The Nutcracker in 3D

Plot

Mary's (Elle Fanning) seemingly dull Christmas is suddenly filled with excitement and adventure following the arrival of her Uncle Albert (Nathan Lane), who gives her a Nutcracker as a gift. Later that night, Mary dreams that the Nutcracker—called N.C. (Charlie Rowe)--comes to life and takes her on a wondrous journey. They discover that the Nazi-like Rat King (John Turturro) has usurped the Nutcracker's kingdom.

When Mary and NC go to the top of the Christmas tree, they meet a fairy and as she begins to sing, NC looks at his hand, as it begins to turn Human. Worried about this he runs into the sleigh, but leaves his human hand revealed, and Mary sees this. Mary seeing this goes to NC and rubs his hand as we see that he is intact a human crying with tears of joy that he is human again. The snow fairy begins to sing and toys appear and begin to ice skate around the tree. N.C takes Mary to the top to show her his city. The two come up with a plan to shut down the spoke factory. Suddenly N.C is starting to turn back in to a doll. Then the tree is shaking and Mary falls off, only to awake to being in her bed room.

In the climax of the film, the Nutcracker appears to have been killed, but Mary's tears and declaration of love restore him to life and transforms him into a prince, his true form. The rats are all defeated and overthrown, but now Mary must reluctantly awaken from her dream. Before she's fully awake, N.C. promises that they'll meet again. After she does so, she goes to Uncle Albert's workshop, where she meets his new young neighbor, who is the exact image of the Nutcracker Prince and who asks to be called N.C. The two become close friends, and the last shot of the film shows them ice skating together.

Cast

Development

Director Konchalovsky stated that the film had been his "dream project" for over 20 years. He was inspired to adapt it into 3D for several reasons; he believed that the format would be useful in conveying the fantastical nature of the material, capturing the emotions of CGI characters, and appealing to a family audience. At the same time, he opted to adapt it with no ballet sequences because, according to him, "ballet cannot work in cinema very well."

Konchalovsky gave the rats who try to take over the fantasy kingdom Nazi-like qualities in his production, one of the many elements in the adaptation which alienated both critics and audiences.

Filming

The film was announced at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and principal photography took place primarily in Budapest, Hungary that summer, before the set was moved to the Stern Film Studio in Pomáz.

Soundtrack

The film's score is derived from Tchaikovsky's original music for The Nutcracker, the ballet version of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story, and lyricist Tim Rice wrote lyrics for it. Many of the songs are based on the ballet's dances. Others are based on Tchaikovsky's other compositions, such as his Symphony No. 5.

Release

The film was first screened at the European Film Market on 5 February 2009. It was released in Hungary on 8 December 2012 and United Kingdom on 28 December 2012.

Box office

The film brought in a total of $16,178,959 worldwide, making it a box office bomb with a loss of $73,821,041.

Critical reaction

Upon its release in North America, the film was widely panned by critics. It managed a 0% "rotten", or 2.8/10 rating, on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 critics' reviews. The site's consensus was: "Misguided, misconceived, and misbegotten on every level, The Nutcracker in 3D is a stunning exercise in astonishing cinematic wrong-headedness." It achieved a score of 18/100 "overwhelming dislike" on fellow aggregate Metacritic. Metacritic would later rank it the "Worst Limited Release" film of 2010. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it one out of four stars and asked, "From what dark night of the soul emerged the wretched idea for The Nutcracker in 3D?" Ebert went on to claim it as "One of those rare holiday movies that may send children screaming under their seats."

Claudia Puig of USA Today accused the film of being "contrived, convoluted, amateurish and tedious," and panned it for lacking any trace of ballet, unlike several previous versions of The Nutcracker. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it its only positive review from a professional film critic, awarding it a B+ and remarking "Attention, university film clubs: Here's your cult-ready midnight-movie programming."