Henry Selick

Henry Selick is an American stop-motion animator, director, and producer best known for directing Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Coraline, and Wendell & Wild. Born on November 30, 1952, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Selick developed an early interest in animation after seeing Ray Harryhausen’s creature effects and Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette animation. He studied at Syracuse University, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, and the California Institute of the Arts. Before becoming a feature director, Selick worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions. His animation credits include The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron, and he also contributed to projects connected with the studio’s experimental animation culture. He later worked on MTV’s early animated programming and helped establish his reputation as an artist with a strong sense of exaggerated movement, graphic design, and handmade visual texture. Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, released in 1993 by Touchstone Pictures. Although based on a poem and character designs created by Tim Burton, the film was directed by Selick. It follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, after he discovers Christmas Town and attempts to take over the Christmas holiday. The film’s detailed puppetry, replacement facial-animation techniques, and songs by Danny Elfman made it a major landmark in modern stop-motion feature filmmaking. In 1996, Selick directed James and the Giant Peach, adapted from Roald Dahl’s novel. The film combines live-action scenes with stop-motion animation and centers on James Henry Trotter’s journey inside a giant peach with a group of insect companions. Selick’s next feature, Monkeybone, released in 2001, used a mixture of live action, animation, and surreal creature work. Selick returned to stop-motion features with Coraline, released in 2009. Adapted from Neil Gaiman’s novella, Coraline tells the story of Coraline Jones, who finds an alternate version of her home inhabited by an apparently more attentive “Other Mother.” Produced by Laika, Coraline was the first stop-motion feature shot and released in 3D. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. After Coraline, Selick developed several projects, including work with Pixar and plans for adaptations that did not reach release. He later directed Wendell & Wild, a 2022 Netflix stop-motion film co-written with Jordan Peele. The story follows Kat Elliot, a teenager who confronts demons Wendell and Wild and returns to her hometown, Rust Bank. Selick’s films are distinguished by tactile puppets, dark fantasy subjects, and worlds where childhood wonder and unease coexist.