It won’t be available to watch in its entirety until next Christmas, but for now, Disney has delivered a sweet morsel of a trailer for ‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’, based on the yuletide traditional ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which was itself based on a story written by E.T.A. Hoffmann, ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’. The film adaptation is directed by Lasse Hallström (‘Cider House Rules’, ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’) with Joe Johnston, who helmed reshoots, based on the script by Ashleigh Powell. Mackenzie Foy stars as the lead character Clara, heading up an all-star cast that includes Keira Knightley (the Sugar Plum Fairy), Morgan Freeman (Drosselmeyer) and Helen Mirren (Mother Ginger). The cast also includes Ellie Bamber, Richard E. Grant, Miranda Hart, Matthew Macfadyen, Sergei Polunin and Jack Whitehall with a special ballet performance by Misty Copeland. While most people are familiar with ‘The Nutcracker’ as a ballet, there will only be one dance performance in the film version.
The story follows Clara (Foy) whose only wish is to get hold of a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift from her late mother. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Freeman) annual holiday party leads her to the coveted key — which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. There, Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.
Check out the colorful trailer for yourself below:
‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’ opens next year, on November 2, the original release date for the live action adaptation of ‘Mulan’ which has unfortunately encountered trouble getting made.
Are you ready to add this to your holiday traditions?
Source: Deadline
