As it turns out, Tim Burton himself almost had a cameo in the holiday classic!
The name most synonymous with The Nightmare Before Christmas is of course writer/producer Tim Burton, but it was actually Henry Selick who directed the 1993 film. Believe it or not, it’s been 25 years since Burton and Selick fused Halloween and Christmas for the classic film, with today, October 29th of 2018, marking its 25th birthday.
Reflecting on the film in a chat with THR, Selick recalled a gag conceived for the climax of Nightmare Before Christmas that he regrets scrapping: a Tim Burton cameo!
“There’s a shot — and I really regret replacing it — at the very end of the film when Jack comes back and then Sandy Claws flies overhead and there’s snow and Christmas comes to Halloween Town. We show a lot of Halloween Towners enjoying winter sports and snow and you see the vampires playing hockey and they hit the puck right at the camera — and originally it was Tim Burton’s head,” Selick explained. “And it was really funny. And Denise Di Novi or one of the Hollywood producers told me, ‘I don’t think Tim’s going to like that.’ And I feel so stupid for not just asking him. But that’s one of the shots that we reshot and we put in a pumpkin instead.”
Selick added, expressing his desire to restore the scrapped shot, “I don’t know if that shot still exists, but I’d love to replace the one in there and I’m sure Tim would love it.”