Is it a Halloween film or a Christmas film? The genius of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is that it’s a great watch whichever festivity you’re celebrating. The timeless tale sees Halloween’s figurehead, Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King, grow disillusioned with scaring people, and instead sets out to take over the jollier holiday season of Christmas.

But just how much do you know about this stop-motion animated classic? Read on for some facts about The Nightmare Before Christmas which you might not have known…

20. Tim Burton originally planned to make it as a TV special

Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto

Tim Burton originally wrote The Nightmare Before Christmas as a poem, while he was working as an animator at Disney. The idea came about when Tim Burton was passing a store that was taking down its Halloween display and replacing it with a Christmas one, which made Burton think about how the two holidays might connect.

Burton originally planned to make The Nightmare Before Christmas as an animated TV special in the vein of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! However, Disney executives didn’t like how dark and strange the project was, and fired Burton soon thereafter.

19. It became the first feature-length stop motion animated movie

After the success of Beetlejuice and Batman, Tim Burton had the clout to get The Nightmare Before Christmas off the ground once again. Co-producing with Denise Di Novi, Burton set out to make the very first feature-length film to be made entirely in stop motion animation. Burton would later revisit this animation style with Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie.

Although the film is entitled Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton himself didn’t actually direct it; this duty went to Henry Selick, who went on to direct James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. It was only at the insistence of Walt Disney Pictures that the ‘Tim Burton’s’ prefix was added, in order to distance the film from the usual Disney brand.

18. A creature based on composer Danny Elfman can be seen as part of the street band

Credit: Cathleen Cole via Flickr

One of the most significant figures behind The Nightmare Before Christmas is composer Danny Elfman. As well as providing the music and lyrics for all the film’s original songs, Elfman (formerly of new wave rock band Oingo Boingo) also provides the singing voice of Jack Skellington. (Jack’s dialogue is performed by actor Chris Sarandon.)

A fun little tribute to Elfman can be found in the film. When we see the street band, there is a man inside the bass whose look was based on the composer. A similar cameo had been planned for Tim Burton, who was almost presented as a severed head which the vampires played ice hockey with. This was scrapped when the animators worried Burton might be offended, although the producer later told them he would have loved it.

17. Burton and Elfman feuded over the film’s direction

Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Tim Burton and Danny Elfman have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership, with the composer having provided the music for all of Burton’s early films. Working on The Nightmare Before Christmas, however, led to some disagreements between the two. This feuding became so intense that Burton did not invite Elfman to contribute to his next film, 1994’s Ed Wood.

Happily, Burton and Elfman have long since patched things up, and have collaborated on many more films since; Elfman provided the score for all but three of the movies Burton has directed. In the years since The Nightmare Before Christmas, Elfman has been one of the most in-demand composers in Hollywood, his many credits including the original Spider-Man trilogy and all four Men in Black films.

16. Santa Claus was supposed to have been voiced by Vincent Price

For the part of Santa Claus, Burton originally cast Vincent Price. Legendary horror film icon Price became a friend and mentor to Burton in the early 80s, providing the narration for Burton’s breakthrough animated short Vincent, and playing the Inventor in Edward Scissorhands. Unfortunately, Price was in such ill health when he recorded his lines as Santa, the recording was deemed unusable.

Although it pained Burton and co to do it, Price’s performance was binned and Ed Ivory took his place as Santa. Price then passed away in October 1993, less than two weeks after The Nightmare Before Christmas was released to cinemas. Tim Burton went on to make 1994’s Ed Wood partly in tribute to the late film legend; that film’s central relationship between Edward D Wood Jr and Bela Lugosi reminded Burton of his friendship with Price.

15. The film took three years to complete

There was a good reason no one had made a full-length stop motion movie before: the process is very slow and time-consuming, with every movement of every character being done by hand. Such was the complexity of The Nightmare Before Christmas, it took a team of a hundred animators three years to complete.

Just one second of film would often take up to 12 stop motion captures to be taken, with minute changes in each to get the detail right. As the final film lasts 76 minutes, it’s not hard to see why it took a long time to get finished. This is also why we haven’t seen too many stop motion animated features over the years, as the process is so much slower than computer animation.

14. Patrick Stewart was originally cast as the narrator

The Nightmare Before Christmas begins with a short introductory narration in rhyme, performed by Santa actor Ed Ivory. However, the film originally had a different narrator in the form of Patrick Stewart, the beloved British actor best known at the time for his role as Captain Picard on TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Stewart performed far longer poetic monologues in both the introduction and climax of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Although these were cut from the final film, they can be heard in full on the soundtrack album. Years later, Stewart recorded another narrator role for a movie which did make it to the final cut, in 2012 comedy Ted.

