Nightmare Before Christmas

Filipa Antunes is Lecturer in the Humanities at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her main research interests are childhood and popular culture, especially when the two intersect; ratings and other forms of media regulation; boundaries between childhood and adulthood (and the culture of children and adults); and representations of childhood, parenthood, and family.Brittany (Bee) Eldridge is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Pennsylvania State University, York, USA. They hold a PhD from University College London, UK. Bee is the Head of Communication for the Disney, Culture and Society Research Network (DisNet) and their Blog Editor. Rebecca Williams is Senior Lecturer in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies at the University of South Wales UK. She is the author of Post-Object Fandom (2015) and editor of Torchwood Declassified (2013), both published by Bloomsbury Academic.

• List of ContributorsIntroductionI: “What’s This?”: The Changing Frameworks and Meanings of The Nightmare Before Christmas1. Whose Nightmare Before Christmas? Authorship and Authenticity in Contemporary Stop-Motion AnimationFilipa Antunes (University of East Anglia, UK)2. From Art House to Attraction: Haunted Mansion Holiday and Rebranding “Disney’s” The Nightmare Before Christmas Nick Benson (SUNY Oneonta, USA)3. Action Figures and the Contextual Reframing of The Nightmare Before Christmas Alec Plowman (University of East Anglia, UK)II: “Everybody Scream!”: Interpreting The Nightmare Before Christmas4. “How Horrible, How Jolly”: The Nightmare Before Christmas in Holiday MediaSarah Whitney (Pennsylvania State University, Behrend College, USA)5. Once Upon a Nightmare: The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Burtonesque Tale Brittany Eldridge (Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine, USA)6. “I’m Gonna Do the Best I Can”: Social Constructs and Adult Fandom A Luxx Mishou (Independent Scholar, USA)III: “Simply Meant to Be”: The Continuing Impact of The Nightmare Before Christmas7. Characters, Ani-embodiment, and Spatial Transmedia: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Theme Parks and on Stage Rebecca Williams (University of South Wales, UK)8. Worm’s Wort Optional: The Nightmare Before Christmas Fans’ Mimetic Food Craft as Tactile Transmedia, Auteur Affirmation, and Transformative Translocation James Rendell (University of South Wales, UK)9. Surreal Swirls, Goths and Ghouls: Identity, Fashion and Costumes Inspired by the World of BurtonNicolle Lamerichs (HU University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, the Netherlands)Guide to Further ResearchIndex

What’s this? Antunes, Eldridge and Williams rightly recognise The Nightmare Before Christmas as a milestone not just in animation and cinema, but in all areas of popular culture, and they have gathered a delightfully ghoulish chorus of expert voices to examine its meanings, contradictions, and path from marginalised cult obsession to mainstream Disney darling. Through diverse critical lenses and theoretical acuity, the essays within show that what gives The Nightmare Before Christmas its staying power is that it is not only a stop-motion film to be watched, but a transmedia phenomenon that can be touched, played with, worn, subverted, performed, and even eaten. The insights of this new volume make it an essential companion for all Jack Skellington disciples, whether student, scholar, or Hot Topic-adorned fan.