History Trivia / TheNightmareBeforeChristmas

* 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 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, the likes of which had never been done in stop-motion before. Even after the film became a heavily-merchandised CultClassic, Tim Burton has fought Disney tooth and claw to prevent a sequel from being made so as to preserve the film's integrity.

* CreatorCameo:
** Music/DannyElfman's head is inside the jazz trio's upright bass.
** A cut scene would have had the vampires playing ice hockey with Creator/TimBurton's head instead of the pumpkin used in the final print.

* FanNickname:
** [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Bone-Demon]]: Jack and any fan-made skeletons like him. Understood to be a sort of sub-species of either [[TheUndead Undead]] or demon. Usually used in the camp that thinks Jack and Sally have kids [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre by natural means]].
** Dr. Finkly: Dr. Finklestein, by his fans.
** Jewel: Dr. Finklestein creation/wife seen at the end of the movie. While there's no evidence that Finklestein's "Be careful, my precious jewel!" is a reference to her name, the fans use it anyways.
** Skeledoll: The name of Jack and Sally's fandom [[AlwaysFemale daughters]]. Can be either just ragdolls with bones or [[PatchworkKids a mixture of ragdoll and skeleton]].
** Spiral Hill: The hill where Jack gets his first song and where Jack and Sally have TheBigDamnKiss. 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".

* CashCowFranchise: Oh yes! 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 it's known as ''Jack's Strange World'' and ''Mr. Jack's Strange Christmas'' in Portuguese and French, respectively.

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

** The Italian dub {{averts}} 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.

** This film was originally planned to be released as part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, but was released under the Creator/TouchstonePictures instead because its content was considered too dark for Disney standards, with memories of the backlash Creator/WarnerBros received for marketing Burton's ''Film/BatmanReturns'' to children likely fresh in their minds. It ended up being reissued under Disney anyway once their demographic expanded.
** Originally, [[spoiler: Dr. Finklestein was going to be Oogie, disguised because he was jealous that Sally chose Jack over him and wanted to teach her a lesson.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEOZbihCyoE See here]].

** Also [[http://www.nightmarebeforechristmas.net/nightmare/script/2 This early script]] shows some changes, like we were going to see some of the other holidays at the beginning sequence, and "This Is Halloween" is considerably different from the final product (for example, Jack was going to come in on a {{Cool|Horse}} [[HellishHorse Undead Horse]]).

** Stewart also provided a coda that wasn't used, where it was revealed that the narrator was in fact Sandy Claus himself, and had visited Jack years later, having "grown quite fond of that skeleton man". It is also revealed that Jack had [[BabiesEverAfter several baby skeletons running around]] (presumably with Sally). This verse is also available on the original soundtrack, and can be heard [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udDDa1aAw_o&list=PLBAFD34845E5AE435#t=29 here.]]
** At one point Burton considered making a follow-up titled ''The Unlucky Clover'', based around St. Patrick's Day.

* 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.
* CreatorBreakdown: Music/DannyElfman, who at the time was still the frontman of Music/OingoBoingo, suffered a nervous breakdown at the end of the film's production. Unlike most films he scores, which only require him to work for three weeks, he was on this project for two years, and eventually cracked under the pressure of being a full-time film composer and the front man for a rock band. He and Tim Burton had a brief falling out and he was forced to break up his band in order to focus full-time on movies. Burton was even nice enough to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never to speak of the ordeal again]] when all was said and done.

* DevelopmentHell: Burton used to be a Disney animator and came up with the concept, presented as a poem, in the early 1980s.

** Music/DannyElfman does the singing voice of Jack, while Creator/ChrisSarandon does the speaking voice.[[note]]Unlike many examples of this where the singing voice actor had to match the speaking voice, the songs for this film were actually recorded first, so Sarandon had alter his voice to match Elfman's.[[/note]] In "Oogie's Revenge", the trope is averted with Sarandon singing the songs.
** The Italian dub averts 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.
* ProductionPosse: Tim Burton regulars like Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix and even Danny Elfman have voice roles. Creator/HenrySelick's own circle of collaborators, who'd worked with him on MTV station [=IDs=] and Pillsbury Doughboy commercials, followed him onto this project.

