The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Director: Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston
Writers: Ashleigh Powell, Tom McCarthy
Cast: Mackenzie Foy, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Keira Knightley, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman
Studio: Walt Disney Studios
Rated PG | 99 Minutes
Release Date: November 2, 2018

The story of the Nutcracker may be a celebrated piece of a holiday tradition, but it is one that remains unknown to me. I only know it from the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers,” the ballerina dancing, nutcracker soldiers, and a mouse king. However, plot-wise and its storied history is something that I am very unfamiliar with. So rather than have a very conventional adaptation of the short story and dance production, Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston took a very different approach to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Disney’s take on the classic Christmas story.

They managed to modernize the classic Christmas story by embedding female empowerment and diversity into the story. While changing things to be more of a reflection of the current times isn’t anything new nowadays, we have to consider the storied history behind something like The Nutcracker, where there weren’t ballerina sequences or roles for ballerina dancers like Misty Copeland. Now we can see a film with a more diverse cast that will hopefully pave the way for more stories to be told like this. Check out my full review below.

In what was one of the most anticipated appearances of the night, legendary metal giants Metallica took the stage on Sunday night at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards to perform their song “One,” accompanied by renowned Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang, and audiences were not disappointed.

Video of the explosive performance is now online – watch it there below.

Metallica, whose Through The Never film soundtrack was nominated this year for a Grammy for Best Recording Package, was the first hard rock band to perform at the Grammy Awards back in 1989, where they were nominated for the then-new category Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for the album …And Justice For All. They performed “One” at the ceremony, but in one of the most memorable and controversial moments in Grammy Awards history, they lost to classic rockers Jethro Tull. Sunday’s performance was the band’s first time back on the Grammy stage since 1992.

Metallica was in rehearsals this week preparing for this Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony where the heavy metal giants will perform their song “One” along with Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang.

Updates about the rehearsals along with accompanying photos of the seemingly mismatched musicians have been posted to Metallica’s social media accounts, with Lang posting to his Twitter on January 23, 2014 that he was in “epic rehearsal with the Metallica guys.”

Here below you can check out some photos of the rehearsal, which were posted to Metallica’s Facebook page.