Henry Selick
Encyclopedia
Henry Selick is an American
stop motion
director, producer and writer who is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas
, James and the Giant Peach
and Coraline
. He studied at the Program in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts
, under the guidance of Jules Engel
.
and raised in nearby Rumson
, Selick did little but draw from ages 3 to 12. Selick's fascination with animation came at a young age, when he first saw both Lotte Reiniger
's stop-motion movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed
, and the animated creatures of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad by Ray Harryhausen
.
After studying science at Rutgers University
and art at Syracuse University
and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
in London, Selick eventually enrolled at CalArts to study animation. While a student at CalArts, his two student films, Phases and Tube Tales, were nominated for Student Academy Awards
.
as an "in-betweener" and animator trainee on such films as Pete's Dragon
and The Small One
. He became a full-fledged animator under Glen Keane
on The Fox and the Hound. During his time at Disney, he met and worked around the likes of Tim Burton
, Rick Heinrichs
, Jorgen Klubien, Brad Bird
, John Musker
, Dan Haskett
, Sue and Bill Kroyer
, Ed Gombert, and Andy Gaskill. Years later, he claimed he learned a lot to improve his drawing, animation, and storytelling skills from Disney legend Eric Larson
.
and Ritz Crackers
, and sequences of John Korty
's animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He also storyboard
ed fantasy sequences for Walter Murch
’s Return to Oz
and Carroll Ballard
's Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (with designs by Maurice Sendak
). When he created an acclaimed series of MTV
station IDs and an award-winning six-minute pilot for an animated series called Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, Selick attracted the attention of director Tim Burton, whom he had known at CalArts, and was catapulted into features directing.
— the first full-length, stop-motion feature from a major American studio. An instant holiday classic, Nightmare was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and won the International Animated Film Society's Annie Award for Best Creative Supervision, beating out The Lion King
.
, his live-action/stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl
's classic children’s book. The innovative film received widespread critical acclaim (Time Magazine’s Richard Schickel
said it was even better than the book), and it won the top prize for an animated feature at the Annecy Film Festival in 1997.
Selick’s third feature was Monkeybone
, a live action/stop-motion adaptation of an underground comic. The film was a flop both commercially and critically.
's feature The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
, Selick joined the Portland, Oregon
-based animation studio LAIKA
in mid-2004 as supervising director for feature film development. After joining LAIKA, Selick directed his first computer-generated
animation film, the award-winning short film Moongirl, the inspiration for Candlewick Press's children's book of the same name.
, which is based on the book by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman
and was released in 2009. It is the first stereoscopic stop-motion animated movie
. The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. Coraline was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe; all for Best Animated Feature.
and the The Walt Disney Company
in a long-term contract to exclusively produce stop-motion films. This not only returns Selick to his original roots, but also reunites Selick with numerous former friends and co-animators. His new studio, called "Cinderbiter Productions" is self described as "a new stop-motion company whose mandate is to make great, scary films for young ‘uns with a small, tight-knit crew who watch each other’s backs."
Selick and Cinderbiter's first film under this deal, a currently untitled film project, is set to be released on October 4th, 2013.
, a late friend and collaborator of Selick's, once stated in an interview that Selick had a "rock 'n' roll-meets-Da Vinci temperament". In Ranft's words "He'll still go off to his office to play guitar or electric piano to ease off and think", but at the same time Selick operates scientifically. "He gets an outrageous premise-something that comes from a real dream place-then approaches the aesthetics of it like a mechanical engineer: What can we build on this foundation, how do we buttress it? If we have a mechanical shark, how does it kill? Will it shoot things from its snout?" Ranft once said Selick has an uncanny gift: "He can articulate things through animation that people couldn't say otherwise."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
director, producer and writer who is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
, James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach (film)
James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation....
and Coraline
Coraline (film)
Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
. He studied at the Program in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, under the guidance of Jules Engel
Jules Engel
Jules Engel was a Jewish-Hungarian American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher...
.
Early life
Born in Glen Ridge, New JerseyGlen Ridge, New Jersey
Glen Ridge is a borough in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,527. In 2010, Glen Ridge was ranked as the 38th Best Place to live by New Jersey Monthly magazine....
and raised in nearby Rumson
Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,122.Rumson was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 15, 1907, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a...
, Selick did little but draw from ages 3 to 12. Selick's fascination with animation came at a young age, when he first saw both Lotte Reiniger
Lotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
's stop-motion movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost...
, and the animated creatures of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad by Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
.
After studying science at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
and art at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...
in London, Selick eventually enrolled at CalArts to study animation. While a student at CalArts, his two student films, Phases and Tube Tales, were nominated for Student Academy Awards
Student Academy Awards
The Student Academy Awards is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual competition for college and university filmmakers. The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first presented in 1973. Since 1975, the awards have been given annually, usually in June...
