Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen follows the archetypal maiden’s story arc that appears in many fairy tales, particularly those featuring princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, the Little Goose Girl, and countless others recorded by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. A handful of the best-known versions of the Grimm stories have been adopted and popularized by Disney Studios, which produced their first princess story, Snow White, in 1937. Disney hired Shea Ernshaw to write Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, so it makes sense that the story should take the form of a traditional fairy tale.

The broad outline of the story is a quest: The protagonist is confronted with a need; she goes forth, seeking tools, information, and allies and confronting lesser challenges on her way to overcoming the final obstacle. Sally begins by going from world to world, seeking help until she finally realizes that she alone has the power to overcome the monster afflicting her world. She returns home, armed with that knowledge, and rescues her kingdom.

Protagonists are most often children, youths, or maidens. Fairy tales of the maiden-coming-of-age type usually feature a princess or girl from some other high-status family reduced to the role of a servant as Sally (the governor’s daughter) was when