Stop-motion animation directing icon Henry Selick (of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach”) is back with his first new feature since 2009’s “Coraline”. A teen girl meets demon brothers in Wendell & Wild, co-written by Selick and Jordan Peele. It opens in select theaters this Friday Oct. 21st and is on Netflix Oct. 28th. Selick is quite proud of the picture, and he shares some behind the scenes details about the look, the feel… and the reunion of Key & Peele. Plus, he’s got a spooktacular “Nightmare” story. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: What were you really able to do on this movie that you maybe wanted to do on some of your older films, but the technology just wasn’t there at the time?

Henry Selick: Not so much development and technology. More story — taking chances on the look of characters [and] going into dangerous territory. Playing around with some serious subjects but also mixing in more interesting types of humor by working with Key & Peele. So maybe it’s not so much about technological breakthroughs as it was about story and tone breakthroughs.

JM: What I like about this film is that the atmosphere is really interesting. Every different location that we go to: the atmosphere feels unique and cool. What were your goals with inviting us into this world and the atmospheres you bring?

HS: People have expectations, and you want to play with those. And often you want to upend those expectations. You would assume if there are demons and a demon lord (Buffalo Belzer) — they’re gonna be the bad guys. The atmosphere of the underworld, while there’s some fun there because — after all — it’s like a bad Disney World, it’s also scary and a little depraved. But in the end, maybe those aren’t the bad guys after all. They’re not the villains of the story but you want to make them feel like they are.

Kat, our protagonist, gets a second chance. She’s had a rough life. She’s in the Juvy justice system. Fighting back against bullies got her in big, big trouble. She gets sent to this rich girls’ school. You have expectations about what that’s gonna be like, so you play with those and that atmosphere. But then you find out the school’s actually down on its luck and can barely get enough students to keep it going. And you humanize these three girls that take Kat under her wing. She does NOT want to be taken under their wing. I love to play with what you’d expect and a feeling from a place but then always reveal that there’s more going on — or it may feel like something you know, but there’s always something you don’t know. You build a world, set a tone, set an atmosphere and then discover everything you’re expecting to be… is not going to be there. It’s much more fun to surprise people. You think they’re in one groove and then you introduce something new.

JM: And Kat has a real love of punk rock music.

HS: It started out as just sort of a fashion thing… a look. But then it became deeper. AfroPunk is a more modern movement and it pays homage to the first Black punk pioneers from the ’70s and ’80s, of which I actually have a personal connection. I directed a music video for a band called Fishbones way, way back in 1985. It started with the look, which is amazing. These young people come up with these outrageous, beautiful costumes, hair and body art. But then it became… her connection to her dad, who she lost. Her dad was a fan of the first wave of Black and Brown punk music, and she grew up listening to that. This is her embracing the modern interpretation of that. It’s not so much that she’s a big rebel or an outsider, it’s more like a loving tribute to her lost father. But it looks cool too.

JM: My mother watched This Is Us every week for six years. I watched it when I could. Lyric Ross, who voices Kat, played Deja on that show. What did you enjoy about working with Lyric?

HS: Listened to a lot of candidates to voice Kat. And it was only when listening to Lyric… finally this is Kat. There was an authenticity to her. While she started This Is Us, she still lived in Chicago with her mom. She hadn’t been through the Hollywood Finishing School of Performing, which produces a lot of great results. But it was not just that Lyric’s voice quality and her background gave her authenticity… she got to know the character better than I did. I worked on this with Jordan Peele. He co-wrote the screenplay. But when we’d go in and I’d offer lines for Kat, in some cases… Lyric would say, “Kat wouldn’t say this. She wouldn’t say this. That’s not Kat.” And I’d say, “What do you think is the best line or what she would say?” And she always knew. She, right from the start, was a really good fit and helped shape the character enormously.

JM: That’s great that she knew the character so well. Key & Peele reunite here as Wendell & Wild. From what you were able to see these guys do with their voice performances… how were they able to bring that sense of spontaneity and fun to these characters you’ve had inside your mind for quite a long time?

