Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Full Film Script

by Bill Scollon, Barbara Montini

196 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Since dedicating himself to writing for children, Bill has worked for Disney Press, Studio Fun, Dreamworks, Pixar, Parragon, Random House and other major publishers. In addition to books, Bill has written over two dozen apps for Disney and has a firm grip on the special needs and challenges of scripting to this format. He also co-authored Goners, a hilarious 10-book middle-grade sci-fi series.

Reviews

[Gem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say a big enough ‘thank you’ to Studio Press, Bonnier Books and ultimately, Tim Burton, for a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. You have made one very happy elder Emo.

I have been a lifelong fan of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, after my Mom introduced me to the film aged 4. This book is the perfect gift for someone like me, who you think has everything to do with the film, but has little lure of ‘never before seen artwork’ – which any art enthusiast will be sucked in by.

From the original poem’s inception, while Burton was an animator at Disney himself, through to the lasting legacy this film has created, we are led through 30 years-worth of sketches, film stills, animation mock-ups, story-boards, photographs and so much more besides; the main attraction being the original film script and Burton’s stage directions for how the scene was set.

The authors, Scollon ans Montini, go into incredible detail and have meticulously researched and collated every piece of art they can for this collection, they clearly love the film as much as we do!

I am going to keep coming back to this book for years to come, sharing it with my niece (who is 6 and also an enormous fan) and will be adding this to the ever-growing collection of Burton-flavoured books that are taking up my house.

[Shannon Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did think that this would just be the script for the film and nothing else which is why I put off buying it. I decided to buy it as a birthday treat and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was more. There are notes about production and the labour that went into the film as a whole. You get the idea that a lot of passion went into every second of the film right from its conception.