It all started when Tim Burton and sculptor Rick Heinrichs pitched the movie's concept and core characters to Disney in 1983. Back then, Disney didn't really take on edgy projects, so the timing just wasn't right.

After Tim garnered acclaim with uber-successful films like 1988's Beetlejuice and 1989's Batman, Disney suddenly perked up at the idea.

"We started production in 1990," director Henry Selick told The Daily Beast. "We had three songs by Danny Elfman but no real screenplay, and we had to start because we had a pretty tight budget [$18 million], and had to finish the movie in time."

The Nightmare Before Christmas took just over three years to make.

"I was on the film for three-and-a-half years. The stop-motion animation took about 18 months, but with pre-production, where you storyboarded every single shot, it did add up," Henry explained. "At its peak, it was about 120 people working on it, and we had between 12-17 animators on the job. It’s an insane way to make a movie, but a lot of fun."

Finally released in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas is still as timeless as ever more than 30 years later.