1. It took a group of around 100 people three years to complete this movie. For one second of film, up to 12 stop-motion moves had to be made.
2. The film was originally going to be released under the Disney animated films canon, but it was deemed too scary by executives.
3. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, who collaborated on all of Burton’s films, experienced “creative differences” during filming. For this reason, Burton chose Howard Shore to write the film score of Ed Wood (1994).
4. Some of the presents Jack delivers to the kids are nods to his other films. The snake looks like a Sandworm from ‘Beetlejuice’, and the Cat and Duck are both featured in ‘Batman Returns’ – the Cat as the mascot for the department store Catwoman blows up, the duck being similar to the ship the Penguin drives.
5. The most difficult shot to film in the entire movie is the shot in which Jack is reaching for the doorknob to Christmasland. Viewers can see the perfect surround reflection of the forest around Jack in the background.
6. Patrick Stewart did the original introduction for the movie, which can be heard on the film’s soundtrack.
7. Vincent Price was originally cast as Santa Claus. However, after the death of Price’s wife, his own health began to fail and his voice performance was very frail and weak. The tracks were deemed unusable which led to, much to Selick’s regret, the role being recast. Price would have been a scary Santa Claus indeed.
8. Chris Sarandon was cast as Jack Skellington because his speaking voice matched the singing voice of Danny Elfman.
9. Burton based the film on the fact that holiday decorations had begun bumping into each other in stores.
10. Tim Burton actually did not direct the film. Henry Selick took the reigns for Burton, took over for Burton who was busy with Ed Wood.
11. The character inside the musical instrument above is a reference to Danny Elfman.