#1993 jack skellington doll

[queenofsquids]

Does anyone happen to have the 1993 Hasbro 18-19" Jack Skellington?

Can anyone possibly compare him to any other dolls or even a banana or hand or anything for scale?

Particularly his head

(pic from ebay)

[thorinsbeard]

A movie for every year since I was born: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

[m1ssrenee]

“Jack, I know how you feel..”🖤

[thecursedprince]

Jack Skellington & Sally, Zero Doll Figure Set Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 30 Years

Limited Edition 3700

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 animated feature film. To celebrate the 30th anniversary, a limited edition figure set featuring Jack Skellington, Sally, and Zero is coming soon. Jack Skellington with a long and slender body and Sally in a colorful dress. By replacing the included faces, you can enjoy three different expressions. In addition to the cute figure of Ghost Dog Zero, this luxurious set also includes the Santa Claus costume that Sally made for Jack Skellington in the story! Comes with a spooky display stand. Add this special item to your collection.

*Worldwide limited number: 3,700 items

[ladykissingfish]

The Akatsuki’s Favorite Christmas Movies

Deidara and Hidan: Home Alone (1990)/Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)

These two go crazy for these two classic movies. As they’re often shown on tv back to back, when they’re on, they will camp out in the living room with a plethora of snacks (and a couple of Plain Cheese pizzas, a la Kevin McCallister) and watch. Hidan is more so a fan of HA 1, while Deidara prefers its sequel. They tried to watch Home Alone 3 once but couldn’t even make it 30 minutes into the movie, it was so awful. While they watch, they like to talk about the tricks and traps that THEY would have set for the burglars, as well as various ways of “punishing” them for attacking their home (which, in Deidara and Hidan’s case, would be the hideout).

Itachi: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The dark fantasy-like world of this movie really appeals to Itachi, which is why it’s his favorite Christmas movie. He knows every single song in the movie word for word, and loves to sing along to them, changing his voice to match the character’s voice(s). He high-key relates to Jack Skellington and his feelings of discontent and wanting something new and different in his life. Managed exactly (1) time to get Kisame to dress up as Sally the rag doll and sing the romantic ending scene-song with him 🥺

Sasori: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

A classic Christmas story, told with a cast that’s 90% made up of puppets. Is it any wonder why this is Sasori’s favorite holiday film? He watches not so much for the story itself, but he likes to study the movements of the puppets and how fluidly they imitate their human counterparts. His favorite scene is Kermit the Frog ice-skating with the rats on the frozen pond; he rewinds it over and over again. Interesting side note; he can’t watch this while Kakuzu is anywhere around, because Kakuzu absolutely despises this movie. If he walks into the room and it’s on he’s likely to throw his shoe at the tv. In his mind Ebenezer Scrooge was 100% correct in his miserly ways, and “Those damn ghosts should have minded their fucking business!” 😅

Kakuzu: Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

The Grinch mirrors Kakuzu’s feelings towards the holidays perfectly. He’s seen the other versions of this movie, but really feels like Jim Carey brings the most life to the timeless green curmudgeon. He likes to stand up and put his hand on his chest (as if he’s reciting the pledge of allegiance) every single time the speech is given about how Christmas is nothing more than a cash-grab for greedy, spoiled people. He always cries at the end. Not because of the heartwarming ending, but because he’s upset that the Grinch “gave up” so easily.)

Tobi/Obito: Elf (2003) and A Christmas Story (1983)

Will Ferrel gives a hilarious performance as a grown man who runs around acting like a very big child. So, naturally, Elf would be “Tobi’s” favorite movie. He likes to recreate the candy spaghetti that Buddy eats in the movie … which makes the others sick to their stomachs (and for Kakuzu to smack him upside the head for wasting good food). As Obito, his favorite Christmas movie is, surprisingly, A Christmas Story. He’s easily able to tap into the wonder and nostalgia of being a child that’s waiting for “the best time of the year for a kid”, and it reminds him of being a kid himself, before everything went to hell. He’ll sometimes watch with Itachi, and tease him about how much the main characters younger brother, Randy, reminds Obito of “the little brat I used to babysit” aka Itachi as a little kid.

Konan and Nagato: Die Hard (1988)

“Just because it happens on Christmas Eve doesn’t make it a Christmas movie!” Nagato and Konan have heard this more times than they could count, but the protests fall on deaf ears. Die Hard IS a Christmas movie, and it happens to be their favorite. Nagato is all about the action, and in fact, he’s used Bruce Willis’ strategizing as “training examples” for the rest of the Akatsuki. But for Konan, it’s all about the love story. A man willing to go to extreme lengths to protect the one he loves; that really resonates with the paper angel. The two of them usually cuddle throughout the movie, and start making out by the end, which the others tease them about. 

Zetsu: Gremlins (1984)

Another movie that could or could not be considered a Christmas movie, depending on who you’re asking. The concept of the Mogwai is very familiar to Zetsu: something that starts off as one thing, and replicates into seemingly endless (and terrifying) clones that wreak havoc on innocent people. The movie was ruined for him temporarily though; back when Orochimaru was still in the Akatsuki, they watched this movie together. Orochimaru got it into his mind that he could create a creature just as good, if not better, than Gizmo. What came out of that lab was a horrifying abomination of nature, and, like the movie, the creature got wet and rapidly multiplied into nightmarish shrieking demons that took the entire Akatsuki, together, to take down. Zetsu had nightmares for quite a while after this, and couldn’t even look at the box cover of this movie without breaking out in a cold sweat.

