This Disney-trained stop-motion animation specialist worked successfully in advertising and "personal" short subjects before making a triumphant feature directorial debut with the popular and playfully macabre "Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'" (1993). Selick became a Disney animator after graduating from the first class at CalArts to complete Disney's character animation design program. As he rose through the ranks to become a full animator, Selick worked on "Pete's Dragon", "The Small One" (both 1977) and "The Fox and the Hound" (1981) before taking off eight months in 1979 to work on his own projects with American Film Institute backing. One such was "Seepage" (1979), a stop-motion depiction of a poolside chat that utilized watercolor animation of two figures--one in profile, the other looking straight ahead. The film garnered prizes on the animation festival circuit.
Selick left Disney and Burbank for northern California where he founded his own production company, Selick Projects. He became known for producing dense, jam-packed promos for MTV including a Clio award-winning spot called "Haircut M" in which a fanciful insect carves the station logo into a red big hairdo. Working for the San Francisco-based Colossal Pictures, Selick also revitalized the then 28-year-old Pillsbury Doughboy campaign. He also helmed the award-winning Ritz Bits ad in which hundreds of crackers ski down peanut butter slopes and fly to the moon in search of cheese.
MTV sponsored Selick's most ambitious project up to that time--"Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions" (1990), a surreal six-minute short combining stop-motion and live action. He was subsequently recruited by fellow Disney alumnus Tim Burton to helm his "Nightmare", the first full-length stop-motion animated feature produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Selick Projects transformed into Skellington Productions in 1991 for this massive project. A critical and commercial hit, "Nightmare" led to another stop-motion feature for Disney, "James and the Giant Peach" (1996). Even more complex than its predecessor, the film combined stop-motion animation with elements of computer-generated imagery and live-action. Selick also directed the film's extensive live-action prologue. The film opened to critical and commercial acclaim.
- Born:
in Glenridge, New Jersey
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Job Titles:
Animator, Director, Character designer, Producer, Storyboard artist, Animator trainee, Assistant animator ("in-betweener")
Education
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California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, 1977
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Burbank Adult Education, Burbank, California
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Rutgers State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Milestones
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1956 Began drawing by age three (date approximate)
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1973 Inspired to return to drawing and became interested in animation by watching a PBS program featuring experimental animation at age 20
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1977 Worked as an animator trainee and an in-betweener on Disney's "Pete's Dragon" and "The Small One"
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1979 Made short film, "Seepage", through funding from AFI
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1979 Took eight months off work on personal projects sponsored by the American Film Institute
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1981 First feature credit as an animator, "The Fox and the Hound"
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1981 Moved to Northern California
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1983 First credit as sequence director, "Twice Upon a Time"
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1986 First credit as storyboard artist, "Return to Oz"
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1986 Founded own production company, Selick Projects
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1990 Made short film, "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions", sponsored by MTV
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1991 Sellick Projects became Skellington Productions
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1993 Feature directorial debut, "Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'"
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1994 Skellington Productions renamed Twitching Images, Inc.
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1996 Twitching Images became the recipient of Miramax's largest financial commitment to an outside production company as the studio agreed to fully fund and finance the company's film projects as well as cover all operating costs
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Approached Felicity Dahl, the widow of author Roald Dahl, about adapting her husband's children's classic "James and the Giant Peach"
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At Disney, studied under noted animator Jules Engel who had worked on "Bambi" and "Fantasia"
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Began writing, producing, designing and directing promotional spots for MTV including the Clio-winning "Haircut M" campaign
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Directed two short animated films while attending CalArts, "Phases" and "Tube Tales"
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Directing an elaborate award-winning Rits Bits commercial
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Gained so much attention with his drawings that, in the fifth grade, he temporarily gave it up
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Grew up in Rumson, New Jersey
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Hired by the San Francisco-based Colossal Pictures to work on the Pillsbury Doughboy commercials
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Joined a rock band in high school