This Disney-trained stop-motion animation specialist worked successfully in advertising and "personal" short subjects before making a triumphant feature directorial debut with the popular and playfully macabre "Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'" (1993). Selick became a Disney animator after graduating from the first class at CalArts to complete Disney's character animation design program. As he rose through the ranks to become a full animator, Selick worked on "Pete's Dragon", "The Small One" (both 1977) and "The Fox and the Hound" (1981) before taking off eight months in 1979 to