One of the most sinister characters in a town filled with all kinds of nightmares, Oogie Boogie is a particularly ominous villain. This large burlap sack stuffed full of crawling insects, a snake-like tongue, deep voice, vaudeville-style dance moves, an eerie green glow, and dark angry eyes was the most difficult puppet to work with, according to the puppet makers. To create the puppets for the film, they were first sculpted in oil-based clay, then molds were poured and made for each character. Handcrafted, unique steel armatures made with ball and socket joints and hinges (for posing) were laid into the mold and then injected with foam latex, completely encasing the armature. After being baked and dried, the puppet was brought to fabrication, where paint, hair, fur, and texture was added. Over 60 individual characters were created, all with three to four copies of each spread across multiple sets and scenes, all being shot simultaneously. Oogie’s puppet was the largest, coming in at two feet high, with the others being half that size, on average. Animator Mike Belzer said, “I had to dig in with my feet and physically push the Oogie Boogie puppet. He’s so huge and there’s so much foam, therefore the armature needs to be very tight; it’s literally wrestling with the puppet.”

You might split a seam if you don’t die laughing first while making this adorably evil Oogie Boogie stuffed toy! Constructed from the bottom up and knit in the round using the Magic Loop method with simple increases and decreases, all of Oogie’s limbs are knit the same, stopping as directed for the hands/arms and continuing further to create the feet/legs. The body and head are knit in one continuous piece, stuffing as you go. Faux stitches running along the sides are added post-knitting along with a bit of felt for his stitched-on grin. Be alone with him in the dark if you dare and watch him glow under UV-reactant light!