Kisame: The Santa Clause (1994) 

Kisame can’t really explain, even to himself, why he likes this particular movie so much. Actually, to him, this reads more as a horror:  a man who committed an accidental murder and as punishment is slowly transformed into this magical, mythical character until he can barely recognize himself in the mirror? Scary as hell. But he likes the slow progression of Tim Allen’s character from denial to acceptance, and the implied freedom with letting go of your convictions and being who you were meant(?) to be. He enjoys watching this with Itachi; the scene where the elves send a team to break Santa out of jail always has the slim brunette laugh himself into tears, which Kisame just loves.

[thenightling]

Those New limited edition MattelCreations exclusive Monster High style Jack and Sally Nightmare before Christmas dolls sold out on Mattel's official Mattelcreations.com website in less than NINE minutes according to some frustrated doll collector friends of mine.

Back in the 80s it was Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. In 1993 it was Power Rangers figures. In 1996 or so it was Tickle-Me Elmo In 2019 / 2020 it was Baby Yoda (Grogu) And now... in 2023... It's Jack and Sally.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Disney did this on purpose. Exactly thirty-years after Nightmare before Christmas premiered they make a Jack and Sally doll set the most sought after toy on the Intrenet?!

These dolls were selling for ninety dollars on Mattel's website, sold out in nine minutes, and now scalpers are selling them on ebay with two hundred dollars as a starting bid.

Well played... Mickey, you evil mouse. Well played...

[brokehorrorfan]

The Nightmare Before Christmas' 56-page graphic novel adaptation has been re-printed via Disney Comics and Dark Horse Books. It’s written by Alessandro Ferrari, illustrated by Massimiliano Narciso, and colored by Kawaii Creative Studio.

Disney’s 1993 stop-motion animated cult classic was conceived and produced by Tim Burton, adapted by Michael McDowell, written by Caroline Thompson, and directed by Henry Selick.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Story of the Movie in Comics is available to order in hardcover ($10.99) and e-book ($6.99) on Amazon. Check out several preview pages below.

Welcome to Halloween Town, where vampires, witches, and goblins rule the never-ending night! One Halloween, something befalls the almighty Pumpkin King. Beyond the tricks and scares, an emptiness begins to grow within Jack Skellington. He finds himself far from home, in a land where people smile, laugh, and sing with glee, and he feels that this Christmas Town could be the answer to his melancholy. Everyone is in for a surprise as Jack tries to unlock the secret of Christmas, take over the holiday, and kidnaps Santa Claus! Meanwhile, Sally, a compassionate rag doll, has a vision--a horrible end is near if Jack succeeds in ruling Christmas. Torn between her love for Jack and saving both towns, she must prevent her vision from coming true. As Jack assumes his role as "Sandy Claws," he discovers where he truly belongs... But is it too late?

[searching-in-silence]

What's the deal with Jikook and NBC? I'm really, really curious, like there must be something meaningful abt the movie to them, if Jimin personally requested the limited edt snow globe for Jungkook as birthday present. Just like how Jimin gave the bear to V since his song named winter bear, it's something that very understandable.

Anon, thank you for asking me this question, I had been planning to do a post on this for a long time, but I think the opportunity is right for now. hehehe~

Anyway, so Why do jikook like Nightmare Before Christmas? What is it’s significance? And what is NBC anyway.

Going to be a long post, sit tight my friends~

What is NBC? (wiki)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy Halloween-Christmas film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Burton began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special to no avail. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be "too dark and scary for kids".

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a first for an animated film. The film has since been reissued by Walt Disney Pictures, and was re-released annually in Disney Digital 3-D from 2006 until 2009, making it the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3D.

Plot of NBC.

It is the same routine every year in Halloween Town, on Halloween the monsters come out and perform a real scare. This particular Halloween, the pumpkin king Jack Skellington, bored of the idea, saunters off into the woods with his dog Zero after Halloween night. Upon the break of dawn, he discovers a clearing of trees with different doors representing various holidays. The Christmas Tree door attracts his attention and upon entrance into the world of Christmas, Jack is fascinated with this new idea of Christmas that he must absolutely share with the citizens of Halloween Town. But their view is different and they aren’t thrilled.

The story goes on and it seems like Jack and everyone else in town plans to sabotage Christmas except for Sally.The evil scientist in the story must whip up some reindeer, Halloween town's top trick-or-treaters are to kidnap Sandy Claws, and Sally's task is to make Jack a red Santa suit. She tries to tell him that co-opting Christmas is a terrible idea, but he's too wrapped up in his enthusiasm to listen.

Later when Jack’s plan fails and he realizes his mistake, Santa Claus scolds Jack about trying to take over a holiday that isn't his, and then sets about magically saving Christmas. Jack and Sally return to town just as Santa Claus flies over and offers the Halloween towns folk a bit of Christmas magic: their first snowfall. Jack and Sally share a tender moment in the cemetery, realizing they were always meant to be together. 

For what reasons could jikook relate to NBC??

