According to Variety, the “Coraline” director, who began his animation career at Disney in the late ’70s, has struck an exclusive long-term deal to make stop-motion features for Disney/Pixar.

Selcik made his directing debut with the magnificent Tim Burton produced “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in 1993 at Disney. His followup, the highly underrated “James and the Giant Peach” disappointed at the box office and marked the end of the studio’s involvement with the stop-motion medium, citing it as not “a viable medium anymore.”

With his return, Selick plans to write and direct original stop-motion pictures as well as adapted properties utilizing the technology and creativity behind Pixar, resources that Selick was first made aware of during his years at CalArts with then-fellow-classmate-turned-boss Disney/Pixar head John Lasseter.

The deal comes off of Selick’s recent box office and artistic success with 2009’s “Coraline” which earned $75 million at the box office and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.

Pondering on the wondrous possibilities between such brilliant forces as Henry Selick and Pixar, one of my favorite opening lines from a TV series’ theme song plays over and over in my mind: “With our powers combined…”

Truly with the craftsmanship of Selick and the ridiculous hot streak Pixar has been on since the dawn of the new millennium, moviegoers are in for some wonderful films in the future.

Now if Disney/Pixar can manage to snatch Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, then Captain Planet, despite global warming, would still have reason to cheer. Here’s hoping.