13. At one point, Oogie Boogie was going to be Dr Finkelstein in disguise

The Nightmare Before Christmas is full of monsters, but there’s really only one full-blown villain in the piece: Oogie Boogie, who imprisons both Santa and Sally in the final act before Jack comes to the rescue. However, at one point screenwriter Caroline Thompson proposed a climactic twist which might have changed the ending significantly.

In an early draft of the script, Oogie Boogie turned out to really be Sally’s creator Dr. Finkelstein in disguise. However, Tim Burton hated this idea so much that he literally kicked a hole in a wall. Given the producer’s reaction, it’s hardly surprising that this idea was quickly scrapped; instead, the finale shows Finkelstein with his new creation, which looks uncannily like a female version of himself.

12. Disney were so anxious about the film, they released it under adult wing Touchstone Pictures

Disney were wary of releasing scarier animated films after their expensive flop The Black Cauldron, so the studio was very nervous about The Nightmare Before Christmas. For this reason, they refused to release the film under their Walt Disney Pictures banner, as was the norm for their animated features.

Instead, Disney insisted on sending The Nightmare Before Christmas to screens as a Touchstone Pictures release. Touchstone was introduced in the mid-80s to cater for the studio’s more mature fare: other films released under the Touchstone banner include Splash, Three Men and a Baby and Good Morning, Vietnam. Following Disney’s rapid expansion in recent years, the Touchstone label is now retired.

11. There was almost a sequel, but Tim Burton refused

Disney may have been anxious about The Nightmare Before Christmas at the time, but over the years the project has made the studio huge amounts of money and sold a lot of merchandise. With this in mind, Disney looked into making a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2001, and planned to use CGI animation instead of stop motion.

It seems the plan was for the sequel to see Jack visited some of the other holiday towns: viewers will recall that when he finds the doorway to Christmas Town, there are also similar doorways for Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving. However, as the property is very close to Tim Burton’s heart, he forbade any such sequel, fearing it would sully the original.

10. Burton produced the film at the same time as making Batman Returns

As we’ve noted, it tends to be forgotten that it was Henry Selick who actually directed Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, rather than Burton himself. Still, as an experienced animator, Burton had originally hoped to call the shots on the film, but he was forced to abdicate the director’s chair due to his commitment to another major movie: Batman Returns.

The original Batman was 1989’s biggest blockbuster, giving Burton his major breakthrough as a director, and the pressure was on for him to deliver an equally big hit with the sequel. Burton was behind the camera on Batman Returns whilst work was underway on The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s interesting to note that the 1992 Batman sequel is also set at Christmas, and has a similarly grim take on the traditionally jolly holiday.

9. Jack Skellington Easter Eggs can be found in Coraline and James and the Giant Peach

After making the first ever feature-length stop motion animation with The Nightmare Before Christmas, director Henry Selick went on to call the shots on more hit animated films without Burton. First came his 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book James and the Giant Peach (which includes live action sequences); Coraline followed in 2009, based on the Neil Gaiman novel.

In both films, The Nightmare Before Christmas’ hero Jack Skellington makes an appearance. This is most obvious in James and the Giant Peach, in which Jack is the skeleton of a pirate captain in a sunken ship. Coraline boasts a sneakier blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo, as Jack’s face briefly appears in an egg yolk. We’ll have to be on the lookout for another Jack cameo in Selick’s next film, Wendell and Wild, set for release in 2022.

8. Sally’s voice actress links the film to the Home Alone films

The Nightmare Before Christmas has long been staple viewing in the last three months of the year, as it links to both Halloween and Christmas. You might not have realised, however, that the film shares a common link with another film franchise that has long been perennial December viewing (and this time we’re not talking about Batman Returns).

The kind-hearted, man-made Sally is voiced by Catherine O’Hara, best known for her role as Kate McAllister in Home Alone and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. O’Hara had previously worked with Tim Burton on 1988’s Beetlejuice, and as well as Sally she also plays the trick-or-treater Shock (both their speaking and singing voices). More recently, O’Hara has enjoyed huge success in acclaimed TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek.

7. Sally’s original design was far more glamorous and sexualised

Credit: Tim Burton/Disney

Sally has become an iconic figure, and popular with cosplayers. The character as we know her is largely demure and unsure of herself, with just a hint of understated sex appeal – but if they’d stuck with the original designs, Sally might have been entirely different. The first looks considered for the character were considerably more sultry, with revealing outfits and a more overt sexuality.

