Wireimage/Steve Granitz(NEW YORK) — Legendary composer Danny Elfman has created scores of memorable film scores to his credit, many from his collaborations with filmmaker Tim Burton, including the 1993 stop-motion animated classic Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas.
Directed by Henry Selick, the film also featured Elfman voicing the lead character, Jack Skellington — the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who becomes entranced by a foreign holiday called Christmas.
“When it came out, nobody knew what it was,” Elfman tells ABC Radio. “Disney had no idea what kind of animal it was. They did one preview with kids, and it was unfinished, and kids were like, ‘Ehhhh, we don’t even know what –.’ They just didn’t know what it was, and so they came out of that saying, ‘Well, kids hate it.’ And so they just put it out and it kinda died, and that was that. And it started developing its own life!”
Fans will have a new way to enjoy the film this week, when it comes to life as a part of Disney In Concert’s Live-to-Film series.
Disney In Concert’s Nightmare Before Christmas, playing Wednesday and Thursday night at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center, combines the movie with live musical performances from Elfman and fellow cast members Catherine O’Hara, who voiced Sally, and Ken Page, who voiced Oogie Boogie.
“It becomes this incredibly tricky experience, which…just feels like the entire score is playing, and the songs are playing to the audiencem” says Elfman. “And they can choose to watch me on stage singing, or they can see Jack Skellington above me, you know, on the screen. And it all kind of works together in this really weird way.”
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