Halloween or Christmas? That’s always the debate surrounding The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since we are on the cusp of both holidays, let’s learn more about one of our favorite Hallowistmas movie!
- Much to the surprise of fans, The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn’t actually directed by Tim Burton, who was busy on the set of Batman Returns. Henry Selick, a colleague of Burton, directed the movie from start to finish!
- 400 heads were used for Jack during filming. 400! There was a head for all of his many expressions throughout the film. None have eyes……
- Walt Disney Studios wanted Jack to have eyes. Due to the darker nature of the movie, Disney felt eyes would make Jack less ‘scary’. The creators refused and the movie came out without the famous Disney banner.
- We all know him as the singing voice for Jack, and he also wrote the music and lyrics for the film, but did you know Danny Elfman makes a cameo in the movie? That’s right! You have to look closely, but you can see the animated head of Elfman inside the upright bass of the Halloweentown band.
- The Nightmare before Christmas was originally going to be a TV special, similar to Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, that would play annually during the holidays. However, TV studios weren’t interested.
- Speaking of Rudolph, the Christmas specials by Rankin/Bass were the inspiration for the stop-motion approach to The Nightmare Before Christmas!
- Patrick Stewart, famous for Star Trek: The Next Generation, was cut from the film! That’s right! He was called in to read poetry intended for the opening and closing narration for the film, but the monologues were cut significantly and reassigned to Edward Ivory, who voiced Santa. To hear Stewart’s version, listen to the film’s soundtrack.
- There are hidden Mickey’s in the film! Look closely. We don’t want to ruin that surprise for you!
- Although approached about it, Tim Burton rejected a CGI sequel to the film, and for that matter, a sequel at all! He feels that the movie had a ‘purity’ to it and that’s what people like. So if you are looking for Jack to visit Eastertown, you won’t get it.
- The stop-motion musical had 24 frames to a second. That means the characters had to be posed 24 times for each second of the film!
- The sculpture department, responsible for making all of the characters and many faces of said characters, consisted of only 4 people.
- There was a total of 8 camera crews who filmed the movie.
- To finally settle the debate….. according to the director Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas is in fact a Halloween movie.
Now you know a little more about this awesome movie!
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