HS: I think they’re my favorite comedy duo of all-time, as far as the sketches they performed. They can play anything. There were so many beautiful surprises and fresh looks at situations on their show. It was almost terrifying going into the first session with them because they can do anything. What’s right for our film? They hadn’t been together in a while at the first session. It was a playtime — trying things out and me nudging here and there, maybe responding because they were trying to find what’s right for the characters. They know all about the traditional types of comedy duos: the peas in a pod, like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum — one is a reflection of the other. Or there’s more the Abbott & Costello — a straight guy and the schlub, the humorous one.

They just played and played and improvised. It was AMAZING how long they could take a bit. They could take a phrase and re-interpret it 50 times, one upping the other. And we’ve got it all on tape. We could have an incredible comedy album of just the outtakes. But eventually, they kind of found what worked for these two.

JM: I think people would want to hear that comedy album. How was the Toronto premiere? Not every major film festival puts-in an animated film.

HS: It was very exciting. Terrifying because it’s the world premiere. But the press treated us kindly. It was a wonderful experience and a reunion, because I also hadn’t seen a lot of those folks in a very, very long time. Lyric is practically a grown-up now. She was 14 when we did most of the recording. And now she’s 18. It was a beautiful experience. Mainly happy and relieved that… “The world doesn’t hate the film. WE’RE OKAY!” And the reunion was very sweet.

JM: You have to watch this movie through the end credits because there are some nice, behind the scenes surprises — including these gigantic hands Belzer has. How big are we talking?

HS: They’re pretty huge. You could probably set the ol’ Volkswagen Beetle — one in each hand.

JM: WOW!

HS: They’re enormous, but it’s the same kind of trick going back to the first King Kong. They couldn’t build the whole King Kong big, but you build a few sections to get the sense of scale. We built these enormous hands because Buffalo Belzer rules the underworld and we wanted these interactions between him and the demons, Wendell & Wild, and some of our humans.

JM: It’s cool. Now Henry, I have to ask you this question: Since Halloween is coming up, have two people ever come to your door on Halloween dressed as these two? [I show him figures I have of Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.]

HS: They certainly have. It goes back quite a few years, but when my grown sons were little and my wife would take them out to join their friends for Trick or Treating, I was the one at home giving out the candy. It started just a couple years after Nightmare Before Christmas came out. Kids started showing up dressed as characters. And every year there were more. They didn’t know me or that I had anything to do with that film. But it was kind of wonderful. And then it got to the point where if they were there with their parents, I’d say, “Hey, you know I’ve got something you might wanna see.” And then I’d take them inside and I’d show them…

[Selick turns his laptop up to an upper shelf in the room, with the actual coffin sleigh, Jack character and reindeer from Nightmare.]

JM: Oh, look at that! It’s the sleigh! Wow.

HS: Yeah. (laughs) And they would scream with delight!

JM: That’s awesome. It’s one of my favorite animated movies. A classic. Coraline was just back in theaters through Fathom Events and people are gonna rewatch Nightmare over the next month. Does it hit you, the fact that these movies you’ve made are gonna be watched annually for decades and decades to come — and already have? They’re annual viewing.

HS: It’s the best treat of all, that something you work on so hard for so long and care so much about has this other life beyond its initial release. It warms the cockles of my heart. (laughs)

JM: That’s wonderful. What does one do after making a stop-motion animated movie for so many years — and devoting yourself to something like this? Do you take a break or do you already look ahead to the next project?

HS: Well, of course you gotta promote the movie. I’m enjoying that part of it. I’ll take a break. I’ve got other stuff that I do. I play music. I’ve got guitars and a piano. I’ll spend more time seeing my family. But there’s a couple things cooking. We’ll have to see. If the world responds well to Wendell & Wild there might be… I might take a film, The Shadow King, that I started years back and never got to finish. There’s another beautiful Neil Gaiman book I would love to adapt. So we’ll put that all on the back burner for a little while and see how Wendell & Wild does. If we do well, maybe I’ll start to work on another project.

JM: I think it’ll be a big hit. And happy 29th anniversary to Nightmare. I hope next year for the 30th there’s some big, cool events all over the Disney parks and resorts and that you’re a part of it. That would be spectacular.

HS: Yeah. I hope so too.