The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a 2018 American fantasy adventure film directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston and produced by Mark Gordon and Larry Franco, from a screenplay by Ashleigh Powell. Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and The Mark Gordon Company, it is a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", as well as of Marius Petipa and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker, about a young girl who is gifted a locked egg from her deceased mother and sets out in a magical land to retrieve the key. The film stars Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman.
The film was announced in March 2016 with Hallström directing from a script by Powell. Much of the cast signed on that summer, and filming began in October at Pinewood Studios, lasting through January 2017. In December 2017, it was announced Johnston would direct a month of reshoots, with Hallström agreeing to Johnston receiving co-directing credit. The reshoots were written by Tom McCarthy, who went uncredited, and Powell received a sole credit as screenwriter. Composer James Newton Howard scored the film, adapting elements from Tchaikovsky's music for the 1892 ballet, while Gustavo Dudamel served as conductor, leading the London Philharmonia Orchestra.
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on October 29, 2018, and was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in the United States on November 2. The film grossed $174 million worldwide against a production budget between $120–133 million, making it a box office bomb and losing Disney over $65 million. It received generally negative reviews, with criticisms of its story and Knightley's performance, although the film's visual effects and aesthetics were praised.
Plot[]
On Christmas Eve in Victorian London, Benjamin Stahlbaum gives his children Louise, Clara, and Fritz the presents his wife Marie had set aside for them before she died. Clara receives an egg-shaped box that she cannot unlock, together with a note saying "Everything you need is inside". The family goes to a Christmas Eve party, hosted by the children's godfather and skilled engineer Drosselmeyer. Clara asks Drosselmeyer how to unlock her egg. He reveals that he made the egg for Marie when she was younger.
Benjamin becomes angry at Clara for refusing to dance with him, and they insult each other. Clara finds a string with her name on it, signifying her gift, and follows it into a forest in a parallel world where she sees a key. Before she can grab it, a mouse snatches it and crosses a frozen river. Captain Philip Hoffman, the Nutcracker, leads Clara across the bridge into the Fourth Realm, where they barely escape the mouse king and Mother Ginger, the regent of the Fourth Realm. Captain Philip brings Clara to the palace, where she meets the regents of each land: the Sugar Plum Fairy of the Land of Sweets; Shiver of the Land of Snowflakes, and Hawthorne of the Land of Flowers. They tell Clara they are at war with the Land of Amusements, which they refer to as "the Fourth Realm". It is also revealed that Marie was the beloved Queen of this magical land and, thus, Clara is the princess.
The Sugar Plum Fairy explains that Marie created this world as a young girl and that she animated everyone with a machine that can turn toys into real people. Sugar Plum says this machine can be used to defend the three realms against Mother Ginger, but it needs a key matching the one for Clara's egg. Sneaking into the Fourth Realm, Clara and Philip steal back the key from Mother Ginger (ignoring her warning that Sugar Plum is lying to them), but Clara is disappointed to discover that the egg is only a music box.
Sugar Plum uses the machine to bring toy soldiers to life and orders them to attack the Fourth Realm. She then reveals that she lied about Mother Ginger, who had resisted Sugar Plum's plan to take over all four realms in revenge for her perceived abandonment by Marie, and that the machine can turn this world's people back into toys as well. She imprisons Clara, Captain Philip, and the male regents, causing Clara to blame herself.
Clara opens her egg-shaped music box again and discovers a mirror, illustrating that all she needed was herself. She and the other prisoners escape. One of Mother Ginger's mice shows Clara into the engine room, and Captain Philip convinces Mother Ginger to help overthrow Sugar Plum. Clara shuts down the machine while fighting off soldiers with Mother Ginger's aid. Sugar Plum attempts to turn Mother Ginger back into a toy, but Clara tinkers with the engine so it aims back at Sugar Plum when activated, turning her back into a porcelain doll and rendering her entire army lifeless.
Thanked for restoring peace among the Realms and the destruction of Sugar Plum, Clara promises to visit in the future. After saying goodbye to Captain Philip, she returns to London, where time has hardly passed since she left. She and Benjamin apologize to each other and she finally decides to dance with him. He accepts, and Clara opens her music box. Benjamin reveals that the music was the first song that he and Marie had ever danced to. They dance throughout the night in the ballroom.
Cast[]
- Mackenzie Foy as Clara Stahlbaum, a young girl who travels into the Four Realms, searching for a key of a gift from her late mother Marie.
- Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, the regent of the Land of Sweets.
- Jayden Fowora-Knight as Captain Philip Hoffman, a nutcracker who helps Clara on her journey.
- Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger, regent of the Land of Amusements (also known as The Fourth Realm).
- Morgan Freeman as Drosselmeyer, Clara's godfather, a skilled engineer, who gives her a magical gift that once belonged to her mother.
- Eugenio Derbez as Hawthorne, regent of the Land of Flowers.
- Richard E. Grant as Shiver, regent of the Land of Snowflakes.
- Misty Copeland as the Ballerina Princess, a gifted dancer in the mysterious Four Realms.
- Matthew Macfadyen as Benjamin Stahlbaum, Clara's father and a widower following the death of his wife Marie.
- Anna Madeley as Queen Marie Stahlbaum, Clara's late mother who created and ruled over the Four Realms as a child.
- Sergei Polunin as the Sweets Cavalier, a dancer who performs alongside the Ballerina Princess.
- Ellie Bamber as Louise Stahlbaum, Clara's older sister.
- Tom Sweet as Fritz Stahlbaum, Clara's younger brother.
- Jack Whitehall as Harlequin, a guard at The Palace of the Four Realms.
- Omid Djalili as Cavalier, another guard at The Palace of the Four Realms and Harlequin's cohort.
- Meera Syal as the Stahlbaum's Cook, a staff member in the Stahlbaum household.
- Charles "Lil Buck" Riley as the Mouse King, ruler of the legion of mice. Riley also provided the choreography and motion capture performance for the character.
- Prince (the horse) as Jingles the Horse
- Gustavo Dudamel as Conductor
- Max Westwell as Flower Cavalier
- Aaron Smyth as Snow Cavalier