October 29, 1993 – The Nightmare Before Christmas debuts

Tim Burton’s animated The Nightmare Before Christmas debuts in U.S. theaters.

A stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film, it is directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. Released by Touchstone Pictures, the film features the voices of Danny Elfman (who also scored the music),

Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, and Paul Reubens. The story of Jack Skellington, a being from “Halloween Town” who opens a portal to “Christmas Town,” the idea for the film started as a poem Burton wrote while working as an animator at Disney in the early 1980s. Disney has decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they believe the film might be “too dark and scary for kids.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas will inspire video game spin-offs, including Oogie’s Revenge, MediEvil, and The Pumpkin King.