Doctor Finklestein
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Doctor Finklestein is a fictional character from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas.
He is a pale-as-a-sheet mad scientist with a hinged skullcap that he can open up to reveal his brain and a duckbill-like mouth. For unknown reasons he is confined to a motorized wheelchair (early drawings of Finklestein 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 film and by Jess Harnell in the video game spin-offs. His Japanese voice is provided by Yuji Mitsuya.
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[edit] The Nightmare Before Christmas
Doctor Finklestein is the mad scientist of Halloween Town, and lives in a large observatory with his living ragdoll creation, Sally,[1] and his hunchbacked assistant Igor. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finklestein's line "I made 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 takes full responsibility over Sally and acts as an over-protective father, keeping her 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 (who he seems to be very fond of) 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 helps 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, and created monsters for Oogie to control. Fortunately, Jack was able to put Finklestein's original brain back in place, 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 the Heartless appear in Halloween Town, Jack thinks of adding them to the Halloween celebrations and asks Finkelstein for advice. Realizing that the Heartless need a heart, the two find the ingredients for one: pulse, emotion, terror, fear, hope, and despair. Their initial experiment fails, and Finkelstein sends Jack off with Sora and the gang to retrieve two more ingredients, memory and surprise, thus completing the heart. However, the heart is stolen by Oogie Boogie, and eventually proves to be a failure as it doesn't allow Oogie to fully control the Heartless.
[edit] Chain of Memories
Created from Sora's memories, Finklestein creates a potion that allows people to see their true memory. The only problem is that every time he smells the potion, Heartless appear. Oogie steals this potion and drinks it, and while the potion is successful, Oogie succumbs to one of its side effects; fear.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
Aided by Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Finklestein creates an invention called the "Experiment". Unfortunately, as the Experiment has no heart, it goes 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 the gang have 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 "Doctor Beetlestein".
- 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.
[edit] References
- ^ Doctor Finklestein: That's twice this month since you slipped deadly nightshade in my soup and run off.
Sally: (correcting him) Three times.
Doctor Finklestein: You're mine, you know! I made you! With my own hands... (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
