Tim Burton broke the rules when he created his iconic protagonist Jack, voiced in the films by Chris Sarandon with the singing voice of composer Danny Elfman. Burton explains, “The first rule of drawn animation is that you have to have eyes for expression. I thought it would be great to give life to these characters that have no eyes.” After convincing the studio that animators could give Jack soul, personality, and convey his emotions without giving him eyeballs, puppet makers created over 400 replacement heads with different expressions and mouth shapes to allow him to speak and sing realistically. Track Reader Dan Mason matched each syllable and expression with one of the heads and synced it with the dialogue or singing soundtrack so animators knew which head to use during filming. In contrast to Jack, the other main characters have eyes—and they also have multiple sets of eyelids, allowing them to appear to blink on film, adding even more realism and relatability to the characters.

Who said Jack can’t be snuggly? Cuddle up with Jack’s quintessential skeleton grin in this mosaic colorwork pillow cover, a superb gift for any Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas fan. Knit flat back and forth, the cover is started with a provisional or temporary cast on. Once the knitting is complete, the cast on is removed and grafted together with the live edge for a seamless join. The side seams are sealed up with mattress stitching around a 16” x 16” (40.5 cm x 40.5 cm) pillow form, making it the ideal size for hugging.