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I went up to Hollywood last night to see Nightmare Before Christmas 3D. As I drove up there I thought, "What the heck am I doing this for? I've seen Nightmare a half a billion times." Okay … that's a slight exaggeration but you know, the movie came out in 1993 so it's been around the block a time or two.

I guess I went because a) I really do like the movie and, b) it's awfully nice to see it on the big screen in a real movie house as it was meant to be seen, especially a movie house as grand as the El Capitan.

Every year Nightmare Before Christmas plays at the El Capitan in Hollywood for a couple of weeks around Halloween, and usually they do opening night in style with a panel discussion preceding the film.

So there's another question that was floating around my brain because the thing about the panel discussions is … after all this time and after all the panel discussions that have been held to talk about Nightmare, what is left to tell? I figured there wouldn't be any surprises.

I figured wrong.

Shoulda known better.

Pre-show music is always one of the pluses of seeing a film at the El Cap and as the last strains of Toccata and Fugue in D minor faded (a real Halloween treat, played fabulously El Capitan's house organist Rob Richards), Don Hahn (Producer of such Disney films as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Hunchback of Notre Dame) walked out on stage. I knew then we were in for something fun because Don is one of the best (if not the best), panel moderators around. He knows his stuff, asks perfect questions, and has a super congenial manner. When Don is at the helm, it stops being a panel discussion, which can be kind of stuffy sometimes, and just feels like a bunch of friends sitting around shooting the breeze about animation. In other words, he gets people to tell good stories.

Don brought Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, out and the two of them sat down to talk about making Nightmare discussing such topics as ...

Don: What's the main difference between making Nightmare and making Coraline?

Henry: The funny thing about Nightmare and Coraline, they're actually the most closely related of all the films I've done. Back in Nightmare days we did everything by hand, a lot of effects in camera shot on film because that was the only way to do it. By the time I got to do Coraline we could have done many, many things with CG and all sorts of assistance. We tried to go back to the beginning and do everything as a handmade approach, even the effects. And that's sort of the hallmark of Nightmare. Everything you see actually existed.

On Tim Burton thinking up Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim had cooked up this brilliant story, this original idea, the collision of holidays based on the poem. He came up with Jack, Sandy Claws, Zero. Tim just wrote up the classic poem the Night Before Christmas as the Nightmare Before Christmas with a few more sketches presented as a sort of half hour stop motion special like Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. But the Disney of that time, of that moment, couldn't understand what it was.

What the approach is to stop motion animating a character

It's like being a sculptor that's constantly reshaping a character. You're doing a performance through the puppet, unlike other forms of animation where you do these key poses and then an assistant or a computer "in-betweens" that and you can make a lot of adjustments. In stop motion you basically do a lot of planning, you might do a rehearsal, but when you start, you're actually doing a performance a frame at a time … It's very physical.

How long it takes to animate a scene that, say, is several seconds long

At our peak, the whole studio that did Nightmare Before Christmas, the best we could do was a finished minute per week.

Special effects in the movie, like snow and fire in the fireplace … there is a whole other level of work that goes into that, how is that done?

Any sort of atmosphere things have to be added. We tried to do most of it in camera so we would actually shoot little fires and double expose them right on to the negative of the film. For Zero we used a very old technique of this half-silvered mirror, where you're shooting through the mirror and it sees Jack and reflected in that half-silver mirror over here, is Zero being animated and that gives him a ghostly transparent appearance.

And on it went, little tidbits about making Nightmare Before Christmas … they discussed the cast of the film and what they brought to the movie and then showed a clip of Danny Elfman working with Ken Page, recording the voice of Oogie Boogie. Next thing you know …

Ken Page is standing on the El Cap stage singing Oogie Boogie's Song for all of us.

Can you say super cool, Dear Readers? What a great surprise to the evening that was. And the audience L-O-V-E-D it!

But wait … there's more.

Mr. Page and Mr. Selick said their good-byes, applause, applause, and Don Hahn wrapped everything up with a short recap of the evening. We all settled in to see the film …

but …

fog started creeping onto the stage, as a candelabra mysteriously floated above it, and a familiar voice took over

Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host. Your, ghost host, hm hm hm hmmmmmm …

Four Haunted Mansion butlers, dressed in proper Nightmare/Mansion attire, walked out on stage

Of course, there's always my way

The proper organ music started up.

But wait a minute … that organ music was live, not recorded.

The Mighty Wurlitzer and the organist (otherwise known as Rob Richards) slowly crept up from beneath the stage all the while playing X. Atencio's famous music, and the four butlers (otherwise known as Disneyland's Dapper Dans) began to sing

As the moon climbs high o'er the dead oak tree

Oh heck yeah, now I remember why I go to these things!

The Details

Digitally projected in 3D, The Nightmare Before Christmas runs through November 1st at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Organist Rob Richards performs before each screening on the Mighty Wurlitzer, and there is a display downstairs which includes an actual setting used in the film.

Show times (subject to change, of course) are:

10am, 12:15pm, 2:30pm, 4:45pm, 7pm* and 9:15pm* + 11:15pm* Fri & Sat only

General Admission Prices are:

Adult $11/*$13 | Child (3-11) & Senior (60+) $10 | Group (20+) $9

VIP Admission (includes popcorn, soft drink, reserved seat and no waiting in line):

$22

Tickets may be purchased at the theater, via phone at 1-800-DISNEY6 (1-800-347-6396) or online at www.elcapitantickets.com with a service fee added for the latter two methods. (Groups of twenty or more may purchase specially discounted tickets in advance, but this may only be done by calling 1-818-845-3110 as these tickets are not available at the box office.) Birthday parties are also welcomed at the same phone number.

The El Capitan Theater is located in Hollywood California at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard. Theater lobby-validated $2 (first four hours only) parking is available underground in the Hollywood & Highland complex (adjacent to the Chinese Theater) across the street.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is rated PG; parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. Some scary images. Running time: 1 hour 16 minutes.

 

Sue Kruse may be e-mailed at [email protected] - Please keep in mind she may not be able to respond to each note personally.

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© 2009 Sue Kruse

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