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Halloween vs Christmas Town: Director Henry Selick wants credit

Chris Well

“Instead of screams, I swear / I can hear music in the air…”

The king of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, is depressed after doing the same thing every year. But on the day after Halloween, he comes across a group of doors that lead to realms devoted to other special days. When he stumbles upon Christmas Town, he bursts into the song “What’s This,” as he reacts to what he finds. Scroll down to listen to the song—and feel free to switch on the captions to get the lyrics…

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The Nightmare Before Christmas - “What’s This” (Lyrics)

Once the king of Halloween discovers Christmas Town, he decides that this is what his life was missing. Jack plans to create his own Christmas celebration, and take over for Santa Claus.

Buy the movie Nightmare Before Christmas from Amazon

Buy the soundtrack for Nightmare Before Christmas from Amazon

The 1993 stop-motion animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas started out as a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982 while he was an animator for Walt Disney. For a time, he hoped to make it into a short film or a half-hour TV special. Eventually, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios—but the final movie went out through Touchstone Pictures because Disney considered the movie too intense for children.

Produced by Burton, the film was directed by Henry Selick. The songs and score were written by Danny Elfman. The cast included Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.

The director wants credit

The film’s director, Henry Selick, recently told AV Club that he’s unhappy that the film was labeled as “Tim Burton’s Nightmare.” In fact, it didn’t have that title until three weeks before the film came out.

“And I would have been fine with that,” Selick said, “if that’s what I signed up for. But Tim was in L.A. making two features while I directed that film, and I mean, Tim is a genius…. I always thought his story was perfect, and he designed the main characters. But it was really me and my team of people who brought that to life.”

The director points out that several of his films have tied in with other famous creators—including Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, and the comedy duo Keegan-Michael-Key and Jordan Peele. But Selick still wants credit for his work.

“I really, truly like to collaborate,” Selick said. “But I’m the one leading the team to make the movie.”

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