A Disney must-see for Halloween and Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a classic tale that continued the dark animation style of Tim Burton's original short Vincent. The success of Vincent created precedence for the niche market of creepy, horror children's animations. While Jack Skellington of The Nightmare Before Christmas can stand alone as an original tale, its poetic humble beginnings may be connected to Tim Burton's first animated short film protagonist, Vincent.
Theories of film worlds and characters being connected in the Disney and Pixar collective cinematic universe are nothing new among fans. However, the iterative animation designs and Tim Burton's timeless character styles in Disney animations build a case for either explicit connections or at least a drawing of inspiration from one film to the other. Produced in 1982 at Disney, the little-known stop-motion film based on a poem by Burton, Vincent, may have been the film that not only put Tim Burton's world of weird on the radar of Hollywood as a premiere director, but also may have inspired his first animated Disney feature, also based on a Tim Burton poem, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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Who Is Tim Burton's Vincent?
The film sums up one of Tim Burton's other creepiest character, Vincent, in the first minute. Narrated by Vincent Price, he states, "Vincent Malloy is seven years old. He's always polite and does what he's told. For a boy his age, He's considerate and nice. But he wants to be just like Vincent Price." From there the story unfolds as either an identity crisis, a child with a wild imagination, or possibly the symptoms of a person living with some form of dissociative psychosis. These two identities of Vincent conflict as his Vincent Price-like personality desires to "search for victims in the London fog" with his zombie dog, Abercrombie.
One of Tim Burton's best movies, Vincent is a simple child who prefers to share a home with spiders and bats. He's quite introspective for a seven-year-old. As the narrator continues, "There he could reflect on the horrors he's invented; and wander dark hallways alone and tormented." He's a harmless melancholic artist whose imagination sometimes gets the best of him. In these imaginations, Vincent has a dead wife, a zombie dog, feels misunderstood and alone, and imagines being someone else. Haunted by skeleton hands and the horrors that invaded his mind, Vincent reached for a surreal swirly door to "escape the madness" but "fell limp and lifeless down on the floor." Arguably better than The Nightmare Before Christmas, these visual motifs and Vincent's desire to be someone else are eerily similar to the Pumpkin King.
Why Jack Skellington Could Be Vincent
The connection between Jack Skellington and Vincent are evident in their desires and the world they inhabit. They both have a pet dog. Vincent's dead wife looks similar to Jack's romantic interest, Sally. Their inescapable relationship with surreal doors to escape their situations is too prevalent to be mere inspiration. Thus, it could be possible that Jack Skellington is another identity Vincent conjured to escape his reality. Zero, Jack's ghost dog, could be Vincent's once-imagined zombie dog, Abercrombie. Assuming it's all just one giant movie, Jack, like Vincent, desires to be someone else. Yet, they're both compassionate characters who believe their horrific deeds can still be acts of kindness.
Though speculative, there are apparent connections between the two characters. That being said, The Nightmare Before Christmas could also simply be inspired by Vincent. Tim Burton's attempt to continue the theme of finding meaning in one's identity rather than trying to be someone else could be the driving inspiration of the two stories. The similar styles could be less of a connection between worlds and more of Tim Burton expounding upon his now classic animation style that has inspired other filmmakers and illustrators to adopt in an effort to depict child-friendly horror. Despite not wanting to work with Disney anymore, Tim Burton's films have left their indelible mark on the animation landscape with tremendous replay value and few sequels.
Still, the idea that Jack Skellington and Vincent are more connected spins the wheels of imagination that wonders what happened to Vincent for him to feel the need to dissociate again. If the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas is reflective of Vincent's mundane reality turned into maddening horror, then there could be reason for Disney and Tim Burton to revisit Vincent in some form. Corpse Bride was as close to a spiritual successor to The Nightmare Before Christmas as fans have received. Tim Burton's continued fascination with the dead and characters with "V" names are points of connection the director knows. But unlike Corpse Bride, Vincent, and The Nightmare Before Christmas began as poems by Burton. Knowing that Tim Burton has no desire to deliver a sequel to the critically acclaimed The Nightmare Before Christmas, he may be open to a sequel of Vincent that could either put this theory to rest or affirm its ghoulish presumptions.