These days, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a holiday favorite, and it's one of the few films that has become a staple of two holidays, as its crossover nature makes it perfect for Halloween and Christmas. While the stop-motion film was not a box office smash when it first came out, it has become a major cult classic over the years, and stands as one of Tim Burton's most beloved films, even though he didn't even direct it. From the poem that inspired it to the arduous filming process, let's take a look at the untold truth of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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00:00When Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered in October 1993, it did so with
00:05surprisingly little fanfare for a film developed by Disney.
00:08It was only after the film left theaters that it began a transition from beloved cult movie
00:12to cultural phenomenon.
00:14The story of how this creepy classic came about is just as interesting as the film itself.
00:19Here's the untold truth of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
00:23It comes from a poem
00:25Burton originally penned the movie's story as a poem when he was working as an animator
00:29for Disney, which he likened to being stuck in a prison.
00:33Burton could never adapt to the style preferred by Disney, which became clear to him while
00:37working on the 1981 feature The Fox and the Hound, saying,
00:40"'I couldn't draw those four-legged Disney foxes.
00:44Mine look like road kills.'"
00:45Burton left Disney, but kept in touch with another struggling animator, Henry Selick.
00:50Burton shared his haunting poem about a skeletal figure named Jack Skellington with Selick,
00:55who showed immediate interest in directing a feature version.
00:58Burton started in 1991, but not without some trouble.
01:02Selick didn't even have a full script in the beginning.
01:05All he had was Burton's best wishes and a few of Danny Elfman's songs to go on.
01:10Disney got scared
01:11Disney initially considered turning Burton's holiday-themed poem into a TV special or a
01:16short film similar to Vincent, a 1982 short film also based on a Burton poem.
01:22But it backed out.
01:23The success of 1988's Beetlejuice and 1990's Edward Scissorhands gave Burton enough negotiating
01:29power to arrange a deal with Disney and the project was finally greenlit, with Burton
01:33acting as the go-between for the studio and his director.
01:37But after seeing the first trailer, then-chairman CEO Michael Eisner decided that The Nightmare
01:42Before Christmas was just too dark for Disney.
01:45The film was sent away from the kids' table to Touchtone Pictures, where Disney kept content
01:50they didn't want associated with their child-friendly brand.
01:53What's wrong with disembodied legs and children with sewn shut eyes, anyhow?
01:57Isn't that basically their slogan?
02:00Filming took over three years
02:03Hailing from before the days of slick CGI, the effort that went into making The Nightmare
02:07Before Christmas was intense.
02:10The film was shot at 24 frames per second, which meant that the characters had to be
02:14repositioned 24 times for every second of film.
02:18It took a whole week to create just a single minute of footage, and eight camera crews
02:23worked at once.
02:24It wasn't just a case of nudging a figurine slightly, either.
02:28The characters had to be carefully disassembled and reassembled for every frame, so the facial
02:33expressions matched what was happening on screen.
02:36The Pumpkin King had more than 400 interchangeable heads alone.
02:41Oogie Boogie was trouble
02:43Despite being a burlap sack filled with creepy-crawlies, Nightmare's antagonist Oogie Boogie was actually
02:49the hardest character to create.
02:51His complex demise in the film was particularly tricky to navigate, consisting of four shots
02:57that each took a full month to make.
02:59Not only that, but the metal armature inside the huge figure was so strong that animators
03:04had to get behind it and push it into place for each shot.
03:08So it's no wonder he's barely in the film.
03:10Well, well, well, what have we here?
03:15Santa Claus, huh?
03:17Ooh, I'm really scared!
03:19Some viewers also felt that Kim Page's portrayal of the villain verged on racist.
03:25Selleck defended the character, insisting that Page modeled his voice performance on
03:29Cap Calloway.
03:30This argument is supported by the fact that some lines of dialogue are lifted directly
03:34from the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain, starring Calloway.
03:39What you gonna do now?
03:40I'm gonna do the best I can.
03:41What are you going to do?
03:42I'm gonna do the best I can.
03:46Composer Danny Elfman has a long history of channeling Calloway as well, as he did in
03:50the 1980 film Forbidden Zone.
03:52Well son, let me tell you I'm so pleased to meet you, the boys and I've been expected
04:00to greet you.
04:01Best friends for never
04:03All of Jack Skellington's songs were composed and sung by Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman
04:08himself.
04:09That's Nightmare Trivia 101.
04:11But Elfman also recorded all of The Pumpkin King's speaking parts, too.
04:15While he nailed the singing, Elfman's voice acting just wasn't up to Selleck's standards,
04:20and in the end, Burton and Selleck decided they would have Chris Sarandon re-record the
04:24scenes.
04:25Elfman took it badly, refusing to score Burton's next film, Ed Wood.
04:29Elfman still got his speaking voice in the film, kind of.
04:32The world-renowned composer also voiced The Clown with a Tearaway Face and Beryl, the
04:38smallest of Oogie Boogie's miniature henchmen.
