<Li> Paul Reubens as Lock, one of the trick - or - treaters working for Oogie Boogie . Reubens and Burton previously worked on Pee - wee's Big Adventure (1985) and Batman Returns (1992). </Li> <P> The cast also features Kerry Katz, Carmen Twillie, Randy Crenshaw, Debi Durst, Glenn Walters, Sherwood Ball, and Greg Proops voicing various characters . Patrick Stewart recorded narration for a prologue and epilogue . While not used in the final film, the narration is included on the soundtrack album . </P> <P> As writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood . "Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, (...) it was great . It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn't there before", Burton would later recall . After completing his short film Vincent in 1982, Burton, who was then - employed at Walt Disney Feature Animation, wrote a three - page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas, drawing inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red - Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas . Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price, but also considered other options such as a children's book . He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models; Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works - in - progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time . After the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30 - minute holiday television special . However, the project's development eventually stalled, as its tone seemed "too weird" to the company . As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984, and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice and Batman . </P> <P> Over the years, Burton regularly thought about the project . In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights . He and Selick committed to produce a full - length film with the latter as director . Disney was looking forward to Nightmare "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in Who Framed Roger Rabbit ." Nightmare marked Burton's third film in a row to have a Christmas setting . Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns and he did not want to be involved with "the painstakingly slow process of stop motion". To adapt his poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Michael McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice . McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman . Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two - thirds of the film's songs . Elfman found writing Nightmare's eleven songs as "one of the easiest jobs I've ever had . I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington ." Caroline Thompson still had yet to be hired to write the screenplay . With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, "there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's . She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, re-configuring and developing the film visually ." </P>

Is the nightmare before christmas a halloween film or a christmas film
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