“It’s a bit unfair, it was me and my team who brought ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ to life.”
More than 25 years have passed since the premiere of ‘Nightmare Before Christmas‘, and there is still a widespread belief among the general public that it is among Tim Burton’s best films. But Tim Burton did not direct the film. It was Henry Selick.
This has become a tired phrase, like that of “Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster“, but no less true for that. Perhaps the fact that the original title is ‘Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas)’ has helped the confusion a lot, something about which Selick recently complained:
“It was a bit unfair because It wasn’t called ‘Tim Burton’s Nightmare’ until three weeks before the movie came out.. And I would have been fine with that, if that’s what I would have signed,” Selick recently told A.V. Club. “But Tim was in Los Angeles making two feature films while I was directing that film and, I mean, Tim is a genius, and he was certainly in his most creative years. I always thought his story was perfect, and he designed the main characters. But it was really me and my team of people who brought the movie to life.”.
As if Burton’s leading role (who devised the story, designed the characters and co-produced the film) wasn’t enough, Selick also had to deal at the time with another “author” of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, the composer Danny Elfmann: “If you ask Danny Elfman, well, this is his movie. [Risas]Selick continued. “When we finished the movie, it was really funny because she came up to me and shook my hand. ‘Henry, you’ve done a wonderful job illustrating my songs!’ And he was serious, and I loved it! But my thing was to hang in there long enough for people to really go, ‘Oh, that guy Henry does stuff.
Finally, recognition as the author of several of the best stop-motion films in history has been coming to him little by little after ‘The worlds of Coraline’ and the recent ‘Wendell and Wild’, in which he has been duly credited for what he is: the director. “I mean, ‘Coraline’ is based on a very good book by Neil Gaiman. That doesn’t matter,” Selick said. “On ‘Wendell & Wild’ my collaborator is Jordan Peele, and that’s why we were able to do it. so really I like to collaborate. But I am the one who leads the team to make the film”.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
