Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick says it’s “unfair” Tim Burton gets the credit

The Nightmare before Christmas director Henry Selick thinks it’s “a little unfair” that Tim Burton gets the credit for the beloved movie.

When thinking of the classic holiday movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, who do you think of? It’s likely that you think of Tim Burton, his name is in the title after all.

However, many a film buff will tell you that Burton hardly worked on the film at all. In fact, if the film were to belong to anyone, it’d be acclaimed stop motion director Henry Selick, who was the one actually in charge of creating the film.

While this topic is nothing new, Selick himself has finally come out to discuss the whole situation, and how he agrees that he deserves more credit than he gets.

Henry Selick on Nightmare Before Christmas: “It was really me”

Time Burton’s name being in the film’s title is largely due to the fact that the ideas and characters did stem from him. He came up with the story, and co-produced the film. Not only that, but he was currently at the height of his career, having come off of Batman and Edward Scissorhands.

However, people generally assume that the film belongs to the director, and this clearly didn’t happen for Henry Selick, who directed the film. In fact, people often omit his name entirely in favor of Burton’s, including in the title. And it seems like Selick has been bothered by this for all these years.

In an interview with AV Club about his new film Wendell & Wild – you can read our review here – Selick said: “That was a little unfair because it wasn’t called ‘Tim Burton’s Nightmare’ until three weeks before the film came out. And I would have been fine with that, if that’s what I signed up for.

“But Tim was in LA 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.”

So for Selick, it was the sudden act of his name being omitted that really stung. But he also humorously admits that anyone who worked on the film may have a right to claim it as their film: “Now, of course, if you ask Danny Elfman, well, that’s his movie.

“When we finished the film, it was so funny because he came up to me and shook my hand. ‘Henry, you’ve done a wonderful job illustrating my songs!’ And he was serious, and I loved it! Fine. 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.'”

Now, while Selick still works with big names, like Neil Gaiman for Coraline and Jordan Peele for Wendell & Wild, his name has been steadily building in importance with every film he helms.

“I mean, Coraline is based on a really good book by Neil Gaiman. That didn’t hurt,” Selick explained. “On [Wendell & Wild], my collaborator is Jordan Peele – and that is the reason we were able to set this up. So I really, truly like to collaborate. But I’m the one leading the team to make the movie.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas is currently available to stream on Disney+. Wendell & Wild is currently available to stream on Netflix.