Movie Criticism: "The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms & # 39; goes back to the darker roots of classical history

"THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS" – 2½ stars – Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Freeman Morgan, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren; PG (a little danger); in general version

The nutcracker and the four kingdoms of Disney is not your father's nutcracker, but it may be your great-great-grandfather.

The term "Nutcracker" inevitably evokes memories of Tchaikovsky tinged with Christmas and, at first glance, the film by Lbade Hallstrom and Joe Johnston seems to be a sequel or a liberal riff of this familiar tale. But it seems that the true intention of the directors was to return to the darker source of E.T.A. The original story of Hoffmann that inspired the clbadical ballet of the nineteenth century.

The result could be a little shocking for an unsuspecting audience.

Like ballet, "Four Realms" follows the adventures of a girl who goes through an imaginary world by a cold Christmas Eve. Clara Stahlbaum (Mackenzie Foy), a teenager, and her family mourn the recent death of her mother. His father, Mr. Stahlbaum (Matthew Macfadyen), tries to preserve the Christmas spirit, but Clara, her older sister Louise (Ellie Bamber) and her younger brother Fritz (Tom Sweet) are slow to get on Santa's sleigh.

Just before going to a family party on Christmas Eve, Mr. Stahlbaum offers each of his children a gift left to them by their mother. Louise gets her mother's favorite dress, Fritz, a set of wooden soldiers and Clara, a mysterious silver egg that requires a special key to open it.

(Do not worry, the nutcracker continues to arrive.)

Unfortunately, the key missing, so when the family goes to the party of their godfather Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman), Clara asks for help. In this version of the story, Clara and her mother are both inventors – very mechanically bent – and Drosselmeyer is a close-wit.

Abandoning the group in search of the key, Clara travels to a dazzling imaginary country where she meets a Nutcracker named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), meets a terrifying creature called the King of the mice and learns that he's the only one. Before his death, his mother was considered a queen.

This new world is divided into four kingdoms and Clara learns that three of them – the lands of candies, snowflakes and flowers – are at war with the fourth, which was previously called the Earth of Entertainment until what her leader, Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), tried to overthrow the others. It's also the Ginger mother who has Clara's key, who apparently opens more than her mother's old egg.

The following adventure evokes familiar elements of ballet and periodically refers to Tchaikovsky's musical cues when she interacts with characters such as Sugar Plum (Keira Knightley), Shiver (Richard E. Grant), and Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbez). respective regents three kingdoms. There is a little more history to work on – and a twist or two – but the whole thing still seems a little thin.

There is also an attempt to diversify the distribution and use the theme of women's empowerment, but Hallstrom and Johnston seem more interested in the "Four Realms" show, which is resolutely on the visual side of Tim Burton. The scary mouse king – a creature essentially made up of hundreds of CGI mice that tweak – gives the kickoff, but there's a lot of macabre eccentricity to follow, like a group of clowns that interact as a set of stackable Russian dolls.

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While "Four Realms" retains its PG rating, the audience might be surprised at the panic and the more familiar Christmas joy. It is not enough to completely deter families from taking their children with children, but for those who want a widescreen equivalent of the traditional "nutcracker" experience, "The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms" could to be a surreal disappointment.

Explained note: "Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms" gets its PG rating of some unexpected frights and some brief profanations; duration: 99 minutes.