Disney
Forgive my bragging, but I was one of the original "The Nightmare Before Christmas" super-fans. I read its official novelization as soon as I could get my hands on it, and I had listened to its soundtrack many times over prior to the movie's theatrical release on October 29, 1993. But as much as I loved Disney's stop-motion animated holiday classic upon finally seeing it, I certainly noticed that it was missing two noteworthy tracks that I had already partly memorized from its album: Sir Patrick Stewart's opening and closing narration as Santa Claus.
The final cut of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" begins with Ed Ivory, who ultimately voiced Santa in the movie, narrating over a shot of a clearing in a mystical woodland (which is formerly known as the Hinterlands in the film's lore). There, we see a circle of trees containing the doorways (i.e. Holiday Doors) to the various Holiday Towns that, as Ivory's Saint Nick briefly explains, are the sources of several major Western holidays. Each door is shaped like an object strongly associated with a specific holiday, so there's no mistaking where they lead, either. (And yes, the existence of Thanksgiving Town does feel problematic.)
Stewart's opening narration is an extended version of the one in the movie. It breaks down the film's mythology in greater detail while also teasing the plot, itself based on a poem that a young Tim Burton wrote back in his not-so-happy days working for Walt Disney Animation Studios. But why was it dropped? As Henry Selick (who, don't forget, actually directed "The Nightmare Before Christmas," not Burton) told The Daily Beast in an interview for the movie's 20th anniversary in 2013, it just wasn't working ... though, we can reasonably assume that had nothing to do with Stewart's performance.
The Nightmare Before Christmas didn't have space for Patrick Stewart's narration
Disney
Making a stop-motion animated flick is hard enough today, as the folks behind Laika's fantasy epic "Wildwood" could tell you. So, one can only imagine how challenging it was trying to craft "The Nightmare Before Christmas" before the technical innovations of the past 30-plus years. And with every minute of the film's runtime requiring a whole lot of labor and money to render, this meant Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and their collaborators had to be ruthless about killing their darlings to maximize the movie's narrative efficiency.
This is what led to them scrapping the opening and closing narration by "Sandy Claws" (as the inhabitants of Halloween Town call him). Speaking to The Daily Beast, Selick recalled the role of Santa Claus being "very tough" to cast, with Vincent Price, James Earl Jones, and Don Ameche all being considered or approached for the part before Ed Ivory was hired. Gradually, the character's opening narration was trimmed down as well. "Then, later in the film, it was supposed to go to Santa Claus finishing the poem at the film's end, but that didn't work either, so we scrapped it," Selick added.
Reading between the lines, it seems Patrick Stewart might have recorded his narration before Santa's role and dialogue in the film was finalized. And seeing as Stewart was busy playing Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" at that time, he may have simply not been available to voice Santa beyond what he had already logged. Thankfully, though, you can listen to Stewart infuse the jolly old fella's prose with all the gravitas and majesty he could muster on the movie's soundtrack whenever you like. Make it your new holiday tradition to honor Sir Patrick.