(Reference taken from Oh My Disney, for NBC couple Jack and Sally)

The Nightmare Before Christmas enchants us with its whimsy and magic, but it also gives us really intense couple goals. Jack and Sally are the perfect couple, 7 reasons why:

  1. They’re opposites, so they balance each other out nicely -  Jack is impulsive and a dreamer, while Sally is far more sensible. Every relationship needs a little bit of both; that’s the only way things stay interesting, but never get out of hand.

2. They can both remove body parts while incurring zero harm to themselves - Jack can take his skull off to recite Shakespeare, and Sally can remove her limbs. Cool couples always have random, unlikely things in common.

3. They give each other cool presents -   And by “they,” we mostly mean Sally. Although who’s to say what sort of things Jack dreams up after The Nightmare Before Christmas ends? Sally gets Jack a ghost butterfly as a gift, which is way, wayyyy cooler than a standard tie or whatever.

4. They are both probably somewhat immortal -  We’re not sure exactly what the rules are here (it seemed like maybe Jack was in mortal peril when the military started attacking his sled?), but as a skeleton and a rag doll, we think they’re at least immortal in the elven “no death by natural causes” sense. People might say, “Til death do us part,” but not even death can stop them!

5. Sally supports Jack even when she disagrees with him -  What’s love if it’s not standing with someone even when they fail spectacularly, especially when you warned them about it beforehand and they didn’t listen to you? Sally doesn’t say “I told you so” even once. We think that’s magic.

6. They look so good together -  We know it’s what’s on the inside that truly counts, but look at them. Jack is the dapperest, and Sally the most chic. 

7. They’re simply meant to be -  It’s plain to see.

Now after seeing the above points ^, I reached to the conclusion that Jikook must relate to them, since Jack and Sally are couple goals, kekeke~

And we know that by coincidence, ‘Sally’ (another character with same name as of sally in the movie) is a part of Line friends collection, and Jimin is often seen with her.

(wiki)

Line Friends (stylized as LINE FRIENDS) are featured characters based on the stickers from messaging app Line. It was released in 2015 by Line Corporation, a Japanese subsidiary of the South Korean internet search giant Naver Corporation. These characters are used in various products, animation, game, cafe, hotel and theme park. The brand is currently managed by its subsidiary Line Friends Corporation since 2015.

Sally: with her unexpected charm, cute little Sally brings joy to her friends with full of bright and wild ideas. Don’t be fooled by her cuteness. She might reveal other side of her you’ve never expected! 

So it could be that Jimin related both sallys with himself and that is why he was so intrigued by the movie. Also who is as impulsive as Jungkook? Jack maybe ;)

Not to forget their whole Disney trip was nightmare themed. many even say that jk wore jack themed cap. hahaha. This relation is cute. :))

edit : for clarification, I have taken the NBC points from wiki, oh my disney and imbd. I have yet to watch the movie. and I m not analysing the movie, please keep that in mind, I have just stated a few facts I collected. and no nbc isn't a romantic movie.

the end result of the movie is what I highlighted that jikook may have related to. I could be wrong. so don't come in my ask box to hate on me for that.

[trendingtattoo]

Nightmare Before Christmas Tattoos

The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is also known as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a popular tattoo ideas amongst youth. These tattoos are actually inspired by the 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film that was directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton.

The movie actually tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of “HalloweenTown” who trip through a portal to “Christmas Town” and decides to celebrate his holiday there. The Nightmare before Christmas tattoos has nothing to do with the festival of course. Actually the stop-motion animation hit has a loyal following. Some people are so inspired by some of the characters in the movie that they even have paid homage to them.

Believe it or not, Tim Burton’s unearthly masterpiece has left an impact on the world of tattoos and has capitulated tons of impactful ideas for mischievously enchanting tattoo designs. Undoubtedly, “Nightmare Before Christmas” tattoos look amazingly stunning.

The movie is based on a poem written by Burton, which is inspired by Halloween that comes before Christmas. The movie specifically features the pumpkin king, who has got bored of simply scaring people and deciding to go out seeking something more. He walks from Halloween town directly to the Christmas town with all its trappings of color, lights and celebration.

The haunted animated love story is a great hit, and the cast of the movie is a perfect fit for anyone willing to get a great and unique artwork. For instance, one can get the anti-hero, Jack Skellington etched on his arm. Or if you are looking for some romantic masterpiece, then the Pumpkin King can be featured with Sally the rag doll (the love interest of Pumpkin King throughout the movie).

Or if you want to showcase the villainous side of yours then Dr. Finklestein and Oogie Boogie will be the great option. If not all these, then the twisted incarnation of Santa Claus will make for a perfect tattoo design from Nightmare before Christmas. Believe it or not, these intriguing antagonists can magically be rendered in a tattoo form in any part of your body from your arms to ribs, calf to back. The residents of Halloween Town can really make for a perfect body art!

The 1993 sensation is still able to create temptation amongst people! If you also want to have some unique and amazing tattoo design, then consider your favorite character from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and get it etched on your body.

Here are some of the most enchanting and peculiar that ideas from Nightmare Before Christmas. Try out for sure, this is going to make for an eye-catching tattoo. You are surely going to love the idea.

Here we go…….

