The Nutcracker: The Untold Story

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Magandang pelikula!

Magandang pelikula!

Magandang pelikula!

My kids and I absolutely love this movie. We can't stop watching it. I am a huge fan of the ballet but this movie tells the story in such a way that I never imagined. The singing is my favorite part. And the acting is wonderful. Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning are brilliant. The first time I watched it I wasn't quite sure if I like it. Then, I watched it with my 6 and 8 year old children and we all agreed, Wow! That was awesome! And Charlie Rowe as the Prince was just adorable. When he was the Nutcracker he had this strange little voice, almost eerie. The costumes and makeup were fabulous. The Rat King and his mother and all the Rat soldiers were very lifelike! Give it a chance. I am so glad I did!

I saw this movie with my wife and daughter (7) in America recently, we are from Ireland. We were excited to go and see it as it is the only story written in which my daughter name is used. Unfortunately we were very disappointed when we realized the main characters name was changed to Mary. In the original story and ballet the little girl's name is 'Clara', in future productions please pay attention to the small details. As for the movie it was entertaining the story follows the ballet version to a point but is let down by the lack of music. The main focus seemed to be placed on the special effects in which the Nut Cracker and Clara are transported to the princes world, The Rat King played by John Turturro was well done he is a very fine actor. The make-up on the rats and the rat king was more akin to 'The Grinch' movie starring Jim Carrey than something more original. What was good was the color used, the sets and the overall production it had the Christmas feel to some degree. The movie unfortunately is let down by the lack of music, the acting and particularly the connection between Clara and the Nut Cracker. Overall this movie is not great.

Okay, I'm all for taking a classic tale and retelling it. It has been done extremely well (e.g O Brother Where Art Thou) and Disney has made millions on taking classic tales and giving them a different spin. Then you have the Nutcracker in 3D. I'm not sure where this idea came from. The original story seems to be glossed over completely. Yes, there is a Nutcracker in the story but he isn't really much of a hero. It's not that this idea couldn't have been done will but it gets bogged down with some much uselessness. First, Albert Einstein is in this movie. Yeah, that makes sense! Kids love German-born theoretical physicists! Then, we get the beautiful Nutcracker music that is given extremely awful lyrics. Add some racist caricatures, a heavyset character that is only there for fat shaming, Nazi rats (not joking) and loads of plot points that go nowhere. Now this is suppose to be a kids movie right? Well I don't know about you but I wouldn't show this too kids. In fact, I wouldn't show this too anyone. It's way to dark and terrifying for kids to enjoy while it also too nonsensical and pointless for adults. Maybe if they had tried to do an original story inside of tacking on the Nutcracker characters, it could have been somewhat decent. So in short, skip this CGI, surrealist nightmare.

I don't usually do this. I don't really care enough to post on here, but for this travesty of a movie I had to register. This film has: horrible acting, horrible plot, horrible script, rotten to the bone. I have no idea for whom this movie was made, in appropriate for children boring and immature for adults. The only saving grace is that they spent 90 million on it and only got back a few grand. Anyone associated with this piece of crap should be ashamed of themselves. PS: I'm willing to bet money that anyone giving this a positive review is either associated with the film and has no soul, or has recently been the victim of a horrible TBI.

To me, this movie is by far one of the greatest movies I have had the privilege of watching. For years I would have memories of this movie from when I was younger; NC, the tree, the rat king, the wagon scene at the end, and especially the prince. Many times a year I would try my hardest to find this movie that kept filling my mind and would always fail. Well, today I have finally found it. True, I had to pay $2.00 on YouTube to watch it because I couldn't find it anywhere else, but it was completely worth it. I adored Uncle Albert's scenes when he breaks the 4th wall. I think it brought a sense of enlightenment and amusement to the movie. The prince was absolutely adorable and Elle Fanning and Charlie Rowe are phenomenal actors. Their characters were so believable and raw.They really made them come to life. The rat faces were done very well and the Nutcracker looked completely believable to me. Even the songs were cute. It may just be personal preference, but I found this to be a great family movie and hands down an amazing piece of work. The reason behind all the bad reviews, I don't know. Maybe it's because of the "Nazi Rats" or maybe people are just rude. Who knows? But give this movie a chance, it might surprise you.

Make no bones about it, this movie sucks. It does have some meriting factors--interesting set design and production. And that's pretty much it! Writing, directing and acting: ham-fisted at best. The songs are TERRIBLE, the film's themes are all over the place and forget about any sense of continuity. Inexplicably, the main character's uncle is Albert Einstein who deigns it necessary to sing a dreary diddy about relativity and the rats are Nazis because... who knows?! The biggest disappointment: the stupid looking Nutcracker (who goes by NC!) that looks like an unimaginative Pinocchio. Glad to see this film bombed at the box office, hard.