National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was released by Touchstone Pictures in October 1993, produced through Burton's collaboration with director Henry Selick and Disney. The stop-motion animated feature stood apart from contemporary animation for its gothic visual language and musical ambition, earning lasting cultural significance and introducing a distinct aesthetic that influenced the medium well beyond its initial release.

This encapsulated cell captures Oogie Boogie in close profile against a characteristically dark background, his burlap silhouette rendered across three sequential 35mm frames showing the subtle continuity of stop-motion movement. Below him, the illuminated roulette table of his gambling lair is visible, its yellow and blue elements catching the light — a fitting frame for one of the film's most theatrical figures.