The Nightmare Before Christmas

As writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood. "Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, […] it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn't there before", Burton would later recall.[9] After completing his short film Vincent in 1982,[9] Burton, who was then employed at Walt Disney Feature Animation, wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas, drawing inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.[10] Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price,[11] but also considered other options such as a children's book.[12] He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models;[13][14] Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works-in-progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time.[15] After the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute holiday television special.[13] However, the project's development eventually stalled, as its tone seemed "too weird" to the company.[16] As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984,[11] and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice and Batman.[16]

Director Henry Selick (left) and producer Tim Burton (right) on the Nightmare Before Christmas set.

Over the years, Burton regularly thought about the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights.[17] He and Selick committed to produce a full-length film with the latter as director.[15] Burton's own success with live-action films piqued the interest of Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who saw the film as an opportunity to continue the studio's streak of recent successes in feature animation.[18] Disney was looking forward to Nightmare "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in Who Framed Roger Rabbit."[19] Walt Disney Pictures president David Hoberman believed the film would prove to be a creative achievement for Disney's image, elaborating "we can think outside the envelope. We can do different and unusual things."[18]

Nightmare marked Burton's third consecutive film with a Christmas setting. Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns, and he did not want to be involved with "the painstakingly slow process of stop motion".[15] To adapt his poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Michael McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice. McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman. Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two-thirds of the film's songs.[2] Elfman found writing Nightmare's eleven songs as "one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington."[13] Caroline Thompson had yet to be hired to write the screenplay.[2] With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, "there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's. She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, re-configuring and developing the film visually."[20]

Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco, California with a crew of over 120 workers, utilizing 20 sound stages for filming.[15][21] Joe Ranft was hired from Disney as a storyboard supervisor, while Eric Leighton was hired to supervise animation.[22] At the peak of production, 20 individual stages were simultaneously being used for filming.[23] In total, there were 109,440 frames taken for the film. The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Étienne Delessert, Gahan Wilson, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon, and Wassily Kandinsky influenced the filmmakers. Selick described the production design as akin to a pop-up book.[13][20] In addition, Selick stated, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned."[24] Vincent Price, Don Ameche, and James Earl Jones were considered to provide the narration for the film's prologue; however, all proved difficult to cast, and the producers instead hired local voice artist Ed Ivory.[6] Patrick Stewart provided the prologue narration for the film's soundtrack.

On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like 'a Tim Burton film', which is not so different from my own films."[20] When asked about Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total."[20] Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed with some second-layering traditional animation.[15] Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing Batman Returns and was in pre-production of Ed Wood.[2]

The filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having "around four hundred heads", allowing the expression of every possible emotion.[25] Sally's mouth movements "were animated through the replacement method. During the animation process, […] only Sally's face 'mask' was removed in order to preserve the order of her long, red hair. Sally had ten types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronized mouth movements."[26] The stop-motion figurine of Jack was reused in James and the Giant Peach (also directed by Selick) as Captain Jack.

With years of successful home video sales, Nightmare later achieved the ranks of a cult film.[22] Touchstone Home Video first released the film on VHS on September 30, 1994, and on DVD on December 2, 1997. The DVD release contained no special features.[36] Nightmare was released a second time on October 3, 2000 as a special edition. The release included an audio commentary by Selick and cinematographer Pete Kozachik, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage and deleted scenes. Burton's Vincent and Frankenweenie were also included.[37] Both DVDs were non-anamorphic widescreen releases.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD again (this time with an anamorphic transfer) and on Blu-ray Disc (for the first time) on August 26, 2008 as a two-disc digitally remastered "collector's edition", but still containing the same special features.[38][39]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released The Nightmare Before Christmas on Blu-ray 3D on August 30, 2011. The release included a Blu-ray 3D disc, Blu-ray disc and a DVD that includes both a DVD and digital copy of the film.

