The Nightmare Before Christmas

 On this date in 1993, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" went into wide release in the United States.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Productions. 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.

There is something of a controversy over exactly who has the rights to call the story and film their own. Henry Selick is the director and spent more time on the set and production than Burton. However Burton has often claimed he is the owner of the story as it was all his idea, served as a producer, and even wanted to direct but was simply too busy at the time to do so. Popular culture has long accepted the film as Burton's as the film heading is "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Burton does reinforce the fact that Selick directed the film, and is often annoyed that people don't remember him for that.

On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like 'a Tim Burton film', which is not so different from my own films." When asked on Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total." Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed with some use of second-layering traditional animation. Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing "Batman Returns" (1992) and in pre-production of "Ed Wood" (1994).

In a test shot of the end where the vampires play hockey on the frozen lake, a head that resembling the head of Burton was originally used. However, one of the producers told Selick that Burton probably wouldn't like that, so it was changed at the last moment and reshot with a jack o' lantern instead of a head. Selick later said that he believed that Burton would have liked the idea, and regretted not asking the man himself.

According to director Henry Selick, Vincent Price was originally cast as Santa Claus. However, after the death of Price's wife in May of 1991, his own health began to fail and his voice performance was very frail and weak. The tracks were deemed unusable which led, much to Selick's regret, to the role being recast (with Ed Ivory).

The film premiered at a film festival on October 9th, only 16 days before Price's death and was released on a limited basis four days later. The film's first United States wide release was October 29th, four days after Price passed away.

In 2001, Walt Disney Pictures began to consider producing a sequel, but rather than using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation. Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea. "I was always very protective of ['Nightmare'] not to do sequels or things of that kind," Burton explained. "You know, 'Jack visits Thanksgiving world' or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it."