An absolute cult classic, Tim Burton\u2019s The Nightmare Before Christmas<\/a> has been disgusting and delighting audiences since it first premiered in 1993, and has amassed quite the following over the years.<\/p>\n Practically synonymous with Halloween at this point (let\u2019s not get into whether it\u2019s a Christmas movie or not), The Nightmare Before Christmas is the go-to movie for many of us on foggy, winter days.<\/p>\n From the strapping Jack Skellington<\/a> to the unnerving Dr Finkelstein, the residents of Halloween Town have become well-loved household names. Despite this eerie musical having been around for over 3 decades now (we\u2019re sorry if that made you feel old, folks), it still has plenty of surprises up its sleeve.<\/p>\n So, if you\u2019re keen to uncover the skeletons lurking in this movie\u2019s closest, read on for some fun facts you never knew about The Nightmare Before Christmas.<\/p>\n source: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tommyc\/3374952990\/<\/a><\/p>\n If you ask most people who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, you\u2019ll get the standard, \u201cTim Burton, of course!\u201d \u2014 but this isn\u2019t true. Although Burton\u2019s name is above the title, he was the producer but not the director. It was actually Henry Selick who directed the movie, though very few people know this.<\/p>\n The Nightmare Before Christmas was Selick\u2019s directorial debut and set him on a successful path to direct James & The Giant Peach (1996) and Coraline <\/a>(2009), among others.<\/p>\n If you close your eyes and imagine Jack Skellington<\/a>, you can picture his iconic grin and dark, empty sockets, right? But what if we told you that Jack came very close to having human eyes instead of vacant skull holes?<\/p>\n There was an ongoing debate between Disney and Tim Burton about the nature of Jack\u2019s face. According to a report from Mouseplanet<\/a> in 2018, Burton reveals, \u201cThe first rule of drawn animation is that you have to have eyes for expression. I thought it would be great to give life to these characters that have no eyes.\u201d However, he added, \u201cDisney really fought for us to give Jack these friendly eyes instead of dark holes but we wouldn\u2019t budge.\u201d<\/p>\n We wonder what Jack would have looked like if he had been given human eyes\u2026<\/p>\n For stop-motion animation, there sure are a lot of characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas. And each character had to be positioned extremely carefully due to the nature of the movie. To make things even more complicated, many characters wore masks or had removable or rotating faces as part of their costume (the animators certainly didn\u2019t make their lives easy with this one). In total, there are 227 handmade puppet characters that feature in the movie, from the Mayor right down to Lock, Shock, and Barrel<\/a>.<\/p>\n In order for the animators to convey emotion, each puppet also had multiple faces that were swapped out. Main character, Jack Skellington, actually had over 400 different heads in order to convey different facial expressions and movements. That\u2019s an awful lot of little skeleton faces.<\/p>\n We all know that the darkly comedic and charismatic Oogie Boogie<\/a> is the villain in The Nightmare Before Christmas, from the start to the moment when his sack body unravels to reveal a maggoty mess. But, few people know what was supposed to be in place of the maggots. Want to hazard a guess?<\/p>\n The original ending of the movie suggested that Oogie Boogie\u2019s sack-like body was stripped away to reveal none other than Dr. Finklestein! Enraged by jealousy on account of Sally <\/a>spending too much time with Jack, Finklestein was supposed to have been the mastermind behind it all. However, this ending didn\u2019t quite fit right, so, ultimately, it was scrapped.<\/p>\n By Harald Krichel \u2013 Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=151958850<\/a><\/p>\n As the movie\u2019s iconic rhyming opening lines may give away, The Nightmare Before Christmas was actually based on a poem. \u201cT\u2019was a long time ago, longer now than it seems \/ In a place that perhaps you\u2019ve seen in your dreams\u201d\u2026 sound familiar?<\/p>\n Before Tim Burton was an animator for Disney, he wrote a poetic reimagining of the well-known traditional poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas: \u201cTwas the night before Christmas, when all through the house \/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse\u201d.<\/p>\n Burton initially pitched this poem to Disney as a stop-motion movie way back in 1983, but it didn\u2019t work at the time.<\/p>\n The production crew for the movie really had their work cut out for them as not only did they have to account for over 200 characters (each with multiple faces), but they filmed at 24 frames per second.<\/p>\n If, like us, you\u2019re not familiar with stop motion animation lingo, this means that the animators had to pose each character a total of 24 times just for 1 second of footage. What a brain ache!<\/p>\n It wouldn\u2019t be a Disney movie without some kind of easter egg for the die-hard fans, right?<\/p>\n Depending on when you last watched the film, you might remember the scene where two human children wake up on Christmas morning only to be terrorized by some creepy toys straight from Halloween Town. Well, if you look a little closer at the children\u2019s pajamas, you might see a few familiar faces. The children are wearing PJs with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse on them!<\/p>\n Did you know that there are technically two different Jack Skellingtons in the film? The smooth-talking voice of Jack belongs to American actor Chris Sarandon. However, each time that Jack breaks into song, it\u2019s actually singer-songwriter Danny Elfman\u2019s voice that you\u2019re hearing. Elfman had major involvement with the musical part of the movie and composed ten separate songs for the film, also voicing Barrel and the Clown with the Tear-Away Face.<\/p>\n Another interesting fact about Jack Skellington is that he\u2019s had quite the covert acting career of his own beyond A Nightmare Before Christmas.<\/p>\n Over the years, observant Tim Burton fans and avid Disney watchers have noticed fleeting glimpses of the Pumpkin King popping up in all sorts of unexpected places. Just as Jack took a sneaky trip into Christmas Town, he\u2019s also ventured outside of his main movie to feature in other Disney and Burton films.<\/p>\n Jack (or his likeness, at least) has been spotted in Coraline, Princess and the Frog<\/a>, Alice in Wonderland<\/a>, Finding Nemo<\/a>, and Sleepy Hollow too<\/a>. Whether it\u2019s spotting a skeletal hand or spying a skull face in the background, if you needed an excuse to watch any of those films again, this is it.<\/p>\n While the film may only be a little over an hour long, you can immerse yourself in the whimsical world of Tim Burton<\/a> for as long as you like with Displate. Our The Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired metal poster designs<\/a> feature all your favorite scenes and characters \u2014 from Oogie Boogie to Sally and Zero \u2014 so you never have to leave Halloween Town.<\/p>\n Perfect for movie rooms, bedrooms, gaming areas, or living rooms, our metal posters<\/a> let you decorate your space exactly how you want. Choose your favorite design and decorate your walls with a splash of terror to keep the nightmares coming!<\/p>\n For more movie trivia and design inspiration, be sure to keep up with the Displate blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe Real Director<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nNo-Eyed Jack<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAn Extensive Cast<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe Original Villain<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe Movie Has Poetic Origins<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nPainstaking Work<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nMickey Mouse Makes an Appearance<\/h2>\n
There Are Two Jacks<\/h2>\n
Ok, not really \u2014 but Jack Skellington was voiced by two different actors throughout the film.<\/p>\nA Jack of all Trades<\/h2>\n
Keep the Nightmares Coming with Displate<\/h2>\n
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