The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Original Theatrical Reconstruction (In progress)

Since Halloween and Christmas are nearby, as well as since I’m of what I did to Toy Story, I decided to do another of my favourites that unfortunately gets butchered by Disney with every new re-release…well you know what it is.

Back when the film was originally released, it was going to be a pioneering moment in Disney’s animation techniques, according to the company’s favourite nutball, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the 1992 sneak preview. But then the test screening came where the children got traumatised that Disney decided to release the film under the Touchstone label to prevent further trauma. I do honestly see why though, since the film’s extremely macabre tone didn’t fit well with the style of films released by the mouse house, especially with hearing “When You Wish Upon a Star” with current versions of the film when Disney decided to finally release the film under their original label since the 3D re-release. In fact, I’m honestly not a fan of the master used for the 2008 Blu-ray and later the UHD release, not only because it brought back the Disney credit from the re-release, but also its new 7.1 remix, mainly because of noticeable changes when compared to the original Dolby Stereo (and later the identical 1997 5.1 remix) mixes, such as how it did The Simpsons Movie thing where it starts out mono in the opening narration, up to when we enter Halloween Town it goes full 7.1, parts of vocals where it has a chorus effect (e.g. from The One Hiding Under Your Bed), and strangely (if you listen closely) the vocals can be heard all over the speakers, instead of the front and center speakers. I do understand this was done so that Disney can show off that Blu-ray can go “up to 7.1 surround sound” in their advertising, but I think how it was remixed felt uncomfortable for me. Though I did enjoy the remaster in both the BD and UHD releases, despite the changed opening credits having a strange zoom-in effect, which obviously was originally done for the 3D version, but I don’t know if the team that updated the film felt like the effect felt comfortable too when it came time for the BD. Though, I think the UHD was way better because of its authentic HDR from the original negatives.

So I decided to make this preservation for fun, and this time, the main source would be 4K HDR instead of 1080p. Yes, I am aware of the 4K HDR 35mm scan where it shows more image and it is the original theatrical version, but I’m not a fan of it, though, due to the bitrate being very crappy, and the amount of nits seems to be very limited when compared to the official 4K remaster.

Video sources for this preservation:

• Thunderbean’s 35mm scan (full film)
• 1998 JP DVD (for missing frames)

Audio tracks that will be included:

• English (Original Dolby Stereo Mix; US Dolby Surround CLV LaserDisc) (FLAC 2.0)
• English (1997 5.1 Remix; US DTS LaserDisc) (DTS 5.1) (This is a direct copy done trimmed using delaycut and merged using Audacity by combining the raw data. Thankfully it didn’t have problems like what the Toy Story DTS LD unfortunately has)
• Audio Description (Royal National Institute of Blind People; 2008 UK BD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• 1994 Commentary (Deluxe CAV LaserDisc) (FLAC 3.0)
• 1994 Commentary (2000 Special Edition R1 DVD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• 2008 Commentary (2008 UK BD) (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Arabic (Tim.Burtons.the.Nightmare.Before.Christmas.1993.720p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.x264-POWER.mkv) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• French (2008 UK BD) (DTS 5.1)
• German (2008 UK BD) (DTS 5.1)
• Hungarian (Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Italian (2002 UK DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Japanese (1998 Japanese DVD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Polish (Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Portuguese (Brazil) (2008 JP BD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Russian (Dub) (ТНТ Screener DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Russian (Voiceover) (The.Nightmare.Before.Christmas.1993.Blu-ray.1080p.x264-NiP.6xRus.Eng.mkv) (pitch corrected) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Spanish (Castilian) (2008 UK BD) (DTS 5.1)
• Spanish (Latin America) (2008 JP BD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)

…and more to come!

Subtitles:

• English (1999 UK DVD)
• English (2002 UK DVD)
• English SDH (White) (1998 Japanese DVD)
• English SDH (White) (2002 UK DVD)
• English SDH (Yellow) (2000 Special Edition R1 DVD)
• Croatian (2002 DE DVD)
• Czech (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Dutch (1999 UK DVD)
• Dutch (2002 FR/NL/BE/HU THX DVD)
• Estonian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• French (1999 UK DVD)
• French (2002 FR/NL/BE/HU THX DVD)
• German (2002 DE DVD)
• Hungarian (2002 FR/NL/BE/HU THX DVD)
• Italian (2002 UK DVD)
• Hindi (2008 UK DVD)
• Japanese (1998 Japanese DVD)
• Latvian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Lithuanian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Polish (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Portuguese (Portugal) (1999 UK DVD)
• Portuguese (Portugal) (2002 UK DVD)
• Russian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Slovak (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Slovenian (2002 DE DVD)
• Ukrainian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Spanish (Castilian) (2002 UK DVD)
• Spanish (Latin America) (2000 Special Edition R1 DVD)
• Japanese (Forced; 1998 Japanese DVD)
• CC (US Dolby Surround CLV LaserDisc)

…and more to come!

