Top 3 Reasons to See The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

I grew up watching a VHS recording of The Nutcracker ballet every Christmas. It was a fantastic production, wondrous and magical. I've loved the story (and the music) ever since and for a while wanted to write a retelling of it. Then I my critique partners and I decided to do anthology of retellings, and I decided to do on of E.T.A Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which inspired the ballet. It was so much fun to write! So much so I ended up with two versions. :) And then it was so much fun to go see a very different retelling in Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. I very much enjoyed the movie, and here are three reasons why you should go see it if you haven't already.

1. A cute, clean story

It was a good story, sad in places for sure, but sweet and clean in a time when many stories aren't. I liked the adventure and the beautiful Victorian setting at the beginning and Clara and Philip (the Nutcracker) were very likable.

2. Amazing music and they sneaked in some ballet

The music, of course, was Tchailkovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. How could you not like it? And they managed to sneak in a bit of ballet as entertainment for Clara in the fantastic world she finds. A little culture for movie goers. :)

3. Familiar faces

I not only enjoyed picking out characters from the The Nutcracker story (and smiling at the fact they gave the nutcracker character the name Hoffman, after the author) but also seeing familiar actors--Keira Knightly as the Sugar Plum Queen and Matthew Macfayden (Little Dorrit and Pride and Prejudice) and Morgan Freeman as Drosselmeier.

All in all, it was a great movie, enjoyable even for the friend who went me who didn't know a thing about The Nutcracker ballet or original story.

Have you seen the movie? If so, did you enjoy it?