The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, returns to the McNay just in time for the holidays that inspired Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, a timeless classic of stop-motion animation. This exhibition brings together over a dozen original figures, sets, and props used in making the 1993 Disney Studio film. Acquired by the McNay in 1994, the character puppets and settings used in the film underwent expert conservation assessment and treatment, so that Oogie Boogie and Lock, Shock, and Barrel could make mischief again as they kidnap “Sandy Claws” and remake Christmas in the ghoulish image of Halloween. While The Nightmare Before Christmas would seem an unlikely departure for The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, the late Robert L. B. Tobin realized that Jack’s Tower and Lock, Shock, and Barrel’s Clubhouse would bring set design to life for visitors more familiar with film than with live theatre. Curator Jody Blake suspects that Tobin, who cut as elegant a figure as Jack Skellington himself, saw similarities in Jack’s Tower and the Tobin Theatre Arts Gallery, which is lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and accessed by a spiral staircase. The gargoyles in the Tower even make one think of Tobin’s middle name Batts.
