Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween with Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's 1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas

Halloween or Hallowe'en, also known as All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related "guising" or "trunk-or-treating"), attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. (source: wiki)


What better way to celebrate Halloween on Toy Haven than with Jack Skellington. Jack Skellington is a fictional character and the protagonist of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town and lives in a fantasy world based solely on the Halloween holiday. It’s been 20 years since we all saw the pumpkin king on the big screen. Scroll down to see more pictures, including the other 11 Jack Skellington heads that came with this 2005 released NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads toy figure.




The box itself is no biggie, just a plain black box with window display showing off Jack and his extra 11 interchangeable heads, each one with a different expression. This NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads toy figure was released in 2005. It was touted as "the first action figure of its kind. No other figure has come with so many different heads and with such high articulation at this size."


NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington is 14 inches tall, and besides a total of 12 interchangeable heads, is said to have 19 points of articulation. Jack certainly needs help standing ;p NOTE: clear display stand is NOT included. I had to use it for Jack to pose and take pictures.


The head that Jack comes with (pictured above) is the most famous and common smiling head. Then there's the scary head (picture below). Scroll down to see the rest of the heads


These Jack Skellington heads were created to change Jack’s expression during stop-motion animation and used in the filming of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach (as “Captain Jack”).


This faithful reproduction of the various Jack heads is really something :)


The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. (source: wiki)


The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney animator. Disney considered developing The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1982 as either a short film or 30-minute TV special. The studio eventually shelved it for being “too weird.”


Disney decided to produce the movie after the success of Burton’s films Beetlejuice and Batman. Disney then released the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought the film would be "too dark, and scary for kids."


The film earned $50 million in the United States on its first theatrical run. Since then, the film has gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim. On October 20, 2006, Walt Disney Pictures reissued Nightmare (no longer under Touchstone) with conversion to Disney Digital 3-D.


The film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Nightmare Before Christmas won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Elfman won Best Music. Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The American Film Institute nominated The Nightmare Before Christmas for its Top 10 Animated Films list.


Well done, Jack Skellington (wink wink)


The long list of accolades do bring a smile to his face haha


Look who is having the last laugh now XD


And here's a motion capture gif image of some of Jack Skellington heads


As Jack Skellington would probably say "Happy Halloween everyone :)"


More than 400 distinctly different Jack Skellington heads were used for Nightmare Before Christmas so these 12 heads are only the tip of the iceberg!


Sources:
18 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About "The Nightmare Before Christmas" posted HERE
20 Crazy Facts About The Making Of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in honor of the movie’s 20th anniversary posted HERE

Related posts:
January 19, 2009 - Pirate Jack from Walt Disney Pictures "James and the Giant Peach" posted in my toy blog HERE
December 24, 2009 - T'was the night before Christmas with Jun Planning 16-inch Jack Skellington as "Sandy Claws" posted HERE
October 31, 2010 - Happy Halloween from Jack the Pumpkin King (pictures HERE)

NEXT: More poses of NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads toy figure. It's a treat ;p

No comments: