Fails the Bechdel test
The Nightmare Before Christmas
1993. Directed by Henry Selick, written by Tim Burton and Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween Town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.
- Released
- 29 Oct 1993
- Genres
- Animation, Adventure, Family
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 82 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 7 wins & 17 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jack 89 lines, man
- Sally 40 lines, woman
- Mayor 35 lines, man
- Dr. Finkelstein 25 lines, man
- Oogie Boogie 19 lines, man
- Sandy Claws 17 lines, man
- Shock 16 lines, woman
- Lock 13 lines, man
- Barrel 12 lines, man
- Zero 10 lines, man
Full cast, 36 people
- Danny Elfman as Jack Skellington (singing) / Barrel / Clown with the Tear away Face (voice)
- Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington (voice)
- Catherine O'Hara as Sally / Shock (voice)
- William Hickey as Dr. Finkelstein (voice)
- Glenn Shadix as Mayor (voice)
- Paul Reubens as Lock (voice)
- Ken Page as Oogie Boogie (voice)
- Edward Ivory as Santa Claus (voice)
- Susan McBride as Big Witch / WWD. (voice)
- Debi Durst as Corpse Kid / Corpse Mom / Small Witch (voice)
- Greg Proops as Harlequin Demon / Devil / Sax Player (voice)
- Kerry Katz as Man Under Stairs / Vampire / Corpse Dad (voice)
- Randy Crenshaw as Mr. Hyde / Behemoth / Vampire Corpse Dad (voice)
- Sherwood Ball as Mummy / Vampire (voice)
- Carmen Twillie as Undersea Gal / Man Under the Stairs (voice)
- Glenn Walters as Wolfman (voice)
- Mia Brown as Additional Voices (voice)
- L. Peter Callender as Additional Voices (voice)
- Ann Fraser as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jennifer Levey as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jesse McClurg as Additional Voices (voice)
- John Morris as Additional Voices (voice)
- Robert Olague as Additional Voices (voice)
- Bobbi Page as Additional Voices (voice)
- Elena Praskin as Additional Voices (voice)
- Trampas Warman as Additional Voices (voice)
- Judi Durand as Additional Voices (voice)
- Doris Hess as Additional Voices (voice)
- Daamen J. Krall as Additional Voices (voice)
- Christina MacGregor as Additional Voices (voice)
- David McCharen as Additional Voices (voice)
- Gary Raff as Additional Voices (voice)
- David J. Randolph as Additional Voices (voice)
- Gary Schwartz as Additional Voices (voice)
- Tim Burton as Zero (voice) (uncredited)
- Joe Ranft as Igor (voice) (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 20 are women's.
65 lines from women, 267 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 18 men in the cast. 5 women and 24 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 7 of 395.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 32 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 17% of the words (504), men 83% (2,550). Women have 20% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
20
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Henry Selick (man)
- Written by
- Caroline Thompson (woman)
- Story by
- Tim Burton (man)
- Produced by
- Don Hahn (man), Tim Burton (man), Denise Di Novi (woman)
- Shot by
- Pete Kozachik (man)
- Edited by
- Stan Webb (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Danny Elfman (man)
- Cast by
- Mary Gail Artz (woman), Barbara Cohen (woman), Davia Nelson (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 16 men, 16 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Other crew
3 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
2 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 40 on average. Men: 49 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Catherine O'Hara 39, Debi Durst 40
Men
Ken Page 39, Danny Elfman 40, Glenn Shadix 41, Paul Reubens 41, Chris Sarandon 51, William Hickey 66, Edward Ivory 66
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $18 million
- Box office
- $75.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 395 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
