The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Elfman was initially cast as the character's singing voice, and after the songs were recorded, Sarandon was cast to provide his speaking voice.
• As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984 and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989) for Warner Bros. Pictures.
• The filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having "around four hundred heads", allowing the expression of every possible emotion.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas originated from a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation.
• Production, under Burton and Denise Di Novi, started in July 1991.
• As writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California, was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood.
• He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models; Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works-in-progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time.
• To convey Burton's involvement and attract a wider audience, Disney marketed the film as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• For the film's 30th anniversary and in commemoration of The Walt Disney Company's centennial, it was re-released in theaters across the United States and Canada on October 20, 2023, including engagements in 4DX.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas made an additional $11.1 million in box office gross in its 2006 reissue.
• The film made its world premiere on the opening day celebration of the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13, 1993, before its wide theatrical release on October 29, 1993.
• Danny Elfman composed the score and songs and provided Jack's singing voice, while the principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Ken Page, Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix, William Hickey, Paul Reubens and Ed Ivory.
• Disney originally released the film under the Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film's Gothic tone would be "too dark and scary for kids".
• Danny Elfman (singing) and Chris Sarandon (speaking) as Jack Skellington, a skeleton known as the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town.
• Catherine O'Hara as Sally, a rag doll-like creation of Doctor Finkelstein and Jack's love interest.

Source: Wikipedia

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