The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy Halloween-Christmas film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of "Halloween Town" who stumbles through a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
List of stop motion artists
Director Henry Selick is a well-known force in the world of stop motion animation, with "Coraline" – based on Neil Gaiman's best-selling novella and released in 2009 – being his most recent and successful work. "Coraline", the first stop motion animated feature to be shot entirely in stereoscopic 3-D, received lavish critical praise and became the second highest grossing stop motion feature in history. Kenneth Turan, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said, "The third dimension comes of age with 'Coraline.' The first contemporary film in which the 3-D experience feels intrinsic to the story instead of a Godforsaken gimmick, 'Coraline' is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge." "Coraline", released by Focus Features, is the first feature film made by LAIKA, an animation company based in Portland, Oregon and headed up by Travis Knight. Selick made his feature film directing debut in 1993 with "The Nightmare Before Christmas", the first full-length, stop motion feature from a major studio. An instant holiday classic based on producer Tim Burton's story, "Nightmare" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Selick won the International Animated Film Society's Annie Award for Best Creative Supervision. In 1996, Selick followed with a second feature, "James and the Giant Peach", again produced by Burton, which combined stop motion animation with live-action. The film received widespread critical acclaim and won first prize at the world-renowned Annecy Film Festival in 1997.