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 composer Danny Elfman. A landmark in stop-motion animation, the film brought a distinctly gothic sensibility to mainstream audiences and remains one of the most visually distinctive animated features of its decade, influencing character design and dark fantasy storytelling well into the following generation.

This cell, titled Sally, captures the beloved rag-doll character in a dimly lit setting within Halloween Town, surrounded by dark foliage. The three consecutive frames originate from a single shot, offering a rare glimpse into the incremental nature of stop-motion filmmaking, where minute puppet adjustments between frames create the illusion of fluid movement. Sally's patchwork figure is rendered with quiet melancholy, characteristic of her role throughout the film.