep up with Sora. Instead, he is seen speed-walking throughout the series.

Kingdom Hearts
Jack cannot equip a weapon, but his attack power and MP is still fairly high. Jack instead attacks using his magic, which is similar to Sora and Donald's, but has a Halloween theme to its animation. Jack has two equipment slots, and three item slots. Jack's abilities are as follows:


 * Applause!: Jack slides into enemies.
 * Blazing Fury: Jack launches a fireball at an enemies.
 * Icy Terror: Jack fires a barrage of ice crystals at an enemy.
 * Bolts of Sorrow: Jack conjures a barrage of thunderbolts to continually strike opponents.
 * Ghostly Scream: Jack conjures orbs of dark energy to attack opponents.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
Jack is called to fight with his friend card that can only be summoned in Halloween Town. He uses magic like Donald. If you stock more of his cards, the higher level of magic he will cast. Below are the sleights that the Jack (card) can be used in:


 * Surprise!: Stock two Jack cards; Jack double-casts Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, or Gravira.
 * Surprise!: Stock three Jack cards; Jack triple-casts Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, or Graviga.
 * Terror: Stock two Summon cards and one Jack card; Strike fear in the enemy so they no longer approach.
 * Gifted Miracle: Stock one Summon card, one Magic card, and one Jack card; Reload cards and reset the counter while restoring HP to friends and foes alike.

Kingdom Hearts II
Jack is a mage character and fights using his magic, which is similar to Donald and Sora's, but with a decisively Halloween theme—his Fire magic for example, manifests as three blazing pumpkin heads. As such, his ability list is very similar to Donald's and he tends to burn through his MP quickly. Jack has no armor slots, two accessory slots and three item slots. His "weapons" are his own fists. Jack's abilities are as follows:


 * Blazing Fury: Jack charges forward surrounded by three flaming pumpkin heads.
 * Icy Terror: Jack fires a snowflake at an enemy.
 * Bolts of Sorrow: Jack conjures a barrage of thunderbolts to continually strike opponents.
 * Limit ability: Applause, Applause. Activates Dance Call. Sora and Jack dance together as they unleash creepy magic to attack enemies.

Origin
Jack originally appeared as the main protagonist of Tim Burton's stop-motion animated classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and his is role almost identical to that of his role in Kingdom Hearts II. Being bored with Halloween, Jack goes for a walk in the woods and uncovers Christmas Town. Amazed by its magic, he decides to take over Christmas with disastorous results, but he eventually saves the day. Chris Sarandon reprises his role as Jack in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

Trivia

 * Jack's entry in Kingdom Hearts II's journal depicts him as the "Skeleton King", when Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories calls him the "Pumpkin King". The former is an incorrect title as in the original movie he is titled the "Pumpkin King".
 * In the BradyGames Official Strategy Guide for Kingdom Hearts II, Jack's weapon has been incorrectly labeled as the Scimitar.