Casse-Noisette: l'histoire jamais racontée

This film has received some negative reviews but in comparison with many of the Christmas offerings which offer schmaltzy sentimental rubbish this has some drama and tight spots and you are drawn into the action. The nut cracker when returned to life lacks charisma which the toy seems to have through only the voice. The contrast between Mary and her brother Max is nicely realised.

Of course there is a sense of history and some scenes are reminiscent of the book burning under the Nazis and the dating of the plot as the 1920 can tend to emphasis this.

The special effects are good and the rat faces well made

Disappointing in most respects. Inconsistent plot, poor lyrics, poor music adaptation, unconvincing acting for most of the movie. Like most reviewers will probably acknowledge, the visual effects are OK, but have no cause to serve. The film is a waste of nice animation, exactly what I wouldn't have expected from Koncealovski. And now, for a few upsetting details...

It is very difficult to become attached to any of the characters, because they are so superficially introduced. I don't get the real feeling of a backstory, which actually damages the whole universe of the film. Mary is the only character which seems alive, for better or worse. Otherwise, they are all pale and unconvincing.

The techno-fairy tale / political satire mix doesn't help either. I'm thinking of loads of splices you'd be able to make, starting from an original fairy tale, and I can't understand why you'd combine a Disney style dramatization with an oppressed-toys(and humans)-against-evil-nazi-rats uprising. It's not fun enough for adults, it's not simple and clear enough for children. And it doesn't have so much to do with the original...

And talking about the original, the use of Tchaikovsky's music is uninspired, to say the least. The adaptation sounds simplistic, and voices may not have been a good idea. First of all, because it used to be a ballet and, call me a rigid type, but I'd have loved to see it developed on this line. Second, because the lyrics are dull, and the actors' voices sound really bad at times (ok, try to make it sound natural but do follow the notes!). Third, because the modern orchestration further reduces the charm of the original, turning it into a sort of kindergarten party song. As far as the musical part goes, I'm taking Sweeney Todd as a reference. And, compared to this, Nutcracker is way below.

Bottom line? Don't see it, even if the other guy is paying. It's plain loss of time and a poor reference about the classics, if you have any children.

Make no bones about it, this movie sucks. It does have some meriting factors--interesting set design and production. And that's pretty much it! Writing, directing and acting: ham-fisted at best. The songs are TERRIBLE, the film's themes are all over the place and forget about any sense of continuity. Inexplicably, the main character's uncle is Albert Einstein who deigns it necessary to sing a dreary diddy about relativity and the rats are Nazis because... who knows?! The biggest disappointment: the stupid looking Nutcracker (who goes by NC!) that looks like an unimaginative Pinocchio. Glad to see this film bombed at the box office, hard.

The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky is arguably the most famous and cherished ballet ever created and there have been countless adaptations of it. And "Nutcracker 3D" is probably the worst one of all.

First off, I did some research on the original ballet from 1892, and there's a limited amount of material from it to make a movie to begin with. As a result, expanding on the story is required to create a proper Nutcracker film. But even so, Tchaikovsky's work is eviscerated here. The film bears little resemblance to the Nutcracker story. Elle Fanning plays a Clara stand-in named Mary. Uncle Drosselmeyer is replaced by Albert Einstein (Nathan Lane) for some reason. The story takes place in early 20th century Austria instead of the correct 19th century Germany, but even then, nobody speaks with an Austrian accent. And, finally, the Nutcrackers world is turned into a steampunk styled kingdom. It's all so different, you'd be forgiven for initially thinking this isn't even a Nutcracker adaptation.

No question, the main reason this film was so panned was because it was essentially an allegory to the Holocaust by portraying the rats as Nazis and showing them systematically exterminating living toys by burning them in factories or in public to block out the sun and publish and spread propaganda about a RATification policy. This portrayal of the rats was unnecessarily morbid and in very poor taste. I'm all for teaching kids about the Holocaust, but this just made the film too dark and disturbing for such an audience.

Nazi imagery aside, this film was chock full of disturbing scenes that would terrify children. The poorly rendered CGI model of the Nutcracker himself looked very creepy with his bulging, lifeless eyes and flapping head, and the Rat King's face morphing and showing his prominent teeth and gums was the stuff of nightmares. And that's not all; we see a Shark being electrocuted to death in a big fish tank, the Rat King decorating his fortress with photographs of sobbing children, and Sticks (Africa Nile), the drummer boy, gets his head ripped off so the Rat King and his soldiers can play catch with it! What was Konchalovsky thinking?!

The acting and dialogue were poor for the most part and few of the characters were likeable. I know she was very young at the time, but Elle Fanning tended to speak in a bored sounding monotone, Max (Aaron Michael Drozin) was an irritating brat who liked to break toys, and Shirley Henderson performed the Nutcracker with an annoying high-pitched voice and tended to be rude and dismissive toward Mary. Nathan Lane's fake German accent fools nobody. Only John Turturro was fun to watch with his wacky villain performance, even though he's playing an Adolf Hitler/Andy Warhol hybrid dictator.

But worst of all, the Nutcrackers prolific songs that everyone knows and loves, like the "Nutcracker Suite", "Sugarplum Fairy", and "Waltz of the Flowers" are all butchered with the addition of God-awful lyrics from Tim Rice and bad singing. There wasn't even any ballet dancing. It's all so distorted and jarring, it feels like a slap in the face to fans of the original work.

Visually, though, the magical world that Mary dreams up actually looks pretty good. From the buildings and city streets of the Nutcrackers kingdom to the interior and exterior of the Rat Kings steampunk castle everything looked impressive. The costumes looked nice too, if you don't count the rats Nazi uniforms. The steampunk technology, like the helicopter, robotic dogs, and motorcycles were cool, even if they felt out of place in a Nutcracker film. They really could have created something better than this if they'd left the darkest elements out.

Overall, I was surprised and disappointed that Andrei Konchalovsky was behind this, seeing as how he won a Primetime Emmy for creating "The Odyssey" miniseries back in 1997, which I enjoyed. Plus, with a $90 million budget to work with, he could have done better if he'd been more faithful to the ballets source material, had a lighter and more kid friendly story, and steer clear of any Nazi imagery. But the saddest part of all is that for twenty years this was his dream project, but how he thought mixing it with the Holocaust was a good idea is beyond me, because he wound up creating not only the worst Nutcracker adaptation of all time, but also one of the worst Christmas films ever.

Even the kids hated it. At end daughter asked if we could put it in the rubbish. I wanted to stop watching by halfway.

Holocaust themes, dark and violent for younger children, and lots of rat teeth.

To be fair, make-up and costumes were alright plus Elle Fanning is gorgeous and a talented actress but even as the main redeeming feature she was unable to support this holocaust-themed bastardisation of a ballet. Tim Rice may be good at lyrics but the breaks into song were un-natural and whole thing forced, boring and dreary. Composers would be turning in their graves. I truly hope I never watch this again!