[Commlist] CFP: Nightmare Before Christmas

CFP: Nightmare Before Christmas(Key Films/Filmmakers in 
Animationseries,Bloomsbury)

This edited collection will considerNightmare Before Christmasas a 
milestone in animation and film history as well as a key cultural object 
with lasting impact. The book will be inserted in Bloomsbury’s Key 
Film/Filmmakers in Animation series.

In the thirty years since its release,Nightmare Before Christmashas 
drawn repeated academic attention. Many of these contributions have seen 
the film as an entry point to larger arguments about Tim Burton’s work, 
whether in terms of its animation (Cuthill 2017), representations of 
gender (Mitchell 2017), and use of fairy tales (Burger 2017). Less 
often,Nightmare Before Christmashas been considered in relation to other 
frameworks, such as its presence beyond the film industry, in theme 
parks (Williams 2020a, 2020b), and the way it negotiated changing 
cultural expectations of children’s media and horror (Antunes 2020). 
Though this literature has shed light on several aspects of the film’s 
significance, there is to date no sustained scholarly inquiry that 
brings these insights together and examines the historical and cultural 
significance specifically ofNightmare Before Christmas. This edited 
collection seeks to address this gap, considering the different layers 
of meanings and history ofNightmare Before Christmasfrom pre-production 
to the present day.

Nightmare Before Christmaswas released quietly in 1993 under Disney’s 
Touchstone banner and sold primarily on the art-house appeal of its 
animation technique, amid fears that a close association with child 
audiences would harm Disney’s reputation. But the film was an immediate 
success and has since been reclaimed by Disney as one of its most 
beloved family titles. Growing into a cult phenomenon,Nightmare Before 
Christmasstill cultivates a dedicated fandom across the globe today with 
an array of merchandise, tie-in products, and other media.

Nightmare Before Christmasmarks an important moment of technological 
development in stop-motion animation, and the technique has continued to 
have a key presence in the industry, particularly associated with 
horror- and gothic-inspired narratives(Selick’sCoralineandParaNoman, or 
Burton’sCorpse BrideandFrankenweenie), where it blurs questions of 
suitability for child audiences and continues to fuel debates about the 
art of animated films andits target audiences. Indeed, the specific 
combination ofstop-motion and children’s horror inNightmare Before 
Christmasis key to how the film has negotiated genre, suitability, and 
other cultural categories in its original and retrospective reception, 
questions which often become tangled with ideas of nostalgia.

More recently,Nightmare Before Christmascontinuesto serve as a point of 
reference for negotiations of genreandofthe boundariesbetweenmainstream 
and niche cultures,both on screen and in spaces of fandom. Its many 
afterlives expand well beyond the film industry, occupying manga 
andcomicbooks,board games, and other paraphernalia, as well as physical 
rooted localities through events such asthe live-staged musical,theme 
parks, and in exhibits (Hicks 2013),as well as throughthe fan practices 
that the film has inspired, such asfan fashion (Cuthill 2017) and 
makeup, cosplay, textual production, and transcultural fandom.

How can we best understandNightmare Before Christmasand its 
significancein the history of film and animation?What isNightmare Before 
Christmas’ legacy thirty years on, and how does it continue to challenge 
and delight audiences, scholars, and industry today?

This book aims to collect diverseand originalinsights into the meanings 
and impacts ofNightmare Before Christmasfrom a range of disciplinary 
perspectivesand methods.Some suggested topics include:

  *

    Nightmare Before Christmasinanimation andfilm history;

  *

    animation andgenre (musicals/fairy tales/horror/family/etc);

  *

    narrative structure inNightmare Before Christmasand the audience;

  *

    stop-motion as animation technique and cultural object;

  *

    animation and branding practices;

  *

    Nightmare Before Christmasas seasonal media (Christmas/Halloween);

  *

    suitability, animation, and young audiences;

  *

    children’s horror animation before and afterNightmare Before Christmas;

  *

    animation and nostalgia;

  *

    animation, technology, and art;

  *

    the music ofNightmare Before Christmas(songs, covers, re-releases,
    etc.);

  *

    the politics ofrepresentation inNightmare Before Christmas;

  *

    childhood inNightmare Before Christmasand its associated texts and
    practices;

  *

    authorship and associated debates (Burton/Selick/Elfman/Disney),
    including the links betweenNightmare Before Christmasand other works;

  *

    franchises and franchising relationships;

  *

    live and experiential events linked to the film (live musicals,
    theme park attractions, the Beetle House restaurants in New York and
    Los Angeles, Tim Burton exhibitions, etc.);

  *

    transmedia and merchandise (Funko figures, action figures, board
    games, clothing and make-up, cookbooks, etc.);

  *

    transnational critical and audience/fan reception;

  *

    fandom, subcultures (Goth/emo),andfanpractices, including
    transformative works (fan animation, fanfiction, fanvideos,…);

  *

    cosplay and the body inNightmare Before Christmasfandom.

Questions and informal discussion can be directed to any of the three 
co-editors: Filipa Antunes ((a.antunes /at/ uea.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(a.antunes /at/ uea.ac.uk)>), Brittany Eldridge 
((brittany.eldridge.18 /at/ ucl.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(brittany.eldridge.18 /at/ ucl.ac.uk)>), and Rebecca Williams 
((rebecca.williams /at/ southwales.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(rebecca.williams /at/ southwales.ac.uk)>).Formal proposals (under 300 
words) and short bio should be emailed to Rebecca Williams by 3May 2021.



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