“Nothing's more suspicious than frog's breath! Until you taste it, I won't swallow a spoonful!”
―Finkelstein suspects Sally of attempting to poison him[src]
Dr. Finkelstein is a major character and minor antagonist in Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion Disney film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is a wheelchair-bound mad scientist residing in Halloween Town, and the creator of Sally and Jewel Finkelstein. Throughout the film, he attempts to calm and restrain Sally against the outside world, while also helping Jack Skellington take Christmas. Too frustrated with his creation, Finkelstein abandons Sally and begins designing a new being, later revealed to be Jewel.
Dr. Finkelstein is a pale-as-a-sheet mad scientist with a duckbill-like mouth and a hinged skullcap that he can open up to reveal his brain. He uses a motorized wheelchair, since he's presumably crippled and unable to walk on his own. Dr. Finkelstein lives in a large observatory with his living rag doll creation, Sally, and his hunchbacked assistant, Igor. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finkelstein's line, "I made you with my own hands," which is ironic as Finkelstein's body appears to be largely if not entirely artificial. Unlike Frankenstein, who takes no responsibility for his creations and disowns them almost as soon as they are completed, Finkelstein takes full responsibility for Sally and acts as an over-protective father figure, by keeping her under lock and key under the pretext of sheltering her from the world.
He also has a passion for inventing, and, though generally portrayed as grouchy, is shown to be extremely friendly towards Jack Skellington, and is always eager to assist him.
Physical appearance[]
Dr. Finkelstein is a frail-looking person, with thin, spindly limbs and very small hands and feet, but a disproportionately large head. He is confined to a black, electric wheelchair that seems to be rather old and difficult to operate. The chair is almost entirely metal and lacks any sort of cushioning, and it sports two levers, one on either armrest, that Finkelstein uses to move it. Finkelstein himself dresses in a long white lab coat that buttons up on the right side, pants of the same color, black shoes, and black gloves that are a good deal wider than his arms. His skin is an unhealthy white color and he has small, beady black eyes, normally covered by his goggles, as well as thin black eyebrows. His mouth is beak-like in structure and he seems to be missing a few teeth. Finkelstein's ears and nose are so small as to be almost nonexistent, and his nostrils point forward. Easily, Dr. Finkelstein's most prominent feature in his skull, which bears several obvious bolts and a clear horizontal seam going around the middle. Finkelstein can literally flip his skull open via a hinge in the back, exposing his pink brain, which he often scratches when attempting to figure something out.
Role in the film[]
Finkelstein during an experiment in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The Doctor is first seen trying to tear away Sally from the Halloween celebrations, referring to her slipping him Deadly Nightshade, and trying to take her back to the Tower. When she fights back, he insists she's coming with him before she breaks away and sends the Doctor onto the ground. He angrily calls after her before her hand starts punching his head, to which he painfully groans.
He finds Sally back in the Tower where she fills back the deadly nightshade up, coming down the ramps before he notices her stocking the deadly nightshade in a cabinet.
He shows her the dismembered arm she left him with and leads her back into the laboratory to sew it back on. While fixing her up, he remarks it's the second time she's poisoned him in the month, and gets angry when she corrects him. He compliments himself for creating her but gets offended when she says he can make others. He assures her while fixing her up, sending her off from the lab.
He is later seen observing X-Rays in his Lab while opening the hatch to his head and scratching at his brain. He's interrupted when Sally comes in with lunch, and happily goes for the soup. He becomes very skeptical of it after smelling Frog's Breath in the Worm's Wart (which Sally had used to cover up the Deadly Nightshade's less-foul odor). He insists Sally to try it first in order for him to eat it, only to get the spoon knocked out of his hand. While Sally goes to "retrieve" it, he attempts to guilt trip her insisting that a poor old man like him barely has any strength. Sally pretends to drink it, fooling the Doctor to chug the rest. He is soon passed out on the table afterwards, and is draped over by a blanket while he sleeps.
He soon awakens with a Deadly Nightshade hangover, and declares that Sally has poisoned him for the last time and locks her in her bedroom. After hearing the doorbell ring, he moans and calls to the visitor that the door is open. After seeing that it is Jack Skellington, his demeanor changes as he is very welcoming and insists for him to come up. After Jack informs him of his plans of experimenting, he remarks "curiosity killed the cat, you know!" and brings him back into his Lab to get him all "fixed up", lending him his scientific supplies, such as microscopes and tools. After he recovers from his hangover, he decides to unlock Sally's bedroom, only to see that she escaped.
Finkelstein is later called into the Town Hall to retrieve his Christmas task. While coming inside, he angrily searches for Sally, who hides behind the town's fountain. After coming inside, he approaches Jack, who quickly asks for him to construct some reindeer for his sleigh. The Doctor comments that their structure should be "exceedingly simple", and gets to work on it after constructing Jewel's body (having decided that Sally is too much of a handful). Igor comes and gives him the plans and Finkelstein awards him with a Bone Biscuit. He is later seen bringing the skeletal reindeer to life with electricity, watching with joy as they move. He falls on the table and goes to polishing a small replica of a human skull.
The Doctor is last seen coming into Town with his new creation, Jewel (becoming his wife), by his side. They join the rest of the town celebrating the snow.
