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 under the Disney banner in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas arrived as a stop-motion landmark directed by Henry Selick from Tim Burton's designs. Its blend of gothic imagery and holiday music made it an instant curiosity, later growing into a perennial favorite screened every autumn and Halloween season. The film's handcrafted puppetry and dark whimsy set it apart from typical animated family fare, cementing its place as a genre-crossing classic that still commands strong collector interest decades after its original theatrical run.
This cell preserves Timmy, a background child of Halloween Town whose brief presence rounds out the film's ensemble of ordinary townsfolk against its more fantastical cast. Named simply as boy, little boy, and small child, he represents the everyday population swept up in the story's larger events. For collectors, minor named characters like Timmy hold particular appeal, offering a piece of the film's world beyond its central figures, a small but tangible fragment of the community that gives Halloween Town its texture and scale.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no visible torn or deformed holes
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single-track analog optical stripe
Edge print
Edge numbers readable (mirrored) as '96', '601', '306', '1'; no manufacturer name or SAFETY FILM text is legible in this capture
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly warm; dye image shows rich, saturated colour with no visible fading or red shift
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with an animated feature matching the film on record
Era check
A single variable-area optical track without visible Dolby Digital pixel blocks or DTS timecode is consistent with a standard release print from the early-to-mid 1990s, matching the 1993 release date on record
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 000064601
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