04:41Let me see, Jack!
04:43Creator cameos
04:44In the end, Elfman's voice being in the movie just wasn't enough, and he had the animators
04:49create a shrunken version of his head and hide it inside a cello.
04:53Tim Burton's severed head was also supposed to appear in the film's finale as a hockey
04:57puck, but the projectile was changed to a jack-o'-lantern at the last moment.
05:01Rumor has it that Disney deemed the inclusion of their former employee's head a step too
05:05far, and leaned on Selleck to change it.
05:09Doctor in disguise
05:11The biggest reveal from the unearthed storyboards was a twist ending.
05:15When Oogie Boogie's sack starts to unravel, it isn't just worms and spiders that come
05:19spilling out.
05:20Dr. Finkelstein is in there, too.
05:23Yes, Jack Skellington, it's me!
05:25Me, the man who created Sally from bits of flesh and scraps of cloth!
05:31But she loves you, Jack, you oblivious twit!
05:35A defiant Finkelstein explains he wanted to teach Sally a lesson, before declaring his
05:40intentions to make a new creation and disappearing through a trapdoor.
05:43The Doctor's gross new creation can be seen in the film's finale.
05:47Why anyone would choose a wife that looked exactly like themselves is anyone's guess.
05:52But those reasons are probably pretty weird.
05:56Lost voices
05:57Like Chris Sarandon, many of the film's voices weren't the creators' original choices.
06:02Burton had worked with Vincent Price on two productions prior to Nightmare, but their
06:06collaboration on Nightmare had to be called off unexpectedly.
06:09Price came into the studio to record the voice of Santa, but when the veteran actor was too
06:13depressed after losing his wife, they were forced to consider alternatives.
06:17James Earl Jones had discussions with Elfman that ended in an angry shouting match.
06:22In the end, Ed Ivory, a relative unknown, was entrusted with the part.
06:26Patrick Stewart was also brought on to Nightmare early on in its development, recording a film-length
06:31adaptation of the poem.
06:33I'm sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright.
06:37I'm tired of being something that goes bump in the night.
06:41In the end, it was decided that the opening verses would be better recited by the film's
06:45Santa, and the Stewart version ended up on the cutting room floor, DVD extras, and the
06:50film's official soundtrack.
06:52Former veteran Christopher Lee also read the full-length poem for the film, but was also
06:56ultimately cut, to his disappointment.
06:59I'm sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright.
07:02I'm tired of being something that goes bump in the night.
07:05But as we all know, Lee is no stranger to being stabbed in the back.
07:10Skeleton babies
07:11The last that Jack and old Sandy Claws see of each other is when Santa flies out of sight,
07:17leaving Halloween Town under a blanket of snow.
07:19In an unused epilogue scene, however, Santa reveals that he actually visited his old friend
07:24Jack years after their holidays disastrously crossed paths, and found him with a handful
07:29of musically inclined children by his side.
07:32So many years later I thought I'd drop in, and there was old Jack still looking quite
07:39thin with four or five skeleton children at hand playing strange little tunes in their
07:45xylophone band.
07:46Those kids actually sound a lot like Oingo Boingo, now that we think about it.
07:50There's kind of a sequel, and a prequel.
07:52In the mid-2000s, Capcom released a video game called Oogie's Revenge, which takes place
07:57after the events of the film.
07:59Jack gets bored with his life again, Oogie is sewn back together by his trio of henchmen,
08:03and the burlap sack decides he wants to be the king of all holidays, not just Halloween.
08:08The game ends pretty much identically to the film, with Oogie once again defeated and Jack
08:12once again rededicated to his true calling of Halloween.
08:15No one said it was a great story, but there's a video game prequel also.
08:19The Pumpkin King, released at the same time as the sequel, actually explains the huge
08:24gaps in the film's continuity.
08:26The conflict and jealousy between Jack and Oogie is explored, as well as exactly why
08:30Oogie has to live underground in his lair.
08:33Spoiler alert, it's because once again, he lost a fight with Jack.
08:38Jack's cameos
08:39Burton has declared he'll never create a real The Nightmare Before Christmas sequel, especially
08:44not one where Jack goes to Arbor Day Town or something.
08:47"'Scuse me, is this Hanukkah Town?"
08:50"'No, it's the Vatican, and I'm called Shlom.'"
08:53But that didn't stop Selleck from returning to the character, twice.
08:57In his 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, the brigade of mutant
09:02insects face off against Jack as a pirate, with one even declaring, well…
09:07"'A skeleton?'
09:09The skeletal master of horror does his job pretty well, but that's not even his only
09:14cameo."
09:15Selleck's 2009 stop-motion film Coraline evokes Nightmare in a number of ways, though those
09:20with a keen eye were able to spot a direct reference.
09:24As Coraline's mother cracks eggs over a bowl, Jack's grinning skull can be seen inside one
09:29of the dripping yolks.
09:30It's almost a literal Easter egg, but it's so quick, it's easy to miss.
09:35Others?
09:36Not so much.