In 2018, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment issued a singalong version of the film, accompanied by the theatrical cut and a Movies Anywhere copy, as a single-disc version for the film's 25th anniversary.[40]

Disney has extensively marketed the film and its characters across many forms of media. Since 2001, Disneyland has given its Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for the holiday season. It features characters, decorations and music from the film. In addition to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Halloween Party featuring the film's characters,[41] Jack Skellington, Sally, Pajama Jack, and the Mayor have been made into bendable figures,[42] while Jack and Sally even appear in fine art.[43] Sally has been made into an action figure and a Halloween costume.[44] A Jack Skellington figurine is available for the Disney Infinity video game, allowing the character to be playable in the game's "Toy Box Mode".[45] Jack is the titular character in the short story "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Story",[46] and also appeared in HalloWishes and Halloween Screams fireworks at Magic Kingdom (where the host is Ghost Host) and Disneyland (where the host is Jack himself). Nightmare has inspired video game spin-offs, including Oogie's Revenge and The Pumpkin King, and is among the many Disney-owned franchises that contribute to the mythology of the Kingdom Hearts series. A trading card game is also available.

Around the release of the film, Disney executive David Hoberman was quoted, "I hope Nightmare goes out and makes a fortune. If it does, great. If it doesn't, that doesn't negate the validity of the process. The budget was less than any Disney blockbuster so it doesn't have to earn Aladdin-sized grosses to satisfy us."[13] The film earned $50 million in the United States on its first theatrical run[32] and was regarded as a moderate "sleeper hit".

The Nightmare Before Christmas made a further $8.7 million in box office gross in its 2006 reissue.[47] The 2007, 2008 and 2009 reissues earned $14.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively, increasing the film's total box office gross to $75 million.[32]

The film initially received positive reviews from critics and it has since gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim, with critics and audiences praising the originality and creativity on the visual and storytelling elements, soundtrack, characters and innovating use of stop-motion animation (particularly most of the effects). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 95%, based on 95 reviews, with an average rating of 8.27/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation."[48] On Metacritic the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[49] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[50]

Roger Ebert gave a highly positive review for Nightmare. Ebert believed the film's visual effects were as revolutionary as Star Wars, taking into account that Nightmare was "filled with imagination that carries us into a new world".[51]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a restoration of "originality and daring to the Halloween genre. This dazzling mix of fun and fright also explodes the notion that animation is kid stuff. … It's 74 minutes of timeless movie magic."[52] James Berardinelli stated "The Nightmare Before Christmas has something to offer just about everyone. For the kids, it's a fantasy celebrating two holidays. For the adults, it's an opportunity to experience some light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas does what it intends to: entertain."[53] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post enjoyed the film's similarities to the writings of Oscar Wilde and the Brothers Grimm, as well as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and other German Expressionist films.[54]

Michael A. Morrison discusses the influence of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on the film, writing that Jack parallels the Grinch and Zero parallels Max, the Grinch's dog.[55] Philip Nel writes that the film "challenges the wisdom of adults through its trickster characters", contrasting Jack as a "good trickster" with Oogie Boogie, whom he also compares with Seuss' Dr. Terwilliker as a bad trickster.[56] Entertainment Weekly reports that fan reception of these characters borders on obsession, profiling Laurie and Myk Rudnick, a couple whose "degree of obsession with [the] film is so great that … they named their son after the real-life person that a character in the film is based on."[57] This enthusiasm for the characters has also been profiled as having spread beyond North America to Japan.[58] Yvonne Tasker notes "the complex characterization seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas".[59]

Danny Elfman was worried the characterization of Oogie Boogie would be considered racist by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[60] Elfman's predictions came true; however, director Henry Selick stated the character was inspired by the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain. "Cab Calloway would dance his inimitable jazz dance and sing 'Minnie the Moocher' or 'Old Man of the Mountain', and they would rotoscope him, trace him, turn him into a cartoon character, often transforming him into an animal, like a walrus," Selick continued. "I think those are some of the most inventive moments in cartoon history, in no way racist, even though he was sometimes a villain. We went with Ken Page, who is a black singer, and he had no problem with it".[20]

The film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Nightmare won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Elfman won Best Music. Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Most recently, the film ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' "Top 25 Best Christmas Movies" list.[61]