.
Disney
After his academic studies, he went to work for Walt Disney StudiosWalt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
as an "in-betweener" and animator trainee on such films as Pete's Dragon
Pete's Dragon
Pete's Dragon is a 1977 live-action/animated musical film from Walt Disney Productions and the first Disney film to be recorded in the Dolby Stereo sound system...
and The Small One
The Small One
The Small One is a Christmas animated short film created by Walt Disney Productions and was originally released to theaters in the United States by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 15, 1978, before the 1978 re-release of Pinocchio. It started off as a children's book, by Charles...
. He became a full-fledged animator under Glen Keane
Glen Keane
Glen Keane is an American animator, author, illustrator and director. Keane is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled...
on The Fox and the Hound. During his time at Disney, he met and worked around the likes of Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
, Rick Heinrichs
Rick Heinrichs
Richard Heinrichs is an American production designer, effects artist, art director and film producer. He is well known to have worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Ang Lee's Hulk and The Nightmare Before Christmas...
, Jorgen Klubien, Brad Bird
Brad Bird
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an Academy Award-winning American director, voice actor, animator and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille . He also adapted and directed the critically acclaimed 2D animated 1999 Warner Brothers...
, John Musker
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
, Dan Haskett
Dan Haskett
Dan Haskett is a veteran Black animator who designed the character "Belle" for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as "Ariel" for The Little Mermaid and Tod as an adult for The Fox and the Hound....
, Sue and Bill Kroyer
Bill Kroyer
William "Bill" Kroyer is an award-winning director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in Tron...
, Ed Gombert, and Andy Gaskill. Years later, he claimed he learned a lot to improve his drawing, animation, and storytelling skills from Disney legend Eric Larson
Eric Larson
Eric Larson was an animator for the Walt Disney Studios starting in 1933 and was one of the "Disney's Nine Old Men."...
.
Freelance work
With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Selick was able to make the short film Seepage, which won an award. Then he spent several years freelancing in the Bay Area, directing still-famous commercials for the Pillsbury DoughboyPillsbury Doughboy
Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising icon and mascot of The Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2004 conclude with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach...
and Ritz Crackers
Ritz Crackers
Ritz Crackers are a brand of snack cracker introduced by Nabisco in 1934. Outside of the United States, the Ritz Cracker brand is made by a subsidiary of Kraft Foods. They are circular in shape, salted lightly on one side, and have a small scalloped edge...
, and sequences of John Korty
John Korty
John Korty is an American film director and animator, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time...
's animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He also storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
ed fantasy sequences for Walter Murch
Walter Murch
Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor and sound designer.-Early life:Murch was born in New York City, New York, the son of Katharine and Canadian-born Walter Tandy Murch , a painter. He went to The Collegiate School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, from 1949 to 1961...
’s Return to Oz
Return to Oz
Return to Oz is a 1985 film which is an unofficial sequel to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. The film is based on the second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz...
and Carroll Ballard
Carroll Ballard
-Biography:Carroll Ballard started out making documentaries for the U.S. Information Agency, Beyond This Winter's Wheat and Harvest ; the latter was nominated for an Academy Award...
's Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (with designs by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
). When he created an acclaimed series of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
station IDs and an award-winning six-minute pilot for an animated series called Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, Selick attracted the attention of director Tim Burton, whom he had known at CalArts, and was catapulted into features directing.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Selick made his feature-directing debut in 1993 on Burton's production The Nightmare Before ChristmasThe Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
— the first full-length, stop-motion feature from a major American studio. An instant holiday classic, Nightmare was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and won the International Animated Film Society's Annie Award for Best Creative Supervision, beating out The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
.
James and the Giant Peach (1996) and Monkeybone (2001)
In 1996, Selick followed with a second feature, James and the Giant PeachJames and the Giant Peach (film)
James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation....
, his live-action/stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
's classic children’s book. The innovative film received widespread critical acclaim (Time Magazine’s Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
said it was even better than the book), and it won the top prize for an animated feature at the Annecy Film Festival in 1997.
Selick’s third feature was Monkeybone
Monkeybone
Monkeybone is a 2001 American comedy film that combines live-action with stop-motion animation. It was based on Kaja Blackley's graphic novel Dark Town...
, a live action/stop-motion adaptation of an underground comic. The film was a flop both commercially and critically.
Life Aquatic (2004) and Moongirl (2005)
After developing stop-motion animation on Wes AndersonWes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
's feature The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is an American comedy-drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Wes Anderson. It is Anderson's fourth feature length film, released in the U.S. on December 25, 2004...
