The Making of The Nightmare Before Christmas

nightmare-before-christmas+by+andy+z+is+licensed+under+CC+BY-NC-SA+2.0

“nightmare-before-christmas” by andy z is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

By: Cindy DeLeon-DeLeon, Reporter

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the tale of Jack Skellington, in the setting of Halloween town. The movie has a unique art style that is very different to other movies at that time.

 The poem

The original concept of the movie came from Tim Burton’s poem The Nightmare Before Christmas, he made the poem while working at Disney. The three page poem only had three characters, Jack Skellington,  Zero, and Santa Claus. This poem soon turned into an illustrated book, then later a movie.

here is the poem: https://the-nightmare-before-christmas.fandom.com/wiki/Poem

TIM BURTON'S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)
TIM BURTON’S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/144_1521395/1/144_1521395/cite. Accessed 30 Oct 2020.

Production

The production of the movie took three years to make. The movie was all stop motion and one minute of the movie took one week to film. Tim Burton wanted to direct the movie but he was to busy with Batman Returns, so he hired Henry Selick, who later worked on Coraline and James and the Giant Peach. Jack had 400 heads to animate him talking, they had 180 puppets, and 230 sets. Halloween town had to be broken down into pieces to film. Jack almost had eyes because Disney believed that you needed eyes to connect to the audience.

Halloween or Christmas?

The movie has elements of Halloween and Christmas time, but when can you watch it? If you watch the movie in order of the days that take place in the movie you will have to watch minutes 1-11 on Halloween, minutes 12-45 in between, 46 minutes – 1 hour and 10 minutes on Christmas eve, and finally with a 2 minute and 35 ending on Christmas day. You don’t need to, of course, but if you want to feel like your in the movie you can do so.

TIM BURTON'S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)
TIM BURTON’S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/144_1533605/1/144_1533605/cite. Accessed 30 Oct 2020.

References

Jack has appeared in many other films. He was in Beetlejuice, the scene with the pirates in James and the Giant Peach, The mad hatters bow tie in Alice in Wonderland. The kids in the movie have Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck pajamas.

The Nightmare before Christmas was a good Halloween and Christmas movie, if you like spooky and heart warming movies, then i highly recommend this one.

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https://www.insider.com/nightmare-before-christmas-facts-2018-9#in-the-original-poem-there-were-only-three-characters-3

The Making of The Nightmare Before Christmas