O Príncipe Encantado

The Nutcracker Prince follows Clara during Christmas where she receives the gift of a nutcracker from her godfather, Uncle Drosselmeier. After her Uncle regales her with a story of how the nutcracker came to be, Clara finds herself involved in the confrontation between the nutcracker prince and the vengeful rat king.

Released in 1990 to poor reviews and box office failure, The Nutcracker Prince was an attempt by Canadian TV animation studio Lacewood Productions to make a feature length theatrical film. While the animation can look nice (at times), the movie never maintains a consistent tone and struggles with pacing and story structure. But despite the movie's many faults, it is probably the most faithful and complete telling of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King that served as the source material for the endearing ballet.

The movie makes a decent enough impression with some decent character designs who are competently animated, but as the movie goes on the movie's usage of flat blurry backgrounds and barren environments become very obvious. The movie has numerous scenes that are eerily empty, even when that shouldn't be the case. To make up for this, the movie haphazardly integrates the Nutcracker suite as part of the soundtrack, and while it can sometimes work, often times it feels like a way to add life to the scene to make up for a lack of life in the animation. The movie also takes an abrupt style change around the 15 minute mark when it tells the Nutcracker's backstory, and in an attempt to soften the darker moments from the source material the animation style mimics a simplistic more geometric style one associates with something like Jay Ward's Fractured Fairy Tales which completely takes us out of the story and just calls attention to itself. The sequence goes on for a while dealing with characters who have no bearing on the rest of the movie and no real purpose, and the actual plot of the movie doesn't start until around 48 minutes into this 68 minute movie (not including 5 minutes of credits).

The Nutcracker Prince just doesn't work. It doesn't have plot, characters, or stakes strong enough to carry itself to feature length, and its technical aspects seem more suited for television than a cinema (save for some individual moments here and there). I do give the movie credit for avoiding contemporaneous dialogue and trying to approach the Nutcracker from a different direction, but the movie just doesn't come together.

The Nutcracker Prince was the first (and last) big-screen movie that was helmed by Kevin Gillis and Sheldon Wiseman, the creators of the cartoon series The Raccoons. Along with big names like Megan Follows, Kiefer Sutherland and Peter O'Toole, it also featured many of the voice talents of The Raccoons, such as Len Carlson, Susan Roman, Liz Hanna, Noam Zylberman and Keith Hampshire (who sadly passed away in 2000). Unfortunately, it didn't become the box office success everyone hoped for, and it flopped. This is a shame, because The Nutcracker Prince is a movie that should be seen. It wasn't just a good opportunity for the animators to show their talents, but it was also a triumph of Canadian moviemaking. The music of Tchaikovsky was put to very good use here, and the song "I'll Always Come Back To You" should have been nominated for a Genie (Canada's version of the Oscar) for Best Song.

If you can find a copy of it on video (it's hard to find nowadays), see it. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: ***

It's about time E.T.A. Hoffman's tale of The Nutcracker and The Mouse King got a faithful adaptation. As one of the what, three people that have actually read the story - it's delightful to see the tale faithfully told, and told for children. In keeping with the tradition started with the Tchaikovsky ballet, it keeps the story light and suitable for children, without leaving out the main themes of the tale. The Hoffman story can be pretty gruesome at places, but this film manages to keep all the details (down to the Krakatuk nut!) in place, without taking away from the charm. They've managed to take some of the ugliest parts and present them comically - which is not an easy task. Good for them! A very good script, wonderful voicework (hey, I didn't know Megan Follows can sing) and just an overall sweet movie. Yes the animation isn't the greatest, but oh, who really cares? It's still a great movie.

Okay, even I'll admit that this is not one of the most spectacular animated films even made, but that doesn't take away from how much I love it. The characters are lovable and interesting, even Clara's family keeps our attention. This movie is a wonderful holiday film for all ages, filled with humor, adventure, and a little romance. It was about time the Nutcracker had a back story and a name. And for once he wasn't ten years older than Clara with a beard and cape (a cape that's always there when he's a nutcracker yet rarely there when he comes to life). I enjoyed how Uncle Drosselmeier's story was presented in a more comical style of animation. And it ends the way all children (especially little girls) always wanted it to end.

Wow, this is great. I can't believe that so many official movie critics disliked this film. It is amazing, will work for everyone as a family movie. It doesn't have the bordom involved with watching the same ballet every year, that would turn kids off to this classic story. The movie deserves more recondition, more praise, anything to help get the word out of how good it is.