(Laugh) Yeah, yeah,
yeah we know that the Nightmare Before Christmas is considered a Halloween movie
and not a Christmas one.
But (Bleep) it, it has the world Christmas right there in the title.
And it turns out, there are a bunch of you guys who like watching it every Christmas.
So shut your ho ho hole and maybe you'll learn something.
Here are seven things you
didn't know about the Nightmare Before Christmas, probably.
(Sound) A lot
of people forget that the Nightmare Before Christmas is technically a Disney movie.
>> Surprised, aren't you?
I knew you would be.
>> After all, it doesn't really blend in with their usual
wisecracking cats and such.
>> A Cheshire cat.
But you may be surprised to find out how important The Little Mermaid was in
the Nightmare Before Christmas finally getting made.
Tim Burton had been an animator at Disney back in the 80s
on projects like The Fox and The Hound.
While he was there, he also created some of his famous shorts like Frankenweenie.
And he also wrote a poem which became the inspiration and basis for
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
In the end, Burton left Disney because he could never really
mesh with the Disney style, which is putting it lightly.
And after leaving he went on to become a pretty big deal,
directing Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands.
All the while he had been Pitching The Nightmare Before Christmas,
trying to get it made into a TV special or even a book without any success.
But when The Little Mermaid was a smash hit in the early 90s and more or
less saved Disney Animation Studios, animated projects were resuscitated and
very much in demand.
So a whole 20 years later, after Burton had proved himself elsewhere, he was able
to come back to Disney and at last, get The Nightmare Before Christmas made.
The problem was by then, Burton had become so
successful that he actually wasn't even available to direct his own project.
He was busy on Batman Returns.
>> Meow.
>> And that is a perfect segue into our next thing.
(Sound).
The Nightmare Before Christmas is definitely from Tim Burton's mind and
the aesthetic remains pretty true to his original drawings.
Even in this part, one of the most famous moments from the film,
that imagery is taken directly from one of Burton's sketches.
>> And what did Santa bring you, honey?
(Sound) >> But,
since he couldn't direct it himself they brought on Henry Selick to do the job.
It was Selick's first feature film and it clearly made an impact on him because he
managed to work a Jack Skellington cameo into his later projects, James and
the Giant Peach and Coraline.
>> Skellington.
>> The cameo in James and
the Giant Peach is pretty hard to miss with Jack as the Pirate Captain.
The one in Coraline is a bit of a longer walk, but if you slow down this part when
the egg gets cracked, you can sort of see Jack's face in the yolk.
(Sound) Yeah, that one is a bit harder to see and is way more of an Easter egg.
(Sound) Ew, sorry, bad pun.
And by the way, if you're that one person out there whose favorite movie is
Coraline, don't go into the comments section asking us to do an episode on it.
No one gives a (Bleep) and it's not going to happen.
Same goes for you number one fan of James and the Giant Peach.
(Sound) Here's a fun fact about using practical effects during
the animation process.
For the melting man in this scene,
they achieved the melting effect by well, melting him.
All they did was blow hot air on him between frames and
let the air melt the puppet a bit and then they animated it.
So all you new school animators can take your CGI and shove it.
Just put your boots on, march in there, take a blow dryer and
melt your character the way our ancestors did.
(Sound) Taking the most logical approach worked
well for the melting man, but things got a little scarier when animating Zero.
To get the fluid effect they wanted so he'd looked like a floating cloth,
they actually used lead to animate him.
>> Interesting reaction.
>> Zero's head is a normal puppet head like Jack's and the other characters, but
his body is made of lead.
Which now explains that old saying,
don't lick your fingers after you've used your hands on Zero.
That may not be an old saying but if it was, I'd totally get it now.
(Sound) >> This time we really did it,
it sure is big Jack, and heavy.
>> Whoa. >> On to more wholesome things,
let's talk about Santa because he almost sounded very, very different in the movie.
The filmmakers originally went after Vincent Price to play Santa, and
they got him, Abe recorded the performance in everything.
The problem was, Price's wife had just passed away and the sadness in his voice
was palpable, so his performance just didn't work in the end.
After having some auditions,
they recast and found Edward Ivory and everything worked out.
>> I'm Santa Clause!
>> Vincent Price would have been so awesome though, just saying.
(Sound) In addition to actually melting the melting man,
here's another practical solution that the animators used.
>> Think of us as you soar triumphantly through the sky.
>> See those clouds?
Yeah, those are just cotton, just regular old cotton.
All of the clouds were handmade by the production team and
they simply pushed the camera through them to animate Jack's ride on the sleigh.
So suck it, again, you CGI assholes.
(Sound) >> You know what, it's Christmas and
I'm sorry for yelling, let me make it up to you with one more thing.
(Sound).
We mentioned that a lot of people forget that this is a Disney movie,
especially since Disney distanced themselves from the project by releasing
it through their Touchstone banner.
But, that doesn't mean The Nightmare Before Christmas doesn't have the usual
Mickey ears that make their way into every one of Disney's animated films.
The toy that Jack places in this scene is inspired by Mickey Mouse, specifically,
in the ears.
And Disney wasn't too thrilled with that one, but
they kind of had to be okay with it, after all, it's pretty easy to miss.
But a more direct Mickey reference happens right afterward
when the toy attacks the little girl, she's wearing a Mickey nightgown.
So take that Disney, they got you, you're burned with an Easter egg that
undoubtedly went through several levels of approval at your own headquarters.
>> Merry Christmas.
>> That's it for this year's Christmas episode of Things You Didn't Know
about a Halloween movie.
Look, Santa's in it, right?
It doesn't get any more Christmas-y than that so just take it easy in the comments.
Thanks for watching and be sure to check out CineFix.com and
subscribe for more true-ish things about movies and
sometimes very merry Halloween movies, right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Applause) >> I believe it was our most horrible yet,
thank you, everyone.