From Japan, NUTCRACKER FANTASY is a 1979 stop motion epic in the mold of the classic Rankin-Bass Christmas specials—which included SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN (1970), upon which NUTCRACKER FANTASY’s director Takeo Nakamura worked as an animator. The major difference between them and NUTCRACKER FANTASY (KURUMI-WARI NINGYOU) is that the latter film is deeply, thoroughly and profoundly weird. It’s loosely based on the 1816 story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann and the m1892 ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (electronically reworked snatches from which are played on the soundtrack), although the Christmas setting so integral to both has been largely, though not entirely, expunged.
NUTCRACKER FANTASY was a production of Japan’s Sanrio Communications (of HELLO KITTY), and its first-ever stop motion effort. The film’s most widely known version is the English dubbed one, with a vocal cast that includes Melissa Gilbert, Christopher Lee and Dick van Patten.
NUTCRACKER FANTASY was a production of Japan’s Sanrio Communications (of HELLO KITTY)…
In this film the young Clara’s creepy uncle gives her a nutcracker doll that’s carried off by mice. She rescues it, only to be confronted by a two headed mouse queen that, along with the mice, is fought off by the nutcracker—all of which is revealed to have been a dream. The dream motif recurs in what follows, as Clara (now apparently awake) enters a clock that leads into an opulent palace where she meets King Goodwin, whose daughter is rendered comatose by a malignant spell cast by the mouse queen. An attempt at fighting off the queen’s minions by an army of toy soldiers fails to deter them, although it does succeed in freeing the princess from the spell.
This, however, is at the cost of her husband-to-be Franz, who gets transformed into Clara’s nutcracker doll. Clara approaches the magical Time-Keeper, who informs her that saving Franz from the curse can only happen with the aid of True Love, which Clara will have to prove in a spectral “Palace of Happiness” via an act of sacrifice.
All of this is visualized in elaborate but underwhelming stop motion animation that fails to approach, much less capture, the glories of Rankin & Bass. Clara is rendered as a rather creepy-looking doll figure with impossibly blue eyes, and Franz as a prince who looks girlier than she.
Clara is rendered as a rather creepy-looking doll figure with impossibly blue eyes, and Franz as a prince who looks girlier than she.
Another noteworthy aspect is a soundtrack that, even in the restored version currently streaming on YouTube, is riddled with distracting pops and scratches. The narration by Michele Lee, voicing an allegedly grown-up Clara, is superfluous (upon seeing the heroine enter a strange room we’re informed that “I found myself in a very strange room”), and the frequent musical interludes (a seventies kid movie convention) are a further annoyance.
The narration by Michele Lee, voicing an allegedly grown-up Clara, is superfluous…
Yet there are some striking visual flourishes—such as the foreground glare a stop-motion candle makes and a lovely poetic dance sequence in which the dancers transform into animated butterflies—that demonstrate an artistic sensibility. At its best the film is genuinely artistic, even if ultimately, as a lyric from one of the songs states, “Confusion is in command.”
Vital Statistics
NUTCRACKER FANTASY (KURUMI-WARI NINGYOU)
Sanrio Communications
Director: Takeo Nakamura
Producers: Walt deFaria, Mark L. Rosen, Arthur Tomioka
Screenplay: Thomas Joachim, Eugene Fournier
(Based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann)
Cinematography: Fumio Otani, Aguri Sugita, Ryoji Takamori
Editing: Takeo Nakamura, Nobuo Ogawa, Jack Woods
Cast: Michele Lee, Melissa Gilbert, Lurene Tuttle, Christopher Lee, Jo Anne Worley, Ken Sansom, Dick van Patten, Roddy McDowell, Mitchel Gardner, Jack Angel, Gene Moss, Eva Gabor, Robin Haffner