Hey folks, Harry here with a followup on the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS event that went down at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Given this is one of my absolute favorite films, I will never cease writing about this movie or printing stuff written about this movie... I love it for always. I watch it at least 7 times a year... Great freaking movie, complete Prozac for me.

On The Ground - Nightmare Goes Hollywood

By Chuck - Friend of Jim Hill!

If you live in LA one of the places you almost never visit is Hollywood. It is known among the locals mostly as a tourist trap full of dingy, over priced, over stocked T-shirt and souvenir shops. Hollywood falls light years short of its historically glamorous image. The truth is that Hollywood never has been all that glamorous but thanks to the dream machine that is the entertainment industry it still attracts thousands of tourists each year. But that image is changing.

Government and private business are moving Hollywood into the 21st Century. In 1989 the Walt Disney Company, together with Pacific Theaters restored the El Capitan Theater to its previous glory. Since then the Egyptian Theater - built by Sid Grauman who also built the Chinese Theater - has also been restored. Next month these landmarks will be joined by the all new Hollywood and Highland Center. The center will house retail shops like The Gap and the Kodak Theater. The Kodak Theater will host the return of the Academy Awards ceremony to Hollywood. The awards ceremony first took place a half a block away across the street at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Disney did more than renovate and restore the El Capitan. They also restored an old tradition begun by Sid Grauman of preceding each film with a live stage show. Combining Disney showmanship with first runs of their latest films has made the El Capitan an event destination for audiences from all around the Southland. It is reported to be one of the highest grossing single screen theaters in the country.

The El Capitan's calendar is always reserved for the Disney Studio's big summer and holiday season releases. In addition the theater's marketing staff have had great success with event marketing. Limited runs of fully restored prints of Disney classics like 20 Thousand League's Under the Sea and Mary Poppins have proven to be quite popular. The Mary Poppins event included appearances by Mary herself and a live sing along. So bearing that in mind it should come as no surprise that Halloween too has become an El Capitan tradition.

October had been a booking problem for the El Capitan. Summer film crowds are all back in school and it's far to early to open up a holiday season blockbuster. A Halloween event of some type seemed like the solution. Three years ago the El Capitan began looking for a film or group of films to build a Halloween theme around. They didn't have to look far. While technically not a traditional horror film of the type popular during October fright - film fests Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has proven to be the perfect Halloween tradition for the El Capitan.

Released in 1993 NMBC was thought to be too intense to be released by Walt Disney Pictures. Disney's more adult oriented Touchstone Pictures released the film instead. Of course time changes everything. Five year olds are now watching NMBC on home video while their parents buy them stuffed Oggie Boogie and tear away face clown dolls.

So popular has the El Capitan's Halloween run of NMBC become that the franchise has been expanded to include a Jack Skellington, Nightmare Before Christmas overlay to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. In turn in just its first three weeks Haunted Mansion Holiday has proven to be so popular that the Disney parks in Florida and Tokyo are now insisting on their own Haunted Mansion Holiday overlays.

This year as last the El Capitan began NMBC's Halloween run with a panel discussion hosted by noted animation historian and author Jerry Beck. Beck's guest were Rick Heinrichs who not only was a classmate of Tim Burton's at Cal Arts but a fellow Disney employee who worked with Burton on the now classic Vincent, Frankenweenie and NMBC. Lenny Ripps, Frankenweenie screenwriter, completed the panel.

The combination of these experts and the addition of Vincent and Frankenweenie to the Halloween program proved to be a potent combination. The nearly full house was made up of equal parts of Tim Burton fans, animation buffs and Disney fans and geeks of all kinds.

This was only the second time Frankenweenie had ever been seen on a commercial film screen. In 1984 it was teamed in a single LA area theater for a one week run with the re-release of Pinocchio. This was done so that it would qualify for Academy Award consideration. As the story goes Frankenweenie scared half the kids out of the audience at each showing before Pinocchio ever hit the screen. To quote Lenny Ripps . . . "Every night pissed off parents stormed the box office every time it (Frankenweenie) played."

During the panel discussion both Rick Heinrichs and Lenny Ripps talked about the ups and downs of their respective careers. Heinrichs and Tim Burton, for example, became friends while working together on The Black Caldron at Disney. Rick went on to say, "Fortunately they didn't use any of the stuff we worked on."

Lenny Ripps told the audience that he was one of the screenwriters of, "The only Star Wars film George Lucas ever disavowed any connection with." the Star Wars Christmas Special.

Have you ever had a sense that there was something familiar about the style or tone of The Nightmare Before Christmas. According to Rick Heinrichs there is a reason for that. Tim's work was heavily influenced by his favorite childhood entertainment. As early as their first years at Disney in the early 80s Tim began pitching the idea for a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday television special. Tim kept insisting that it be done as stop motion animation. The same type of animation used in his all time favorite holiday special, Frosty The Snowman.

Despite Tim Burton's denials to the contrary Rick Heinrichs insists that Vincent is a highly biographical film. Panel moderator Jerry Beck went on to point out that it is in Vincent that trademarks of the Burton style begin to appear. Checkerboard floors, impressionist graveyards, menacing, grinning, toothy monsters all populate this stop motion tale of a macabre seven year old who thinks he's Vincent Price. Years later the real Vincent Price would walk across one of those checkerboard floors in Edward Scissorhands to deliver the final lines of his film career.

Trivia Challenge: Got a copy of Vincent? See if you can identify the prototype "Heart and soul," according to Rick Heinrichs, of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Speaking of Tim Burton's childhood, the influence of his early years can also be found in Frankenweenie. After viewing the film Lenny Riggs was asked if the look of Victor's neighborhood and house were a direct homage to earlier black and white Mickey Mouse Club shorts like the Hardy Boys. He said it was. In fact he went on to say some of the close ups of the picket fence and mail box were shot on sets made to look exactly like those used in those earlier films.

In the end the star of the evening was the pristine print of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Multiple theatrical releases, video and DVD releases not withstanding this Halloween classic brought the house down. Resounding cheers could be heard throughout the showing for everything from the opening credits, to Jack's entrance, Oggie's demise and Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's names in the closing credits. Just proving that locals from all over Los Angeles could have a great time in Hollywood.

As animation author and historian Jerry Beck said, "When it (NMBC) was new I used to think it was bringing back the almost lost stop motion form of animation.

"It was dimensional animation before CGI.

"Nightmare Before Christmas came out before Toy Story which has been called the first true 3d animated film. I believe Nightmare is the first. It still looks fresh.

"What I once saw as an homage to the past I now see as a glimpse of the future."

As Jack Skellington might say, "Surprised aren't you?"

When In Hollywood

Just a few yards east of Highland Ave. on the north side of Hollywood Blvd. is a little historical gem from the 30's and 40's, that few Angelenos know about. The Snow White Café, built by the Disney studios, is full of Disney artists imagery from Walt Disney's Snow White. In 1946 the studio sold this little gem with a license that has allowed it owners to continue to use both the name and original artwork.

Now serving coffee drinks as well as beer and wine the Snow White Café has lost none of its original charm. Lovingly cared for over the years it looks as if Disney might still be running it. As an added bonus the food is good and reasonably priced, reasonably for Los Angeles anyway.