The Nutcracker: The Untold Story [DVD]

It's all that you've heard and more.For context, upon seeing the abominable-looking trailers last year, my friends and I were disappointed at not having found the time to watch this train-wreck in theaters. After finding it online and watching the first ten minutes or so, I was surprised to find it strangely-paced but not quite in "so-bad-it's-good" territory. I opened Rotten Tomatoes in another tab... marveling over the hyperbole used to describe the monstrous thing the movie would go on to become as its runtime progressed, I decided I had to keep watching in order to witness it for myself."The Nutcracker: The Untold Story" delivered in a big way.Where to begin: Nathan Lane's character has gray, poofy hair, is named Uncle ALBERT and has a song called "It's All RELATIVE." I'm sorry, I forgot the part of the Nutcracker where freaking Einstein was a character. Let's see... there's the steampunk Rat army, the ridiculously blatant Holocaust imagery (you know, for kids!), the Tim Rice lyrics superimposed on Tchaikovsky's legendary music (Dance of the Reeds played Dixieland style, for example. Not joking.), and my personal favorite element, the Rat Queen.You could see her in this movie as what the character Denny was to Wiseau's "The Room." Why is she here? What purpose does she serve? Do literally any of her character traits makes sense or further the plot? Why is she an alcoholic in the 'real world' if it's only mentioned once and there are no ramifications? Why does she randomly call the Snow Queen a 'bore' in a horribly digitally-altered line reading that clearly looks as if the script to this Children's Holiday Movie originally called for her to say, "The Snow Queen! That whore!"? Seriously, watch the scene. Just..... WHAT. I liked to think the actress was so bored with her role in this terrible film that she just started improvising and they had to alter it later.Needless to say, I went right to Amazon and ordered a legitimate copy of the DVD post-haste. It's so hysterically, rubberneck-inducing-ly misguided that you can't not want to add it to your inventory of true holiday classics. A featurette only serves to put a microscope on how tragic it is that hundreds of people were employed for years to work hard and create this film, a 90,000,000 dollar feature that somehow, miraculously, made it to release.

As a Cold War Veteran and experienced Military Officer I give this movie a superior rating with a challenge to other reviewers to re-examine their criticisms of this movie. This Movie was produced when relationships thawed between the West and Russia. The Producer/Director Andrei Khonchalovsky and his staff hail from the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Russian Ballet of Russia. In College classes in the USA and travel in Europe, I developed an appreciation for literature like Grimm's Fairy Tales and classic music like the Russian Composer Tchaikovsky to create his music for this iconic ballet based on the story, the Nutcracker. The young actors, Elli Fanning as Mary and Charlie Rowe as the human Prince/Nutcracker are superb to complete this production. An uninformed viewer may miss-understand contents of this Nutcracker because it has themes from an Eastern European point of view. In a Grimm Fairy Tale, there is a main character that is very scary but is conquered by a good hero or heroine. Rats have a double meaning for the East: Many plagues and death were caused by rats; so Rats are a symbol of Nazism, Fascism or any form of Tyranny. The Rat King in this movie is a narcissistic, wannabe demagogue - and his teeth show it! I read about complaints how the animation scared youngsters: What about some of the video games they use?! What is the difference? The difference is inthe metaphor - In the Nutcracker: The Untold Story, the metaphor is about hope - and a better world for the young! I am pleased to have this DVD and applaud the Russians, Eastern Europeans, and the West for a joint effort to give the young everywhere hope for a better world. The Nutcracker: The Untold Story is a superb effort in that direction. Well done! Author! Author! The cultural associations between the East and West are superb!

What the amateur, as well as most of the professional critics, missed entirely is that this isn't a story about a Christmas fantasy, nor is it a story about the Holocaust, it's the story of the enslavement of children and their subsequent joyous liberation. All children, like Mary, have to leave the magical world of childhood, but some return to be amused by critics who can't understand that their early enslavement never ended. You can count on Roger Ebert to get every film concerning childhood disastrously wrong. If only Roger hadn't grown up. Evil rats are scary? And the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz weren't? I admit, nobody got hit with those terrifying monkeys expecting to see a lovely ballet. Oh, and should we mention the witch threatening a little girl with annihilation, and her little dog too? And while we're on the subject, what about a witch who cooks children in her oven - even checks them daily for fatness while they wait helplessly in a cage? Need I go on? I understand that the packaging was faulty. If you put the rat on the cover, it might separate the viewer who like tales of goodtriumphing over evil - especially tales of liberation - from the ballet fan. And luring in the ballet fan with a promise of seeing their beloved Nutcracker is a bit much. But it has little to do with the merits of the film. Blame the marketers, not the artistic director. If you caught the actual vision, you'd have some idea of why he wanted to make this film for twenty years. He did what he dreamed he'd do. He simply underestimated the mental level of the typical audience and their beloved critics. It's an old story, and we've seen it over and over again.

Had just finished reading the book and was looking for a kid-friendly version to watch with my kids. This was great! When the character turns into a rat it was a little scary for some but overall, it was quite enjoyable!

A good little film but the 3d sends this up a notch

これは２０１０年、エルファニング主演版の「くるみ割り人形」です。　3D版があるというのは聞いていたのですが当時は入手方法がわからずずーと忘れたいた作品で、この前ぐーぜんみつけて購入しました、予想通り3Dで効果的だろうなって場面はなかなかでしたが日本語関係は一切なく、またリージョン不一致なので☆一個へらしました。　正直、作品としてはこどもこどもしているエルファニングの可愛さだけが光るロリコン向きのものであまり褒めるところは見当たらないのですが。　音楽の使い方がなかなか衝撃的でこの辺をちょっと書きましょう。　ご存じのとおりロシアの作曲家チャイコフスキーのバレエ音楽「くるみ割り人形」組曲を全編に流して雰囲気を作り出した作品ですが、そのアレンジが驚き！　個人的な話ですが私はチャイコフスキーの大ファンでそれこそ超マイナーな作品も楽譜ともども手に入れて演奏してみてう「ふふふっ」てタイプでした。　その私が・・えー、そんなアレンジする？ってぐあいなキョーレツな編曲を随所に入れて作られているのです。　また、わかんないでしょうが「くるみ割り人形」だけでなく交響曲第5番や６番（チャイコフスキーの交響曲は６番まであります）（幻の７番ってのもありますが・・・）、ピアノ協奏曲もまぜてアレンジしている。　チャイコフスキーファンにとっては全編「にんまり」な作品なのです。　ちょっとチャイコフスキーの話もしましょう、彼はもちろん超有名な作曲家でしたが当時はいろいろ問題があって本人も大変ナーバスな性格の人でした、ただロシアへの祖国愛はたいへんなのもで自分が実際に目にした風景や感想を曲にするというたいへん素朴な人でした。　悪く言うとちょっと「田舎くさい」作曲家でその音楽はかっこいいというよりは幻想的な雰囲気のなかにちょっと懐かしさを漂わすテーマが多いのが特徴です。　もちろんピアノ協奏曲や１８１２年のように意気揚々とロマン派を象徴とする荘厳な曲もありますが、私はと言うより多くのファンはたぶん前記した素朴なところに興味をそそられているのです。　ただ、現在でも色々と日本と問題のあるあの国の作曲家なので日本人うけが良くないのか自伝映画などのメジャーなものがなく知名度的にはちょっと落ちます。　３Dの感想ではなくなってしまいましたがチャイコフスキー好きの人には超おすすめの１枚です。

A very interesting version of The Nutcracker, like a suspense and very well acted,

Was a decent film apart from the musical parts , the 3d is decent especially the part they are going up through the Christmas tree , worth a watch