Nightmare Before Christmas Books Views

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After graduating from Burbank High School, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts to study character animation. Some of his classmates were John Lasseter, Brad Bird, John Musker and Henry Selick. (In the future, Selick and Burton would work together in The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.)

Next, Burton wrote and produced (but did not direct, due to schedule constraints on Batman Returns) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), originally meant to be a children's book in rhyme. The film was directed by Henry Selick and written by Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson, based on Burton's original story, world and characters. The film received positive reviews for the film's stop motion animation, musical score and original storyline and was a box office success, grossing $50p million. Burton collaborated with Selick again for James and the Giant Peach (1996), which Burton co-produced. The movie helped to generate a renewed interest in stop-motion animation.

His next film, Ed Wood (1994), was of a much smaller scale, depicting the life of Ed Wood, a filmmaker sometimes called the worst director of all time . Starring Johnny Depp in the title role, the film is an homage to the low-budget sci-fi and horror films of Burton's childhood, and handles its comical protagonist and his motley band of collaborators with surprising fondness and sensitivity. Owing to creative squabbles during the making of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman declined to score Ed Wood, and the assignment went to Howard Shore. While a commercial failure at the time of its release, Ed Wood was well received by critics. Martin Landau received an Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of Béla Lugosi. Gene Siskel once said that two flims, Ed Wood and Citizen Kane, be mandatory films to see in film classes.

Disney released Nightmare Before Christmas under Touchstone Pictures banner because they felt it was too dark and twisted in nature to be released under Disney Pictures. I don’t particularly agree with this, but having it released as such didn’t hurt the film at all. Released in 1993, Nightmare does not have any elements that outdates it which makes the film timeless as well as a classic. Children and adults alike will enjoy this movie for it has something for everyone.