The Nightmare Before Christmas is a household favorite. Its plot follows Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King, who is getting tired of his routine of always planning for Halloween. He stumbles upon Christmas Town and is inspired and determined to spread the Christmas spirit and bring it home to Halloween Town. This stop-motion animated film is full of holiday wonder and is enjoyable to watch for kids and adults alike.

A common misconception is that Tim Burton was the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the actual director was Henry Selick. Selick is also known for directing Coraline and James and the Giant Peach. Tim Burton had very little involvement in creating the film itself, but was the creator of the poem the movie was based on.

With over 30+ movies in Burton’s filmography, it’s very easy to spot the lack of representation in his films. His movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the first of his to cast a black actor, Samuel L. Jackson, in a leading role. 

In an interview done by Bustle in 2016, Burton went on to explain his view on the issue. “Nowadays, people are talking about (diversity in film) more,” Burton said. “Things either call for things, or they don’t.” He continued: “ I remember back when I was a child watching ‘The Brady Bunch,’ and they started to get all politically correct, like….I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, ‘that’s great.’ I didn’t go like, ‘OK, there should be more white people in these movies.”

Longtime fans came to his rescue saying that his overly white casts are because POC doesn’t fit his aesthetic. Others said that not fitting the aesthetic is not an excuse to exclude POC from his films. It’s evident in a large number of Burton’s movies that he favors casting white actors for seemingly no reason other than to build upon his white fantasies. Julian Lopez-Albany, a writer for The Oarsman, said “Unless race is an important part of a movie’s story, the race of the cast should not matter. In Burton’s case, none of his movies have had race matter in the plot, yet he still only casts majority white people.”

For so many POC fans of Burton, it’s a huge let down to know we don’t fit into his world and probably never will. But at the same time, this isn’t something new. We’ve become accustomed to problematic people having large platforms and them getting away with it, because at the end of the day, there will always be people who will back them up. To put it simply, I’m disappointed but not surprised.