The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Year: 2018
Rating: PG
Length: 99 minutes / 1.65 hours
A staple of the Christmas season, The Nutcracker is recognizable in many formats. Whether it’s the ballet, the music, or just the story itself, most people have probably encountered a portion of The Nutcracker at some point in their lives. While most of these recognizable bits are classic representations of this work, these are the bare minimum used in crafting the Disney adaptation, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018). And I use “adaptation” fairly loosely here.
Some things remain untouched, like a girl named Clara (Mackenzie Foy) being transported to a magical realm filled with toy soldiers, rats, and fairies. The trouble is that someone at Disney churned this familiar story through a “YA filter” that makes the whole thing feel like a generic adventure. Sure, there’s some great visual storytelling in these four magical realms, but the narrative mostly follows the same “fight villain to learn about the twist villain so the main character can return home” plot that you regularly see in this genre. Kids should find it entertaining enough, but the parents have likely already seen it before.
I think if The Nutcracker and the Four Realms leaned closer to adapting the original source material, some of these issues might have been resolved. More Tchaikovsky. More dancing. Heck, even more Morgan Freeman, who seemed like such an interesting character in the promotional material yet only appears for a handful of minutes in this already slight run-time. The elements that made The Nutcracker successful for centuries should have been kept to give this film a fighting chance. As it stands, the whole thing is forgettable, even if it’s pretty to look at.
A light adaptation of The Nutcracker as told via a fantasy adventure, I give The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 3.0 stars out of 5.
