On some positive news, Nightmare storyboards are becoming more accessible due to Jorgen Klubien posting their portfolio online, and various auction sites listing them for sale!
Here are some I found a few nights ago that caught my attention. The first seems to be from the basket scene where I assume Jack would've winked and gestured at Sally(it is apparently signed by Henry Selick on the back!) The other is from Oogie's Lair where the kids are literally pulling on Jack to get them to go already.
The last one appears to be Jack entertaining the Corpse Kid, which reminded me of one of the scenes from Caroline Thompson's Draft.
I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and had a lengthy discussion in the TNBC Club Server about just how horrifying Oogie Boogie is, and how terrifying his capabilities really are. That he’s a truly strong villain on his own with advantages - ones that might’ve even beaten Jack, if that circumstances had been right…or different.
(TW; gore imagery with bugs)
My thoughts on Oogie’s Bug Day holiday aside, I think a lot about how the Nightmare cast actually USED this idea in scrapped scenes and workprints. How Oogie can have bugs inside of him that can cause actual harm. In one workprint, during the Jack vs Oogie fight scene, he sends a swarm of bugs after Jack Skellington, who starts running, and we see that the bugs can actually eat flesh AND bone, after they attack other beings in Oogie’s Lair.
In this situation - if Oogie’s “control bug” had sent the others in a deadly swarm, it’s very likely they could’ve caught Jack and eaten his bones, effectively making him ‘double dead’. How powerful Oogie is in this scene is incredible - although I know animating all those bugs in stop motion would’ve been a nightmare for the animators. They definitely took into account the type of bugs Boogie can have, and how much of a threat they pose, if sent in the right circumstance.
I wish more adaptions would acknowledge the possibilities of Oogie’s powers, and what he’s truly capable of. I know the Nightmare cast did, and it’s a shame that didn’t really get shown in the movie, in the end. He’s still a powerful and terrifying villain - and seeing the reasons why, I don’t think he should be underestimated.
There are so few scenes of Jack and Sally interacting in the original. This would have been sweet. Especially as supplementary material confirms that Jack was indeed following Sally.
The snow on the tombstones seems to imply this was a concept for the end of the movie which makes me wonder what the heck was gonna be said between them at this moment. Was the whole “I can’t believe I never realized that you”-schpeal gonna be saved for later?
Also, Sally in the last picture is my spirit animal.
I posted this quite a long time ago, and actually found some more storyboards from Jorgen Klubien's portfolio that *might* have been from this scene, or whatever they were planning on doing here...
There appears to be different stills about this situation, but one of the speculations appears to be very much true. Jack looks like he’s pulling a little joke on Sally here by pretending to *be* his tombstone, while in others he just appears right behind it.
Either way, the snow hints this is at the end of the movie and provides us a little scene where they appear to *talk*. About what? I’m not entirely sure, and I wish I knew...but I like to also assume they picked up their talk from Oogie’s Lair. Judging by the bottom right, they might’ve shared a little dance in one of the scenarios.
I’ve been becoming more aware of some deleted and scrapped Jack/Sally scenes, but this one catches my interest the most. I was close to getting some insight on this - but it didn’t fall through. Unless they talk about it in the We Know Jack Show podcast(which I haven’t finished it yet), I’m hoping they’ll at least talk about this scene in The Visual Companion...
Can you share more of those storyboards? Like the one you mentioned in that tag?
Oh, I’ll gladly share more storyboards with you guys! I was hoping someone would ask, actually, haha.
So, some of the storyboards I’ve encountered had different scenarios of Oogie with Santa and Sally. In this particular one, he has them hanging with their wrists tied and appears to have them stuffed in a bag while holding rocks, presumably to throw at them.
Here’s another one that shows what Santa and Sally are resting on in the above pic, as well as a great Jack reaction sketch to the left:
Some of these concepts were used for later storyboards, like this one, where Jack unties Santa by the wrists:
It’s interesting how far they can go with a concept before deciding to scrap it and try something new. You can definitely see the progress with them eventually deciding on what was used in the movie.
Also, here is an interesting piece because, upon closer inspection, the figure on the hill looks a lot like Sally. Yet, no snow? I wonder if this was her moment on reflecting on her own struggles.
Here’s a piece where Zero zooms by the Residents as Jack comes back in Town on a Christmas Train. I thought this was adorable.
^^^^ Here’s a piece of him on the train instead of that weird sled he used in the movie.
I was surprised to find some storyboard sketches having Sally in that black-and-white-striped dress Tim Burton drew her in in his concept art. There are a few pieces out there with her in it, but here’s one as an example:
Jack having struggles in his chair. I like the exasperation in that middle panel.
….Awwkkkwarrddd……
The Mayor’s having his own struggles at Jack’s doorstep. Love his facial expressions here.
This one’s interesting to me because of the perspective and shading. Someone put a lot of thought into this one.
A few pieces I liked. Santa gets drawn in different styles in some of these storyboards, and a lot give off that Rankin-Bass feel.
I ADORE the way Oogie’s drawn in most of these. He’s either Patrick Star or a really soft burlap sack like in these. He looks way too precious here.
“what do you have?” “a knife!” “NO–”
Thought this one was cute! It’s Lock and Shock who rolled Barrel into a ball instead of the Resident’s children.
^^ These are big favorites of mine, some of these can get really detailed and beautiful! Huge credit to the storyboard artists, like honestly!
Here’s another personal favorite. Love how awkward Jack is right here. I just wonder what he’s reacting to.
Aaand finally….here’s a piece I found of Jack getting a free sleigh ride from Santa back into town. I can see why this wasn’t used, but an interesting take on how he got back?
So, these were just some of my storyboard findings that I thought were interesting, appealing, or showed some great concepts. There’s many more pieces out there that I haven’t mentioned, but I think these might be great to finally share with other fans. I have more storyboards coming up in future posts.
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