To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, “it’s comin’ on to Halloween”. For film lovers, that means lots of great classic horror. There’s 1922’s Nosferatu, James Whale’s Frankenstein and the other wonderful Universal Monsters, seminal works of the 60s like Hitchcock’s Psycho, Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the best Hammer horror, to 70s and 80s classics for hardcore horror fans like The Exorcist, The Shining, and slasher hits Halloween and Friday the 13th, there’s no shortage of great flicks to get in the spirit of the season. One essential on the list would have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. Though it started out a dark horse and a redheaded stepchild to Disney, to fans who love it, it’s become as important a part of October as the ubiquitous pumpkins, or pumpkin spiced lattés. In fact, as classic Halloween film fare goes, The Nightmare Before Christmas is now officially a classic, as its addition in 2023 to the National Film Preservation Board’s film registry attests! But what makes The Nightmare Before Christmas so special, how did such a unique and artistic stop motion animated feature come to be, and how did it become such a cult classic?
I remember with The Nightmare Before Christmas came out, in October of 1993. ArtInsights was already in existence, and the New Golden Age of Animation was in full swing. In 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit had begun reinvigorating the world of animation, with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin following quickly on its heels. Although the Academy had given special awards to Snow White in 1938, Roger Rabbit in 1989, and Toy Story in 1996, there would not be an official category for full length animated features until 2002. Still, Disney animation was breaking box office records around the world. 1991’s Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture, a first for animation. Anyway, I had seen the trailer for the film, and it looked gorgeous.
That last moment in the trailer explained why Disney decided to release the film under its Touchstone banner, instead of presenting the classic Disney castle and promoting it as a Walt Disney film. They thought it would scare kids. but, for better or worse, it was clearly based in the world of Tim Burton, whom many had celebrated for Beetlejuice and Batman, both of which had won Oscars, Beetlejuice for best makeup, and Batman for best art direction…and I LOVED stop motion animation. I was a huge fan of Rankin/Bass’s 1964 Christmas special Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Harryhousen’s work in Jason and the Argonauts. Who could forget the wonderful skeleton fight, and didn’t those of us who saw it as kids ask “how the heck did that do that??” Let’s let Leonard Nimoy and Ray Harryhausen explain it to us:
I went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas the day it came out in limited release on October 21st.
To put the time into context, understand…nowadays, Nightmare stuff is everywhere. They change The Haunted Mansion to Halloween Town every year now, for goodness sake! Back in 1993, however, it was by no means the usual trusted Disney kid fare.
Burton had just released Batman Returns, which had caused controversy for its graphic violence. There was a marketing tie-in for Batman Returns at McDonalds, but Burton’s 2nd Batman film was ceaselessly (some would say gloriously) dark, and there was backlash. Said one parent, “Violence-loving adults may enjoy this film, but why on Earth is McDonald’s pushing this exploitative movie through the sales of its so-called, “Happy Meals”? Disney was nervous. Granted, animator and former Burton colleague at Disney Henry Selick was directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, but everyone knew it came out of Burton’s brain.
So of course, if you don’t know about Henry Selick’s career, you’ll want to learn more, and here’s this wonderful interview at the British Film Institute where he talks about his life in film and animation:
So they released the movie on October 15th ON TWO SCREENS. Two. It earned $95,000 per screen. The next week, when I got to see it, it has out on 563 screens, and did $11,000+ per screen. People who could get to the movie, (it expanded to 1600 screen Halloween weekend), loved it, as did the critics. Roger Ebert was one of them. Here he is, doing an interview with Tim Burton back in 1993:
The first time I saw the film, I hadn’t realized it was effectively an operetta. It was visually stunning, and the songs were great, but at the same time, I was thinking, “when will they shut up?” Then I went again the next day and declared my lifelong and undying fealty to the film. I went nuts. Because it was released at the zenith of Disney’s marketing and merchandising craze, the Disney Stores were full of Nightmare merch. I bought everything I could get my hands on. They had boxer shorts with Lock, Stock, and Barrel, about 12 different tie designs, and stuffed versions of Zero in every shape and size.
While I was excitedly going from rounder to rounder, I heard two women talking right next to me, “I can’t believe they have such an ungodly film. This Nightmare movie is demonic and horrible. Children shouldn’t watch that!” I turned around and said, “Have you even seen the trailer? I’ve seen the movie twice, and it’s beautiful. It’s a love story. It’s full of joy and optimism. You should go see it.” They gaped at me and left the store. *Gallic shrug*
THE PRODUCTION: A lot went into the finished film that I saw and fell in love with…Over 200 animators and artists worked for over 3 years to make it. Creator Tim Burton described his visual inspiration as being from German Expressionist cinema like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari combined with Dr. Seuss. Some illustrators were also touchstones, including Edward Gorey and Ronald Searle. You can certainly see their influence:
The film used more than 20 sound stages and constructed 227 puppets. The filmmakers created sets that were fitted together, with each section the size necessary to allow for the puppeteers to reach no more than 2 to 2 1/2 feet to move the characters.
The cinematographer Pete Kozachik, who was nominated for a Best Visual Effects Oscar for the movie, had been on the visual effects teams for movies like Dreamscape, Star Trek IV, Innerspace, and Willow, but The Nightmare Before Christmas was his first time as director of photography, and he went on to be DP for James and the Giant Peach, Corpse Bride, and Coraline. He sadly passed away in 2023, but not before talking extensively about his work on the film in his great book Tales from the Pumpkin King’s Cameraman.