[rgbcn]

‪Now & Forever 🎃❄️‬ Today, one of my absolutely fav movies of all times celebrates 25 years since the USA release (29 October 1993). Tim Burton's "The Nightmare before Christmas" is a masterpiece, I love everything about it. And obviously, You already know which are my fav characters in the movie right? 2 years ago I drew Shamy cosplaying Jack and Sally, omg now I see the drawing so old, but I loved to do the mix. This time, I wanted to draw Jack & Sally, as part of my #inktober 🖋 
Enjoy it! Last days to join my ‪🌟 patreon.com/rgbcn and get ALL my october drawings.‬ ‪Thanks for your support!!!‬ ‪#rgbcn #ink #timburton #thenightmarebeforechristmas #nightmarebeforechristmas #nightmare #animation #movie #stopmotion #jack #jack‬Skellington #Sally #christmas #halloween #pumkin #pumkinking #doll #love #musical #celebration #dannyElfman #puppet #cementery #tomb #flower #skeleton https://www.instagram.com/p/BphaEBjAw1V/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=llh23717z91n

[aion-rsa]

The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sally Was Almost Very Different

https://ift.tt/3nTivIt

This Halloween, pop star Billie Eilish wore a patchwork dress and painted stitch scars to sing in front of a sold-out crowd at LA’s Banc of California stadium. The song wasn’t hers, but a Danny Elfman composition from the 1993 soundtrack to animated feature Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. ‘Sally’s Song’ is a broken-hearted lament written for a broken character – a Frankensteinian stitched-together rag doll brought to life by an evil scientist in the town of Halloween.

In 2021, Sally really needs no introduction. From October to December each year, she and paramour Jack Skellington are everywhere, from trick or treating costumes to theme park rides to a mountain of ever-increasing Disney merchandise. Like the film that made them famous, they’re also not only a kid thing – just Google ‘Jack and Sally wedding cake’ for evidence. Those two have been #relationshipgoals for decades, their status as emo sweetheart icons certified in the 2000s by a gold-selling Blink 182 record, and a cover version of ‘Sally’s Song’ by Evanescence’s Amy Lee.

In the film and on the soundtrack release, ‘Sally’s Song’ was performed by Catherine O’Hara, the actor who voiced the character and who’d worked with creator Tim Burton in Beetlejuice. Her first take on Sally, O’Hara told E! at the time of the film’s release, was a characterised broken voice, “as stitched up as her body,” but director Henry Selick preferred a more natural sound. O’Hara told E! that she initially found ‘Sally’s Song’ scary to perform, by her own admission not being a professional singer. “I excused it by saying Sally’s not that well-formed so it’s okay that she can’t sing that well,” O’Hara joked. She’s regularly performed the song since at Elfman’s annual The Nightmare Before Christmas live concerts, always to a rapturous reception.

Sally’s is a lilting, melancholic song that yearns with as-yet-unrequited love for Jack the Pumpkin King, and with fear that his plan to take over Christmas is doomed to fail. Compare it to the strident marching chant of ‘This is Halloween’ and ‘Making Christmas’, the hyper-excitement of ‘What’s This?’ or the New Orleans boogie-woogie of Oogie Boogie’s Song, and it’s the soundtrack’s most poignant and emotional beat. You could call it the heart of the film – one that The Nightmare Before Christmas came very close to missing out on.

A film without a script

Three writers are officially credited on A Nightmare Before Christmas: Tim Burton for the story and characters, Michael McDowell for the adaptation, and Caroline Thompson for the screenplay. McDowell had previously written the 1988 Burton-directed Beetlejuice, Thompson had previously written the 1990 Burton-directed Edward Scissorhands, and McDowell originally got the Nightmare gig. Until that is, struggling with addiction and health problems that led to his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1999, McDowell failed to deliver. “The problem with the prior script was that there was no script. None. Not a word,” Thompson explained to Script Apart’s Al Horner in October 2020. Adaptation might be a generous way to describe what McDowell turned in, which according to Thompson was simply a reformatted version of Danny Elfman’s song lyrics.

Elfman describes here his writing process for The Nightmare Before Christmas songs, most of which were inspired by sketches and in-person descriptions from Tim Burton. Burton would talk Elfman through a character and situation taken from a parodic version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ poem that Burton had written years earlier (and which is widely cited as the film’s source material though screenwriter Thompson says she never read it and calls it just another part of this cult film’s mythology.) Elfman would go away and come up with a song, which he wrote largely in Thompson’s Burbank home as the pair were a couple at the time.

With Elfman’s songs in place and characters built out from Burton’s sketches, filming started without a script in place. It was an “insane” thing to do, as director Selick told The Hollywood Reporter in October 2018. “We knew the story well. The first songs came in, and we basically just blindly, but very confidently, went into production.”

It was only after filming began with teams led by Selick, production designer Rich Heinrichs and storyboard artist Joe Ranft, that the script issue was addressed. Writer Caroline Thompson was asked to step in at this late stage, not by Tim Burton, but by then-Disney Motion Picture Group president David Hoberman. Thompson knew Elfman’s songs, and that they more or less told the whole story as it stood. “The songs were finished but the narrative was not,” she told Jog Road Productions in 2014. “Danny pretty much told the story in the songs so it’s like okay, what’s left? And what’s left is Sally’s story.”

From vamp to misfit

To write Sally’s story, Thompson was given two of Tim Burton’s concept sketches for the character, showing a stitched-together blue woman with long red hair, wearing a low-cut, figure-hugging black and white striped dress, and red high-heeled shoes (Above, left and right). The character is smiling, vampish and buxom. In Netflix’s ‘The Holiday Movies That Made Us’ The Nightmare Before Christmas special, Thompson describes the original Sally design as a zaftig “femme fatale”, closer in look to the titular Corpse Bride from her later collaboration with Burton. Speaking to Jog Road in 2014, Thompson recalled thinking “I was like, well, I don’t understand that kind of girl. I kind of get The Little Matchstick-style girl, so we redesigned her.”

