Nutcracker

This picture is billed as "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture", but really it's a cross between a movie and a live ballet performance. They make some use of the freedom of camera movement and more elaborate sets to enhance a ballet, but really it's just a ballet performance with no wait between set changes.

That said, this is pretty darn good. The dancing is excellent, of course, but I'd like to see the Kirov or Bolshoi Ballet (or even the Joffrey) do a film like this, rather than the Pacific Northwest Ballet. The sets and costumes (by Maurice Sendak, the famous author of "Where the Wild Things Are"), are superb...for a stage performance, but not for a movie. The overall effect is basically of a PBS special production of the stage ballet.

If you like the grace and beauty of the world's most famous ballet, you'll like this film. If you like Tchaikovskiy's amazing music, you'll like this film. If you like gorgeous ballerinas prancing around on their toes (and hey, who doesn't), you'll like this film. If you can't stand to sit through a ballet, you won't necessarily be converted by this film, however, but the ability to hit "pause" on the VCR and go get a beer might help.

One other thing. I have no idea if this is included in the theatrical or video releases, but when I saw this late at night on WGN-TV in Chicago, Tony Randall appears between acts and provides commentary. Why, I have no idea, but it looks tacked-on at the last minute.

Short, short summary: Fun costumes, hot chicks in tu-tu's, and good music. Everything you'd expect from a great ballet performance, but they could have done so much MORE with this as a movie...

Set on Christmas Eve, a young girl named Clara recounts a dreamlike evening involving her Godfather, Drosselmeyer, and an adventure with a magical Nutcracker.

Nutcracker: The Motion Picture is an adaptation of the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) production of The Nutcracker from 1983 that featured production design and costuming by Maurice Sendak. Despite Sendak initially turning down the opportunity as he didn't like the largely plotless nature of the ballet but would change his mind when company director Kent Stowell said they'd work the concept from scratch and adapt more of the themes from the source novel, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. An immediate critical and commercial success, it wasn't long before executives from the Walt Disney Company convinced Stowell and Sendak to adapt their version of The Nutcracker to film. Filmed on a tight budget, the team had initially wanted to incorporate more elements from the Hoffmann story for the film version (namely the "Hard Nut" plot element often omitted from adaptations) but due to the rushed nature of the production and the producer's desire for something cheap for the Christmas season this didn't come to pass. Given mixed reviews from critics and largely ignored at the box office, the film mostly came and went without much fanfare. Despite not really leaving a lasting impact, Nutcracker: The Motion Picture probably ranks among the better adaptations of the ballet for film.

From the opening scenes in Drosselmeyer's workshop to the production design that features more elaborately designed take-offs on the stage production, the Sendak designed production does an adequate job of creating a surreal environment that's whimsical while also possessing some more unnerving elements. Going back to the Hoffman source novel, Sendak and company have tried and mostly succeeded in giving the largely anemic Nutcracker a more psychological bent focusing on Clara's coming of age and the distance she takes from Drosselmeyer no longer being a child. There's certainly a lot to read into there (especially since in the original stage production Drosselmeyer was portrayed as something of a "dirty old man" before being reworked as a distant loner obsessed with toys and whimsy) and it doesn't dive especially deep into that side of things, but it does add some more subtext to something that originally was largely plotless. In terms of the dancing and staging, director Carroll Ballard does a solid job of adapting the wordless stage production to film, keeping the world familiar while also incorporating more dynamic camera work and a sense of immersion in the world. The choice to keep the sets and props deliberately artificial looking may have been done due to budget reasons, but it actually does work to the film's advantage and helps immerse the viewers in the dreamlike atmosphere of the production.

For those who aren't enamored with the Nutcracker I don't think this will change too much of your stance on it, but for me personally it's probably the best way to experience it on both a stylistic and thematic level. Sendak's production and costume designs are beautifully realized emphasizing both bright whimsy and darker surrealism Carroll Ballard captures and films the dances and world quite nicely.

I am one of the few people that saw this in the theater. The Ballet "Nutcracker" was very expensive to see. I was 21 and I wanted to take my niece & nephew to see it but 3 tickets would have cost about $80 back in 1986. (Around $140 in 2017 Dollars). So I saw this film being advertised in the paper. 3 tickets for this film was $12.00 and it was money well spent. Also we were only the only 3 in the cinema.

I have never seen this play before. I did not know the story. So I was like a child at Disneyland watching this. The costumes were nice bright & beautiful. The sound was an experience unto itself. I loved this film. It was not a bore. It was just a treat for the senses.

Years later I bought this on DVD and was shocked that the film looked so colorless. This film may not have been filmed in technicolor but it was a beautiful looking film. What is not out on DVD looks like the film was shot in VHS.

MGM owns this film. Since they have never released it on blu-ray I hope maybe someday that SHOUT FACTORY will. If not them then KINO LORBER or Olive Films. This is the type of release that those companies specialize in!

This is the version of the Nutcracker that I grew up watching, and fell in love with. I loved its dark undertones and its creepy aesthetic, and as an adult I can appreciate the psychology behind the production. It seems some people are put off by the darker aspects of this interpretation, but I guess it's all what you're used to; after becoming accustomed to this version, other versions made me recoil with their saccharine cuteness. If you are looking for a strict ballet performance, this might not be the film for you, as it is first and foremost a dramatic film--think of it as a fantasy movie with dance in place of dialogue. The attention to detail and the deliberate choices in the casting, costumes and props are all wonderful, as are Maurice Sendak's sets. Again, this is a somewhat off-beat interpretation of the story, and does not ever get very sugary, but its multifaceted, complex and provocative imagery is definitely pretty sweet.

Of all the productions of the Nutcracker I've seen, this one would win my vote for best picture out of the batch. It's very well focused with regards to the actual storyline. Good thing I taped it while I had the chance.