The Nightmare Before Christmas | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Henry Selick |
Produced by | |
Screenplay by | Caroline Thompson |
Story by | Michael McDowell (adaptation) |
Based on | Story and characters by Tim Burton |
Starring | |
Music by | Danny Elfman |
Cinematography | Pete Kozachik |
Edited by | Stan Webb |
Production
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Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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76 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $18 million |
Box office | $76.2 million |
The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a resident from "Halloween Town" who stumbles through a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly and comical consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, and Glenn Shadix.
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Walt Disney Studios began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Disney. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney released the film through its Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film would be "too dark and scary for kids".