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Dr. Finkelstein is a supporting character in the Disney film Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and a minor character in the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise. He is the mad scientist of Halloween Town who had claimed to create Sally all by himself, but also keeps her captive against her wishes.
Why He Deserves the Deadly Night Shade
- He claimed to have created Sally “with [his] own hands”, and he saw her as his daughter. However, he often treated Sally like a slave.
- He forces a lady like Sally to make him soup and potions for him like some servant, which seems sexist.
- He even treated his newer creation/lover named Jewel like a servant as well making her push his wheelchair.
- He wouldn't even let Sally get involved in outside activities, especially joining the Halloween celebrations and wanting to get acquainted with the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington.
- He even locked Sally in her room as a punishment whenever she tries to sneak out and or make him sleep with Deadly Night Shade.
- His name “Finkelstein” sounded very anti-semitic, so in early merchandising and in the film’s credits, he was simply called “Evil Scientist”.
- To add insult to injury, according to the novel, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, it turns out Dr. Finkelstein didn't create Sally at all. Sally was actually the daughter of two rag doll governors from Dream Town named Albert and Greta.
- When Sally was 12, Dr. Finkelstein snuck into Dream Town and captured Sally from her parents while she was asleep just to have his own living stuffed child since he failed to make one himself.
- He not only blocked the path to Dream Town with shrubs and branches, but even wiped out Sally’s memories of her childhood with a potion and replaced her cotton stuffing with dead leaves, making her think he made her from scratch. That's even more heinous than Oogie Boogie’s ever been! Oogie was just hungry!
- Speaking of which, in one deleted scene, he was somehow Oogie all the long and went through this ego just to teach her a lesson which by killing her, Santa and even Jack Skellington and just because he loved him which was nothing more than pure jealousy. Thankfully though, this scene was deleted.
- In "Oogie's Revenge", he somehow failed his duty to work alongside Sally of looking after Halloween Town while Jack was away when Oogie returned and swapped his brain with a corrupted one which made him go insane that he created an army for Oogie and ruining Halloween Town.
- In the movie, he witnessed a disgusting scene in which he removes part of his head and his brain is visible. YES. SERIOUS. Granted a lot of the Halloween Town citizens act strange, but still.
Redeeming Qualities
- Like most characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Dr. Finkelstein has a creepy yet cool looking design for his mad scientist persona.
- William Hickey did a good job voicing him, and same goes to Jess Harnell.
- It was satisfying to see him get hit by Sally's severed arm and being dozed off from Sally's secret Deadly Night Shade soup.
- He is shown to be good friends with Jack Skellington. He can be a big help for Jack by letting him borrow lab supplies and making skeleton reindeer for his trip on Christmas Eve.
- At the end of Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, Dr. Finkelstein was rightfully punished by Jack Skellington for kidnapping Sally from her family in Dream Town and treating her like a slave. In fact, Jack forced him to do community service for Dream Town for the next 100 years.
Trivia
- There was an alternate scene made in an early draft for The Nightmare Before Christmas where Jack Skellington unravels Oogie Boogie revealing to be Dr. Finkelstein in disguise. Why Finkelstein took that form was because he wanted to teach Sally "a lesson she'll never forget" out of jealousy since she loves Jack Skellington. The producers and writers disapproved of this idea since it felt too random and out of nowhere. In fact, rumor has it that Tim Burton was so outraged over that concept, that he kicked a hole in the wall.
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