National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2023
“The king of dark whimsy, Tim Burton won over an even larger (and decidedly younger) crowd with this delightful stop-motion animated offering. Jack Skellington, whose giant pumpkin head rests precariously on top of his rail-thin body, is the king of Halloween Town; one year he dreams of bringing a little Christmas magic to his humble hamlet.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Henry Selick
Studio
Walt Disney Pictures · Touchstone Pictures · Skellington Productions · 73 min
Box office
$91.2M worldwide on a $24M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 1 nominationAnnie Awards — 1 nomination
Scholarship
Named in the title of 13 peer-reviewed works
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Released by Touchstone Pictures in 1993 under Tim Burton's guiding hand and directed by Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas arrived as a stop-motion landmark, blending gothic imagination with musical whimsy. Its painstaking frame-by-frame craftsmanship set new standards for the medium, and its blending of Halloween and Christmas mythologies gave audiences a genuinely original holiday classic. Decades on, it remains a cornerstone of animation history and a favorite among collectors of Burton's distinctive visual universe.
This cell centers on Oogie Boogie, the film's chief antagonist and one of its most sought-after figures among collectors. As a gambling, bug-filled boogeyman, Oogie embodies the film's darker comic menace, standing apart from the more sympathetic Halloween Town cast. A cell bearing his name suggests a moment tied to his singular presence, a fragment of animation history capturing the character who gives the story its sense of danger and delight in equal measure.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both visible edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the left edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single bilateral track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer text or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly warm; dye image shows strong, saturated colour with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light horizontal abrasion lines are visible across the lower portion of the strip, consistent with a projected print.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and depict imagery consistent with the stop-motion animated feature on record.
Era check
A single bilateral variable-area optical track on a saturated colour positive 35mm print is consistent with a 1993 theatrical release print of this title.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000064481
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
