The Nightmare Before Christmas Wiki
Advertisement
Skellington-productions-logo

Skellington Productions was a complete stop-motion production facility at a warehouse building in San Fransisco. It was a combined venture between Tim Burton and the Walt Disney Company. It was first founded by Burton and Henry Selick in 1986, and came to a close in 1996.

Warehouse[]

The warehouse building was unmarked and had no indication of its title. It had several departments consisting of the nerve center, art and editorial departments, and a screening room. The middle of the building had stop-motion stages that were purposely kept quiet for the animators. The model shop and set department were placed in the back of the warehouse and was noisy compared to the middle of the building. The upstairs had a creature department where the puppets were fabricated.

Previously, the building had been known as San Francisco Studios, and was host to numerous other productions over the years before Selick's. Some previous productions had re-poured a few slabs of the sidewalk around the studio, and celebrities who'd worked there added their signatures and hand prints, similar to the tradition outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

According to the "We Know Jack Show" podcast page, the studio is now gone and was torn down years ago. It used to be located on 375 7th Street Street San Francisco, CA 94103.

Crew[]

  • Henry Selick (Animator/Director)
  • Joel Fletcher (Animator)
  • Tim Burton (Producer)
  • Bonita DeCarlo (Character Fabrication Supervisor)
  • Fon Davis (Set Builder)
  • Richard Zimmerman (Animator)
  • Michael Wick (Puppet Fabricator)
  • Norm DeCarlo (Puppet Fabricator)
  • Justin Kohn (Animator)
  • Joel Friesch (Model Maker)
  • Kelly Asbury (Art Director)
  • Anthony Scott (Animator)
  • Edie Ichioka (Editor)

Behind the Scenes[]

Stories about Skellington Productions have been kept by the animators and staff who have worked there. The primary still photographer, Joel Fletcher, released photos on his website showing them in the warehouse during Nightmare's production.

Movies[]

Trivia[]

  • Tim Burton made rare appearances at Skellington Productions, due to having little involvement with the film and his entrust in Henry Selick.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first film produced by Skellington Productions and gave it its name.
  • "Property of Skellington Productions" can be seen as a headline in deleted scene content.
  • After production of James and the Giant Peach, the studio was renamed Twitching Image and went on to produce the stop-motion animation in Monkeybone.
Advertisement