1994 Commentary subtitles:

• Dutch (2002 FR/NL/BE/HU THX DVD)
• French (2002 FR/NL/BE/HU THX DVD)
• German (2002 DE DVD)
• Italian (2002 UK DVD)
• Spanish (Castilian) (2002 UK DVD)

2008 Commentary subtitles:

• English (2008 R1 DVD; DisneyJazz Reauthoring)
• Czech (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Danish (2008 UK DVD)
• Dutch (2008 UK DVD)
• Finnish (2008 UK DVD)
• Hindi (2008 UK DVD)
• Hungarian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Icelandic (2008 UK DVD)
• Norwegian (2008 UK DVD)
• Polish (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Portuguese (Portugal) (2008 UK DVD)
• Russian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Slovak (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)
• Spanish (Castilian) (2008 UK DVD)
• Swedish (2008 UK DVD)
• Ukrainian (2008 RU DVD; Koshmar pered Rojdestvom_DVD9_R2)

JF_Sanderson said:

I haven’t seen this movie except on DVD and blu. The bluray mix is indeed a bit gimmicky with voices moving across channels. Does the stereo mix have a lot of oomph? I remember being quite impressed by the sound mix of other Touchstone films at this time (Rocketeer and Sister Act.)

Also can you say why the commentary is in 3 channel?

Firstly, yeah, there is oomph in the Dolby Stereo (and the 1997 5.1 mix) mix. And also, the reason the commentary is 3.0 is because it is isolated with the film audio.

Will this have the commentary with Selick, Burton, and Elfman from the DVD/Blu-ray?

Virtualcrane said:

Will this have the commentary with Selick, Burton, and Elfman from the DVD/Blu-ray?

I’ll think about it.

Would love the additional commentary if its possible.

@Sambarker04

Thanks for adding it!

UPDATE (29/09/25): I decided to grab myself the original Dolby Surround CLV release since I thought it would make sense for the original theatrical mix to be complete just like what I did with Toy Story, by combining the CLV release with patches from the Deluxe CAV release.

That guy with no name said:

Apologies for my ignorance, but what exactly are the visual differences between the official 4K release and the theatrical cut?

Nothing much, just the Disney logo, the opening titles and the closing logo. The rest is pretty much untouched. In fact, the 4K master is based on the 2008 BD master, which is why the logo say “Walt Disney Pictures” and not just “Disney”.

Sambarker04 said:

by combining the CLV release with patches from the Deluxe CAV release.

I’m curious as to what needs to be patched? Does this have the same exact problems as the Toy Story LD?

Virtualcrane said:

Sambarker04 said:

by combining the CLV release with patches from the Deluxe CAV release.

I’m curious as to what needs to be patched?

Just a transition between sides 1 and 2. This is where the audio from side 2 on the Deluxe CAV release patches it.

Sambarker04 said:

Virtualcrane said:

Sambarker04 said:

by combining the CLV release with patches from the Deluxe CAV release.

I’m curious as to what needs to be patched?

Just a transition between sides 1 and 2. This is where the audio from side 2 on the Deluxe CAV release patches it.

I see. Thanks for the info.

I was wondering if the 35mm segments had to be slowed down to 23.976fps?

HAttackontheBun said:

I was wondering if the 35mm segments had to be slowed down to 23.976fps?

It already has.

UPDATE (04/10/2025): Okay, plan B, rather than just use Disney’s official 4K remaster, I’ll use the original 1080p Thunderbean scan, mostly because of more detail in the image and how it looks really cool to me. I do have proof about the AI upscale of the scan here just to let you know.

So yeah, apologies to anyone who wanted to see it in 4K.

For this new source, I’ll use the 1998 Japanese DVD master for the grading since, from what I can guess, it is the same transfer used on the LaserDiscs, which is why it’s non-anamorphic, especially since the scan is way too saturated and bright. The JP DVD will be used for patching the missing frames.

Sambarker04 said:

UPDATE (04/10/2025): Okay, plan B, rather than just use Disney’s official 4K remaster, I’ll use the original 1080p Thunderbean scan, mostly because of more detail in the image and how it looks really cool to me. I do have proof about the AI upscale of the scan here just to let you know.

So yeah, apologies to anyone who wanted to see it in 4K.

For this new source, I’ll use the 1998 Japanese DVD master for the grading since, from what I can guess, it is the same transfer used on the LaserDiscs, which is why it’s non-anamorphic, especially since the scan is way too saturated and bright. The JP DVD will be used for patching the missing frames.

