The Nightmare Before Christmas is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary next year. Directed by Henry Selick, who recently released the great Netflix movie Wendell and Wild, the film was marketed as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie was a modest hit when it opened in theaters and has since gone on to become a cult classic, and was re-released annually in theaters from 2006 to 2010 in 3D, where its audience grew with each subsequent re-release. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a beloved Disney film, which is ironic given that the studio released it under its Touchstone Pictures label originally, as they were afraid it was too scary for kids.

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Released in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas was released in the middle of what is called The Disney Renaissance. The Disney Renaissance is defined as a period when Walt Disney Animation was releasing critically and commercially successful animated movies that restored the studio to becoming a major powerhouse and are still fondly remembered to this day. Some of Disney’s most iconic films, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, were released during this time period.

The Nightmare Before Christmas does not fit the traditional standard of being a Disney Renaissance film, as it is not a hand-drawn animated movie or produced by the Walt Disney Animation division. However, a combination of its release window, its musical format, its influence, and its cultural impact make it an unofficial member of the Disney Renaissance and should be spoken about within the company’s history.

There Was No Animated Film Released in 1993

     Buena Vista Pictures

The Disney Renaissance starts with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and goes on until Tarzan in 1999. Each year had a Disney animated film released to correspond to a particular year, everyone except 1993. Part of this was because The Lion King was released in the summer of 1994 instead of the traditional Thanksgiving holiday weekend that both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin had opened so maybe The Lion King was at one point originally intended to be the 1993 animated film.

Yet with The Lion King moving to 1994, that meant no Disney animated film was released in 1993 except for the stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The prospect of having a film associated with Tim Burton (even though he did not direct it), who was at the time one of the most high-profile directors known for hits like Batman, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands likely made Disney confident enough to not need a traditional hand-drawn animated film for 1993. By sheer default and to keep the one animated film a year tradition going, that alone should count The Nightmare Before Christmas among the Disney Renaissance films.

A Musical That Blends Disney Eras Together

Part of what made the Disney Renaissance so successful was returning to the musical format of the early Walt Disney animated films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Yet the films of the Disney Renaissance were very influenced by Broadway musicals with the songs typically fitting the traditional structure. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were written by composer Alan Menkin and lyricist Howard Ashman who was known for his work on the hit musical Little Shop of Horrors. Ashman died in 1991 after a long battle with HIV/AIDS, with Aladdin being the last Disney musical he worked on.

The Nightmare Before Christmas follows the format laid out by the Disney musicals, with many of the songs filling the traditional functions of a Broadway musical. Yet one key component to The Nightmare Before Christmas was bringing in Danny Elfman to do the music. Elfman was not only a film composer, but he was a rock star for his work on Oingo Boingo. This gave The Nightmare Before Christmas a very distinct sound, and in later years Disney would maintain the traditional Broadway musical layout for their films while also bringing in major pop stars like Elton John for The Lion King and Phil Collins for Tarzan. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a transition point from the musical styles in the early half of the Disney Renaissance to the later half.

Nightmare Before Christmas is a Fairy Tale Like Other Classics

Many of the films in the Disney Renaissance are based on classic stories. Beauty and the Beast is a french fairy tale, Aladdin is a story from the Middle-East folktale Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, and Mulan is based on the Chinese folktale Hua Mulan. Disney was drawing from a rich pool of both different cultures but different types of myths and legends for their animated projects.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is based on an original poem by Tim Burton, which itself is a riff on the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, often referred to as The Night Before Christmas. The way other Disney Renaissance films play on classic literary characters like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan, The Nightmare Before Christmas is reimagining many classic horror monsters through a lens that Disney can leave its mark on. The Nightmare Before Christmas might be an original idea, but the pool of influence it draws gives it the feel of a classic storybook tale being told for the first time.

As Beloved As Any Part of the Disney Renaissance

While The Nightmare Before Christmas was not a bomb when it was released, it certainly did not live up to the box office performance of Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin. However, over time, the fanbase for The Nightmare Before Christmas has grown more every passing year and the film has now become a holiday classic for both Halloween and Christmas. Going purely based on the merchandise alone, The Nightmare Before Christmas is without a doubt one of the most popular Disney films of all time. Any drugstore during the holidays likely has some type of Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise to buy.

It has endured in pop culture in a way many of the most iconic films of the Disney Renaissance have like The Lion King and Little Mermaid. It is safe to say The Nightmare Before Christmas is more popular and well-remembered than films like Pocahontas, Hercules, or Tarzan. While not originally released under the Disney banner due to the studio being concerned it would scare kids, it has now been fully embraced by the company as part of the studio’s rich history, with the characters now a fixture in the theme parks during the holidays. The Nightmare Before Christmas has endured and will likely be fondly remembered years from now in a way the most iconic Disney films are.