Read more

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Putting the Christmas Back in The Nightmare Before Christmas

By Tony Sokol

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Ed Wood: Tim Burton’s Most Personal Film

By David Crow

Anybody who saw the 2009 MoMA exhibition of Burton’s artwork might draw a comparison between those initial Sally sketches and a recurring blue character, as seen in 1997’s ‘Blue Girl with Wine’ (above, middle). The Wired profile caption for one of the ‘Blue Girl’ series created between 1992 and 1999 describes how “Burton had some drawings he wanted to bring to life, so he grabbed a Polaroid for the first time and convinced his office mate Leticia Rogers and his costume designer Colleen Atwood to have a little fun with him. Some of the fun inspired the Sally character from The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Sally was redesigned away from the Elvira-ish va-va-voom of those early concepts into the more waifish, sackcloth figure we’re familiar with. She kept the stitches, red hair and blue complexion, but swapped the cleavage and high-heels for her now-familiar raggedy dress, black shoes and stripy socks. With her look in place, Sally still needed a story, and a song.

By the time Thompson came aboard, Danny Elfman had written all of the film’s songs but Sally’s and had “nailed” the character of Jack, she told Script Apart, which made the underdeveloped Sally character her focus. Elfman felt a real affinity for Jack’s extreme highs and melancholy lows, he explains here, as was also growing “weary with the sound of screams” as the front man of celebrated band Oingo Boingo, which was by then nearing its end. Thompson too, put a little of her own experience into the character of Sally. Disappointed not to have been initially offered the script gig on Nightmare after Edward Scissorhands, Thompson describes having felt “a sense of being left out, which later informed Sally enormously.” Her first version of the 45-page screenplay was reportedly drafted in a week, then finessed through a series of tweaks made with storyboard artist Joe Ranft.

Sally’s rebellion

Sally is Jack’s love interest but Thompson also wrote her separate goals from wanting to be with him. Sally’s a misfit rebel who pursues freedom from her dastardly scientist creator, who wants to keep her locked up and under his control. She plots escape by drugging Dr Finkelstein’s food, leaping from the balcony and reassembling her limbs like the seamstress she is. “She’s growing up and she’s changing and she’s seeking independence,” Thompson told Script Apart. “That’s another reason why children especially are drawn to that part of the story, because a kid chafes against restriction. As much as a kid wants to be included, a kid also wants freedom.”  

A kid is also more likely, perhaps, to relate to the redesigned Matchstick Girl Sally than the hourglass bombshell she started out as. They’re certainly more likely to be allowed to dress up as her for Halloween, as Thompson’s seven-year-old granddaughter does every year, she told Traversing the Stars. “Not because of anything I’ve pushed on her! Her three-year old sister goes as Zero the dog.”

If she were writing the character now, Thompson said to Al Horner, she would give Sally even more of her own self. With the ending in particular, she feels she let the character down somewhat. “I felt like that’s where I kind of threw her under the bus as a less-than character, where she was sort of enmeshed and enslaved in her adoration for Jack. I wouldn’t have used those words at the time but in retrospect I think that’s what I was feeling.”  

If there are reparations owed to Sally’s character, perhaps they’ll come via new Young Adult book Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, written by Shea Earnshaw and due to be published in 2022 by Disney. The book is described as a coming-of-age story written from Sally’s point of view and set shortly after the film ends. It will see her travel through the holiday tree doors on a journey to save Jack and the town of Halloween. Sally’s belated sequel and her enduring popularity shows that almost 30 years since Sally first uncorked that frog’s breath and plotted her escape, the character as Thompson wrote her was simply meant to be.

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The Nightmare Before Christmas is available to stream on Disney+

The post The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sally Was Almost Very Different appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[laikaworld]

The Stop-Motion Animation Studio With a Cult Following

Travis Knight, CEO of Laika, is breathing new life into an under appreciated art form

Travis Knight is sitting in the back of Laika Experience, an exhibition at Comic-Con in San Diego, next to an interior set from his film Kubo and the Two Strings, one of several film sets stationed around the room. Each setup looks effortless, but the reality of the hours and decisions that went into that tiny space is something only Knight and his team understand. In a way, you could say seeing the sets re-created is like returning to an alma mater campus. Memories. Sometimes too many. “I won’t say which one, but one shot on Kubo took two months to get the expression right,” says Knight, CEO and president of stop-motion animation studio Laika. “It’s ridiculous on some level.”

The first stop-motion film was made in 1898, but the technique was largely replaced by hand-drawn celluloid animation by the 1920s. Stop motion was deemed too time consuming: painstakingly animating clay or wooden puppets by hand, frame by frame, so that, played in succession, photographed frames mimic real action. “One of the things I wanted to do at Laika right from the start is take this medium that I’ve loved since I was a kid and bring it into a new era, dragging, kicking, screaming,” Knight says.

And guess what?! We get some new-ish info on film five!

“According to Knight, the fifth film (the name of which is still secret) is a major departure for the studio. For one, it has no characters who are children.”

Read the rest under the read-more below!

