One of Tim Burton’s most popular films is one he didn’t even direct, The Nightmare Before Christmas. But, the film was born in Burton’s mind and it is his visual imagination that we see on screen when we watch that classic holiday movie.
Years ago, Burton revealed how the main character of that film, Jack Skellington, a.k.a. The Pumpkin King, was created. This is one of his most iconic characters, and the initial design for it came out of a doodle he made while he was talking on the phone.
While talking with Total Film, Burton was asked which of his films most resembled his drawings, and he said: “Probably Nightmare. That was the first film I really conceived of and was with the whole way through, even though it took almost 10 years to get made!”
Burton was then asked if he constantly scribbled new drawings and he replied: “Yeah, for instance, Jack was just a simple case of me being on the phone and doodling.
“Sometimes you just keep drawing without any real conscious decision like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make a main character that has no eyeballs.’
“I find that when it just happens that way — and it doesn’t happen on every film — when it comes from your subconscious, it’s more meaningful than your intellectual mind just going, ‘Let’s make a movie about this or that.’”
I love the fact that this iconic character was simply born out of mindless doodle. Burton was also asked in the interview if he could imagine any of his films being remade.
Burton said: “Yikes! I don’t know about that. I mean, I’ve often resisted re-visiting. Like in the case of Nightmare and Beetlejuice, they asked me to do sequels and I just said ‘No.’ I wanted to keep the integrity of those particular things. Those movies were special to me.”
What’s funny about that comment is that after all these years, Burton has made a Beetlejuice sequel! So, I guess he threw the integrity of that one out the window, but it still looks good!
There has been talk of a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but that is a film that doesn’t need a sequel.
