The Nightmare Before Christmas
The film initially received positive reviews from critics; it has since gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 95%, based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's consensus reads, ""The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation." On Metacritic the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
The Shivering Truth
The characters in the show are puppets with wire-based armatures, created with silicon, wool, polystyrene, and resin. Chatman stated that around six months of physical production, a month of recording, and two-and-a-half months of post-production were needed to complete six episodes. Chatman has noted several inspirations for his work on the show, including Terry Gilliam's work on "Monty Python's Flying Circus", stating that "I saw it when I was very young, so it scared me. I didn't know when the animation was beginning or ending." He also explained that "A lot of my influences are non-animated, primarily in short films, novels, even radio shows. A recent one is David Eagleman's books on the brain. He's a neuroscientist and he gives you 40 different versions of the afterlife, and none of them can co-exist." Solen has spoken on her inspirations as well, saying that "I loved the movie "The Wizard of Speed and Time", which is a cautionary tale about making movies. Another film that I loved as kid was Nicolas Roeg's [film] adaptation of Roald Dahl's "The Witches", which featured both Anjelica Huston and Jim Henson's puppets. It scared me so much!"
The pilot episode premiered on the Adult Swim website on May 22, 2018. Before the television premiere at midnight on December 9, 2018, Adult Swim created an "online scavenger hunt" by releasing all six episodes on multiple websites and platforms.