Sticking with the Tim Burton theme, this seems like the most opportune time to bring The Nightmare Before Christmas into this list. Born from a poem, the film exists in rarified air as a Halloween-Christmas musical.
Directed by Henry Selick
Screenplay by Caroline Thompson
Starring: Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, Danny Elfman
When the King of Halloween Town grows bored of the same routine year-after-year, he comes across Christmas Town and becomes enthralled. However, his attempts to recreate the Yuletide season doesn’t go smoothly.
The idea was born from a poem Burton had written in the early 80s and the idea had bounced around for a while before finally landing a developmental deal with Disney. While didn’t direct this one, he did come up with the story, characters, and served as a producer. Henry Selick would direct and, while stop-motion filming wasn’t new, the scale and scope were pretty revolutionary at the time. Disney wasn’t even sure about it at the time, choosing to release it under the Touchtone Pictures label. The film would go on to become critically and commercially successful, gaining a fervent cult following in the process and becoming one of the more beloved holiday movies of all time.
This was also the pinnacle of the Burton and Danny Elfman collaboration efforts. The pair had worked together a number of times but, in this instance, Elfman wrote all the original songs, composed the music, and was the singing voice for the lead character Jack Skellington, among others. It was a massive piece of the film’s success as Elfman’s performance brought the emotional cues to the character and his journey. Chris Sarandon voices Jack the rest of the time while Catherine O’Hara voices Sally.
Burton had been known to use miniatures and gothic visuals in his other films, so this was a stylistic match made in heaven. The production design is incredible and the art department put together remarkable sets to bring this story to life. There have been talks about a sequel for some time, but Burton has held firm so far.
If you’ve never seen it before, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a must for any time of year but especially during the holiday season. You can stream it with a Disney+ subscription or rent it through most video-on-demand services.
Boo! Happy Holidays!