‘Twas a long time ago, several years in fact
When we first met our skeleton friend Jack
Er, sorry, but I always seem to get so passionate whenever I start to talk about “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and before I know it, I’m rhyming like Dr. Seuss, which makes sense in a way, since it was the creative rhyming style of the good doctor that helped inspire Tim Burton to write the original poem “The Nightmare Before Christmas” while working as an animator for the Walt Disney Corporation.
But, before we get into that, let’s delve a little deeper into the background of Tim Burton and the time he spent at Disney. Born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, Ca, home to some of California’s most well known movie studios, Tim spent his childhood drawing, watching horror movies, and idolizing Vincent Price. In 1976, at the age of eighteen, he won a scholarship to the legendary art school Cal Arts.
Formed in 1961 through the merging of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and The Chouinard Art Institute, as well as with the help of Lulu May Von Hagen and both Walt and Roy Disney, the schools purpose was to offer students degrees in art, film, video, music, theatre and dance. In 1975 the school was blessed with a $14 million endowment by the Walt Disney Estate to help set up a program, taught by the creative talent of Disney animators and lay out artists, to help train animation students. At the end of each year the students would show a review board of Disney artists a film they had made, and depending on these films, would be recruited to be a Disney animator.
It was this program that Tim Burton entered, and for the next three years would spend his time learning the art of animation. In 1979 he would be recruited into the ranks of Disney animators thanks to his short film “Stalk of the Celery Monster.”
Once in Disney’s employ Tim was assigned to animator Glen Keane where he worked on “The Fox and The Hound.” He soon found himself working as a conceptual artist turning out creative ideas for “The Black Cauldron” alongside future Disney animator Andreas Deja, as well as for a Halloween themed special titled “Trick or Treat.”
Even though “Trick or Treat” was never made and none of Tim’s concepts made it into “The Black Cauldron,” Burton’s art work spoke out to people, despite the obvious fact that his style was vastly different from Disney’s, and thanks to people like Tom Wilhite and Julie Hickson, Tim was given the opportunity to broaden his horizons with the short “Vincent.”
“Vincent” is a five minute black and white stop motion film about a young boy named Vincent Malloy, (who looks a lot like a young Tim Burton), who dreams he is Vincent Price by acting out scenes from his movies. The story is narrated in rhyme, like a Dr. Seuss story, by none other than Tim Burton’s childhood hero Vincent Price, and was based off a poem he had originally planned on releasing as a children’s book. (Years later Burton would publish a book of short tales and poems about a handful of macabre characters titled “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories” similar to Edward Gorey’s “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.”)
“Vincent” was released theatrically for two weeks alongside the Matt Dillon drama “Tex.” It also played in several film festivals, winning two awards in Chicago as well as the Critics Prize at the Annecy Film Festival in France before being condemned to the Disney vaults.
Tim next directed a live action version of “Hansel and Gretel” starring an all Japanese cast for the then still forming Disney Channel. It was around this time that he began to develop “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” His next assignment for Disney would also be his last directing chore for them until 1994 when Touchstone Pictures would put out “Ed Wood.”
“Frankenweenie” retells the tale of James Whale’s “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein” with the typical Tim Burton twist. Set in the modern day “Frankenweenie” tells how a young Victor Frankenstein brings his dog Sparky back to life after being hit by a car.
The short starred Barret Oliver, Daniel Stern, and Shelly Duvall (who would later hire Burton to direct an episode for her Faerie Tale Theatre on the cable channel Showtime. The episode he made was “Aladdon and his Wonderful Lamp” and starred Robert Carradine as Aladdin, James Earl Jones as the genie of the lamp, and Leonard Nimoy as the evil magician).
Originally set to be released with “The Jungle Book” for its 1984 summer re-release, FRANKENWEENIE got pushed back until Christmas for the re-release of “Pinocchio,” but due to its PG rating the film found its home in the Disney vaults alongside “Vincent,” being released only in the United Kingdom with the release of Touchstone Pictures “Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend” in 1985.
With his departure from Disney Tim Burton began to make a name for himself directing hit after hit for Warner Brothers with “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985, “Beetlejuice” in 1988, the 1989 summer mega-blockbuster “Batman,” and “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990 for Twentieth Century Fox.
