Doctor Finklestein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dr. Finklestein is a fictional character from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is a duck-like mad scientist with a hinged skullcap that he can open up to reveal his brain. For unknown reasons he is confined to a motorized wheelchair (early drawings of Finklestein however depict him standing freely, and his original action figure followed this example, implying he was not always intended to be wheelchair-bound). Finklestein was voiced by the late William Hickey in the movie and by Jess Harnell in the video game spin-offs. His Japanese voice is done by Yuji Mitsuya.
Contents |
[edit] The Nightmare Before Christmas
Dr. Finklestein is the "evil scientist" of Halloweentown, and lives in a large castle/observatory with his "daughter" Sally and his hunchbacked assistant Igor. He is the "father" of Sally, whom he created as a living ragdoll. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finklestein's line "I built you with my own hands", which is ironic as Finklestein'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're completed, Finklestein is an over-protective parent who keeps Sally under lock and key, under the pretext of sheltering her from a world he didn't believe she was ready for. In addition to being an overbearing and antagonistic father figure for Sally to overcome, Finklestein also has a hand in helping Jack Skellington out with his plan to take over Christmas, by bringing to life several skeletal reindeer to pull Jack's sleigh. At the end of the film, Finklestein, deciding that Sally is too much of a handful, creates a wife for himself using half of his own brain.
Finklestein is only referred to as Evil Scientist in the credits (a bit of a stretch considering he isn't actually evil, just strict). His name is only mentioned in the movie when the Mayor calls him up to the front of the line for his Christmas assignment. He was originally planned to be the "true" identity of Oogie Boogie, but this idea was scrapped as it made Finklestein look more like a villain and raised too many questions.
[edit] Video Games
[edit] Oogie's Revenge
When Jack is tired of doing the same thing at Halloween, Finklestein helped him by giving him the Soul Robber, a weapon that allows Jack to change shape. After Oogie Boogie's revival, Finklestein was under Oogie's control by switching his brain to a different one. He created monsters for Oogie to control. Fortunately, Jack was able to put Finklestein's brain back into him, making Finklestein break from Oogie's control. In the game spin offs, Finklestein's name is pronounced "steen" instead of "stein".
[edit] Kingdom Hearts series
[edit] Kingdom Hearts
When Jack wanted to make Halloween Town more frightening, Finklestein creates the guidance system to control the Heartless. When finding out that the Heartless need a heart, the two were able to get the heart. Finklestein and Jack finds the ingredients for the heart: pulse, emotion, terror, fear, hope, and despair. When the experiment failed, Finklestein realized that the heart needs memory. Unfortunately, he finds out that Sally got the memory. In the end, the experiment didn't work, after Oogie gets the hold of the heart.
[edit] Chain of Memories
Created from Sora's memories, Finklestein created a potion that allows people to see their true memory. The only problem is that every time he smells the potion, Heartless appear.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
Aided by Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Finklestein created an invention called the "Experiment". Unfortunately, as the Experiment has no heart, it went on a rampage to steal gifts, in an attempt to understand the emotions behind giving and gain a heart of its own. Sadly, Sora and co. had no choice but to destroy the Experiment.
[edit] Trivia
- For some reason, in the subtitles of the DVD Nightmare Before Christmas, his name is translated as "Dr. Beetlestein".
- In the original plot, it was to be revealed that the doctor and Oogie Boogie are one and the same.
- During Making Christmas where he and Igor are bring the skeleton reindeer to life, Dr. Finklestein gets out of his wheelchair when the reindeer skeletons rise, but falls down onto a table.
