This is the original poem of the 1993 stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas originally written by Tim Burton, which dates back to 1982, eleven years before the project was finalized and made into a feature film in 1993. This gave a hint that the film was originally going to be a short film but it was later decided to be a feature film while Tim Burton was working as an animator at Disney around the time. While most of the elements from the original poem were kept in the final version of the film, the poem runs for ten minutes unlike in the final version made into a feature film. As such, the script was reworked to make The Nightmare Before Christmas into a feature film rather than a short film.
While not in the original Touchstone Home Entertainment video releases of the film, the original poem was later included as a bonus feature in later releases of the film beginning with the 2008 home video releases as a bonus feature. The poem was narrated in the style of an animated short and features narration by the late Christopher Lee.
Overview[]
Style[]
The text from the original poem is told in a rhyme inspired by style of the traditional poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (aka "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") which is similar to Tim Burton's previous project, Vincent, albeit with Halloween-themed elements mixed with Christmas elements like in the actual film itself.
Plot[]
In Halloween Town, Jack Skellington sadly sits on the Spiral Hill while feeling tired and bored of celebrating Halloween all over again in Halloween Town and wanting to find something new. Passing by a graveyard, his faithful ghost dog Zero accompanies him and with Zero by his side, Jack wandered into a very far away place in a forest full of trees into a mysterious area full of holiday doorways. Jack then approaches a door in the shape of a Christmas tree and as he enters through the doorway, he finds himself in another place known as Christmas Town. Jack curiously explores Christmas Town to see what it is like there. As he explores, he takes various objects seen at Christmas Town, including a picture of Santa Claus and his elves, some snow, and decorations from a Christmas tree.
As Jack returns to Halloween Town, the citizens living there curiously await Jack who brought the objects to show them what Christmas is like and while some enjoyed this experience, others (such as the Mayor) felt scared. Jack returns home and curiously interacts with the objects he found in Halloween Town and says to himself that he could be like Santa to do something different and as he got an idea, he felt satisfied of doing this plan. Back at Christmas Town, Santa is busy making toys for the good boys and girls for Christmas and as he hears a knock on a door, a trio of trick-or-treating children approach him and put him in their bag as they take him to Halloween for the citizens to see Santa. As Jack approaches Santa, he then takes over his plan as Santa so he can spread holiday cheer just like Santa does while the citizens make Christmas toys for Jack to deliver albeit in Halloween theme. As the citizens finish their hard work for Jack's plan, Jack then gets his sleigh full of skeletal reindeer and a coffin for his sleigh and as the fog occurs, Jack's dog Zero has a glowing nose which he tells him that his nose provides an advantage to guide him through the foggy night, helping Jack and his sleigh of reindeer across the night.
As Jack arrives at the real world, he secretly delivers Christmas presents to the household he finds and soon as Jack leaves, the Christmas gifts he delivers to the children come to life and start frightening them in fear, which Jack is unaware of the panic he caused for the children. Amongst the Christmas presents received were a doll with a demonic behavior, a monstrous train with tentacle tracks, a devil puppet equipped with an axe, a man-eating plant disguised as a wreath, and a vampire teddy bear with very sharp teeth.
Unaware of the chaos he caused, Jack continues to care about taking over Christmas not noticing the blasts down below him which he mistakes them for fireworks celebrating in joy. However, it is revealed that they were actually military units who are shooting down Jack to which as Jack tries to avoid the military, his sleigh ends up getting hit by a missile, causing Jack to fall into a cemetery. Jack finds himself in the cemetery sitting sad by a grave. Soon as a figure approaches him and Zero at the graveyard, it is shown that the figure visiting the two was Santa who was furious at Jack for taking over his holiday for causing havoc across the world, explaining to him that Halloween is the right place for him. Santa then heads off to fix the mistakes Jack did in the first place knowing that it's almost Christmas just as he leaves off by his own sleigh of reindeer. Back at home, Jack returns to the Spiral Hill where he sits. However, it starts snowing back at Halloween Town and it is shown that Santa has thanked Jack for helping him save Christmas.
