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. Shot entirely in stop-motion animation, the film represented a landmark achievement in the technique and became one of the most enduring cult properties of the decade, influencing Halloween and Christmas culture alike for generations.

This cell captures Santa Claus confined within Oogie Boogie's lair, one of the film's most dramatically charged sequences. The twinkling lights and looming skeletal mechanical structure overhead frame Santa in unmistakable peril against the dungeon's dark, star-speckled atmosphere. As a single strip of original 35mm, it preserves a genuinely iconic moment from the film's third act.