When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her.
Directors:
Tim Burton,
Mike Johnson
Stars:
Johnny Depp,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Emily Watson
An orphan who lives with his two cruel aunts befriends anthropomorphic bugs who live inside a giant peach, and they embark on a journey to New York City.
Director:
Henry Selick
Stars:
Paul Terry,
Joanna Lumley,
Pete Postlethwaite
Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween Town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.Written by
Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>
There is something of a controversy over exactly who has the rights to call the story and film their own. Henry Selick is the director and spent more time on the set and production than Tim Burton. However Burton has often claimed he is the owner of the story as it was all his idea. He wrote the original poem and most of the script, created the characters, served as a producer, and even wanted to direct but was simply too busy at the time to do so. Popular culture has long accepted the film as Burton's as the film heading is "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas". Burton does reinforce the fact that Selick directed the film, and is often annoyed that people don't remember him for that. On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like 'a Tim Burton film', which is not so different from my own films." When asked on Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total." Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed with some use of second-layering traditional animation. Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing "Batman Returns" and in pre-production of "Ed Wood." See more »
Goofs
When Jack falls after running into the Christmas Town sign's pole, there is a hole in the snow for his umbrella. However, he did not have it coming up the hill, as he left it hanging right after the line "the smell of cakes and pies are absolutely everywhere". See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Santa:
'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems in a place perhaps you've seen in your dreams. For the story you're about to be told began with the holiday worlds of auld. Now you've probably wondered where holidays come from. If you haven't I'd say it's time you begun.
See more »
Crazy Credits
Dr. Finkelstein is referred to on-screen by name, but is only credited as "Evil Scientist." See more »
Alternate Versions
The special edition DVD version has never-before-seen footage of this movie and are the following:
Lock, Shock and Barrel (the trick-or-treaters) are bored so they grab some snacks and go inside their cage/elevator to watch oogie boogie torture Santa and Sally. And later, a thought to be dead Jack Skellington enters the lair by jumping on the cage/elevator with the kids inside and he scares them which can explain how he got inside the lair at the nick of time. Pictures of the scene were in the promotional booklets, postcard books, and storybooks.
Jack's further experiments with Christmas such as having a illustrating "Sandy Claws" as a human/lobster hybrid.
a deleted part of oogie boogie's song that shows his shadow dancing.
a scene where the vampires are playing hockey with the head of Tim Burton, this was corrected and Tim's head was replaced with a Jack O' Lantern.
This film, while far from Burton's masterpiece, is a delightful musical that in the end shows that, sometimes, we have things far better than we think we do and the other side of the fence sometimes looks better just because it's different, but that doesn't make necessarily wise to pursue someone else's dream because we mistakenly think we may like it more. Tim Burton's fingerprints are all over this film. Excellent casting of vocal talent, the score is great and the animation is marvelous. A very good film and worth watching more than once. Recommended.
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This film, while far from Burton's masterpiece, is a delightful musical that in the end shows that, sometimes, we have things far better than we think we do and the other side of the fence sometimes looks better just because it's different, but that doesn't make necessarily wise to pursue someone else's dream because we mistakenly think we may like it more. Tim Burton's fingerprints are all over this film. Excellent casting of vocal talent, the score is great and the animation is marvelous. A very good film and worth watching more than once. Recommended.