** 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.

* RecursiveAdaptation: The film was based on an illustrated poem by Tim Burton. An anniversary edition of the poem added some more Burton illustrations more close to the film.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Disney choosing to distance themselves from the film at the last minute by moving it to Creator/TouchstonePictures label (see WhatCouldHaveBeen) did it no favors in its original release, where it made $50 million (not a bomb, but disappointing). Ironically, Disney had previously screwed fellow Halloween feature ''Film/HocusPocus'' (by dumping it in July) to help ensure success for ''Nightmare''.
* TalkingToHimself: Averted. Elfman does the voice of Jack Skellington and Barrel (and the Clown), but since he's only 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. Played somewhat straight during the Town Meeting, when the Devil and Harlequin Demon discuss what could be in the present, as both were voiced by Creator/GregProops.

** There was also a couple of storyboards floating about the net (which seems to missing now) that had Jack and Oogie going at each other with [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence freaking maces]].
** A dying Creator/VincentPrice was offered the role of Sandy Claws, but was too frail and in poor health to give a good performance.
** Before Music/DannyElfman, Music/GiorgioMoroder was offered to score the project, but turned it down.

** At one point Burton considered making a follow-up titled ''The Unlucky Clover'' based around St. Patrick's Day.
** As revealed in ''The Holiday Movies That Made Us'' episode based on this movie, Danny Elfman ''was'' originally supposed to be both the singing and speaking voice of Jack Skellington, having grown very attached to the character while writing the songs. Unfortunately, it was agreed upon that, as good as his singing was, he was not much of an actor. Elfman had to concur, and so Chris Sarandon was brought in to do the speaking lines.

** This film was originally planned to be released as part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, but was released under the Creator/TouchstonePictures instead because its content was considered too dark for Disney standards, with memories of the backlash Creator/WarnerBros received for marketing Burton's ''Film/BatmanReturns'' to children likely fresh in their minds.

* TalkingToHimself: Averted. Elfman does the voice of Jack Skellington and Barrel (and the Clown), but since he's only 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. Played somewhat straight during the Town Meeting, when the Devil and Harlequin Demon discuss what could be in the present, as both were voiced by Greg Proops.

** As revealed in ''The Holiday Movies That Made Us'' episode based on this movie, Danny Elfman ''was'' originally supposed to be both the singing and speaking voice of Jack Skellington, having grown very attached to the character while writing the songs. Unfortunately, it was agreed upon that his acting performance was too wooden. Elfman had to concur, and so Chris Sarandon was brought in to do the speaking lines.

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

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

* 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.

* InspirationForTheWork: Tim Burton wrote the original story after [[ChristmasCreep seeing Christmas decorations being put up in a store window display while the Halloween decorations were being taken down]] (living in Burbank, the only way he could tell when the seasons changed was when stores would switch out their holiday decorations).

* InspirationForTheWork: Tim Burton wrote the original story after [[ChristmasCreep seeing Christmas decorations being put up in a store window display while the Halloween decorations were being taken down]].

* ExecutiveMeddling: Technically, this is why the film exists at all. All of Tim Burton's concept art was drawn at the Disney studio and on company time, using their art supplies, during his down time on ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound''. As a result, 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/Batman1989''. 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.

* 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/Batman1989''. 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.

* TalkingToHimself: Averted. Elfman does the voice of Jack Skellington and Barrel (and the Clown), but since he's only 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.

* DescendedCreator: Danny Elfman not only wrote the music and lyrics to the film, but he was the voice for Shock and the Clown (as well as the singing voice for Jack).

* 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, the likes of which had never been done in stop-motion before. Even after the film became a heavily-merchandised CultClassic, Tim Burton has fought Disney tooth and claw to prevent a sequel from being made to as to preserve the film's integrity.

* Defictionalization: Among the various merchandised characters from the film, the vampire teddy bear has been made into a real plush toy a few times.

* 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. Despite the films incredible success, Tim Burton himself has fought against Disney many times against turning it into a CashCowFranchise; especially regarding any possible sequel as he doesn't want to ruin the integrity of the first one.