Knight, 44, grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, where he filled his time with illustration, music and the arts. He watched stop-motion animation flicks like Ray Harryhausen’s creature features and Rankin/Bass specials including the holiday staple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In 1998, shortly after Knight graduated from Portland State University, his father, multibillionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight, invested $5 million for a minority stake in an animation studio led by Will Vinton, who co-directed Closed Mondays, the first stop-motion short to win an Oscar for best animated short film. Vinton, who had opened the animation studio in Portland in 1975, was in financial trouble and in need of an investor. The younger Knight, coming off of a failed attempt to launch a rap career in New York and still passionate about animation, started an internship.

‘I wanted to take this medium...and bring it into a new era.’

At Will Vinton Studios, Knight rose to production assistant and then animator on the Emmy Award–winning stop-motion show The PJs, which was created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore and Steve Tompkins. He quickly became one of the studio’s standout animators. But by 2003, Vinton was still struggling, so Phil bought the company—he has said he was partly motivated to own Will Vinton Studios because if it failed, his son would likely leave for a studio in Los Angeles. He had spent most of his sons’ childhood away from home, a reality that was especially difficult when his older son, Matthew, died in 2004 at 34. In 2005, Phil and Travis launched Laika and began developing their first feature.

What links Laika’s films—Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)—is their depth and complexity. Ben Kingsley, who voiced the villain Archibald Snatcher in The Boxtrolls, explains that the movies “include a dark side many other people in [Knight’s] field might outlaw.” Coraline, adapted from the children’s gothic novel by Neil Gaiman, follows a blue-haired girl who slips away from her inattentive parents into a twisted dream world. Kubo, a story in which Knight says he channeled emotion from his own experiences, is about a boy who seeks his deceased father’s armor to protect him from his unfeeling specter grandfather and aunts. In both films, family members vie for control over the main characters’ sight and identity.

Gaiman met Travis years before he became CEO, when Gaiman and Henry Selick, director of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, were already working on the screenplay for Coraline. Shortly after the film’s release in 2009, Travis was promoted to president and CEO. “It was terrific watching a relatively reclusive animator step up,” Gaiman says. Animators work mostly alone. Once a director has briefed them on a shot, they work solo with the puppets and sets. There are 24 frames in a single second of film, and each puppet is meticulously posed and made to stand, often with a rig that is later removed from the picture using CGI. An animator will finish around four seconds of film per week. If a character takes a couple of steps, it’s a good day.

After years spent tending to the micromovements of puppets, Travis grew into his role as CEO, then director, and has now branched out. This summer, he began filming his first live-action feature, Bumblebee, a Transformers prequel backed by Steven Spielberg. But his accomplishments with Laika are still his greatest achievement. Each of the studio’s four films has been produced with the same budget, about $60 million, a fraction of the cost of CGI projects from studios like Pixar and DreamWorks. If his father’s Nike empire was built on products for speed and momentum (“Just Do It”), Knight has dedicated his life to stopping motion, breathing life into pauses and stillness (just barely move it). Yet, working as a businessperson and artist, Knight often calls on his father for wisdom. “Personally, one of the most rewarding things has been how I’ve been able to understand and connect more deeply with my father,” he says.

All four of the studio’s films have been nominated for an Academy Award for animated feature film, and in 2016, the studio won a scientific and technical Oscar for its innovation in rapid prototyping, or 3-D printing, in animation. Each puppet is designed so that the facial expressions can be switched, with thousands of eyeless masks that can pop on and off the puppet’s steel armature. Although this technique, known as replacement animation, has been used for a century, Laika’s integration of modern technology has given its characters unprecedented depth. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, the moon-headed Jack Skellington wore 800 hand-sculpted faces. For Coraline, the title character had 6,333 printed and painted faces. Kubo had even more (23,187).

But despite all of Laika’s accolades, none of the films’ characters have been mass-marketed—meaning none have ever appeared on bedsheets or sippy cups. The studio launched its first Instagram page only a week before the exhibition at Comic-Con in July. “At some point you step back and realize we’re doing the company a disservice by not exploring these opportunities,” Knight says. In 2016, Laika hired Brad Wald as CFO (he had commercialized Downton Abbey for NBCUniversal in London). Knight wanted to expand the studio’s brand and produce a film each year, along with apparel, dolls and life-size foam figures. For the fifth Laika feature, which will wrap filming around March 2018 and will be released by 2019, the plans for merchandise are already underway.

According to Knight, the fifth film (the name of which is still secret) is a major departure for the studio. For one, it has no characters who are children. The collective vision of the films will be on full view at a Laika retrospective, Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA, that will run at the Portland Art Museum beginning this month. When you see a tiny puppet with bits of human hair dipped in silicone and remember how they blew across the character’s face in a snow gust, you can’t help but marvel at the fact that each strand had to be lifted by hand to create that swirl. “The only life [a character] has on-screen is the life that the artists bring to it,” Knight says. “I just think that’s movie magic in its finest form.”

