Yes, you read the headline right, Patrick Stewart has a secret cameo in Nightmare Before Christmas, and none of you are likely to have heard it.
Now, don’t worry, this isn’t some absolute blunder on the part of moviegoers everywhere, as it’s not in an obvious place.
First though let’s rewind and take a look at the film itself.
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The Henry Selick masterpiece written by Tim Burton is a contemporary classic Christmas film and is universally beloved.
All signs point to this, whether it be the 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, the Oscar nomination (before there was even a dedicated award for animated film), or even the selection to be preserved in the United States Film Registry by the Library of Congress as a film of significance.
Fans though will be scratching their head to hear that the legendary Patrick Stewart appears, as the cast does not actually include him.
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The main cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, and even Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman as the singing voice of Jack Skellington, but nowhere in the cast list is Stewart mentioned.
That’s because the iconic opening to the film was originally voiced in a cameo by Stewart and was cut from the film.
Despite this though the version he did still exists.
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It isn’t in deleted scenes for the film, it isn’t hidden in some library somewhere in Tim Burton’s basement, in actual fact it was included in a release of the film, its soundtrack album.
The narration in the end was done by Ed Ivory, who also played Santa Claus in the film.
However, at one time producers wanted Stewart to do it. He picked up the role after Vincent Price, who was originally supposed to play Santa Claus and voice the opening, dropped out.
Price did so due to the death of his wife.
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Henry Selick has even stated, per Screenrant, that he met with the late great James Earl Jones to take on the role, but it didn’t work out.
Stewart’s version of the opening monologue is even longer, but fans are split as to which version they’d prefer.
One comment on YouTube read: “As much as I love Patrick Stewart, I love the original better simply because it's shorter and builds up better to the song ,‘This Is Halloween’, that comes later.
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“Patrick's works better as soundtrack poem on its own than a film soundtrack. either this is a great piece of narration.”
Another said: “Patrick Stewart's diction and vocal control is amazing - the original narration is better, sure, but it's still great to hear a master at work.”
Some preferred Stewart’s version however, with one fan commenting: “As someone who only saw this movie once or twice in his childhood, I infinitely like this narration better than the one used in the actual movie.
“Though I certainly understand why people who grew up with the movie version would like it better.”
Either way, we’ll never know how much would’ve changed if Stewart’s version had been used, but the film would be sure to still be a Christmas classic if you ask me.
Topics: Christmas, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin