Danny Elfman recalls “horrible” Nightmare Before Christmas reviews

Last Updated on November 1, 2022

Now that we are in that transition from Halloween to Christmas (Thanksgiving who?), animation fans flock to the one film that finds the perfect balance: A Nightmare Before Christmas. And a lot of that is thanks to the work of composer Danny Elfman.

In a recent interview with Yahoo!, Danny Elfman recalled how 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was a tough sell for Disney, who at that time was in their Disney Renaissance, when it was all mermaids, flying carpets and talking lions, not skeletons, boogeymen and Sandy Claws. “When I wrote [the score], nobody understood it. I got horrible reviews for it. Disney didn’t know what to make of it. How could Disney know what to make of it? They did a preview with kids who were expecting The Little Mermaid and they got an unfinished version of The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

A Nightmare Before Christmas did quite well at the box office but has really earned its reputation in the decades since, garnering a massive cult following, which Disney hasn’t been shy to capitalize on. The most extravagant and impressive is Haunted Mansion Holiday, which gets a Jack Skellington-led makeover every year at Disneyland.

Danny Elfman also recognized this, saying Disney must have thought, “​​‘Let’s put energy into it again. There’s something there that never died, that never quite went away.’ And I’m so grateful for that…When they came back a decade later, they did understand it. ‘We now know what this movie is. We didn’t when it came out. But we do now.’”

Is A Nightmare Before Christmas more of a Halloween trick or Christmas treat? Take this poll and let us know when you prefer to watch it! What is your favorite song from The Nightmare Before Christmas? Are you more “What’s This?” or “This Is Halloween”?