Line #26 Trivia/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas


1	%%* CashCowFranchise: Oh yes! Ironically, Creator/TimBurton has attempted to prevent this to an extent, by refusing to do sequels and ruin the integrity of the movie for fans.
2	* CelebrityVoiceActor: The Japanese dub features Masachika Ichimura as Jack, Yuko Doi as Sally and Shock, and the late Atomu Kobayashi as Oogie Boogie.
3	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The film received several different titles in translation. In Polish, it's called ''Halloween Town'', while it's known as ''The Strange World of Jack'' in Latin American Spanish and Portuguese, and ''Mr. Jack's Strange Christmas'' in French.
4	* CreatorBacklash: Though proud of the finished film, Creator/HenrySelick has [[https://www.avclub.com/henry-selick-nightmare-christmas-wendell-wild-burton-1849712802 admitted]] that he doesn't like how many people often overlook his involvement in the film and give Burton all the credit, considering Burton was away in Los Angeles working on ''Film/BatmanReturns'' and ''Film/EdWood'' during most of the film's production while Selick and his team were making the movie in San Francisco.
5	* CreatorBreakdown: Music/DannyElfman, who was still the frontman of Music/OingoBoingo at the time, 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 frontman for a rock band. He and 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.
6	* CreatorsPest: Writer Caroline Thompson [[https://www.insider.com/the-nightmare-before-christmas-behind-the-scenes-screenwriter-caroline-thompson-2020-12 greatly disliked Oogie Boogie]], feeling that his name, design and penchant for gambling tapped into stereotypes of African Americans (not helped by Oogie being voiced by African-American Ken Page). Thompson petitioned Burton and Selick to have Oogie overhauled, but was overruled.
7	* DeletedScene:
8	** One deleted scene had Jack performing scientific experiments to fully understand what Christmas is.
9	** Another involved Lock, Shock, and Barrel venturing down to Oogie's lair to watch him while hearing The Mayor's message about Jack's presumed death and sang about it. Jack would later climb down the same passage and scare the trio away, which also explains how they knew he was alive when they brought The Mayor during the ending.
10	* DescendedCreator: Elfman not only wrote the music and lyrics to the film, but he was the voice for Barrel and the Clown (as well as the singing voice for Jack).
11	* {{Defictionalization}}: Among the various merchandised characters from the film, the vampire teddy bear has been made into a real plush toy a few times.
12	* DevelopmentHell: Burton used to be an animator at Creator/WaltDisneyAnimationStudios, and came up with the concept, presented as a poem, in the early 1980s.
13	* ExecutiveMeddling:
14	** Technically, this is why the film exists at all. All of Burton's concept art was drawn at the Disney studio and on company time, using their art supplies, during his down time on ''WesternAnimation/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/{{Batman\|1989}}''. 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.
15	** [[https://people.com/nightmare-before-christmas-30th-anniversary-henry-selick-chris-sarandon-exclusive-8357661 Per Henry Selick]], Disney's reasoning for adding Tim Burton's name to the title was to prevent parents from thinking the movie was a family-unfriendly pure horror movie (Disney was particularly concerned the movie would be mistaken for an entry in the ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' series).
16	* 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.)
17	* KidsMealToy: Burger King sold a set of four wristwatches.
18	* NonSingingVoice: 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 to alter his voice to match Elfman's.[[/note]]
19	* ProductionPosse:
20	** Burton regulars Creator/CatherineOHara, Creator/GlennShadix and even Elfman have voice roles.
21	** Selick's own circle of collaborators, who'd worked with him on MTV station [=IDs=] and Pillsbury Doughboy commercials, followed him onto this project.
22	* RealitySubtext:
23	** 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 was, at the time, 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.
24	** Jack discovers a world known for being lighthearted and wholesome, and tries to bring his own dark and spooky twist into it, which backfires, before he and Christmas end up finding common ground together. Replace "Jack" with Tim Burton and "Christmas" with Disney, and you have the story of how Burton was forced to leave Disney only to have Disney distribute his first animated feature.
25	* RecursiveAdaptation: The film was based on an illustrated poem by Burton. An anniversary edition of the poem added some more Burton illustrations closer to the film.
26	* ReferencedBy: [[Referencedby/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Has its own page]].
27	* 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 on its initial 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''. Fortunately, ''Hocus Pocus'' would also become a classic despite the meddling.
28	* UncreditedRole: According to Elfman, some of Burton's dummy lyrics wound up in the final versions of the songs, but he refused to take credit for them.
