We have seen a great number of films based on the Tchaikovsky ballet, itself adapted from the E. T. A. Hoffmann short story. Some magical, some missable. But this latest animated feature from director Viktor Glukhushin is sadly one that falls into the latter category.
This version sees ballet dancer Marie (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld), on Christmas Eve, potentially forced to wed a despicable pawnbroker to save her family from financial ruin. When she makes a magical wish and is no sooner shrunken to doll size and goes on a journey to an otherworldly kingdom, where she must assist Nutcracker (who is really a prince) George (Dan Edwards) in stopping his wicked stepmother from attaining a magic flute to enslave humanity to rat-kind.
Faithful in some ways to the source material, one thing this Russian animated adaptation can be commended for is its classic fairytale nature (free of many modern adaptation’s painful attempts at “getting down with the kids”) but unfortunately this muddled festive film is an utter bore, that feels a good ten times longer than its brief running time.
It is somewhat cruel to give a Christmas kids film a kicking but it is hard to feel any sense of warmth for a feature that will likely struggle to make any kind of impact with audiences of any age.
Blending Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe fantastical thrills with the classic story, this animated tale just feels awkward and stilted.
The animation is passable at best, while the ear-gratingly bland musical numbers just stumble into the plot here and there randomly and awkwardly like a drunken uncle at a family wedding, and despite featuring a cowardly Ostrich and Elvis-inspired Ram as animal sidekicks, this film just cannot get the energy levels to raise at all. No matter what it tries.
The characters and their story do not have any kind of memorable feel and when a sequence in a kitchen sees an angry chef get ready to cook some unlucky turkeys, it is hard for the viewer not to think that the biggest turkey is the film they are watching.
Yes, we should obviously consider the target audience when looking at a film like this but it is hard to think that even the youngest of kids will be getting all excited over such a mundane offering. Especially when there are countless better alternatives available out there.
Far from magical.
