Fun Facts About The Nightmare Before Christmas
This year is the 25th anniversary of Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, an iconic movie that is a Tim Burton stop-motion masterpiece. First, before we get into fun facts about the movie and, of course, it’s leading man Jack Skellington, let’s have a group sing along:
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night
25 Years!
Don’t stop singing! Did you know that The Nightmare Before Christmas was released on October, 29, 1993? It tells the story of Jack Skellington, The King of “HalloweenTown,” who is bored with the real world and accidentally comes across Christmas town. So, he decides to wreak havoc on the town and kidnap Santa Claus in order to take over his position. Does his plan go off without a hitch? We’re not telling you.
Is it a Halloween Movie or a Christmas Movie?
So because it has Christmas and Halloween themes in it, did Burton wants this to be a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? Trust us, it was debated a lot until 2017 when the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Selick, answered the question about it at Colorado’s Telluride Horror Show film festival. His answer was simple and has put this debate to rest, “It’s a Halloween movie.”
Who’s Who?
The truth is though that you can watch it for whatever holiday you want — or start watching it now through Christmas. You’ll enjoy composer Danny Elfman’s music and sing along to “This is Halloween,” as well as “Oogie Boogie Song.” You will also love the characters – Jack, of course, and Sally (Jack’s love interest), and even Oogie Boogie. The characters are voiced by actors Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, and Glenn Shadix.
Santa!
It is said that the legendary horror actor Vincent Price was set to play Santa, but after he lost his wife, he was too grief stricken to play a happy Santa so Edward Ivory was then brought in to replace Price.
Did You Know?
Another interesting backstory to the movie: when he was working for Disney animation, the ridiculously talented Tim Burton pulled from his holiday childhood to write a three-page poem entitled “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” but Disney sat on doing anything with it. After Burton went on to produce Beetlejuice and Batman, he went back to Disney to see it through.
Who Directed It???
Believe it or not, Tim Burton didn’t actually direct The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was director Henry Selick’s job to make the stop animation look like what Tim Burton would do.
MVMCP
The movie has become a cult classic and every year there is a line of merchandise to buy from October through December. Disney has also incorporated Jack into its park’s events. In Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Jack is considered a rare character to show up, but he has been seen.
Yummy
How about making Oogie Boogie cupcakes this Halloween season or Jack Skellington sugar cookies?
Time to Watch The Nightmare Before Christmas Again
The movie has made almost $80 million dollars since its debut. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Danny Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score — we told you it was good! If you haven’t already seen the movie, now is the time, but just know that it’s a bit dark and wee little ones might not find this as entertaining as Finding Nemo.