Differences between the original poem and the final version[]
- Characters such as Dr. Finkelstein and Oogie Boogie were not featured in the original poem.
- While Sally played a major role in the film itself, her role was limited to a single cameo in the featurette version of the poem on home media and only appears as an incidental character.
- On a related note, Sally was not mentioned in the poem.
- While Sally played a major role in the film itself, her role was limited to a single cameo in the featurette version of the poem on home media and only appears as an incidental character.
- All songs in the original poem are omitted.
- The "This is Halloween" celebration sequence is entirely omitted as there is no scene where Jack rises from a fountain during a Halloween celebration nor any mentions.
- In the original poem, Zero exits his tomb and approaches Jack who is sitting on the Spiral Hill in sadness. In the final version of the film, he knocks on Zero's grave to give him assistance when leaving Halloween Town.
- When Jack enters Christmas Town, it simply shows him taking various objects without getting caught by elves affiliated with Santa Claus. In the final version of the film, it was replaced by the "What's This?" musical sequence where he curiously explores Christmas Town. Later, after Jack takes the objects from Christmas Town and returns to Halloween Town, it simply shows Jack showing the Christmas objects to the Halloween Town citizens.
- On a related note during the town meeting sequence, there is a scene where Jack shows the citizens of Halloween Town the objects he found in Christmas Town, giving a hint that Jack did take the objects similar to what was seen in the original poem - albeit not seen onscreen.
- In the film, Jack is shown curiously interacting with the objects he found in Christmas Town while telling the citizens that he will take over Christmas. In the poem, it simply shows Jack curiously interacting with the Christmas objects inside his house.
- In the poem, it shows Santa making toys for all the good children he can give for Christmas, while in the finalized film, it shows him checking on his nice and naughty lists respectively just before getting caught by Lock, Shock, and Barrel.
- Lock, Shock, and Barrel only appear in one scene in the original poem, unlike in the film where they had a larger role in the film.
- In the scene where Jack plans to leave via real world when dressed as Santa, the fog occurs out of nowhere. In the final version of the film, it was Sally who put in fog juice in the fountain.
- In the original poem, it is said that the toys of Gumby and Pokey from the animated series Gumby were mentioned. However, in the finalized version of the film, they were physically omitted and were never mentioned, likely because they are copyrighted characters.
- Some of the Christmas toys seen in the original poem do not appear in the final version of the film.
- The Man-Eating Wreath was displayed in the poem and has teeth, while in the final version of the film, it was depicted with no teeth. Various other merchandise inspired by the film often depict the Man-Eating Wreath with teeth.
- During the scene where Jack is shot down by the military units, he survives the fall in this poem where he sits next to a grave at a cemetery. In the film, he finds himself lying down on an angel statue's arms causing his lower jaw to fall off and Zero retrieves his missing jaw, putting him back together. Also, there are no Halloween-themed Christmas toys that were seen destroyed in the original poem.
- There is no scene where the citizens of Halloween Town are aware of Jack who was shot down by the military in the poem, unlike in the film.
- In the poem, Santa finds Jack at the graveyard where he reprimands him at the cemetery for attempting to take over his own holiday and furious of what Jack did. In the film, he instead reprimands him at Oogie Boogie's lair after rescuing him and Sally from Oogie and defeating him in battle.
- When Jack returns home to Halloween Town, the scene where the citizens are happy to see he is alive was omitted in the poem, unlike in the film where they found out that Jack survived.
Video[]
Trivia[]
- The scene where Jack wakes up in the cemetery after being shot down by the military and is confronted by Santa was used for an animation test to see how the characters would interact with their environment.
- The entire text used from the original poem was later used for The Nightmare Before Christmas book published by Disney Press which was released on August 6, 2013 as part of the film's 20th anniversary. The same text was also released in the same books in Barnes & Noble stores in 2018 - albeit with a different artwork than the standard one.
- During the scene where Jack places Halloween-themed Christmas presents in the real world, the lines from the "'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas" verse was later used in the seasonal attraction Haunted Mansion Holiday in the Stretching Room scene narrated by the Ghost Host.
External links[]
