Nightmare Before Christmas (The)

An original puppet head used in the production of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the 1993 stop motion animation favourite directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton.

This puppet head is one of several used by the production in order to bring to life the character of Sally, the ragdoll created by Dr. Finkelstein and voiced in the movie by Catherine O'Hara. This was achieved using stop motion animation, in this instance using the replacement method, where Sally's face is an appliance which can be removed from the head and changed to reflect the various expressions required on camera, each being attached to the puppet head using ball bearings which locate into recesses on the rear of the mask allowing them to be easily interchanged during filming. While there were a number of differing appliances used to convey varying expressions on screen the puppet heads themselves were constructed in much lower numbers.

Both the puppet head and facial appliance are constructed from high quality resin with the latter expertly painted, these mounted on a stylised display stand and complemented by hair cast from an original production mould. The head measures approximately 2" wide with the display standing over 7" high, both the original puppet head and face appliance remain in excellent screen used condition, extremely fine.

An instantly recognisable and highly displayable artefact from this Academy Award nominated stop motion animation classic which requires no introduction.