[rickeydoesit]

Follow me along as I make Jack Skellington out of construction paper! Jack Skellington (also known as Mister Unlucky to a guy in Kentucky) is the skeletal Pumpkin King from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). I knew this video was going to be really short going into it, but Jack is such a cool looking character that it doesn’t even matter. And not only do I just love how he came out, I also love how cool he and Sally look together! So make sure and check out the video where I made Sally to get the full Rickey Does It Christmas 2017 experience! (WATCH HERE ▶ https://youtu.be/agKoH4T3NPk). I think my favorite part of this video was getting to use a white gel pen because I’ve never used one before, but it ended up being exactly what I needed to make my Jack complete! I really enjoy making these geeky, pop culture, paper doll crafts, so if there’s anyone else YOU’D like to see me make, let me know in the comments! Thanks for watching!!!

[thecursedprince]

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Doll Set

£ 300.00

Experience frightful fun and Christmas delights with this limited edition collectible doll set featuring Pumpkin King Jack Skellington and patchwork girl Sally. Inspired by the memorable moment in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas when Sally sews Jack a Santa suit, this 30th Anniversary keepsake assortment features two highly detailed dolls with interchangeable faces, stands and accessories, including Zero.Magic in the details

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Limited edition of 3700

Certificate of Authenticity

Set includes Jack Skellington and Sally dolls, Zero figure, base and accessories

Limited articulation

Display stands included

Scenic base with miniature house and gate setting

Comes in elegant window display packaging with gatefold foil slipcase

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 30th Anniversary logo on box

Magnetic closure

Created for Disney Store

Jack Skellington:

Signature striped print suit with batwing bowtie

Two additional heads with alternative expressions

Fluffy trims on velour 'Sandy Claws' suit and hat

Zero figure

Sally:

Signature patchwork print dress

Two additional face masks with alternative expressions

Rooted hair

The bare necessities

Dolls: H43 x W18 x D48cm approx.

Packaging: H47.5 x W18 x D43cm approx.

Made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS plastic), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), nylon, and polyester

Safety

Warning: Not a toy - keep away from children

Item No. 416147493498

[jmedfilms-blog]

A classic Halloween movie

Title: “The Nightmare Before Christmas”

Director: Henry Selick

Year: 1993

Today is Halloween therefore I have to review the first Halloween themed movie I ever saw which is “The Nightmare before Christmas.” I know to some it’s a Christmas movie since the word is in the title but let’s review the story:

The main character is a called Jack Skellington who like the name says is a skeleton, whose life and town revolves around the holiday of Halloween because he is The Pumpkin King. After Halloween night they count down the days till the next Halloween but poor Jack is tired of the same routine when he happens to stumble upon Christmas Town. Here Jack learns about what the Christmas is by observing the elves, the snow and Sandy Claws (Jack’s understanding of the name Santa Claus). After this he is inspired to bring Christmas to Halloweentown and even go as far as to replace Santa when it comes to delivering gifts. He calls in a town meeting to explain them about Christmas and how everyone needs to participate in it, they’re all curious if the gifts will contains something terrifying but to their dismay he lets know that they’re not supposed to be scary. His friend Sally,a rag doll like character filled with leaves is worried about him and insists on him not doing this. Jack doesn't listen and goes on to delivering presents on a sleigh with skeleton reindeer and his dog Zero, which cause him to be shot down from the sky by missiles because people thought they were under attack after receiving terrifying gifts. Spoiler alert, Santa gets kidnapped by devious little children from Halloween Town who work for the one and only Boogie Man. More craziness goes down and also a sweet ending but my point is unless it’s “Die Hard,kidnapping doesn’t happen in Christmas movies.

This movie has a cult status now but when it was first released it was not even close. The project was bounced around from studio to studio because it was “too dark” causing it to be under Touchstone studios which is where all the movies too dark for Disney goes. After the love it gained from audiences, Disney now claims it as a part of their own world and even onto the merchandise we see come out every Halloween.

I really love this movie because it was unlike anything I had ever seen before at that age and even now, stop motion isn’t used much because of the time it takes to film. One scene would take weeks to film and in total this movie took about three years to finish. The payoff was huge though, it’s rare to come across someone who hasn’t seen the movie and even more rare to meet someone who completely hates it. The details they put on the characters emotions, their settings and movements was not only very impressive but gave them an appearance of life. The composer Danny Elfman, not only made the score of the film but also sang for Jack’s singing voice. Why am I barely finding this out now who knows but he did a great job on both, I’m pretty positive he’s the only composer to have taken such a task and succeeded.  

Besides the appearance of the film, the story is one of its kind. Tim Burton originally wrote it as a poem while he worked at Disney but eventually wanted to create it into something bigger.  After the success of his other films such as Batman Returns, he finally got the green light for the project and made it memorable. I think we’ve all had a friend like Jack Skellington before, maybe it’s someone in a middle age crisis or a dangerously ambitious friend but the message I understood is not necessarily to stick with what we’re good at but to know who we are and not try to become something we’re obviously not. Listening to the people who cares about us was another point we saw especially with the character of Sally, who told Jack “I don’t even recognize you anymore” and he responds with “Isn’t that wonderful” when he was over his head. I never saw the lesson as it kid, I was more fascinated by their world and it’s a classic strange movie that can be enjoyed by the young and old. I’ll be rating everything on a 5/5 scale and since today is a holiday I give it a 5 out 5 pumpkins.

Citation

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107688/

[thenightling]

Current Horror Movie and TV icons

I’ve heard the complaint that the era of Horror icons has passed.  The 1920s into the 40s had Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Dwight Frye and Lon Chaney Jr.  The 1950s into the 1970s had Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.  

Yet there are no enduring names specifically associated with horror today... or is there?  

