Henry Selick

Henry Selick is an American animator and director born on November 30, 1952, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. His work is closely associated with stop motion animation, in which physical puppets and sets are moved incrementally and photographed frame by frame. Selick studied at Syracuse University, the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, and the California Institute of the Arts. At CalArts, he was part of an environment that also produced animators including Tim Burton and Brad Bird. His early interest in art and filmmaking eventually led him from Disney drawing boards to puppet animation professionally.

Before directing, Selick worked in animation at Walt Disney Productions. His credits there included work on The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, and Oliver and Company. He also animated on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the 1988 hybrid film directed by Robert Zemeckis. That background in drawn animation preceded the feature for which he became especially visible: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Released in 1993, it was directed by Selick and produced by Tim Burton. The story follows Jack Skellington, Halloween Town's Pumpkin King, after he discovers Christmas Town and tries to take over its holiday celebrations. Danny Elfman contributed.

Selick next directed James and the Giant Peach, a 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel. The film combines live action framing scenes with stop motion sequences, placing the orphaned James inside a giant peach alongside insect companions. In 2001, he directed Monkeybone, a live action and animation fantasy based on Kaja Blackley's Dark Town comic material. Its troubled production and weak box office reception made it a markedly different chapter from his earlier critical success. Selick returned to feature stop motion with Coraline, released in 2009. Adapted from Neil Gaiman's novel, it centers on Coraline Jones and a concealed doorway.

Behind it lies an alternate home where an Other Mother offers apparently ideal attention, but has sinister intentions. Coraline was the first stop motion feature made by LAIKA, the Oregon studio that had previously made commercials and short work. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Selick later directed Wendell and Wild, released by Netflix in 2022. He wrote the screenplay with Jordan Peele, from a story by Peele and Selick. The film follows demon brothers Wendell and Wild, voiced by Keegan Michael Key and Peele, as they seek entry into the world of the living together.