Dr. Finkelstein is featured in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge. When Jack is tired of doing the same thing at Halloween, Dr. Finkelstein helps him by giving him the Soul Robber, a weapon that allows Jack to change its shape. Jack also tells Dr. Finkelstein to watch over the town while he is away. After Oogie Boogie's revival, Dr. Finkelstein was under Oogie's control by switching his brain to a different one and created monsters that obey Oogie Boogie's every command. Fortunately, Jack was able to put Dr. Finkelstein's original brain back in place making Dr. Finkelstein break from Oogie's control. In the game spin-offs, Finkelstein's name is pronounced "steen" instead of "stein". For some reason, his wife creation "Jewel" is not present in the game, and Sally appears to still be living with him even though in the movie she appeared to be free at the end. Sally even says "He insists on keeping me locked up" while next to the Hanging Tree in the Graveyard.
In the Kingdom Hearts video game series, Finkelstein appears as a Mad Scientist in his homeworld Halloween Town.
In Kingdom Hearts, the Heartless arrive in Halloween Town; Finkelstein, fortunately, finds a book with information on them. He creates a guidance system that pacifies the Heartless, making them harmless enough to be used by Jack for that year's Halloween. Unfortunately, an explosion damages the guidance system, and their attempts to enhance and repair it with an artificial heart causes the Heartless to go bonkers. Despite trying to refine the artificial heart, Finkelstein has it stolen from him by Lock, Shock, and Barrel; they give it to Oogie who swallows it to control the Heartless. Unfortunately, the heart proved faulty and Oogie faded into darkness. Finkelstein was left to finally accept he had no idea what made up a heart.
In Chain of Memories, he appears as a figment of Sora's memories. This time, his invention is a potion created from Forget-Me-Nots; however, his simple smelling of the potion caused Heartless to appear. The reason for his invention is to prove that what is remembered isn't actually the truth; in other words, he wished to retrieve "true memories". The potion was stolen by Sally, who feared what else could appear if the potion was actually drunk by someone. Oogie snatches it and swallows it whole; unfortunately, it overwhelmed him with the memory of his demise. The bottle was returned to Finkelstein, who lamented over a few drops remaining; Sora turned down the offer to finish the potion since he promised someone that he would find his true memories on his own.
In 358/2 Days, Finkelstein is helping Jack with his new ideas for Halloween on Roxas's second visit to Halloween Town, examining Jack's Heartless-filled balloons; he also creates pumpkin bombs that explode into freezing blasts. He compliments Jack for taking in new ideas from the world around him, since its the key skill needed for any researcher. He lastly appears when Jack shows off a scarecrow modeled after Roxas, which is intended as Halloween's centerpiece.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Dr. Finkelstein is working on a robotic creature with the help of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Eventually, however, their mischievous ways are annoying him as the trio soon tossed the robot arm on the table causing it to explode, and angrily called them "imbeciles". Later on, Finkelstein has finished his experiment and tries to bring it to life but doesn't work. Finkelstein believes the Experiment to be a failure and decides to find "better assistants". However, just as he turns around to start new designs, the creation comes to life and attacks the doctor, leaving him unconscious in his laboratory. After regaining conscious, Dr. Finkelstein pleads for help that his experiment is missing. When he tells Jack and friends the full story Sora believes the Heartless might have taken the experiment, in which the doctor tells him that it was nothing like a Heartless. After defeating the Experiment, they return back to Halloween Town and tell the doctor that the experiment wasn't stolen, much to his surprise, and concluding it was an "overwhelming success." Sora then says that Santa Claus theorizes that the machine left because it was probably looking for a heart, in which Dr. Finkelstein agrees, stating that he did not give the creature a heart of its own, as he did with Sally, and returns back into his lab.
During the end credits, Dr. Finkelstein was seen along with everyone else in the lab, listening to Jack discussing plans for next Halloween.
In 2003, along with the other The Nightmare Before Christmas characters, Dr. Finkelstein made a special, one-time appearance in Disneyland for the Haunted Mansion Holiday opening event.
In the game spin-offs and Kingdom Hearts series, Finkelstein's name is pronounced "steen" instead of "stein".
Finkelstein is only referred to as the 'Evil Scientist' in the credits. His true name is only mentioned in the movie when the Mayor calls him up to the front of the line for his Christmas assignment.
Usually, Finkelstein looks very duck-like in appearance. However, when portrayed at the Disney theme parks, he is more human-like, and the costume has no duck-like features.
Originally, in the movie, Oogie Boogie was going to be a disguised Finkelstein. Finkelstein, upon defeat, would admit that he was doing this because he was angry that Sally had a crush on Jack. This would have explained (before the video game prequel did) why Finkelstein was keeping Sally from the outside world. This ending was changed because Tim Burton hated the idea so much, he reportedly kicked a hole in a wall.
It was never said or mention why Dr. Finkelstein had decided to stop searching for Sally and create Jewel. A possible solution can be that he decided to give up after he failed to find Sally once he was called for his assignment to create the skeletal reindeers. Another possible solution can be that when Lock, Shock, and Barrel came into the town hall auditorium, he remembered the incident where Oogie Boogie tried to take over Halloween Town, only to be banished to his lair by Jack Skellington, meaning that Dr. Finkelstein most likely feared that Jack will exile him from Halloween Town if he continued to force Sally back to his laboratory.
In the sequel novel, "Long Live the Pumpkin Queen", it is revealed that Dr. Finkelstein did not really create Sally, as he claimed. In reality, Sally comes from Dream Town and Finkelstein kidnapped her at the time and then claimed to the inhabitants of Halloween Town that she was his creation. He then gave Sally a forgetting potion that made her unable to remember her former life in Dream Town.
