Set on Christmas Eve, a young girl named Clara recounts a dreamlike evening involving her Godfather, Drosselmeyer, and an adventure with a magical Nutcracker.
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture is an adaptation of the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) production of The Nutcracker from 1983 that featured production design and costuming by Maurice Sendak. Despite Sendak initially turning down the opportunity as he didn't like the largely plotless nature of the ballet but would change his mind when company director Kent Stowell said they'd work the concept from scratch and adapt more of the themes from the source novel, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. An immediate critical and commercial success, it wasn't long before executives from the Walt Disney Company convinced Stowell and Sendak to adapt their version of The Nutcracker to film. Filmed on a tight budget, the team had initially wanted to incorporate more elements from the Hoffmann story for the film version (namely the "Hard Nut" plot element often omitted from adaptations) but due to the rushed nature of the production and the producer's desire for something cheap for the Christmas season this didn't come to pass. Given mixed reviews from critics and largely ignored at the box office, the film mostly came and went without much fanfare. Despite not really leaving a lasting impact, Nutcracker: The Motion Picture probably ranks among the better adaptations of the ballet for film.
From the opening scenes in Drosselmeyer's workshop to the production design that features more elaborately designed take-offs on the stage production, the Sendak designed production does an adequate job of creating a surreal environment that's whimsical while also possessing some more unnerving elements. Going back to the Hoffman source novel, Sendak and company have tried and mostly succeeded in giving the largely anemic Nutcracker a more psychological bent focusing on Clara's coming of age and the distance she takes from Drosselmeyer no longer being a child. There's certainly a lot to read into there (especially since in the original stage production Drosselmeyer was portrayed as something of a "dirty old man" before being reworked as a distant loner obsessed with toys and whimsy) and it doesn't dive especially deep into that side of things, but it does add some more subtext to something that originally was largely plotless. In terms of the dancing and staging, director Carroll Ballard does a solid job of adapting the wordless stage production to film, keeping the world familiar while also incorporating more dynamic camera work and a sense of immersion in the world. The choice to keep the sets and props deliberately artificial looking may have been done due to budget reasons, but it actually does work to the film's advantage and helps immerse the viewers in the dreamlike atmosphere of the production.
For those who aren't enamored with the Nutcracker I don't think this will change too much of your stance on it, but for me personally it's probably the best way to experience it on both a stylistic and thematic level. Sendak's production and costume designs are beautifully realized emphasizing both bright whimsy and darker surrealism Carroll Ballard captures and films the dances and world quite nicely.
