While Tim Burton was busy directing Batman Returns he found himself in a difficult position. A poem he had written years earlier called The Nightmare Before Christmas was given the green light by the Walt Disney Company and Burton either had to be in two places at the same time or find another director for The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the end Burton got Henry Selick to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas and Selick knew right away that this project was very important, and very personal, for the producer Tim Burton. Many years earlier Tim Burton happened to be in a department store when they were changing over the Halloween merchandise to Christmas merchandise and the contrast of Santa Claus and Halloween ghosts and ghouls gave Tim Burton the inspiration for The Nightmare Before Christmas. But Burton did not want this to be an animated movie or a slick CGI movie, Burton wanted the movie to look like it was being acted out by holiday decorations. Initially the movie was going to be billed as the new wave of stop motion animation being created by the Disney Company but when Michael Eisner, Disney CEO, saw The Nightmare Before Christmas he felt it was too dark of a movie and since Disney did not release PG rated movies he moved it to the Touchstone label which was owned by Disney but dealt with more adult themed movies. The Nightmare Before Christmas became such a success that when it was re-released in 3D in 2006 it was done so under the Disney name.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is about the king of Halloweenland who gets tired of the same Halloween things all the time and ventures out to see the rest of the world. He stumbles upon a forest full of trees and this forest also contains doors to several other holiday lands. He winds up choosing the Christmasland door and finds himself in Christmasland. He is amazed at the beauty and decides that he wants to take the place of Santa Claus and deliver Christmas himself. The king of Halloweenland, known as Jack Skellington, orders two of his younger residents to kidnap Santa so that Jack can bring gifts to the children. When everything goes horribly wrong Jack soon realizes that he has no place in Christmas and tries to bring Santa back to save Christmas. The problem is that the evil Oogie Boogie has taken Santa and Jack must now save Santa from Oogie Boogie in order to save Christmas.

The Nightmare Before Christmas tries to be a children’s story, and the fact that the animation is so unique helps it appeal to children, but it does have its dark moments that certainly are not for children. But brilliance of the look of the movie, which Burton has gone on to recreate in another story of his called The Corpse Bride, is worth the price of admission alone and the story is entertaining as well. Each time this movie has been released to theaters it has done very well and it enjoys a large following. On top of box office success it also enjoys critical success and has an Academy Award nomination to its credit for sound production. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a strange but wonderful holiday movie with the only problem being figuring out exactly which holiday it applies to.