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. The stop-motion feature arrived at a moment when traditional animation was being reconsidered, and its gothic aesthetic and Elfman's operatic score established it as a singular work in the Disney canon, one that has only grown in cultural standing over the decades.

This cell, titled The Halloween Town Band and The Mayor, captures the ensemble performance sequence featuring the Clown with the Tear-Away Face voiced by Danny Elfman, the Mayor of Halloween Town voiced by Glenn Shadix, the Saxophone Player voiced by Greg Proops, and the accordion Band Member voiced by L. Peter Callender, rendered here across warm stage lighting against Halloween Town's characteristic darkness.