The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Delightful family movie! Visually spectacular and a treat at Christmas.

In the Victorian England, the teenager Clara (Mackenzie Foy) is a young scientist that lives with her older sister Louise (Ellie Bamber), her younger brother Fritz (Tom Sweet) and her widower father Mr. Stahlbaum (Matthew Macfadyen). The family misses their mother and wife Marie Stahlbaum (Anna Madeley), who was also a scientist and has recently passed away. On the Christmas Eve, Mr. Stahlbaum delivers a gift left by Marie for each sibling and Clara receives an egg-shaped locked box without a key to open it. The family goes to the ball promoted by Clara's godfather Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman), who is also a man of science, to spend the night and she asks for the key to him. When Mr. Drosselmeyer delivers his gifts for each child he is hosting, Clara crosses the boundary of a world created by her mother, where Clara is a princess, and ruled by the regents of the realms Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers, and Land of Sweets that protect them from Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), who is the tyrant of the Fourth Realm in the beginning of an adventure full of fantasy and betrayal.

"The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" is a beautiful family entertainment for children. The cinematography and CGI are amazing and will certainly satisfy the target audience. The cast has names such as Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and Keira Knightley, but the lead actress Mackenzie Foy is weak. Unfortunately, the story is silly for adults, and the film does not have any heart. Lasse Hallström is a magnificent director, but this movie is bureaucratic and shows no emotion. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Quebra-Nozes e os Quatro Reinos" ("The Nutcracker and the Four Realms")

A good movie in my opinion. I know not everyone will like it, and I know a lot of people hate it (is it just because it's live action?), but it has a beautiful atmosphere, the costumes are amazing, and I feel happy whenever I watch it. Not my favourite Disney movie, but it's not the worst.

Supposedly it took two directors to finish and wrap up this gorgeous fantasy movie with a lot of post-production editing. Inspired by the short Nutcracker story, this movie would never be a The NeverEnding Story (1984) movie based on Michael Ende's international best-seller nor The Chronicles of Naria: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) based on C.S. Lewis. Nevertheless, the story outline flows together most likely because of the tight editing. From the very beginning the sweeping camera photography enwraps its audience into a delightful collage of old sites of Victorian England. The set design and amazing landscapes are brilliant. The performance captivating, even the father whose stoic face is betrayed with small poignant pauses and looks of subtle emotional despair. Somewhat predictable along with a harsh but maybe unavoidable twist, the movie seems to transform from magical, fantastic mystery along with the royal flourishes of The Princess Diaries (2001) to a more simple dichotomous clash between good and evil. Nevertheless, the simple ending surprisingly is a pleasant soft surprise with its relational bonding scene along with a delightful series of ballet dance numbers during the closing credits. This was a decent, memorable, if not top brilliant classic of a movie.

I really enjoyed this film. A lot of the negative reviews seem to be awfully nitpicky for a family Disney movie. It's no masterpiece but I can't understand all the hate.

As we can all agree, it's visually stunning. The costumes are magnificent as well as hair and makeup. The sets are stunning and surprisingly, according to some of the interviews I've watched, most of it is not CGI. They created a beautifully detailed world and it pays off.

The story is not the same as the ballet, nor does it claim to be. I personally wouldn't want it to be the same. We get to experience the beloved elements of The Nutcracker in a new way. Though there's a lot of room for improvement, specifically in the script, I really enjoyed the new story. The dynamic between Clara and her late mother is great and is the real emotional draw of the film. Because it's a Disney film aimed at kids, the script is awfully cheesy at times, but not enough to be distracting.

Clara herself should be a strong selling point of the film. She's highly intelligent, specifically in engineering and physics. They make it a point to differentiate Clara from her sister, Louise, a proper (for that time period) young English woman. Not that there's anything wrong with being all prim and proper, in fact, Clara admittedly does spend a lot of the film in beautiful dresses and makeup. And yet, she's still the hero and she still kicks ass. This is important because it associates these feminine traits with power.

Hear me out on this. I feel like so many of the strong heroines we know and love are, in some ways, stripped of their femininity. They're typically made to be a strict "tomboy" who's "not like other girls." This by itself isn't the problem. The problem is that instead of embracing feminine traits, they diminish them. I know gender roles are bull, believe me, but I don't think women should be shamed for being what society deems feminine. You can be a bad b**** AND enjoy princess dresses. Women should not have to adopt "masculine" traits in order to succeed. Because of this, I think Clara is a fantastic role model for young girls who will almost undoubtedly take something from her.

So, although it's far from perfect, it's fun, beautiful, and full of heart. It's not claiming to be the next Shawshank Redemption so I don't see why it's being drilled so hard. It's a delightful little Disney movie, don't think so much about the specifics and just enjoy.