, Selick joined the Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
-based animation studio LAIKA
Laika
Laika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...
in mid-2004 as supervising director for feature film development. After joining LAIKA, Selick directed his first computer-generated
Computer-generated
The term computer-generated most often refers to a sound or visual that has been created in whole or in part with the aid of computer software...
animation film, the award-winning short film Moongirl, the inspiration for Candlewick Press's children's book of the same name.
Coraline (2009)
Selick's first feature with LAIKA is CoralineCoraline (film)
Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
, which is based on the book by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
and was released in 2009. It is the first stereoscopic stop-motion animated movie
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
. The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. Coraline was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe; all for Best Animated Feature.
Working with Pixar and present work
In 2010, Selick joined with PixarPixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
and the The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
in a long-term contract to exclusively produce stop-motion films. This not only returns Selick to his original roots, but also reunites Selick with numerous former friends and co-animators. His new studio, called "Cinderbiter Productions" is self described as "a new stop-motion company whose mandate is to make great, scary films for young ‘uns with a small, tight-knit crew who watch each other’s backs."
Selick and Cinderbiter's first film under this deal, a currently untitled film project, is set to be released on October 4th, 2013.
Style and creative temperament
Joe RanftJoe Ranft
Joseph Henry "Joe" Ranft was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist and voice actor who worked for Pixar and Disney. His brother, Jerome Ranft, is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar movies....
, a late friend and collaborator of Selick's, once stated in an interview that Selick had a "rock 'n' roll-meets-Da Vinci temperament". In Ranft's words "He'll still go off to his office to play guitar or electric piano to ease off and think", but at the same time Selick operates scientifically. "He gets an outrageous premise-something that comes from a real dream place-then approaches the aesthetics of it like a mechanical engineer: What can we build on this foundation, how do we buttress it? If we have a mechanical shark, how does it kill? Will it shoot things from its snout?" Ranft once said Selick has an uncanny gift: "He can articulate things through animation that people couldn't say otherwise."
Director
- Phases (CalArts)
- Tube Tales (CalArts)
- Seepage (1981)
- Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions (1991)
- The Nightmare Before ChristmasThe Nightmare Before ChristmasThe Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
(1993) - James and the Giant PeachJames and the Giant Peach (film)James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi. The film is a combination of live action and stop-motion animation....
(1996) - MonkeyboneMonkeyboneMonkeybone is a 2001 American comedy film that combines live-action with stop-motion animation. It was based on Kaja Blackley's graphic novel Dark Town...
(2001) - Moongirl (2005) Short
- CoralineCoraline (film)Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
(2009)
Others
- Pete's DragonPete's DragonPete's Dragon is a 1977 live-action/animated musical film from Walt Disney Productions and the first Disney film to be recorded in the Dolby Stereo sound system...
(1977) Inbetweener - The Small OneThe Small OneThe Small One is a Christmas animated short film created by Walt Disney Productions and was originally released to theaters in the United States by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 15, 1978, before the 1978 re-release of Pinocchio. It started off as a children's book, by Charles...
(1978) Animator - The Watcher in the WoodsThe Watcher in the WoodsThe Watcher in the Woods is a 1980 American-British mystery and horror film from Buena Vista Distribution Company. Based on the 1976 novel by Florence Engel Randall, it is a live action movie that, though predominantly a family oriented work, also contains elements of the mystery, thriller, horror,...
(1980) Designer of the alien - The Fox and the Hound (1981) uncredited animator
- Twice Upon a Time (1983) Sequence director
- Return to OzReturn to OzReturn to Oz is a 1985 film which is an unofficial sequel to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. The film is based on the second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz...
(1985) Storyboard artist - Nutcracker: The Motion PictureNutcracker: The Motion PictureNutcracker: The Motion Picture , is a 1986 film produced by Pacific Northwest Ballet in associates with Hyperion Pictures and Kushner/Locke. It is a film adaptation of the ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as well as based on the short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann...
(1986) Visual adaptation - MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
ID's: "Procrastination", "Dollhouse", "Bath", "Haircut", "Xerox" (1988-1990) - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) Visual effects
Producer
- MonkeyboneMonkeyboneMonkeybone is a 2001 American comedy film that combines live-action with stop-motion animation. It was based on Kaja Blackley's graphic novel Dark Town...
(2001) - CoralineCoraline (film)Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
(2009) - Stretch Armstrong (2012) Live action co-producer
External links
- Layers: A Look at Henry Selick
- Director's Bio
- HENRY SELICK - Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- Selick Talks Vinton Projects
- Henry Selick talks "Coraline" - They Might be Giants to compose music for the film; the casting includes British actresses Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
- Selick To Direct Coraline
- Selick biography for Laika
- Henry Selick filmography