Nutcracker: The Untold Story [Blu-ray] [2010] [US Import]

Great movie. I watched it with the family and everyone enjoyed it. Excellent special effects,sets and costumes along with interesting characters kept us all entertained through out the entire movie. The blu-ray is a great transfer both sound and picture.
Hopefully in the future the theatrical 3-D version will be available.

It's all that you've heard and more.

For context, upon seeing the abominable-looking trailers last year, my friends and I were disappointed at not having found the time to watch this train-wreck in theaters. After finding it online and watching the first ten minutes or so, I was surprised to find it strangely-paced but not quite in "so-bad-it's-good" territory. I opened Rotten Tomatoes in another tab... marveling over the hyperbole used to describe the monstrous thing the movie would go on to become as its runtime progressed, I decided I had to keep watching in order to witness it for myself.

"The Nutcracker: The Untold Story" delivered in a big way.

Where to begin: Nathan Lane's character has gray, poofy hair, is named Uncle ALBERT and has a song called "It's All RELATIVE." I'm sorry, I forgot the part of the Nutcracker where freaking Einstein was a character. Let's see... there's the steampunk Rat army, the ridiculously blatant Holocaust imagery (you know, for kids!), the Tim Rice lyrics superimposed on Tchaikovsky's legendary music (Dance of the Reeds played Dixieland style, for example. Not joking.), and my personal favorite element, the Rat Queen.

You could see her in this movie as what the character Denny was to Wiseau's "The Room." Why is she here? What purpose does she serve? Do literally any of her character traits makes sense or further the plot? Why is she an alcoholic in the 'real world' if it's only mentioned once and there are no ramifications? Why does she randomly call the Snow Queen a 'bore' in a horribly digitally-altered line reading that clearly looks as if the script to this Children's Holiday Movie originally called for her to say, "The Snow Queen! That whore!"? Seriously, watch the scene. Just..... WHAT. I liked to think the actress was so bored with her role in this terrible film that she just started improvising and they had to alter it later.

Needless to say, I went right to Amazon and ordered a legitimate copy of the DVD post-haste. It's so hysterically, rubberneck-inducing-ly misguided that you can't not want to add it to your inventory of true holiday classics. A featurette only serves to put a microscope on how tragic it is that hundreds of people were employed for years to work hard and create this film, a 90,000,000 dollar feature that somehow, miraculously, made it to release.

How to describe this film?
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In two words: fantastically weird.

Keep in mind, I am a 19-year-old with a taste for the odd and surreal. I rather liked this film, though there are a number of things they could have done better.

First off, the cover is a bit misleading. This movie is not all sparkly and fluffy. There a number of dark changes to the story, the most prominent being that the rats are a parallel to Nazi Germany.
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Well, as the creators put it, "there's no story without conflict".

The story adheres more to the original tale by E. T. A. Hoffman instead of the famous Tchaikovsky musical. There is music from Tchaikovsky, but not enough. There are only around three Tchaikovsky songs. Original lyrics were made up to go along with them. Weather or not this was a good decision is up to the viewer. The rest of the songs were made specifically for the film. The best one is the Rat King's song, which demonstrates that he can be both wicked and comical (though, you wanna watch out for sudden shark electrocution). John Turturro delivers a fine performance. Although, I wish they'd have chosen a different hair style for him.

The Nutcracker's wooden form is just plain creepy. Although apparently that's what they were going for, as a lot of antique German nutcrackers were quite ugly. Despite this, the Nutcracker's appearance is easily countered by his ridiculously high-pitched, scratchy voice. I nearly burst out laughing the first time I heard it!

The Rat World is portrayed as a dark, industrial, iron-built place. It perfectly shows how antagonistic the rats are compared to the Nutcracker's cheery, colorful world. The steampunk-esque technology the rats use make them quite intimidating. The rats' main goal is to burn all the children's toys to create enough smoke to blot out the sun. Yes, this sounds weird, but hey, nobody ever questioned the Wicked Witch's death by water in the Wizard of Oz. Or Pippi Longstocking's astounding physical strength. Or Christopher Robin talking to stuffed animals. Basically, what I'm saying is, lighten up people.

The actors in this film give a fabulous performance, especially the charming Elle Fanning. I had a little trouble with the little brother's character, though. With Max (yes, Max, not Fritz. Don't ask. I don't know) you either want to smack him or give him a hug. There are two different sides to the character, and I don't feel the director managed to bridge these two sides properly. Nevertheless, the young actor plays the role very well. Nathan Lane as "Albert Einstein" in place of Uncle Drosselmeyer is certainly ... amusing. Certainly adds a metaphysical element to the film.

The story is done nicely, but I feel the end of the climax could have been handled better. (SPOILER: the Rat King escapes retribution. END SPOILER) Also, I wish there more fairies and toy characters. Too many flesh-and-blood humans. There were also one or two awkward moments that could have been handled differently. Such as when the Rat Queen bites her son. Or the Rat King suddenly bears his unattractively large rat teeth. Brrr...
All-in-all, it's a charmingly dark yet fantastic film with amazing visual-effects, but is suitable only for the weird of heart. Wonderful holiday nightma-er-DREAMS await you! Families beware, for the Nutcracker comes this year!!