Actually, I need to find a remux of it, since I don’t know if the 1080p file I got and the reported 720p file had their frame rates to 23.976, since the 35mm scan of the 1969 re-release of Peter Pan has it in 24fps. In case you want to know, here’s the MediaInfo of the 1080p version.

General
Unique ID                                : 305061685722160848457308697892272960038 (0xE580BE58C0A43A32BBD40CCA675B7226)
Complete name                            : C:\Users\Sam\Videos\The Nightmare Before Christmas.1993.35mm.1080p.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 10.2 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 19.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2023-11-28 00:14:55 UTC
Writing application                      : mkvmerge 68.0.0 ('The Curtain') 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Format settings, Slice count             : 4 slices per frame
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 17.4 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 29.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Active width                             : 1 777 pixels
Active height                            : 1 069 pixels
Active display aspect ratio              : 5:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.350
Stream size                              : 9.26 GiB (91%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 139 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : MVO Карусель
Language                                 : Russian
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Dialog Normalization                     : -31 dB
dialnorm_Average                         : -31 dB
dialnorm_Minimum                         : -31 dB
dialnorm_Maximum                         : -31 dB

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 837 MiB (8%)
Title                                    : Original
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:04:07.205                             : en:Chapter 02
00:11:06.832                             : en:Chapter 03
00:13:50.120                             : en:Chapter 04
00:17:36.513                             : en:Chapter 05
00:24:14.661                             : en:Chapter 06
00:32:07.467                             : en:Chapter 07
00:40:33.722                             : en:Chapter 08
00:47:41.149                             : en:Chapter 09
00:54:43.113                             : en:Chapter 10
00:59:37.282                             : en:Chapter 11
01:05:01.105                             : en:Chapter 12
01:08:36.946                             : en:Chapter 13

and here for the 720p version

General

Unique ID                                : 64375619929596748989707303955415704265 (0x306E4B1CFD3CBC32D43046B6D79C22C9)
Complete name                            : The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 Thunderbean Scan Open Matte 720p BluRay FLAC2.0 x264-R40.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 3.81 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 7 162 kb/s
Movie name                               : The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) [Thunderbean Scan Open Matte]
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-05-20 16:53:25
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v67.0.0 ('Under Stars'[Image: wink.gif] 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 9 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 9 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate                                 : 6 466 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 224 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.700
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.306
Stream size                              : 3.44 GiB (90%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 164 r3094+49M 0246926 devel [(8 & 10)-bit@all X86_64]
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=9 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / fade_compensate=0.00 / psy_rd=1.15:0.05 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=22 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / fgo=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=19.0000 / qcomp=0.70 / qpmin=10:10:10 / qpmax=51:51:51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:0.80 / aq-sensitivity=10.00 / aq-factor=1.00:1.00:1.00 / aq2=0 / aq3=0
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : FLAC
Format/Info                              : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID                                 : A_FLAC
Duration                                 : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 694 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 10.417 FPS (4608 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 378 MiB (10%)
Writing library                          : Lavf58.45.100
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Though I did compare both the 1080p and 2160p versions here

and I can tell right off the bat there could be a chance I can get access to the original raw open matte scans somewhere. If anyone happens to have a Blu-ray of the open matte scan from Thunderbean’s official website, please PM me either an ISO rip or a remux using MakeMKV (recommended for BD remuxes).

I’ll say rn that if no one is able to find the original BD of the open matte scan by the time I complete everything I need for the preservation, I’ll still use the official 4K master for it, especially since this is the same scenario as with the Disney logo on my theatrical reconstruction of Toy Story, where it’s a temporary case for using AI upscaled footage.

UPDATE (06/10/25): Finally got the original Dolby Surround LD. Turns out there’s no need for a patch. This was due to the fact that we get more audio from it than the Deluxe LD, and also due to the side transition being identical to the reel transition from 2 to 3, hence the cut in the latter release.

I did also get the original 1999 UK DVD and the 2002 German Special Edition DVD as a bonus. I’m also expected to get the Japanese Blu-ray tomorrow as I am posting this. The reason I want this is due to languages and subtitles being identical to the US release, only with the addition of a Japanese track and subtitles.

UPDATE (07/10/2025): Finally got the Japanese BD. And yes, it is identical to the US release, including the American warning screens and the D-BOX data which was missing in the UK BD, despite being mentioned. Though the Japanese tracks are odd in this one. I can tell when I looked at the Japanese Dolby TrueHD track on Audacity that Disney lost the original uncompressed audio of the Japanese dub, so they just take the 5.1 Dolby Digital track from the JP Collector’s Edition DVD, replace the LFE channel with the one from the 2008 mix, and call it a day, so it looks like I have to wait until I grabbed the 2002 JP DVD to see if the LFE channel was just a change by Disney themselves for the JP dub on the BD.