Kurumiwari ningyô

This is one of the most unique films I have ever seen, and unlike any other holiday fare out there. The puppets are magical and lifelike, the music is borderline psychadelic and the film as a whole is completely original (and comes complete with a cameo by Hello Kitty). It is at once both a lovely holiday film and an "Alice In Wonderland"-style fantasy, complete with moments that may be too terrifying for little children. This film needs to be remastered and released to DVD, it deserves to be discovered by today's generations.

I haven't seen this movie in maybe 18 years, but I've been searching for it all over the internet for a while now, and finally came across it tonight! I watched this movie over and over! I'm going to purchase it soon and I cannot wait. I loved the voices, the animation, the color. It was all so magical to me. I cannot wait to see it again! It's a wonderful take on "The Nutcracker Suite," a story everyone should be familiar with. I use to think it was a Rankin/Bass movie, just because it is similar to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and all other movies like that. I only just found out it's a Japanese film. I can't say whether other people would appreciate this movie, kids would. I think you have to be young to watch it, it would be so mysterious!

This is one of the all-time coolest movies I've ever seen. It may be quite bizzare, but the prominent themes of true love and sacrifice totally outweigh the weirdness, which actually just adds to the uniqueness of this film. For a fairly old movie, it's very well done. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has an extra moment to watch an excellent film.

I'm 16, and i remember seeing this film when i was a little kid, my parents had a copy, i loved this film! the ragman scared the living daylights out of me! and the way the puppets moved was really freaky, lol. but this film, has become one of the most rarest films in the world now! hard to come by, especially in england. i managed to find a copy in dallas, and ordered it the other day. basically the story is of a girl called clara who gets a nutcracker doll from her uncle drosselmeyer (tick tock tee, lol) and she gets some sort of fever, and starts hallucinating several different things, including the doll doing battle with mice, yay! lol. anyway, this film is really really really really great, and should you ever get a chance to watch it, WATCH IT! you will definitely not be disappointed.

As someone who adores the Nutcracker story and the ballet and admires the voice cast and stop-motion animation, Nutcracker Fantasy was a real treat. A lot of work and care clearly went into the visuals because they look absolutely fabulous, a tad stiff here and there but the animation is modelled beautifully, the colours are wonderfully dark and sumptuous and the backgrounds are exquisitely designed and exude a beautiful and eerie quality.

Tchaikovsky's music is timeless and what there is of it in Nutcracker Fantasy matches the visuals splendidly and is appropriate to the mood of every scene it appears. There is a very clever hybrid of some of the divertissements(including Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) incorporated in a colourful sequence involving sprites and figurines, and I for one enjoyed the ballet sequences with their nimble choreography and the dream-like strangeness they gave. Other parts of the soundtrack don't fare so much, the use of 70s synthesised music feels out of place and tonally at odds with Tchaikovsky's music, it also causes some tone shifts that are both jarring and awkward(a complaint that some people here have as well). A few songs were written for the film and they are decent if a little too upbeat, Christopher Lee even gets a chance to sing and he actually has got a good singing voice.

Narratively the story in Nutcracker Fantasy is based somewhat loosely on the original story(notably having a Mouse Queen in Morphia as the primary villain) but the original story itself is whimsical, magical, poignant and dark- people may not recognise the Nutcracker as having a darker elements but in Hoffmann's telling the Mouse King is more villainous and sadistic than he is often portrayed as- and Nutcracker Fantasy has all of those elements. While there are differences in the details, though the Princess Mary story is oddly reminiscent of that of Princess Pirlipat in the original(a part that is often omitted, though it's included in The Nutcracker Prince), but the spirit remains. And there are some truly memorable scenes, the most notable one being the genuinely scary opening Ragman sequence, it gave me nightmares as a child and still gives me the creeps now, though in a thrilling kind of way.

The characters are very engaging, Clara is an immensely charming heroine, Queen Morphia is a very menacingly memorable villain and Drosselmeyer is wonderfully mysterious. The voice acting is terrific, with a brilliant Christopher Lee in multiple roles being particularly notable. Clara is voiced as a child by Melissa Gilbert with spirit and charm and with sincerity as an adult in a narrator kind of role by Michele Lee. Morphia is voiced with sinister relish by Jo Anne Worley and there is also a dashing Roddy MacDowell as Franz and Eva Gabor is at her most mysterious as Queen of Time. All in all, has an uneven soundtrack but Nutcracker Fantasy is a little gem. 8/10 Bethany Cox