History Trivia / TheNightmareBeforeChristmas

* RealitySubtext: Jack Skellington is the king of his own empire but desperate to move on to something new and exciting. His songs are written and performed by Music/DannyElfman, who at the time was the leader of [[Music/OingoBoingo an acclaimed rock band]], but was desperate to move permanently into his new and exciting career as a film composer.

** Spiral Hill: The hill where Jack gets his first song and where Jack and Sally have their BigDamnKiss. The English localisation of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' calls it "Curly Hill" (the Japanese version calls it "Spiral Hill"), but if [[http://forum.tnbc.eu/viewtopic.php?t=2362 this poll is any indication]], fans massively prefer "Spiral".

** Music/DannyElfman does the singing voice of Jack, while Chris Sarandon does the speaking voice. In "Oogie's Revenge", the trope is averted with Sarandon singing the songs.

* DoingItForTheArt: The film required an entire production studio to be built up from scratch in four months and took over three years to film, utilizing up over a dozen ''sound stages'', a phenomenal amount of space. It was also a technical innovation: a special motion-control camera was created to allow for more sweeping cinematography.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Technically, this is why the film exists at all. All of Tim Burton's concept art was drawn on studio time (and paper) during his down time on ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'', so Disney claimed it as their intellectual property and relegated it to their archives when Burton left in 1983, bringing them up once he made a name for himself with ''Film/{{Batman}}''. Disney also moved the film under the [[Creator/TouchstonePictures Touchstone label]] at the last minute when they worried about releasing a "scary" movie under "Walt Disney Pictures." Future re-releases, both home and theatrical, would bring it back under the Disney name, after the Disney brand began to expand their demographic starting with the PG-13 ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' series.

** Another idea was to have the bugs exit Oogie Boogie's body and attack Jack. The storyboards for this can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz-X3gVpm3g here.]]

* ChristmasCreep: This was the inspiration for Tim Burton's poem. He wrote the original story after seeing Christmas decorations being put up in a store window display while the Halloween decorations were being taken down.

* CashCowFranchise: Oh yes! What makes this even more annoying is that some people buy the stuff to look {{Goth}} or {{Emo}}, not because they've actually seen the movie. Ironically, Tim Burton seemed to try to prevent this to an extent, by refusing to do sequels and ruin the integrity of the movie for fans.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The film received several different titles in translation. In Polish, it's called ''Halloween Town'', while Portugese and French had a different interpretation, calling it ''Jack's Strange World'' and ''Mr. Jack's Strange Christmas'' respectively.

** The poem in the opening narrative was recited by Edward Ivory, who also played the voice of Sandy Claws. An earlier recording (which is available on the original soundtrack) was several lines longer and read by Actor/PatrickStewart. Hear it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJaqR7dedg&index=2&list=PLBAFD34845E5AE435 here.]]

* CreatorCameo: Music/DannyElfman's head is inside the jazz trio's upright bass.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Oogie Boogie is a sadistic, sleazy cannibal who ropes three small children into his schemes. Ken Page, by contrast, is a friendly and jolly fellow who is all too happy to share stories about his time on the project and his theatre work.

** This film was originally planned to be released as part of the DisneyAnimatedCanon, but was released under the Creator/TouchstonePictures instead because its content was considered too dark for Disney standards.

** The poem in the opening narrative was recited by Edward Ivory, who also played the voice of Sandy Claws. An earlier recording (which is available on the original soundtrack) was several lines longer and read by Actor/PatrickStewart. Hear it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY3MAguzzKA here.]]

* NonSingingVoice: Music/DannyElfman does the singing voice of Jack, while Chris Sarandon does the speaking voice. In "Oogie's Revenge", the trope is averted with Sarandon singing the songs.
** The Italian dub manage to avert this with Jack, having him dubbed by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renato_Zero Renato Zero]], a famous singer; as well as the German dub, with Music/NinaHagen as Sally.

** Before Music/DannyElfman, Music/Giorgio Moroder was offered to score the project, but turned it down.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Technically, this is why the film exists at all. Burton wrote the poem during his tenure at Disney, who, as per their policy, claimed it their intellectual property.
** The vampires playing hockey at the end of the film were originally using Burton's head as a puck.
** Disney moving the film under its [[Creator/TouchstonePictures Touchstone label]] rather then releasing it under the "Walt Disney Pictures" label due to the dark content. Future re-releases, both home and theatrical, would bring it back under the Disney name, after the Disney brand began to expand their demographic starting with the PG-13 ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' series.

* ProductionPosse: Tim Burton regulars like Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix and even Danny Elfman have voice roles. Henry Selick's own circle of collaborators, who'd worked with him on MTV station IDs and Pillsbury Doughboy commercials, followed him onto this project.

*** The line "You meddlin' stick figure!" was pretty funny.

** Also, Sandy Claws might have been voiced by Creator/VincentPrice.
** Music/DannyElfman was not the first choice to do the music. Instead, [[Film/TheNeverEndingStory Giorgio Moroder]] was offered the project but turned it down.
** Weirdest of all, the movie almost ''didn't'' get the Spiral Hill which codified GothSpirals! On the DVD commentary, Henry Selick indicated that Tim was unsure about the hill because of his mandate that "magic does not exist in Halloween Town." (Specifically, the unwinding part seemed like magic.) Selick only changed his mind by saying, "All right, then, it's a mechanical hill."

** Also, Sandy Claws might have been voiced by VincentPrice.

* ProductionPosse: Tim Burton regulars like Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix and even Danny Elfman have voice roles. Henry Sellic's own circle of collaborators, who'd worked with him on MTV station IDs and Pillsbury Dough Boy commercials, followed him onto this project.

* TalkingToHimself: Averted. Elfman does the voice of Jack Skellington and Barrel, but since he's the ''singing'' voice of Jack, he never runs into this trope. Likewise averted by Sally and Shock, who are both voiced by Catherine O'Hara but never share a scene with each other.

* ProductionPosse: Tim Burton regulars like Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix and even Danny Elfman have voice roles.

* DoingItForTheArt: Took over three years to film, utilizing up over a dozen ''sound stages'', a phenomenal amount of space. It was also a technical innovation: a special motion-control camera was created to allow for more sweeping cinematography.

* ReferencedBy: The Music/{{Blink182}} song "I Miss You" has a couple lines about living "like Jack and Sally" and having "Halloween on Christmas." Mark Hoppus wrote the song for his then-fiance (now ex-wife), both of whom were huge fans of the film and eventually had a ''Nightmare''-themed wedding.