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Doctor Finklestein (voiced by William Hickey) is a resident of Halloween Town. He is the mad scientist and the "father" of Sally. He is described as 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. For unknown reasons, he uses a motorized wheelchair. Finklestein 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.
Doctor Finklestein lives in a large observatory with his living rag doll creation Sally and his hunchbacked assistant Igor. James Whale's Frankenstein is quoted in Finklestein's line "I made you with my own hands". Unlike Dr. Frankenstein, Finklestein takes full responsibility over Sally and acts as an over-protective father by keeping her under lock and key under the pretext of sheltering her from the world. Although he is very strict towards Sally, he is also shown to be kind and helpful towards Jack Skellington as he allowed Jack to borrow some of his equipment so he can conduct his experiments with his recently obtained Christmas objects. Finklestein also has a hand in helping Jack 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 a portion of his own brain.
Dr. Finklestein is featured in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge. When Jack is tired of doing the same thing at Halloween, Dr. Finklestein helps him by giving him the Soul Robber, a weapon that allows Jack to change its shape. Jack also tells Dr. Finklestein to watch over the town while he is away. After Oogie Boogie's revival, Dr. Finklestein was under Oogie's control by switching his brain to a different one and created monsters that obey Oogie Boogie's every command. When Jack confronted Dr. Finklestein and found that his brain has been switched, he started a plan to get rid of it by using the "sleeping soup" that Sally gave him. Jack was able to put Dr. Finklestein's original brain back in place making Dr. Finklestein break from Oogie's control. In the game spin-offs, Finklestein'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.
Finklestein also appears in Kingdom Hearts and other games in the series. When the Heartless appear in Halloween Town, Jack thinks of adding them to the Halloween celebrations and asks Dr. Finklestein for advice. Realizing that the Heartless need a heart, the two find the ingredients for one: pulse and emotion. Their initial experiment fails, and Dr. Finklestein 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. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, created from Sora's memories, Dr. Finklestein creates a potion that allows people to see their true memory. The only problem is that once he sniffed the potion, Heartless appeared. In Kingdom Hearts II Finklestein creates an experiment aided by Lock, Shock, and Barrel. 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.