The Nutcracker Prince Totally Explained

Everything about The Nutcracker Prince totally explained

The Nutcracker Prince is a 1990 animated film made by Lacewood Productions and released by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. The film was directed by Paul Schibli and based on the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann and influenced by its ballet adaptation The Nutcracker. The film features the voice talents of Megan Follows as Clara, Kiefer Sutherland as The Nutcracker and Peter Boretski as Uncle Drosselmeier. Music from Tchaikovsky's ballet rendition is used at throughout the film as the main instrumental soundtrack.

Plot

Clara's family are celebrating the night before Christmas Eve. Clara is jealous because her sister, Louise has a boyfriend and Clara feels slightly blue until the eccentric Uncle Drosselmeier arrives at their home with special gifts: a fully-automated toy castle for everyone, and a Nutcracker for Clara. Upon giving her the Nutcracker, Drosselmeier tells her a story on how the Nutcracker came to become the Prince of the Dolls.

The Story of the Nutcracker

In a faraway kingdom, there was a King and Queen, who had a beautiful daughter Princess Perlipat. To celebrate the King's birthday, the Queen ordered a special cake made out of blue cheese, the King's favorite. Before the cake was to be presented to the King, the scent of the blue cheese drew out out all the mice, who ate it. The King was enraged and ordered that all the mice be killed including the mouse queen. To fulfill this order he commanded his inventor, whose named also happened to be Drosselmeier, to capture all the mice. Drosselmeier and his nephew Hans were successful in capturing all the mice except the Mouse Queen and her son.
In revenge, the Mouse Queen cast a spell on Perlipat, causing her to become hideously ugly. Drosselmeier was once again given the task of figuring out how to cure her. Drosselmeier eventually discovers that the fabled Krakatooth Nut can cure her, on the condition that it's cracked open in the teeth of a young man who isn't wearing boots. The King commands all the princes and noblemen to apply, on promise of the reward of being able to marry Perlipat once she's cured. However, the Krakatooth is so hard that all the men's teeth shatter upon trying to crack it.
Drosselmeier is about to be punished for being unable cure Perlipat when Hans steps in. He manages to crack the nut open between his teeth and gives it to Perlipat. The Mouse Queen, who is angered by this because she was watching, casts a spell on Hans, turning him into the Prince of the Dolls. Hans collapses and transforms into a Nutcracker. During the ruckus, the Mouse Queen is crushed by a statue, leaving her son to become the Mouse King. Drosselmeier is exiled from the kingdom for trying to pass a "Nutcracker as a son-in-law", while the King and Queen celebrate with their cured daughter.

Revenge of the Mouse King

Clara is upset by the story for its unhappy ending, but is consoled when Drosselmeier tells her that the spell can be broken. That night, when everyone has gone to sleep, Clara ventures into the sitting room to dance with her Nutcracker. Suddenly the Mouse King arrives, intent on getting his revenge on the Nutcracker. The Nutcracker comes to life, as do all the dolls in the room, and a battle ensues between the Mouse King's army and the dolls. Clara herself is shrunken into doll size by magic and joins the fight. The Mouse King is supposedly defeated when he falls from the Christmas tree from being stabbed in the chest. The toys have to return to the Land of the Dolls to revive Pantaloon, one of the Nutcracker's generals, who has been injured in the fight.

Land of the Dolls

Clara follows them to the castle after she's a spell for her to shrink to the Doll's size. As they go through the castle to the beautiful garden, they're taken to the enchanted Land of the Dolls by traveling on Swans with Necklaces, Marie (the pretty doll) is too late to catch up but travels on an alarmed duck. once they're there the Nutcracker asks her to stay with him. Clara heavy-heartedly refuses, saying that she's to return home and grow up and stay with her family and she wouldn't survive eating cake and sweets all the time. As the dolls start to turn back into inanimate toys who are shocked by Clara's decision, a dying Mouse King arrives for one last chance at revenge. Clara throws cakes and pies at him but this doesn't work; however, she manages to keep him at bay, and as he swings his sword, Clara dodges it and he eventually falls off the Toy Castle to the river below (all you see is his crown sink) Clara notices mist around the hall and she cries for the Nutcracker.

Home again

Clara awakes back home, and there's no sign of the events that she's experienced (except the family discovered a dead mouse near the castle). She rushes to Uncle Drosselmeier's workshop and begs him to tell her whether the fairytale he'd told her is true. Clara is suddenly silenced when a young boy enters the room, carrying a clock. Drosselmeier introduces the boy as Hans, his nephew and Clara is happy to see the Nutcracker back to his normal self.

Voice Cast

Megan Follows as Clara
Kiefer Sutherland as The Nutcracker Prince
Mike MacDonald as The Mouseking
Peter O'Toole as Pantaloon
Phyllis Diller as The Mousequeen
Peter Boretski as Uncle Drosselmeier
Lynne Gorman as Trudy
George Merner as Dr. Stahlbaum
Stephanie Morgenstern as Louise
Christopher Owens as Erik
Mona Waserman as Princess Perlipat
Noam Zylberman as Fritz

Goofs

A rather common feature of foreign versions of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King story is that the names of the main protagonist is switched with her doll's. In the original story, Clara is actually named Marie, while the doll's name is Clara (or rather its diminuitive form "Klärchen").

During the battle scene, when the Mouse King is about to attack The Nutcracker Prince with a candle, Clara throws one of her slippers at him, causing the candle to set fire to his cape and tail. Later, when she accidentally trips backwards into the clock, she's seen wearing both slippers.

DVD release

The film has been released on DVD a few times. It was initially released by Hollywood DVD on October 14, 2001. A Region 1 DVD was released by Good Times Video on November 9, 2004. On April 2, 2007, it was re-released by Boulevard Entertainment. Both releases have no extras besides animated menus and a theatrical trailer.

Further Information

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