One of my favorite animated movies is The Nightmare Before Christmas . I
love the dark muted tones in all of the "Halloween" portions and then
the way it changes when entering the "Christmas" portions. It is absolutely amazing to think of all that went into making it.
It is a puppet, stop motion animation movie that took over 3 years to complete. I don't remember ever seeing anything quite so complex before. The complexity of the puppets and the space needed to do the puppeteering were also something to take into consideration. The crew were told to try to limit the space for a puppeteer to 3 feet; some couldn't and therefore were built with room below for the puppeteer to move around in. The styles of the different "towns" were also totally different which meant completely different set designs. Per Selick, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned."
Danny Elfman, who voiced two of the characters and was also Jack's singing voice, wrote the music. He said that writing the 10 songs were one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had, because he had a lot in common with Jack.
Their efforts paid off, because the film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Danny Elfman won the Saturn Award for Best Music. Director Henry Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The American Film Institute nominated The Nightmare Before Christmas for its Top 10 Animated Films list. Here's the original movie trailer.
It is a puppet, stop motion animation movie that took over 3 years to complete. I don't remember ever seeing anything quite so complex before. The complexity of the puppets and the space needed to do the puppeteering were also something to take into consideration. The crew were told to try to limit the space for a puppeteer to 3 feet; some couldn't and therefore were built with room below for the puppeteer to move around in. The styles of the different "towns" were also totally different which meant completely different set designs. Per Selick, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned."
Danny Elfman, who voiced two of the characters and was also Jack's singing voice, wrote the music. He said that writing the 10 songs were one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had, because he had a lot in common with Jack.
Their efforts paid off, because the film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Danny Elfman won the Saturn Award for Best Music. Director Henry Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The American Film Institute nominated The Nightmare Before Christmas for its Top 10 Animated Films list. Here's the original movie trailer.
Upon doing research about the movie I ran across some interesting facts. "The filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in
the movie, with Jack Skellington having around four hundred heads,
allowing the expression of every possible emotion.
Sally's mouth movements were animated through the replacement method.
During the animation process, ... only Sally's face 'mask' was removed
in order to preserve the order of her long, red hair. Sally had ten
types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes
open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronized mouth
movements." I also learned that the figurine for Jack Skellington was reused in James and the Giant Peach as a dead pirate captain.
I'm including the making of videos here, too. After you've watched these I'm sure you'll want to see the movie!
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