See what the professionals who worked on ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ said about one of the biggest mysteries about the film
In October 1993, Disney released the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, directed by renowned filmmaker Tim Burtonwhich follows the story of Skeleton Jack, the king of Halloween, who decides to venture into other holidays and intends to take Santa Claus’s place at Christmas.
Because its plot addresses two extremely popular holidays around the world, many fans began to question themselves: after all, is the film about Christmas or Halloween? Over the years, countless professionals who worked on the production gave their own opinions on this question — and RECREIO will present them all to you now!
Different opinions
In 2022, during an interview with the ComicBook portal, the filmmaker specializing in stop-motion films, Henry Selickwho was also on the team for “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, says that the film is a “perfect collision between these two holidays”.
“At first, when Tim Burton had this original idea in the 1980s at Disney, it was supposed to be a half-hour stop-motion TV special, at first, I saw it as a mashup, which is both… Then later, When we made the film as a feature film, I might have tended to respond one way, but I arrived at the original feeling. It’s a mashup. It’s a perfect collision between these two holidays. So there is no better answer than both. It’s both, and it’s its own thing. It’s a big Halloween celebration that can last until Christmas,” Selick said.
Already Chris Sarandonthe original voice actor for Skeleton Jack, also told ComickBook in 2019 that the work represents both holidays, and that, in the end, what really matters is what pleases the fans.
“Why can’t it be both?” asked the actor. “I know a lot of fans come up to me and say, ‘We watch every Halloween,’ and I have fans that come up and say, ‘We watch every Christmas,’ I have fans that come up and say, ‘We watch both Christmas and Christmas.’ Halloween’. What is the debate? It’s what pleases the people who watch the most, the public, that’s what matters. It’s the fans. These are the people who have had a profound effect over the years.”
On the other hand, the composer Danny Elfman told USA Today that, despite Tim Burton’s animation talking about Christmas, for him, the film is about Halloween.
Second Elfmanwhen he watched the film, he felt “very close to Halloween, but also to Jack and what he was going through. […] because I knew what it was like to be the king of your own little world. And also wanting to get out of it and want something else.”
Source: Recreio
