Tim Burton First Pitched The Nightmare Before Christmas In 1983

Tim Burton originally pitched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to Disney back in 1983 when he was still an animator at the studio. He had re-written the poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and he sketched designs for Jack Skellington, Zero, and Santa Claus. In 2017, the film's director Henry Selick said in an interview with The Daily Beast, "I knew Tim [Burton] from CalArts and Disney in the early '80s, and he'd come up with the idea for 'Nightmare' as a TV special along the lines of those Rankin/Bass low-budget, stop-motion staples like 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'"

After Burton pitched the film to Disney, they rejected it, and Selick had some idea of why they passed on it. "At that time," Selick said, "it had no relationship to what Disney's identity was, so they didn't develop it. It was when Disney was kind of on the wane and hadn't been reinvigorated by their spate of musicals. It was one of those moments of 'I can't believe they don't get it,' but that's what happens."

Burton left Disney not too long after and began working as a live-action film director. It wasn't till after Burton's success with "Beetlejuice" and "Batman" that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was greenlit. After his newfound success, he tried to get the film made independently, but Disney lured Burton back in. Since Burton didn't really like directing stop-motion himself, he brought Selick in to direct the film, and production was under way in 1990. The film eventually took over three years to make.