The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop-motion animated film directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton. The music in the film was written by Danny Elfman, and he provided the singing voice of Jack Skellington. The Nightmare Before Christmas originated from a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Productions. Burton made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios and the production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney initially released the film through the Touchstone Pictures label because the studio believed the film would be “too dark and scary for kids”. The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13 before the actual release on October 29.

The Nightmare before Christmas film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentowns pumpkin king. Jack had become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the “real world”. When Jack accidentally stumbles into Christmastown he gets a new lease on life. The town was full of bright colors and warm spirits. Jack plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the pole. He soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously wrong.

This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a first for an animated film, but sadly it lost to Jurassic Park. It was reissued by Walt Disney Pictures and was re-released annually in DIsney Digital 3-D from 2006-2010. In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.