29	* VindicatedByCable: The film was a mild disappointment in theaters, but became such a smash success on TV and home video (and a merchandising powerhouse for retailers like Hot Topic) that Disney ultimately restored its own branding on the film (replacing Touchstone), re-released it theatrically several times (including in 3D) and began annually converting Ride/{{Disneyland}}'s Ride/TheHauntedMansion into a ''Nightmare'' attraction during the holiday season.
30	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
31	** The film was originally planned to be released under the Walt Disney Pictures label, but was released under 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 the Disney name anyway once their demographic expanded, to the point it's widely acknowledged as a Disney movie.
32	** Originally, [[spoiler:Oogie Boogie was supposed to be Finklestein in disguise, motivated by jealousy over Sally choosing Jack over him and wanting to teach her a lesson]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEOZbihCyoE See here.]]
33	** Another idea was to have the bugs exit Oogie Boogie's body and attack Jack. The storyboards for this can be viewed [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160216002055/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz-X3gVpm3g here]].
34	** [[http://www.nightmarebeforechristmas.net/nightmare/script/2 This early script]] shows some changes; initially, 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]]).
35	** There were also a couple of storyboards floating about the Internet (which seem to have gone missing in recent years) that had Jack and Oogie going at each other with [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence freaking maces]].
36	** Sandy Claws was meant to have the voice of Creator/VincentPrice, and he even recorded a good chunk of his dialogue. However, his poor health caused him to be unable to give a good performance, and his recordings were consequently deemed unusable.
37	** Originally, horror novelist Creator/{{Michael McDowell}} (co-writer on ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'') was enlisted to write ''Nightmare''. Unfortunately, [[ItsSnowingCocaine [=McDowell=] was on a lot of drugs at the time]], and his treatment was considered both terrible and unfilmable.
38	** Before Elfman, Music/GiorgioMoroder was offered to score the project, but he turned it down.
39	** Weirdest of all, the movie almost ''didn't'' get the Spiral Hill which codified GothSpirals! On the DVD commentary, Henry 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, "[[SureLetsGoWithThat All right, then, it's a mechanical hill]]." He used this same trick to get Lock, Shock, and Barrel's bathtub worked in, by adding a crank in the back and calling it mechanical.
40	** The vampires playing hockey at the end of the film were originally using Burton's head as a puck.
41	** 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 Creator/PatrickStewart. Hear it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJaqR7dedg&index=2&list=PLBAFD34845E5AE435 here.]] 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.]]
42	** At one point, Burton considered making a follow-up titled ''The Unlucky Clover'', based around St. Patrick's Day.
43	** 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, so Chris Sarandon was brought in to do the speaking lines.
44	** [[https://michaelmullin.substack.com/p/the-sequels-before-christmas Author Michael Mullin has stated]] that during a career at Disney, he wrote drafts for two children's books that would essentially act as sequels to the film, as a means of expanding the film's potential for merchandise. These projects were pitched to Tim Burton, and surprisingly, [[ApprovalOfGod he not only approved them, but outright praised them as excellent ideas]], in part because they were pitched as books instead of full sequel films. Unfortunately, Disney sat on the projects and never outright approved them for publication, instead later pitching them to Burton as movies, killing them outright. Mullin has since published his drafts for both books on his [[https://michaelmullin.substack.com blog]]. Each one was to be a poem similar to Tim Burton's original concept:
45	*** The first book was titled "The Nightmare Before Easter," and followed Jack, who is again in a rut from constantly spending his time on Halloween. To cheer himself up, he decides to visit a new Holiday and enters Easter Town. Enamored by Easter immediately, he wishes to participate in the holiday, but out of worry of repeating his mistakes with Christmas, he instead decides to invite the Easter Bunny to Halloween Town to discuss the matter, leading to various mishaps.
46	*** The second book was "A Midwinter Nightmare Scream," an AffectionateParody of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' as a tie in for Valentine's Day. Rather than visit Valentine's Town directly, the story is about Jack trying to comprehend his feelings for Sally, particularly after she is to be forced into an ArrangedMarriage with a new creation of Dr. Finkelstein's, only for the situation to escalate when Cupid himself visits Halloween Town, and mistakenly assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel to assist him.
47	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: All of the songs were written, one-by-one, before there was a screenplay. Tim Burton would pitch each part of the story to Danny Elfman, who would write a song based on what Burton would tell him and sketches he'd show him. They later claimed that they wrote it this way because they had no other idea where to start with such an unusual story.

Context Trivia / TheNightmareBeforeChristmas