[7] The principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix and Ed Ivory.

The film was met with commercial and critical success upon release, earning praise for its animation, particularly the innovation of stop-motion as an art form, as well as its characters, songs, and score.

Upon discovering trees containing doors to other holiday-themed worlds, Jack stumbles through the one leading to Christmas Town and is fascinated by the unfamiliar holiday.

He announces that Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year and assigns Christmas-themed jobs, such as singing carols, making presents and building a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer, to various residents.

He tasks mischievous trick-or-treating trio Lock, Shock and Barrel with abducting Santa; however, he orders them not to involve their superior Oogie Boogie, a bogeyman with a passion for gambling, in their plot.

Bemoaning the trouble that he has caused, Jack realizes he nonetheless enjoyed the experience and that it gave him new ideas for celebrating Halloween, reigniting his love for the holiday.

The cast also features Debi Durst, Greg Proops, Kerry Katz, Randy Crenshaw, Sherwood Ball, Carmen Twillie, Glenn Walters, and John Morris voicing various characters.

[17] As writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California, was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood.

[19] Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price,[20] but also considered other options such as a children's book.

[25] As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984[20] and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989) for Warner Bros.

[31] Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco, California, with a crew of over 120 workers, utilizing 20 sound stages for filming.

The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Étienne Delessert, Gahan Wilson, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon, and Wassily Kandinsky influenced the filmmakers.

"[37] Vincent Price, Don Ameche, and James Earl Jones were considered to provide the narration for the film's prologue; however, all proved difficult to cast, and the producers instead hired local voice artist Ed Ivory.

Sally had ten types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronized mouth movements.

[41] On September 30, 2008, Disney released the cover album Nightmare Revisited, featuring artists such as Amy Lee, Flyleaf, Korn, Rise Against, Plain White T's, The All-American Rejects, and many more.

[51] For the film's 30th anniversary and in commemoration of The Walt Disney Company's centennial, it was re-released in theaters across the United States and Canada on October 20, 2023, including engagements in 4DX.

The release included an audio commentary by Selick and cinematographer Pete Kozachik, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage and deleted scenes.

[59][60] Disney has extensively marketed the film and its characters across many forms of media and memorabilia, including action figures, books, games, art crafts, and fashion products.

[72] Roger Ebert praised the film's visual inventiveness: "One of the many pleasures of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is that there is not a single recognizable landscape in it.

[81] Negative or mixed reviews of the film were generally similar in theme to the positive ones but said that the interesting concept and "wonderful" special effects did not make up for the "superficial" plot, "weak" screenplay and "one-dimensional" characters.

[93] On February 22, 2021, Disney Publishing announced that a sequel was given to the 1993 film in the form of a young adult novel, released as Long Live the Pumpkin Queen.

[126][127] Starting on July 21, 2021, Tokyopop released another sequel manga centered around Sally, titled The Nightmare Before Christmas: Mirror Moon, written by Mallory Reaves and fully-colored series illustrated by Gabriella Chianello, and Nataliya Torretta.

[94][132][133][134] On November 1, 2022, Tokyopop announced a full-colored graphic novel series titled Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King, which centers around the friendship and rivalry between a young Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie.

[139][140] On July 19, 2023, Disney announced that it is partnering with Dynamite Entertainment to publish new comics based on the film, with the first project being written by Torunn Grønbekk.

[141][142][143] On August 22, 2023, Epic Ink published a cultural book titled "Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Beyond Halloween Town: The Story, the Characters, and the Legacy'" by writer Emily Zemler.

The cast included Iglehart as Oogie Boogie, along with Rafael Casal as Jack Skellington, Adrienne Warren as Sally, Danny Burstein as Santa Claus and the Narrator, Nik Walker as Lock, Lesli Margherita as Shock and Rob McClure as Barrel.

Rounding out the cast were Kathryn Allison, Jenni Barber, Erin Elizabeth Clemons, Fergie L. Phillipe, Jawan M. Jackson and Brian Gonzalez.

The show featured Elfman and Page reprising their respective roles, while John Mauceri returned as conductor alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Disney Interactive Studios released an As Told by Emoji animated adaptation of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2016, which can be found on their official YouTube channel.

[167] In 2019, a behind-the-scenes podcast series about The Nightmare Before Christmas was made, featuring the animators, producers and other crew discussing the making of the movie, totaling 38 episodes.