story The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas
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This article is about the film. For other uses, see The Nightmare Before Christmas (disambiguation).

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Original theatrical release poster
Directed by Henry Selick

Produced by Tim Burton
Denise Di Novi

Screenplay by Caroline Thompson
adapted by
Michael McDowell

Story by Tim Burton
Starring Danny Elfman
Chris Sarandon
Catherine O'Hara
William Hickey
Glenn Shadix
Ken Page

Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Pete Kozachik
Editing by Stan Webb
Studio Skellington Productions

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
(Original)
Walt Disney Pictures
(Current)
Release date(s) • October 29, 1993
Running time 75 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $18 million[1]

Box office $75,082,668
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glenn Shadix.
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney animator. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. However, development of the project stalled as it seemed too eccentric to Disney at the time, and Burton left the company in 1984. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because the tone was rather dark for children.[2] The Nightmare Before Christmas was met with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.
Plot
Halloween Town is a dream world filled with dark creatures such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves and witches. The Pumpkin King, named Jack Skellington, leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forest outside the town center with his ghost dog, Zero, he finds a cluster of trees each with a door which represents a certain annual holiday. Jack is drawn to the tree with the Christmas tree-shaped door and opens it which leads to a portal to "Christmas Town". Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. Jack undertakes several experiments to try to understand Christmas logically, but he becomes frustrated when he fails to understand. However, he realizes that just because he can't understand Christmas does not mean he still can't enjoy it; so he announces to Halloween Town that this year they will take over Christmas, and that he will usurp the role of Santa Claus, known to him as "Sandy Claws".
Sally, a rag doll woman who was created by the town's mad scientist and has romantic feelings for Jack, has a premonition of Jack's Christmas ending badly. When she tries to warn Jack of the imminent disaster, he misinterprets her anxiety to mean that she is worried when given the responsibility to make Jack's Santa costume. Meanwhile, Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to bring Santa to Halloween Town. When he arrives after being kidnapped, Jack tells him of his plan that he will take over Christmas this year, much to Santa's protests. After this and against Jack's instructions, and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake.
Christmas Eve arrives and Jack prepares to embark into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally tries to stop him by releasing fog juice, but Jack is inspired by Zero's glowing nose and orders the ghost dog to lead the team. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an impostor attempting to impersonate Santa. The army is alerted, and, using searchlights to spot him, they open fire on him with artillery. Jack believes at first that the shells are merely fireworks, set off to thank him; by the time he realizes the truth, it is too late. The sleigh is shot down and Jack is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash, landing in a cemetery, where Zero is seen finishing up reassembling Jack. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan and the damage it caused, he realizes that his Christmas adventure has helped him to rediscover his love for scaring people. Having come up with new ideas for next Halloween and wanting to "set things right", he rushes back to Halloween Town by going through a tomb.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa by distracting Oogie, but fails and is also captured by Oogie. Sally claims Jack will free them, but they hear the Mayor saying Jack is dead. Jack slips into the Oogie's lair and frees both Santa and Sally just before Oogie can drop them into a fire pit. Jack then confronts Oogie, who sets off several lethal traps, which Jack nimbly avoids. Oogie tries to escape, but Jack uses a single loose thread hanging from the bogeyman's sewn rag structure to rip him open, exposing the bugs that he is made of. He falls apart, and most of his bugs fall into the fire pit. The last one is squashed by Santa, who then reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver his presents to the children of the world.
Jack asks Sally how she got into Oogie's lair in the first place and he realises that she was trying to help him because she has very strong feelings for him. When Jack and Sally return to Halloween Town, the citizens rejoice that Jack is alive. Moments later, Santa is seen in the sky, making snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack. The townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack follows Sally out into the graveyard after seeing the Doctor with his new creation. Jack and Sally sing a romantic song together where Jack unmasks his deep love for Sally and she returns these feelings for him. They then embrace their new future together and share a kiss on top of the spiral hill in the graveyard. Zero watches them from afar before flying into the night sky forming a bright star shape and ending the film.