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 Nightmare Before Christmas
As writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood. "Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, […] it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn't there before", Burton would later recall. After completing his short film "Vincent" in 1982, Burton, who was then employed at Walt Disney Feature Animation, wrote a three-page poem titled "The Nightmare Before Christmas", drawing inspiration from television specials of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price, but also considered other options such as a children's book. He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models; Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works-in-progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time. After the success of "Vincent" in 1982, Disney started to consider developing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as either a short film or 30-minute holiday television special. However, the project's development eventually stalled, as its tone seemed "too weird" to the company. As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984, and went on to direct the commercially successful films, "Beetlejuice" and "Batman".
Over the years, Burton regularly thought about the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights. He and Selick committed to produce a full-length film with the latter as director. Burton's own success in live-action films piqued the interest of Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who saw the film as an opportunity of continuing the studio's streak of recent success in feature animation. Disney was looking forward to "Nightmare" "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"." Walt Disney Pictures president David Hoberman, believed the film would prove to be a creative achievement for Disney's image, elaborating "we can think outside the envelope. We can do different and unusual things."