In it, he talked about how he lit Sally to look like a 1940s Hollywood leading lady. “Romantic interest is found in the character Sally, a shapely rag doll who wishes Jack would turn his narcissistic eyes her way. I had wanted to try glamour lighting in stop motion, and here was a chance. Would it translate, or just look silly? Photography of the leading ladies of the ’40s was emulated with a high special on Sally’s face, vignetting surrounding areas, and extra diffusion. Sometimes a tightly cut eyelight was included, requiring animators to keep Sally in the light, or animate dimmers. Ray Gilberti and Chris Peterson used this approach in a sentimental finale. Male crew members indicated a hormonal response in dailies, verifying the success of the experiment.”
And a more technical, but no less fascinating quote from him about camera angles: “Henry and I wanted to use camera moves as freely as live-action does. The ability to follow action with pan and tilt would permit tighter framing and more dramatic angles. Dolly and boom movement would let us shift perspective during a shot, and push in or out for dramatic emphasis. And a flying camera would greatly enhance musical sequences, with its own performance complementing those of the characters.”
There’s a great article he wrote for a website “American Cinematographer“, part of the American Society of Cinematographers, that gets pretty technical, but it’s fascinating. (YOU CAN READ THAT HERE)
Jack Skellington had over 400 interchangeable heads and dozens of different eyelids for when they made Jack blink. Actually, my friend Brigit, who worked in marketing for Disney art at the time, helped design a limited edition based on some of his heads which was signed by Tim Burton himself!
COLLABORATIONS: Tim Burton came up with the story while he was working at Disney Animation in the 1980s. He wrote a poem (which you can read HERE) that he said was based in the Night Before Christmas, and all the Xmas TV specials he grew up with, and Disney dug it, but they weren’t sure what to do with it. Nothing came of it, and then Burton left Disney and blew up with his movies Beetlejuice and Batman, which he released though Warner Brothers. The combination of the popularity of Roger Rabbit and Burton’s discovery that Disney still had the rights led to a deal in 1990 to develop it as a film. By the time production was gearing up, he was committed to Batman Returns, so he tapped his friend Henry Selick to direct. It made sense. Selick has often said that aesthetically he and Burton “live in the same neighborhood”. Burton also hired frequent collaborator and Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman to compose the music. Although at the time, he was still touring and releasing albums with his band, he had already worked with Burton on Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman(1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Batman Returns (1992). He too could tap into that creepy aesthetic Burton became so known for, and had been handed a number of horror projects like Nightbreed and Darkman. Elfman has gone on to become a main stay as part of Burton’s go-to below-the-line artists, to the great joy of many of us soundtrack geeks!
Elfman wrote the songs and the story was being developed, and while Burton had in mind hiring another artist to perform them in the finished film, everyone fell in love with Elfman’s interpretation of Jack’s singing voice. Since he was less comfortable with the speaking parts, they hired Chris Sarandon, who sounded very much like Elfman. They do make a perfect pair!
Sarandon talked about his experience and its joy at the film’s longevity, at the 30th anniversary:
THE MUSIC: These days, The Nightmare Before Christmas is everywhere! You can generally find somewhere playing it right around Halloween, sometimes even with a whole symphony playing against the film, and of course it’s always streaming online. Then there’s the concert series, which has been done multiple times, including last year, when The Nightmare Before Christmas turned 30. In fact, a friend of mine, Richard Kraft, was one of the producers of the concert series. He’s Danny Elfman’s manager, and through Kraft Engel Management, he represents a ton of film composers and has been producing live shows for years, including the Emmy Award winning Beauty and the Beast 30th Anniversary Celebration.
Here’s a great video that shows a side-by-side comparison of the film and a live performance.
You may or may not know that not only is Catherine O’Hara (Emmy winner as Moira in Schitt’s Creek, mom in Home Alone, and frequent collaborator with Christopher Guest in his films) plays Sally, she is also the voice of Shock. Barrel is voiced by Danny Elfman, and Lock is voiced by the late great Paul Reubens. Burton had worked with Reubens as director of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, his feature directoria debut. He credits him with having a huge impact on his career. After discovering Reubens had died, Burton said, “I’ll never forget how Paul helped me at the beginning of my career. It would not have happened without his support. He was a great artist. I’ll miss him.” As you can see from the above picture, you can watch Pee-wee aka Paul Reubens performing Lock live at the Nightmare Before Christmas concert.
I fell so in love with the score and music, that I bought it not only in English, but in French. Here’s “C’est Ca, Halloween”:
I could go on and on about the many aspects of the film and I love and that fans around the world now celebrate, but the blog would be too long, so hopefully you’ll watch some of these videos if you’re interested in knowing more about the production itself. Here’s a great making-of video, if you feel like taking a deeper dive:
MERCHANDISE: Though after the initial release there was a dearth of Nightmare merchandise, now there’s a seemingly never-ending parade of products…There are Disney Store items, a new makeup collection, LEGOs, jewelry for both the thrifty and the flush with cash, clothing from geek design folks like Her Universe and whole bedroom suites dedicated to the movie.
Aaaaand of course we at ArtInsights have art for sale representing the film, but that was a long time in coming. It took our begging for years and the Disney art company that works with Disney years of dealing with them before they allowed limited editions to be made. It’s literally this year that we’ve seen more than 2-4 images available!
Here are a few you fans and collectors might love:
For romantics that love the romance of Jack and Sally:
Here are some for folks who want to celebrate THE JOY OF JACK:
And if you love the whole cast, one of these might be for you:
You can see all official Disney art releases available from The Nightmare Before Christmas HERE.