The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Dvd

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a 2018 American fantasy adventure film directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston based on a screenplay by Ashleigh Powell. It is a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and Marius Petipa’s and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 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 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 Joe Johnston would direct a month of reshoots written by Tom McCarthy (though Powell would receive final credit), with Hallström agreeing to Johnston receiving co-directing credit.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms premiered in Los Angeles on October 29, 2018, and was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in the United States on November 2, 2018, in RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema. The film was a box office bomb, grossing $174 million worldwide against a production budget as high as $133 million.  It received generally negative reviews from critics, criticizing the slow pace and lack of dance numbers and also deeming the film as “soulless” and “incoherent”, although the visual effects, cinematography and production design received some praise.

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 which she is unable to unlock, together with a note saying “Everything you need is inside”. The family goes to a Christmas Eve ball, 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 scolds her for refusing to dance with him, and they insult each other. Clara finds her 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 hardly 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 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.

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 machine 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 the Realms in the future. After saying goodbye to 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 Princess Clara Stahlbaum, a young girl who travels into the Four Realms, searching for a key of a gift from her late mother Marie.
Jayden Fowora-Knight as Captain Philip Hoffman, a nutcracker who helps Clara on her journey.
Keira Knightley as The Sugar Plum Fairy, the regent of the Land of Sweets.
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 member of staff 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 as Jingles the Horse
Gustavo Dudamel as Conductor
Max Westfall as Flower Cavalier
Aaron Symth as Snow Cavalier