Nightmare Before Christmas Trivia | 40 facts about the animation

There are a lot of Christmas movies that we all enjoy watching during Christmas time. “Nightmare Before Christmas” is one of the best.

It is no wonder that “Nightmare Before Christmas” is considered a “Christmas classic” from everyone. So, let’s find out more about the animated movie!

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film.
2. It was directed by Henry Selick (in his feature directorial debut).
3. It was produced and conceived by Tim Burton.
4. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of “Halloween Town” who stumbles through a portal to “Christmas Town” and becomes obsessed with celebrating the holiday.
5. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score.
6. He also provided the singing voice of Jack.
7. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Productions.
9. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Burton began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas.
10. He was considering developing the ovie as either a short film or 30-minute television special to no avail.
11. Over the years, Burton’s thoughts regularly returned to the project and in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios.
12. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco.
13. Disney initially released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be “too dark and scary for kids”.
14. The film met with both critical and financial success.
15. It grossed $91.5 million since its initial release and garnering a cult following.
16. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
17. It was a first for an animated film.
18. The film has since been reissued by Walt Disney Pictures.
19. It was re-released annually in Disney Digital 3-D from 2006 until 2009.
20. It was the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3D
21. In 2001, Walt Disney Pictures began to consider producing a sequel, but rather than using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation.
22. Tim Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea.
23. Tim Burton has said the original poem was inspired after seeing Halloween merchandise display in a store being taken down and replaced by a Christmas display.
24. The juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with Santa and his reindeer sparked his imagination.
25. Danny Elfman found writing Nightmare’s 10 songs as “one of the easiest jobs”.
26. It is stated in “The Making of…” book that the most difficult shot to film in the entire movie is the shot in which Jack is reaching for the doorknob to Christmasland.
27. Viewers can see the perfect surround reflection of the forest around Jack in the background.
28. It took a group of around 100 people three years to complete this movie.
29. For one second of film, up to 12 stop-motion moves had to be made.
30. Zero’s nose is actually a tiny glowing jack-o’-lantern.
31. In the extended ending to the film heard on the soundtrack album, many years later, Santa Claus returns to Halloween Town to visit Jack, and finds that he has about four or five skeleton children.
32. In 2013, Catherine O’Hara participated in “Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” to perform “Sally’s Song” from this film. She received a standing ovation when she entered the stage, as well as when she left.
33. In the first few seconds after the title is shown, you can see that there are actually 7 Holiday Doors. Going anti-clockwise, the doors are: A Pumpkin (for Halloween), A decorated Christmas Tree (for Christmas), A turkey (for Thanksgiving), A brightly colored egg (for Easter), a green four leafed clover (for St. Patrick’s Day), a red heart (for Valentines Day), and a red and white and blue firework that can only be seen at the very beginning for just a few seconds. This door could be for American Independence Day or British Bonfire Night.
34. The character of Dr. Finklestein is listed only as “Evil Scientist” in the cast credits.
35. There are three shots in the entire film that were filmed at normal speed (24fps), one is the opening overhead shot of the trees in the forest, the fog coming out of the fountain and the other is the bugs falling into the molten pit in Oogie Boogie’s lair.
36. In the original poem written by Tim Burton, the only characters that existed were Jack, Zero and Santa. All the other characters were made up for the movies, although he describes some of the presents which were given out, including in some cases the names of the children.
37. At one point, Tim Burton considered making this a TV special rather than a feature film.
38. This is the first stop-motion animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA.
39. Originally, a longer version of Jack trying to get to the true meaning of Christmas through science was fully animated. Some of the best gags, including a scene of Jack doing illustrations of Santa and his “monster” form, were cut simply due to time purposes.
40. Since October 2001, a seasonal overlay of the Disneyland Park California and Tokyo Disneyland Haunted Mansion attractions called Haunted Mansion Holiday which combines the characters and setting/theme of the ride with the characters and storyline of this film however in order to achieve this the ride is closed for two and a half weeks in late summer so it can be decorated for Christmas then is reopened before closing again in January to dismantle the ride back to its original format. However the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World in Florida is not rebranded as Haunted Mansion Holiday.