Here is a list of horror icons currently still alive and more heavily associated with horror than any other genre.   

Note: These actors do not have to have a film or TV show currently in theatres or on TV to be on this list. They just have to be alive, iconic within the horror genre, and had a relatively recent role in the genre (Within the last twenty years).

Robert Englund:  First we have Robert Englund.  Robert Englund has been in many horror and scifi properties from Nightmare Cafe to Strangeland, but he’s probably best known for his repeated portrayal of nightmare-monster-demonic-ghost Freddy Krueger.   When people think of Freddy Krueger (despite others having taken the role after him) Robert Englund is still the name that comes to mind.  And his version is the visual that usually pops into peoples’ heads.

Brad Dourif:   Brad Dourif has played Chucky (the 80s doll possessed by a dead serial killer) since 1988.   And he is still playing him today.  Brad is Chucky.  No one can truly replace him.  He has had other scifi and horror roles but he is Chucky.

Sarah Michelle Gellar:  Sarah Michelle Gellar was Buffy The Vampire Slayer for seven years and also starred in such horror films as I know what you did last Summer and the American version of The Grudge.  Whether she likes it or not she will be remembered as a horror icon.    

Kathy Bates:  Kathy Bates has had many non-horror roles but her most iconic role will probably always be the obsessed fan, Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Misery.  Her recurring appearances in American horror story have established her as a horror icon. 

Jessica Lange: Despite having a long and impressive career, Jessica Lange most recently enthralled an entire generation with her deliciously wicked (and sometimes sympathetic) characters in American Horror Story.  Her characters in American Horror Story were not only critically acclaimed but also award winning.  Some would say the show suffers when she is not there.  Jessica Lange also taught an entire generation that being a “Scream Queen” does not require being a teen or twenty-something girl.

 This was an important step in the evolution of modern horror.  Until American Horror Story, women who wanted to do horror felt relegated to playing the teen victim or the creepy old hag.  It was notoriously known in Hollywood that if you were a woman who did horror there was a twenty to forty year gap where getting roles would be hard to impossible, especially lead roles.  Jessica Lange opened the door for so many other roles for women (particularly older women) in the horror genre.  

Perhaps, thanks to the likes of Jessica Lange, one day we’ll get a Peter Cushing-style older, kindly doctor vampire hunter played by a woman.  (I want that to exist so badly.)     

Bruce Campbell:  Bruce Campbell has had many roles, from Autolycus in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, to The man with the Screaming Brain but his most famous role is as Ash from the Evil Dead franchise.  Though there was a remake, most fans will forever associate Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell’s Ash, whom he most recently played in the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead.

Cassandra Peterson:  Cassandra Peterson AKA Elvira: Mistress of The Dark.  I don’t think I need to explain this one.   Elvira has been a horror icon since the 1980s and though they have tried, no one can replace Cassandra Peterson. 

Chris Sarandon:  Chris Sarandon in on this list for his role as the vampire Jerry Dandridge in the original Fright Night.  He also had a major role as the detective in the original Child’s Play movie.  He was also Jack Skellington’s speaking voice in Nightmare before Christmas.

John Kassir:  Though you may not recognize this name immediately you probably recognize his voice if you are a horror fan.  John Kassir voiced The Crypt Keeper in Tales from the Crypt from 1989 until 1996 and then continued the role for The Tales from the Cryptkeeper animated series between 1993 until 1999.  His cackle that he has as old Crypty is so iconic that today people are reluctant to try Tales from the Crypt without him.     

Doug Jones:  And last but not least... Doug Jones.  You may not recognize the name but Doug Jones is our generation’s Lon Chaney.  He is the man under heavy monster makeup in so many great horror, fantasy, and scifi movies and shows.  From Billy in Hocus Pocus and Abe Sapien in Hellboy, to The faun in Pan’s Labyrinth and ghosts in Crimson Peak and “The Asset” (Sometimes called Charlie in fan circles) from The Shape of Water.  Doug is our man of a thousand faces.  You could almost guarantee, if the creature is skinny / skeletal, with large, expressive eyes, with grasping fingers or a menacing grin... it’s real-world sweet-heart Doug Jones under that makeup. 

 I realize I am leaving a lot of names off this list but I wanted names specifically associated with horror and some great horror actors are not most heavily associated with horror.  An example of this is Jack Nicholson since Jack was in the original Little Shop of Horrors, The Raven, The Shining, and Wolf but most people- when they first hear his name, they don’t immediately think of horror.    I’ll mention Tim Curry here as well.  I could probably argue that he’s most associated with horror but I know there are those that disagree with me.  

 ______________

Bonus mention Directors:

John Carpenter  Roger Corman  Guillermo del Toro    So there you have it.   Horror icons that are currently alive today.  ___________________________

Further Bonus Mentions:

Jamie Lee Curtis for the Halloween Franchise.

And  Anthony Head:  Anthony Head (Sometimes credited as Anthony Stewart Head).  Despite having more diverse roles (particularly in the UK) here in America Anthony Head is most well known for three roles.  The first is as The Watcher (and sometimes librarian-sorcerer) Giles from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The second is as King Uther Pendragon in Merlin and finally Repo! The Genetic Opera as The Repo Man himself, Nathan.  But no matter what, most fans will always associate Anthony Stewart Head with the role of Giles on Buffy The Vampire Slayer.