Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Visual Companion (Commemorating 30 Y ears)

Chapter 1
Before the Nightmare
 
The commonality among most great film raconteurs is their early love of the movies. Those seminal moments in a dark movie theater where their imaginations were captivated by the screen images playing before their very eyes: the gee-whiz, how d they do that moments when fantasy and reality blend, creating a sense of awe and wonder. For a young Tim Burton, and many of the artists who worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas, some of those key inspirational moments came from the American-British visual effects designer Ray Harryhausen and the stop-motion animation of fantastical creatures he created for special effects oriented fantasy films like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Growing up with Ray Harryhausen, that kind of stop-motion was a very, very strong thing, reminisced Burton during a conversation we had in Los Angeles in 2017. As an animation technique, the stop-motion genre includes anything that requires a physical inanimate object to be manipulated and photographed frame by frame to appear as though it has come to life when the frames are run consecutively on film. Harryhausen s process typically called for him to develop miniatures that he would then shape for each frame, meticulously managing the illusion of movement. Jason and the Argonauts was one of the first cinematic experiences I ever remember as a child, Burton said. When you have a certain time in a certain moment, it s just like a perfect storm. It stays with you.
Burton is not alone in attributing Harryhausen as an emotional and motivating influence. Trey Thomas, a stop-motion animator on Nightmare who continued his stop-motion work on James and the Giant Peach (1996), Corpse Bride (2005), and Coraline (2009), and eventually became the animation director on Burton s Frankenweenie (2012), agreed completely. I was a Ray Harryhausen fan from back in the day. I was a little kid, and it just made a huge

David A. Bossert is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, and author. He worked at The Walt Disney Company for more than thirty-two years and is now an independent producer, creative director, and writer. Bossert contributed his talents to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Tim Burton s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Fantasia/2000, Destino and many others. He is a member of the CalArts Board of Trustees and is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Pittsburgh. Bossert is an authority on Disney animation history and has written numerous articles, liner notes, and concert program notes related to animation. He co-authored Disney Animated, which was named iPad App of 2013 by Apple and won a prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. Learn more at www.davidbossert.com.

Dave Bossert has created a wonderful book to commemorate Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, more than thirty years on. He masterfully blends interviews with Tim Burton, Danny Elman, and myself along with many of the talented artists who worked on the film into a very nuanced and personal picture of how the movie actually came together, was made, and went from a cult favorite to a holiday classic. It's a remarkable book about a remarkable, one-of-a-kind renegade project that has stood the test of time.
    Henry Selick, Director, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a cult-film favorite for fans of Tim Burton, Halloween, Santa, and Disney . . . now Dave Bossert gives us the must-have bible about the history and making of this legendary animated classic."
    Don Hahn, Producer/Director

"Dave Bossert's research is impeccable, his text is an easy read, and the selection of illustrations is stimulating from start to finish. This is the book I always wanted to own about a movie that has haunted me ever since its release."
    Didier Ghez, Author of the book series They Drew As They Pleased The Hidden Art of Disney

"What a pleasure it is to be transported back in time by author Dave Bossert and given this fascinating, hands-on ride through the making of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. With meticulous attention to detail combined with an incredible amount of research, Bossert's passion for our little movie shines brightly as he adroitly shares our creation story with the reader. It is a joy, and an honor, to see this beautifully-documented and insightful book, as it reveals the commitment of our close-knit crew to elevating the art of stop-motion and crafting the timeless story of Sally and Jack."
    Eric Leighton, Animation Supervisor, Tim Burton s The Nightmare Before Christmas

"I love it when