The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Review

I figured I better quickly review this movie before I completely forget that I even saw it. I saw both this and "Bohemian Rhapsody" yesterday and while I really want to jump into "Bohemian Rhapsody" because there's a whole lot of talking points there, but "The Nutcracker" is about to completely leave my mind, so I need to discuss it first while I remember. That fact in and of itself is probably a good enough analysis of this movie. Disney has been shoving this movie down our throats with a rather aggressive marketing campaign, yet I was never convinced that this would be a good movie. The initial teaser had an excellent arrangement of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" as the trailer song, but that was it in terms of things that excited me. The movie itself looked like a bad rip-off of Disney's own live action "Alice in Wonderland" movies, which is a really bad sign because Tim Burton's 2010 movie was a giant waste of time and the 2016 sequel that most people probably already forgot existed somehow managed to be even worse. So out of all of these live action reimaginings that Disney is doing, this seemed like a really perplexing choice. At least most of the others have a large built-in fan base, but is there anyone on Earth that was begging Disney to do "The Nutcracker"?

Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair with that statement. I certainly wasn't excited about a film version of "The Nutcracker," but if I'm being completely honest, all I've ever known is the music from "The Nutcracker." I think it goes without saying that Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" is one of the most iconic pieces of classic music there is, especially when it comes to Christmas music. "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" has especially been a personal favorite of mine, which is why I really liked the arrangement from the teaser. But the ballet and story behind it? Do people even remember that? I didn't. When they started advertising this movie, my ignorant brain immediately wondered what in the heck they are basing this off of, because I didn't know there was enough content behind this to make a full live action film. That's why when I did my November preview, I decided to educate myself about the history of all of this so I don't sound stupid when I go into the movie. That's when I reminded myself that "The Nutcracker" is a ballet. Duh. That's the ballet with all the mice and toy soldiers dancing around. I vaguely remember all of that as a kid, but never once did I think about the story or potential mythology behind those strange happenings. I just enjoyed the music.

Now in true educated fashion, I can tell you what this is all about. As it turns out, "The Nutcracker" was a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marcus Petipa and Lev Ivanov, with Tchaikovsky of course doing the score. The first performance was in Saint Petersberg on December 18, 1892. The ballet itself was based on a short story written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816 called "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The basic premise of that story is that Marie and her brother Fritz are given gifts on Christmas Eve by their godfather, Drosselmeyer. One of such gifts is a nutcracker that Marie becomes especially fond of. That night she stays up later than all of them and witnesses all the toys come to life and fight a war against a bunch of mice. The toys are led by the nutcracker that Marie has become fond of and are almost defeated until Marie throws her shoe at the mice. Then she faints and wakes up, where she is unable to convince anyone of what she saw. And this is where things get a bit fuzzy for me because, even though I read over the premise multiple times, I was really confused as to what actually happened after that. All I picked up is that there is an elaborate backstory behind all of this that ends with Marie being whisked away and becoming queen of this magical land.

That's especially important because, as it turns out, "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" is not an exact retelling of that original story. It's a sequel to that. Our main character is a girl named Clara who is the daughter of Marie. I made that connection in the film and the light bulb went off in my head. It made me glad that I had read the premise of the original story before seeing the movie, otherwise I think I would've been extremely lost as to what all was happening and why. In this movie, Marie, Clara's mother, has passed away. Clara, her sister, her brother and her father are all feeling pretty miserable because of that, yet the father insists that they celebrate Christmas Eve anyways because they need to celebrate Christmas. Clara becomes upset because the present that her mother left her is a fancy egg-shaped thing that she can't open because the key is missing. Later that night, Morgan Freeman, who plays the godfather from the original story, is giving everyone their presents, but they need to follow a trail of strings to learn where they are. Clara's string leads her to a mysterious room in the giant mansion where she finds Narnia... I mean, the Four Realms, which is the land that her mother got whisked away to. And from there all the fancy adventures begin.

By adventures, I mean that most of the movie has her chasing down this key. As she gets into Narnia, the key is by a Christmas tree, but before she can grab it, a mouse steals it away from her and she goes on a wild goose chase to find the mouse. She eventually runs into a soldier who helps her chase the mouse, but the mouse gets away. Eventually the soldier learns that she is the daughter of Marie, the former queen of their land and suddenly Clara is treated as the princess and taken to the headquarters. Surprisingly, all of this setup isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The filmmakers managed to create a rather visually spectacular world that is fun and pretty to look at. And I really liked the dynamic between Clara and her family, who were all struggling with the recent loss of their mother/wife. That gave the movie some potential for some strong family-related themes that could work well during the Christmas holiday. And Mackenzie Foy was absolutely adorable as our lead girl. She had a very lovable innocence to her and perfectly competent acting skills, making for a strong lead character. This combined with her playing young Murph in "Interstellar" means that she has a good career in front of her if she keeps to it and stays on the right path.

I think the big issue that I ran into was that the movie had a really hard time keeping my attention once we got into the thick of things. As I've thought about it over the last 24-hours, I've decided that the big issue probably comes with the source material itself. As popular as "The Nutcracker" is, I was fascinated to learn once I did my research on this that the ballet itself was an initial failure, which made everything make sense. Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" was what exploded initially, but the ballet didn't find success until many years later. Even then, I imagine that most fans of the ballet enjoy it because of the music and the dance choreography. Has anyone bragged about how amazing the mythology is behind the music and dance? I don't think so. A war between nutcrackers and mice isn't the most interesting thing. I think it might be telling that, in an effort to make a feature-length film, the filmmakers here chose not to tell the original story, but tried to expand the lore by sending Clara into the land years after her mother became queen rather than simply telling her mother's original story, which was only based on a short story in the first place. It's often hard to turn a short story into a feature length film.

I imagine a situation here where Disney commissioned people to make a movie about "The Nutcracker," but said people really struggled with how to make it work. Again, I give them props for trying. This is not an inherently bad film. There's just not enough to work with. When I described the film's premise, I referenced the fact that it felt an awfully lot like Narnia when she disappeared into the Four Realms. I know that comparison had been given plenty of times before, but going in I was set on my "Alice in Wonderland" comparison. Yet she walked through the tunnel and I couldn't help myself. It was Narnia. Except it was a second-rate version of Narnia that was heavy on visual effects, but extremely lacking when it came to interesting characters and story inside the land. When strange, random things starting happening and eccentric characters showed up, that's when the "Alice in Wonderland" elements came to play. But sadly even "Alice in Wonderland" made it's characters and universe more interesting than what we got in the Four Realms. I think supporting cast members such as Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren were having fun with their roles, but there's just nothing to work with. There's not much more to even say.

Again to the movie's credit, when we hit the actual finale, the themes of family wrap up in a nice little bow, leaving you with a few feel goods, but it doesn't make up for a lack of content. I could dive in and spoil things that happen and no one would probably care, but I don't feel it's worth my time. You'll just have to trust me that the directions that this movie takes are a bit perplexing. The "villains" don't have solid motivation. There's no epic fantasy sequences to keep audiences entertained. The twists that the movie tries to throw your way are extremely underwhelming. The drama never really hits a good peak as everything seems to easy for Clara and the people that end up getting behind her. Pretty much everything that makes a land like Narnia, or Wonderland for some, are completely missing. Thus the movie ends up feeling like more of a second-rate copy of those other lands and movies, meaning that there's no reason to give this a chance. I'd say it might be harmless fun for families with young kids, but in a holiday season that is set to deliver "The Grinch," "Ralph Break the Internet" and "Mary Poppins Returns" among others, this is one where I recommend you stay home and save your money. But you were already planning on that, right? My grade here is a 5/10.