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The Nightmare Before Christmasdirector Henry Selick says he has “won many a bar bet” over people thinkingTim Burtondirected the classic animated film.
Burton came up with the story and character designs, and co-produced the beloved film.
“And I would have been fine with that, if that’s what I signed up for,” Selick, 69, told the outlet of the 1993 stop-motion animated musical. “But Tim was in L.A. making two features while I directed that film, and I mean, Tim is a genius—or he certainly was in his most creative years. I always thought his story was perfect, and he designed the main characters. But it was really me and my team of people who brought that to life.”
During the interview, Selick also joked that “if you ask [composer] Danny Elfman, well, that’s his movie,” in reference to the musician and composer’s iconic score and songs from the film.
“When we finished the film, it was so funny because [Elfman] came up to me and shook my hand,” Selick told The A.V. Club. “‘Henry, you’ve done a wonderful job illustrating my songs!’ And he was serious, and I loved it!”
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“Fine,” Selick added. “But my thing was I’m going to hang in there long enough to where people actually say, “Oh, that guy Henry, he does stuff.”
Selick, whose career in animation also includes directing 1993’s Roald Dahl adaptationJames and the Giant Peachand 2009’sCoraline, said in the interview that he “really, truly like[s] to collaborate,” but maintained that it was he — not Burton — who did the brunt of the work onNightmare Before Christmas.
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“I’ll just go through it again. Tim Burton had very little to do with the making ofNightmare Before Christmas. But it was his idea,” Selick said. “It was his character designs. But he entrusted me because he knew me and the head of storyboards, Joe Ranft. But it was my crew up in San Francisco that made that.”
“He showed up at the end with an editor and trimmed out some stuff to tighten up the film,” Selick added of Burton’s work on the movie.
A rep for Burton didn’t immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
