The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical Halloween-Christmas dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of “Halloween Town” who stumbles through a portal to “Christmas Town” and decides to celebrate the holiday.
Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
- Starring : Danny Elfman / Chris Sarandon
- Genre : Animation / Family / Fantasy / Musical
- Country : United States
- Language : English
- Director : Henry Selick
- Production : Touchstone Pictures / Skellington Productions Inc. / Tim Burton Productions / Walt Disney Pictures
- Distributor : Audio Visual Entertainment / Buena Vista International (Australia) / Buena Vista International / Buena Vista Pictures Distribution / Buena Vista Pictures / Finnkino / Gaumont Buena Vista International (GBVI) / Laurenfilm / Prooptiki / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Walt Disney Studios / Abril Vídeo / Audio Visual Enterprises / Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Cinemax / Disney Channel / Fox / Gativideo / Hollydan Works / Intercontinental Video / MTV3 / National Broadcasting Company (NBC) / Nelonen / Touchstone Home Video / Twentieth Century Fox / Walt Disney Home Video / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / Warner Home Video
The Nightmare Before Christmas movie
The Nightmare Before Christmas release date
- October 9, 1993 : USA (New York Film Festival) (premiere)
- October 13, 1993 : USA (limited)
- October 29, 1993 : USA
- October 15, 1994 : Japan
- November 1, 1994 : Sweden (Stockholm International Film Festival)
- November 10, 1994 : Australia
- November 25, 1994 : UK
- November 25, 1994 : Sweden
- December 2, 1994 : Spain
- December 7, 1994 : France
- December 8, 1994 : Germany
- December 16, 1994 : Ireland
- October 27, 2000 : USA (re-release)
- October 23, 2004 : Japan (re-release)
- October 20, 2006 : USA (3-D version)
- October 21, 2006 : Japan (3-D version)
- October 26, 2006 : Germany (3-D version)
- November 23, 2006 : Singapore (3-D version)
- October 4, 2007 : Australia (3-D version)
- October 19, 2007 : Canada (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 19, 2007 : UK (3-D version)
- October 19, 2007 : USA (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 20, 2007 : Japan (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 24, 2007 : France (3-D version)
- December 6, 2007 : Germany (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 4, 2008 : Japan (3-D version) (re-release)
- November 28, 2008 : Ireland (3-D version)
- October 17, 2009 : Japan (Urayasu, Chiba) (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 23, 2009 : Canada (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 23, 2009 : USA (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 31, 2009 : Japan (3-D version) (re-release)
- October 23, 2010 : Japan (3-D version) (re-release)
- December 7, 2016 : UK (3-D version) (re-release)
The Nightmare Before Christmas cast
- Danny Elfman as Jack Skellington – Singing Voice / Barrel / Clown with the Tear Away Face(voice)
- Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington(voice)
- Catherine O’Hara as Sally / Shock(voice)
- William Hickey as Evil Scientist(voice)
- Glenn Shadix as Mayor(voice)
- Paul Reubens as Lock(voice)
- Ken Page as Oogie Boogie(voice)
- Edward Ivory as Santa(voice)(as Ed Ivory)
- Susan McBride as Big Witch / WWD.(voice)
- Debi Durst as Corpse Kid / Corpse Mom / Small Witch(voice)
- Greg Proops as Harlequin Demon / Devil / Sax Player(voice)(as Gregory Proops)
- Kerry Katz as Man Under Stairs / Vampire / Corpse Dad(voice)
- Randy Crenshaw as Mr. Hyde / Behemoth / Vampire Corpse Dad(voice)
- Sherwood Ball as Mummy / Vampire(voice)
- Carmen Twillie as Undersea Gal / Man Under the Stairs(voice)
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Burton began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special to no avail. Over the years, Burton’s thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be “too dark and scary for kids”.
The film was met with both critical and financial success, grossing over $76 million during its initial run. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a first for an animated film. The film has since been reissued by Walt Disney Pictures, and was re-released annually in Disney Digital 3-D from 2006 until 2009, making it the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3D.
Halloween Town is a fantasy world filled with various monsters and supernatural beings associated with the holiday. Jack Skellington, the “Pumpkin King” and leader of the town, leads them in organizing the annual Halloween celebrations. However, privately Jack has grown weary of the same routine year after year and wants something new. Wandering in the woods the morning after Halloween, he stumbles across seven trees containing doors leading to towns representing various holidays, and opens a portal to Christmas Town. Awed by the unfamiliar holiday, Jack returns to Halloween Town to show the residents his findings, but they fail to grasp the idea of Christmas and compare everything to their ideas of Halloween, although they do relate to one Christmas Town character; a red lobster-like king who flies at night named “Sandy Claws”. Jack sequesters himself in his tower to study Christmas and find a way to rationally explain it, but cannot. He ultimately decides that it’s unfair for Christmas Town alone to enjoy the holiday and announces that he and the citizens of Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year.
Jack assigns the citizens of Halloween Town Christmas-themed jobs, including singing carols, making presents, and building a sleigh to be pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally, a beautiful rag doll woman that is secretly in love with Jack, experiences a vision that their efforts will end in disaster, but Jack dismisses this and assigns her the task of sewing him a red coat to wear. He also tasks Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous trick-or-treating children, to abduct Santa Claus and bring him back to Halloween Town. Jack tells Santa he will be bringing Christmas to the world in his place this year. Jack orders the trio to keep Santa safe, but the children instead deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addicted bogeyman, who plots to play a game with Santa’s life at stake. Sally attempts to rescue Santa so he can stop Jack, but Oogie captures her as well.
Jack departs to deliver presents to the world, but the Halloween-styled gifts terrify and attack the populace. While news reporters send word via radio about the Santa-impostor, the military takes action and shoots down Jack, causing him to crash in a cemetery. While the devastated residents of Halloween Town think he’s been blown up and killed, Jack has survived, and while he bemoans the disaster he has made of Christmas, he finds he enjoyed the experience of scaring the children nonetheless, reigniting his love of Halloween. But first, he realizes he must take action to fix his mess. Jack returns to Halloween Town and finds Oogie’s lair. Oogie tries to kill Jack, but Jack pulls apart the thread holding his cloth form together, revealing a massive pile of bugs that fall into Oogie’s cauldron, killing him. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, and Santa, while still angry at Jack, assures him that he can fix things and returns to Christmas Town.
As Santa replaces the Halloween-style presents with genuine ones, the townspeople of Halloween Town celebrate Jack’s survival and return. Santa then visits Halloween Town and brings them a snowfall for the residents to play with, which in a way, fulfills Jack’s original dream. In the graveyard, Jack and Sally declare their love for each other.
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