If you ask a casual moviegoer who directed The strange world of Jackyour answer is likely to be Tim Burton. After all, the Californian filmmaker’s name was always a key part of the promotional material (its original English title is Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas). However, this cult film was actually in the hands of Henry Selick.
That executive decision, which to this day remains a misconception, frustrates even Selick himself. This was also recognized by the director of Jim and the giant peach (nineteen ninety six), Coraline and the secret door (2009) or Wendell and Wild (2022) in an interview with The AV Club in November 2022.
“It’s a little unfair [que no me den más crédito como el director]because it was not called The Strange World of Jack by Tim Burton up to three weeks before the film was released. And I would have been fine with it, if that was what I signed,” the Oscar nominee said.
Tim Burton or Henry Selick, who deserves more credit for The strange world of Jack?
The strange world of Jack It is permeated everywhere with “Burtonian” DNA. To begin with, it is based on a poem written by Tim in 1982, when he was still working as an animator for Disney. At that time, the director tried to adapt his story in audiovisual format. He created concept art, storyboards and sculpted models of the characters. But the mouse house refused to give it the green light.
In the words of Selick IGN in 2012, the studio “never felt that [El extraño mundo de Jack] “It was a Disney movie.” His greatest fear was that his most devoted audience would reject the proposal and not go to the theaters. They found it “too dark, too scary.” for children.
“Tim came up with the basic idea. He and Rick Heinrichs, who was his creative partner, had sculpted [los personajes] Jack, Zero and Sandy Claws in the early ’80s. Disney rejected it at the time. “They were both working at Disney, as was I, so I was exposed to the early footage,” Selick recalled. “I’d say it’s the best idea Tim has ever had. Was inspired by How the Grinch Stole Christmas!but [con] a unique twist in that it’s the clash of two holidays and someone steals one of them. It is simply that wonderful combination, that collision, that gives it strength”.
Sentiment within Disney changed after Burton directed critical and financial hits like Beetlejuice, the super ghost (1988), batman (1989) or The young scissorhands (1990). Seeing an opportunity to prove greater versatility in a new golden age for its animated films, Disney finally consented to the development of a feature film based on the world of Jack Skellington.
You might also be interested: The sequel to The Strange World of Jack, through Sally’s eyes.
Unfortunately, his schedule was already busy for the next few years with batman returns (1992) and Ed Wood (1994). Furthermore, Burton did not have much interest in that period in participating in the “tedious” process that involves making an entire film in stop motion. Responsibility was then handed over to Selick. And with the credit as producer and author of the story, Tim Burton’s final contribution was the decision to transform The strange world of Jack in a musical.
In the December 1994 issue of Sight & Sound, Henry Selick recognized that linking his colleague’s name to the tape was best from a business perspective. Although that, he believes, does not change the fact that Tim ultimately had little to do with the materialization of this classic.
“It’s as if [Tim Burton] She would have laid the egg, but I sat on it and incubated it, so it came out looking a little like the two of us. In a way, it was my job to make it look like ‘a Tim Burton movie,’ which is not that different from my own films,” he said. “[Pero] Every shot in the film is something I looked at and composed through a camera. I don’t want to take anything away from Tim, but he wasn’t here in San Francisco when we made it. She appeared five times in two years and did not spend more than eight or ten days here in total. But the bottom line was that Tim Burton’s name before the title was going to attract more people than mine.”.
On the surface, it’s easy to see why audiences would attribute this film to Burton. The concept, aesthetics and score from one of his frequent collaborators in Danny Elfman, make it fit perfectly into his filmography. However, anyone I compared the jobs in stop motion of Selick with those of Tim —The bride’s corpse (2004) and Frankenweenie (2012)—you will notice the differences in staging and camera movements within the 109,440 frames that make up The strange world of Jack.
“Tim was in Los Angeles making two feature films while I directed [El extraño mundo de Jack]. And I want to say that Tim is a genius, or he certainly was in his most creative years. I always thought his story was perfect, and he designed the main characters. But It was me and my team who gave them life”Selick added to The AV Club. “My problem is that I was there long enough for people to say, ‘That Henry guy does interesting things.’”.
In the end, The strange world of Jack is the product of the joint proposals of some of the most visionary artists of their generation. There is no doubt, however, that it is Selick who led the efforts.
The strange world of Jack can be seen through Disney Plus.