Composer Danny Elfman on the legacy of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ and ‘the great vindication’ of its second life

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a widely beloved Halloween staple, taking over the month of October — from Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride to the shelves of Hot Topic to the annual live-in-concert performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

But when the film came out in 1993, audiences and studio executives didn’t know what to make of it.

Danny Elfman — the L.A.-born and -raised composer of the film and the singing voice of its main character, Jack Skellington — reflects on how the film got its second chance at life.

‘Too scary for kids, right?’

Composer Danny Elfman still remembers the initial press junkets for The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

“Every journalist would ask me the same question … ’Too scary for kids, right?'” Elfman said. “And I remember, that just broke my heart.”

Directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, the animated stop-motion musical follows the king of Halloween Town as he discovers Christmas and decides to take over the holiday. At one point, three of the film’s characters gleefully sing, “Kidnap the Sandy Claws / beat him with a stick / Lock him up for 90 years / see what makes him tick!”

“And [the media would] say, 'Well, Santa Claus gets tortured.' … He's not tortured. He's inconvenienced!” Elfman said. “But it makes sense in hindsight [that] Disney would look at this and go, ‘How do we market this? What is it?’ There was nothing like it.”

Disney released the film under the studio’s more adult-oriented Touchstone Pictures label. It earned a modest $50 million in its initial theatrical run.

Not Disney, not Broadway, not too scary: the making of the film’s sound

With most films, Elfman says he receives a full cut before composing the score. But for The Nightmare Before Christmas, Elfman composed music as the script was being developed — a process that took two years.

Initially, all Elfman knew was what he didn’t want the score to sound like.

“We don't want it to sound like a traditional Disney musical,” he said. “We don't want it to sound like Broadway.”

Elfman said he pulled on more archaic influences: Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera,” Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” and jazz greats like Cole Porter. To make sure the songs were child appropriate, he relied on his daughter.

“ Every song I wrote, I played for my 10-year-old daughter. [...] She had to approve everything!” Elfman said. “ I've always known there's a total disconnect between what adults think might be scary for kids and what is scary for kids.”

Composer Danny Elfman is set to perform as Jack Skellington in the 2025 "The Nightmare Before Christmas" concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Amber Navarro

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How a Jewish kid from a secular family wrote a Halloween-Christmas classic

In the turning point of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington becomes enamored by the discovery of a new holiday: Christmas.

“The monsters are all missing and the nightmares can't be found / And in their place there seems to be good feeling all around [...] This empty place inside of me is filling up / I simply cannot get enough […] I want it for my own!” sings Skellington in “What’s This?”

For Elfman, who grew up in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, these themes were relatable.

“All of my childhood, I was depressed at Christmas time,” Elfman said. “I grew up in a Jewish family, in a neighborhood where none of my friends were Jewish. … You know, we're outta school, but my friends can't play. They're all with their families. I would just be alone.”

Halloween was a different story.

“ I'd wait for it for months. It was our town. It was our night,” Elfman said. “And that's what Halloween meant for me, growing up in the '60s as a kid, was that kind of wild freedom.”

(Spoiler: At the end of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington accepts that his true place is in Halloween Town.)

‘The great vindication’ of the film’s revival

In the decade after its release, The Nightmare Before Christmas developed a cult following, as audiences discovered it on home video — a cult following that arguably has gone mainstream.

Since 2001, Disneyland has converted its Haunted Mansion ride to Nightmare theming in the fall and winter months. You can now find dolls of Jack and Sally alongside Disney’s princesses, attend theatrical re-releases and attend the now annual live concert at the Hollywood Bowl, currently in its 10th year.

A poster for the 2025 "The Nightmare Before Christmas" concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Courtesy 2B Entertainment

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This year’s line-up includes Janelle Monae as Sally, Keith David as Oogie Boogie, Riki Lindhome as Shock, John Stamos singing as Lock and Danny Elfman reviving his role as Jack Skellington.

“ Films getting revived that are already dead are one in a million. And that this one got a second life meant so much to me. [...] Getting up on stage at a place the size of the Hollywood Bowl and performing this crazy little musical live, you know?” said Elfman.

“And the thing that I love most is that kids keep coming! Generation after generation of little kids. And that to me is the great vindication.”

You can watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday and Sunday.

Watch the full interview with Danny Elfman: