National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas was released by Touchstone Pictures in October 1993. The stop-motion animated feature represented a landmark achievement in the format, bringing Burton's illustrated poem to life through painstaking frame-by-frame puppet animation. Its blend of gothic imagery with holiday sentiment found an audience that has only grown across the decades, cementing the film as a defining artifact of early 1990s fantasy filmmaking.

This cell captures Vampire Teddy within the warmly lit interior setting of the film, framed against blue walls with Christmas tree ornaments visible in the upper portion of the frame. Candlelight rises from below the staircase, casting the characteristic atmospheric glow that defines the film's holiday sequences. The three consecutive frames originate from a single shot, offering a rare glimpse into the rhythm of Selick's stop-motion craft at the individual frame level.