Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” makes its highly anticipated annual return to its favorite haunt – Hollywood’s legendary El Capitan Theatre – for a month-long special engagement from October 19th through November 18th, it was announced today by Lylle Breier, senior vice president of worldwide special events for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Breier said, “As always, the El Capitan is your ‘Nightmare’ headquarters, and we’ve got lots of new thrills and chills for our loyal customers who have made a tradition out of seeing the film here every year.”

This marks the second year in a row that the film will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D™, a spectacular and innovative process that adds a whole new dimension of fun and fantasy to this holiday favorite. The El Capitan also celebrates this special event with a display of Tim Burton sketches and drawings, in addition to original sets, props and artifacts from the film.

The engagement kicks off on Thursday October 18th at 7:00 pm with a special opening night filmmakers’ panel featuring producer Denise Di Novi, director Henry Selick (who will offer an exclusive sneak peek at his new stop-motion feature, “Coraline”), and supervising animator Mike Belzer (who will present a live on-stage demonstration of the art of stop motion). The panel is hosted by Don Hahn, veteran Disney producer of “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

The film screens daily at 10:00 am, 12:15 pm, 2:30 pm, 4:45 pm, 7:00 pm, 9:15 pm and 11:30 pm. Audiences are invited to participate in special “Sing-a-Long” performances of the film every night at the 11:30 pm show. Tickets can be purchased at the El Capitan box office (6838 Hollywood Blvd.), online at www.elcapitantickets.com, or by calling 1-800-DISNEY6. Special group rate tickets for parties of 20 or more are available by calling 1-818-845-3110.

Disney’s Soda Fountain and Studio Store, located adjacent to the El Capitan Theatre, joins in the Halloween spirit by offering “The Oogie Boogie Special,” a frightfully fun sundae featuring pumpkin pie ice cream packed with creepy-crawly candy pests, and topped with ooie-gooey marshmallow, whipped cream, and a cherry. The Studio Store will be releasing 12 exclusive and limited edition “Nightmare Before Christmas” pins that are sure to please the film’s legion of fans.

Commenting on the announcement, Breier said, “We’re delighted to be bringing ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ back to the El Capitan Theatre in glorious Disney Digital 3-D. Last year’s debut brought screams of delight from our audiences, and they loved being able to see their favorite Tim Burton characters in a whole new way. The film seems to grow more popular every year with moviegoers and we’re very excited to be presenting it for an entire month this time around.”

The enormously popular stop-motion animated feature, directed by Henry Selick and presented by Walt Disney Pictures, was converted from its original 2-D format into a stunning dimensional and enchanting 3-D version in 2006 using the latest advancements in 3-D technology and animation. It became the first movie in industry history to be released exclusively in Digital 3-D, and it represented the first time in the history of motion pictures that a 3-D feature was created from an existing animated classic. The Disney Digital 3-D™ version of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” will open on October 19th in over 500 theatres worldwide.

Disney Digital 3-D™ combines premier Disney creative content with state-of-the-art Digital 3-D projection technology to deliver an unparalleled 3-D motion picture experience that is not only presented with digital clarity, but is also exhibited in a manner that makes it incredibly comfortable for the audience to experience. An award-winning team of technicians and animators at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in collaboration with In-Three Inc., helped Disney to convert the film from 2-D to 3-D by creating a new right eye image (by animating digitized versions of the original puppet characters and projecting footage of the sets onto dimensional geometry).

First released in 1993, Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was directed by Henry Selick (“James and the Giant Peach”), and based on a story and characters by Tim Burton. The film follows the earnest-but-misguided adventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown’s beloved Pumpkin King, as he attempts to take over the Christmas holiday. Against the advice of Sally, a lonely rag doll who has feelings for him, Jack enlists three mischievous trick-or-treaters – Lock, Shock, and Barrel – to help him kidnap Santa Claus.

Jack eventually realizes his mistake but has to contend with the evil Oogie Boogie before he can make things right and restore the Christmas holiday. With ten ghoulishly delightful songs by Danny Elfman (who also provided the singing voice for Jack) and the vocal talents of Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, and Ken Page, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a unique and entertaining moviegoing experience.