The Nuttiest Nutcracker

I was just a little kid when my family and I bought this. I still remember the songs and the unforgettable voice work from Debi Derryberry, Cam Clarke, Jim Cummings, Cheech Marin, the late Phyllis Diller, and Jim Belushi, but as an adult, the film doesn't hold up as I thought.

The story had a nice premise but it pretty much skipped along and only ran for nearly 50 minutes. Not to mention the character animation movements are too robotic you can easily laugh at them throughout the whole film (particularly the motion capture movements on the later half of the film). Also, Marie as a character is pretty bland and dull which is a shame because Debi Derryberry is a very talented voice actress.

I'll admit, though, the side characters, particularly the nuts, had some entertaining moments despite being somewhat annoying at times. The Nutcracker Prince was alright though not given much to do other than fighting the mouse king and his mice soldiers. The best character, however, is Reginald who had the right balance of evil and comedy and thanks to Jim Belushi's superb voice work.

Also, the music is serviceable enough with snippets from the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker music used effectively and the songs, while not in the same league as Disney, are still a lot of fun.

Overall, The Nuttiest Nutcracker had some merits, but now that I'm an adult, it's a watchable yet very forgettable movie.

I occasionally saw the trailer for this on TV as a kid, but I never bothered watching it, because I could tell it wasn't very good because of its low-quality animation and far better options existed at the time, like Toy Story 2. It wasn't until years later that I actually watched this out of curiosity, and it met all of my bad expectations.

The story is a confusing and feels like a tripping mixture of the original ballet mixed with VeggieTales. We start with the typical opening with Marie (Debi Derryberry) receiving a Nutcracker as a gift. Next, a war breaks out between Reginald's (Jim Belushi) army and a wooden soldier/food alliance, then the Nutcracker comes to life, then the heroes all travel to the Christmas Kingdom. Nothing is made clear.

The food character designs looked like shoddy imitations of those from VeggieTales with ugly and plain expressions and lifeless gazes. Marie looked like a Barbie doll, and the Nutcracker Prince had a borderline creepy face. And with the exception of Reginald, all of them were dull, unlikeable, and annoying. Marie was a whiny brat, the nuts were unnecessary extras to provide filler or, in the Sugar Plum Fairy's (Phyllis Diller) case, irritating narrations.

The film's main highlight is the amazing voice cast. We've got Cheech Marin, Tress MacNeille, Jett Bennett, and my personal favorite, Jim Cummings. Jim Belushi no doubt stole the show as Reginald the Mouse King with his hammy bad guy act. Unfortunately, most of their character designs diluted their performances. Their dialogue was no better and tended to be awkward and littered with constant food and nut puns.

Given the measly $84,000 budget, the animation was poor, even for 1999. The characters have stiff and jerky movements, a tendency to clip through their own bodies, especially Reginald with his beer gut. The backgrounds and scenery tended to look bland or unpolished. The "chocolate" river running through Reginald's palace even looked like excrement!

The music is a mixed bag. On one hand, we have Pyotr Tchaikovsky's prolific orchestra from the original ballet, on the other hand, we have unnecessary original songs that sounded unimpressive, except for the catchy villain song "The Big Cheese" sung by Reginald.

It's really no surprise this only received a single tv viewing and then went straight to video. I just hope parents looking for Christmas movies to show their kids were able to find better options than this.

I was in elementary school when i first witnessed the dumpster fire that is this film. For years it has haunted me, a vague memory that I wasn't even sure was real. Then I found it again and it all made sense. I cannot believe that this was shown to me in a school. I'm giving this a low rating due to the years of trauma and questioning my very sanity, but I must say, I had a good laugh at how garbage this is.

Nuttiest Nutcracker tho this movie has the old animation but I can see that this is the beginning of animation and this is even the great try and the best good job.

a movie made primarily for kids who have not seen or heard the original story, or have just enough familiarity with it that they will sit through the entire video to the end. It tries way too hard to appeal to the " 7-10 year old, bathroom talk is funny" set. Marie's character is hard to sympathize with since you don't know how old she is supposed to be...is she a child who is sad because her toy is broken or is she a teenager who resents her parents for not being home for Christmas ? Too much jumping between original premise and the modern spin to be believable. Visually the computer graphics could have been better but would have been forgivable with a better attempt at a story. Individual performances by Jim Belushi and others were done well. Again this will appeal to some kids, but not a movie the whole family will sit down and watch together once the kids are past 10 years old.