The Nightmare Before Christmas' Jack Skellington Casting Drove A Wedge Between Danny Elfman And Tim Burton
Aside from its revered place as one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" has a complicated legacy. Not due to problematic themes or scandalous allegations, but instead like Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" (or Steven Spielberg's, depending on whom you ask), where the collaboration process between its premier storytellers has muddied over time. The 1993 macabre musical extravaganza is the collected innovation of "Wendell & Wild" director and stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, screenwriter Caroline Thompson ("Edward Scissorhands"), producer Tim Burton (who also authored the 1982 poem that inspired the movie), and composer/songwriter Danny Elfman, who developed the story and lyrics with Burton.
Together, they tell the story of "a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams," a realm where each holiday has its own world. Jack Skellington reigns as "The Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town and its monstrous citizens — "There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best," he croons beneath a full moon. He orchestrates terrifying Samhain extravaganzas every year in the spirit of Vincent Price-esque revelry, where there's food, drink, and perhaps a beheading or two. Having grown tired of the same old screams, Jack aspires to give his people the greatest holiday celebration ever, and his quest eventually leads him to appropriate Christmas from Christmas Town, with grim results. Nearly three decades beyond his stop-motion debut, Jack remains one of the most frightful and fun icons of the Disney movie pantheon for both children and adults.
As such, the voice casting of Jack was essential to the movie's success for Selick, who remembers the issue causing a rift between Elfman, who was originally employed to sing and speak for Skellington, and Burton, who felt that casting another actor in the speaking parts would be best.
Nice work, bone daddy
In Joshua Meyer's 25th anniversary look-back of the film, the /Film writer sees "Danny Elfman's musical earworms" as one of its strongest elements. From the taunting tune of "Making Christmas" (which demands to be sung whilst wrapping gifts) to the gleeful shrill sadism of "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," Elfman's compositions are at once ominous and joyous. But when it came to speaking instead of singing, the director and the producer of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" wanted to take it in a different direction. Henry Selick tells The Daily Beast:
When Danny [Elfman] tried to do the speaking voice of Jack as well as the singing voice, it just wasn't up to the level of his singing, so we got Chris Sarandon to do Jack's speaking voice. Tim [Burton] and Danny have mended fences over the years, but it really upset Danny when I had to replace his speaking voice, and I had to go to Tim to do it. Then, later in the film, it was supposed to go to Santa Claus finishing the poem at the film's end, but that didn't work either, so we scrapped it. Danny and Tim's friendship is very weird.
As Selick points out, Burton and Elfman have since buried the hatchet on the issues that once divided them. Sarandon ("Child's Play," "The Princess Bride," "Fright Night") would provide the speaking voice of Jack Skellington, while Elfman's musical numbers and singing contributions were kept. But don't hold your breath for a sequel; Disney's habit of diluting the charm of their original movies with pared-down DTV sequels worries Burton, who has vetoed feature-length efforts to expand on his movie. For more Halloween Town shenanigans, you'll have to swing by the bookstore.