Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 7 wins & 17 nominations total
Catherine O'Hara
- Sally
- (voice)
- …
Glenn Shadix
- Mayor
- (voice)
Paul Reubens
- Lock
- (voice)
Ken Page
- Oogie Boogie
- (voice)
Edward Ivory
- Santa
- (voice)
- (as Ed Ivory)
Susan McBride
- Big Witch
- (voice)
- …
Debi Durst
- Corpse Kid
- (voice)
- …
Greg Proops
- Harlequin Demon
- (voice)
- (as Gregory Proops)
- …
Kerry Katz
- Man Under Stairs
- (voice)
- …
Randy Crenshaw
- Mr. Hyde
- (voice)
- …
Sherwood Ball
- Mummy
- (voice)
- …
Carmen Twillie
- Undersea Gal
- (voice)
- …
Glenn Walters
- Wolfman
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTim Burton has said the original poem was inspired after seeing Halloween merchandise display in a store being taken down and replaced by a Christmas display. The juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with Santa and his reindeer sparked his imagination.
- Goofs(at around 37 mins) In "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," just before Lock launches Barrel across the room, Lock is singing and his words are aligned. But when Barrel begins to sing, Lock's lips are moving to the words that Barrel should be singing. Barrel's lips don't move at all.
- Quotes
Jack Skellington: [singing] Just because I cannot see it, doesn't mean I can't believe it!
- Crazy creditsNo credits are shown, except the company and the film's name.
- Alternate versionsThe special edition DVD version has never-before-seen footage of this movie and are the following:
- Lock, Shock and Barrel (the trick-or-treaters) are bored so they grab some snacks and go inside their cage/elevator to watch oogie boogie torture Santa and Sally. And later, a thought to be dead Jack Skellington enters the lair by jumping on the cage/elevator with the kids inside and he scares them which can explain how he got inside the lair at the nick of time. Pictures of the scene were in the promotional booklets, postcard books, and storybooks.
- Jack's further experiments with Christmas such as having a illustrating "Sandy Claws" as a human/lobster hybrid.
- a deleted part of oogie boogie's song that shows his shadow dancing.
- a scene where the vampires are playing hockey with the head of Tim Burton, this was corrected and Tim's head was replaced with a Jack O' Lantern.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993)
Featured review
One of the best films of 1993, highly re-watchable
I was a kid when I first saw Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, but I wasn't scared by it in the slightest - this world is one entirely of the imagination, and in a sense saying that the film is scary for younger children is something of a compliment. 'Nightmare' is both a horror film and a musical, and fantasy and a suspense film, and like most Burton effort, comedy is thrown in at just the right moments.
With Henry Selick as director and Michael McDowell & Caroline Thompson as the screenwriters, Burton has fashioned the worlds of Halloween-town and Christmas-town as real originals, working on the cliches that are in each holiday and surrounding the worlds with a host of terrific and terrifying characters. While Halloween-town has a mayor (appropriately with two faces, one smiling one distressed), the real leader is Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon voices with a great Danny Elfman as the singing Jack) who orchestrates Halloween every year for its citizens. But he's grown weary over the years, and after stumbling upon Christmas-town, loaded with good will towards men and a large man in a red suit, he gets his town riled up to overtake the joyous holiday. Despite one protest by Sally (an amazing Catherine O'Hara), the doll-girl who loves him, the town goes on creating Jack's vision. The results are hilarious and, indeed, spellbinding.
Much credit is given to Burton and Selick for their work on the film, but a lot should also be attributed to Denise Di Novi (co-producer and co-designer), Rick Heinrichs (visual consultant), Pete Kozachik (D.P.), and of course Danny Elfman for his perfectly fitting score and song creations. Along with the talented voice actors, Nightmare Before Christmas ends up a triumph of artistic ingenuity. Some could construe it as too weird or too stylish, but for the cult audience it has garnered over the past ten years it remains of of Burton's finest accomplishments. A+
With Henry Selick as director and Michael McDowell & Caroline Thompson as the screenwriters, Burton has fashioned the worlds of Halloween-town and Christmas-town as real originals, working on the cliches that are in each holiday and surrounding the worlds with a host of terrific and terrifying characters. While Halloween-town has a mayor (appropriately with two faces, one smiling one distressed), the real leader is Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon voices with a great Danny Elfman as the singing Jack) who orchestrates Halloween every year for its citizens. But he's grown weary over the years, and after stumbling upon Christmas-town, loaded with good will towards men and a large man in a red suit, he gets his town riled up to overtake the joyous holiday. Despite one protest by Sally (an amazing Catherine O'Hara), the doll-girl who loves him, the town goes on creating Jack's vision. The results are hilarious and, indeed, spellbinding.
Much credit is given to Burton and Selick for their work on the film, but a lot should also be attributed to Denise Di Novi (co-producer and co-designer), Rick Heinrichs (visual consultant), Pete Kozachik (D.P.), and of course Danny Elfman for his perfectly fitting score and song creations. Along with the talented voice actors, Nightmare Before Christmas ends up a triumph of artistic ingenuity. Some could construe it as too weird or too stylish, but for the cult audience it has garnered over the past ten years it remains of of Burton's finest accomplishments. A+
helpful•16030
- Quinoa1984
- Dec 14, 2003
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D
- Filming locations
- Skellington Productions - 375 7th Street, San Francisco, California, USA(Studio, demolished in 1998)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $18,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $87,620,624
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $191,232
- Oct 17, 1993
- Gross worldwide
- $101,692,744
- Runtime1 hour 16 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
![Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNWE4OTNiM2ItMjY4Ni00ZTViLWFiZmEtZGEyNGY2ZmNlMzIyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDU5NDcxNw@@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,1,90,133_.jpg)