This ‘femme fatale’ approach didn’t work for screenwriter Caroline Thompson, who argued, “I don’t understand that kind of girl. I kind of get The Little Matchstick-style girl, so we redesigned her.” Later Tim Burton films would include characters closer to Sally’s original look, including Lisa Marie’s Martian woman in Mars Attacks! and Helena Bonham Carter’s title character in Corpse Bride.

6. The entire soundtrack has been re-recorded by rock artists

2008 marked the fifteenth anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas’ original release, and Disney marked the occasion in a perhaps unexpected manner: the release of a commemorative album entitled Nightmare Revisited. This was a full-length recreation of Danny Elfman’s complete songbook, reflecting the influence of the 1993 film and its soundtrack on Goth/Emo culture.

Among the eighteen cover versions included on the album, Marilyn Manson performs a new take on the film’s opening track This is Halloween, whilst nu-metal band Korn perform Kidnap the Sandy Claws. Other artists featured on Nightmare Revisited include The All-American Rejects, The Polyphonic Spree, Rise Against and The Plain White T’s.

5. A huge amount of models had to be made for the film

Stop motion animation, as we’ve discussed already, is a hugely time-consuming process, particularly when the animators set out to work exclusively in that medium with no help from hand-drawn animation or computer graphics. One of the principal goals behind The Nightmare Before Christmas was to make the first feature-length, 100% stop-motion movie, and this was a mammoth task.

A great many characters are shown on camera, ranging from the various supernatural citizens of Halloween Town, to the elves of Christmas Town, to the humans seen on Christmas Eve. A reported 227 individual puppets were built in total, most of which also had to have multiple heads to convey changes in facial expression. As Jack Skellington is on screen the most and goes through the most emotional changes, his puppet alone needed over 400 different heads throughout production.

4. It received one Oscar nomination for visual effects

On release in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas was well received by critics and audiences. Its unique achievements were also recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as was acknowledged by its sole nomination at the 1994 Oscars. Unusually for an animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas was nominated for Best Visual Effects.

Ultimately the film lost out on this Oscar to Jurassic Park, but it’s possible that this may have helped inspire the introduction of a new category at the Academy Awards. It had been remarked for some time that animation deserved Oscar recognition, particularly after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture in 1992. Eventually, the Academy would introduce the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2001, with its first recipient being Shrek.

3. There have been several video game spin-offs

The Nightmare Before Christmas may never have had a sequel to date, but the world of Jack Skellington and company has been explored further in a number of video games. The first of these was 2005’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge, released for Playstation 2 and XBox. As the title suggests, this game played out as a direct follow-up to the movie with Jack battling the evil Oogie.

2005 also saw the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King for Gameboy Advance. Characters from the movie have also been featured alongside other Disney-owned characters in a number of crossover video games including Kingdom Hearts, Disney Mirrorverse, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode and Disney Magic Kingdoms.

2. There are sneaky nods to Disney’s Snow White, and the films of Ed Wood

It isn’t too often that legendary animation pioneer Walt Disney and infamous B-movie schlockmeister Edward D. Wood Jr are mentioned in the same breath. However, as The Nightmare Before Christmas is both an animated film and an homage to the horror genre, if there was ever a place for Disney and Ed Wood to be referenced side by side, this was it.

Watch closely, and you may spot a reference to Disney’s breakthrough movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when the Evil Queen briefly appears in the town meeting scene; the apple in her hand gives her away. In the same shot, we see a brutish bald figure with an axe in his head, modelled on the wrestler Tor Johnson who appeared in a number of Wood films. This character was likely included because Tim Burton was working on his biopic of Ed Wood around the same time.

1. A Disney theme park ride was planned, but never built

Despite the studio’s initial uncertainty about the film, The Nightmare Before Christmas has proved to be a big deal for Disney over the years. While the film’s box office earnings were modest (even after several re-releases, it has only earned $91 million in ticket sales), the property has been a huge hit for merchandising, with vast swathes of branded clothing, cuddly toys and other memorabilia sold every year.

Thanks to the level of brand name recognition attached to The Nightmare Before Christmas, there have reportedly been plans over the years for an attraction based on the film to be introduced at Disney’s theme parks around the world. To date this has not happened; although around the Halloween-to-Christmas season, the Haunted Mansion is specially redecorated to have a Nightmare Before Christmas theme.