In Celebration: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Awarded with the Saturn Award for best fantasy film and best music, alongside the Annie Award for best Individual Achievement for Artistic Excellence in the Field of Animation and best Individual Achievement for Creative Supervision in the Field of Animation, this movie won a total of five awards. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a film made through stop-motion. Using a variety of set builders, puppet makers, prop makers, animators, and over 100 camera operators, they made Tim Burton's gothic dream become reality. 

The movie began with just a poem from 1982 that Tim Burton had created when he was just a Disney animator. The Fox and the Hound, James And The Giant Peach, and The Black Cauldron were some of the films that he worked on. After he had seen the film Vincent, Burton was quick to seal a deal with Disney’s Touchstone Pictures. The team for The Nightmare Before Christmas consisted of Denise Di Novi as the producer, Henry Selick as the director, Caroline Thompson as the writer, Danny Elfman as the music director, and Skellington Productions. With this team, over 110,000 frames were shot with 24 frames used per second, and over 60 characters were made with over 400 different heads and expressions each. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas ran into multiple challenges during filming and production. Usually, a bright and upbeat style is seen throughout Disney productions. So, the dark, gloomy atmosphere and vibe of the movie was almost a weakness in the end. But it was saved by Burton's thriving reputation. Even the music had been freestyled, based only on Burton's description—not off of a script. It took three years of production, and a decade to completely make the film. In 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered at the New York Film Festival—grossing $109 million worldwide.

Image Courtesy of Piviso.