With his thoughts returning every so often to his “The Nightmare Before Christmas” concept, Tim Burton contacted Disney to see if they still owned the rights to the idea since he dreamt it up while under their employ. It turned out they did, but thanks to the considerable amount of luck he had been having with his previous films, a deal was struck to make the picture.
Michael McDowell, the screenwriter on “Beetlejuice,” was hired to adapt Burton’s three page poem into a script. (The poem featured only three characters, Jack, Zero and Santa, and was written with Vincent Price in mind to narrate, like an expanded version of “Vincent.”) When McDowell’s attempts at the adaption didn’t work out Burton and long time collaborator Danny Elfman (who scored Burton’s first feature film “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and would continue to score his films with the exception of 1994’s “Ed Wood”) decided to attack the film from a musical view first, writing the score and songs, then hire Caroline Thompson, (who wrote “Edward Scissorhands”), to incorporate the songs into a screenplay.
Due to a commitment to direct “Batman Returns” for Waner Bros., as well as the amount of time needed to direct a film of this sort, Burton passed on the directing duties to fellow Disney animator Henry Selick (who would later go on to direct “James and the Giant Peach” for Touchstone Pictures in 1996 which Burton executive produced, and which had a cameo of Jack Skellington as a pirate as well as a skeletal Donald Duck).
Danny Elfman not only scored the film, but also provided the singing voice for Jack Skellington, as well as voices for the Clown with the tear away face and Barrel, one of Oogie Boogie’s mischievous henchmen. Rounding out the cast was Chris Sarandon as Jack’s speaking voice, Catherine O’Hara (“Beetlejuice”) as Sally and Shock (another of Oogie’s henchmen), Glenn Shadix (“Beetlejuice”) as the Mayor, Paul Reubens as Lock (Oogie’s other henchmen), William Hickey as Dr. Finklestein, Ken Page as Oogie Boogie (who’s song “Oogie Boogie’s Song” was inspired by Cab Calloway’s work in the old “Betty Boop” cartoons), and Ed Ivory as Santa.
The film was given a budget of $18 million and set to work in July of 1991. Due to the lenghty amount of time needed to make a film of this sort the crew would finish a minutes worth of film a week and would spend three years animating the film before finishing. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was released in select theatres in New York City on October 13, 1993, and received its general release on October 22, 1993, and made $51 million at the box office.
Though “The Nightmare Before Christmas” more than made back its budget the film, strangely enough, was thought to be too dark for kids. In terms of risks it is without a doubt one of Disney’s most ambitious animated films (right up there with “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Toy Story”). It is also one that seemed to be the least appreciated by studio head and some hard to please audience members who didn’t seem to quite understand the film.
The film seemed to have come from out of left field, last a few weeks, then disappear, leaving viewers to wonder exactly what it was they had just seen. So too can be said for the merchandise which, one minute, filled the shelves of Disney stores and toy stores, then in the next, in the words of the Clown with the tear away face, were, “here in a flash and gone without a trace”.
But despite all that “The Nightmare Before Christmas” earned itself a dedicated and cult following, and as the years went by, “Nightmare” has been making a well deserved and welcomed come back. More and more merchandise has been made available both here and in Japan (where a collectible book titled “Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Goods Book” was released and covers a vast majority of items released both over seas and state side), the original items released for the film are constantly sought after, and of course there’s the Haunted Mansion Holiday in Disneyland that keeps bringing fans back year after year.
Of all the wonders that have gone into the making of this holiday story, from its humble creations as a poem to its technical wonders as an animated film, perhaps one of the most amazing things of all is its fan base. People just love all aspects of it. As to why this is one can only guess, but the dedication, passion and obsession fans show for it are as strong as Jack’s are for Christmas.
Perhaps the creation of this story, much like its ever growing fan base, was meant to be like a fine wine and age and mature with time. Who can say. All I know is that with each passing year this film finds a deep and meaningful place in viewers hearts and is well on its way to becoming a holiday classic.
Or, perhaps it’s much simpler than that. If I may paraphrase a lyric from the finale of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” soundtrack:
For as plain as anyone can see
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” and its fans are simply meant to be.
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