The Nuttiest Nutcracker

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 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 unfortunately saw this travesty of a film a few years ago on cable! The movie itself isn't just bad it is the worst adaptation of The Nutcracker story! I get this was made for kids, but it's pretty bad

The animation looks like something straight out of the kid's show Veggietales and it's pretty bad, it doesn't help that many of the characters on here are unlikable, also what do talking nuts have to do with the Nutcracker story?

So in conclusion skip the Nuttiest Nutcracker, it's not worth anyone's time, the storyline is all over the place, the characters are forgettable, the animation is terrible big disappointment

From what I've heard, this looks even WORSE than the Emoji Movie. That may not be saying much, but it still feels like something Sony Pictures made that's WORSE than the Emoji Movie. WHY WERE JIM CUMMINGS AND JEFF BENNETT IN THIS MOVIE??!!

The animation is HORRIBLE!!! It makes the Emoji Movie look like a Universal-DreamWorks Movie!!! It's the 1999 equivalent of Rapsittie Street Kids. Still doesn't change the fact that that movie is worse. Why tell the story of the Nutcracker through the perspective of the food?? THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!!! THIS FEELS LIKE SOMETHING THE NOSTALGIA CRITIC SHOULD DO!!!!!

It was a straight to video movie that was made by Sony Pictures. Yes, even before the days of Sony Pictures Animation. You though the Star was bad? You thought Eight Crazy Nights (a Hanukkah movie) was bad? The Nuttiest Nutcracker was even worse. I don't know if the Nuttiest Nutcracker is worse than the Emoji Movie or not, but it kind of looks worse. Jerry Smith doesn't know any better.

You wanna know what's worse? The Nuttiest Nutcracker even had a TV appearance on CBS!!! I'm not joking. This was aired on CBS of all channels!!!! CBS literally AIRED this Atrocity. Just like how the WB aired the Rapsittie Street Kids.

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.