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.

Walt Disney Studios has released the final trailer for directors Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston‘s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. The film is a CGI re-imagining of the classic E.T.A. Hoffmann fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and the Tchaikovsky ballet based on it.

In it, Clara (Mackenzie Foy) journeys into a parallel world of snowflakes, flowers, sweets, and the Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren). Clara is the key to bringing forth peace within these four realms. Also starring is Keira Knightley, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, and Morgan Freeman. Check out the final trailer for the film below.

You know it’s Christmas when you start to hear that all-too-familiar Nutcracker theme. And since it’s never too early for Christmas, Disney is giving us a peek at what’s under their tree in the form of a brand new trailer for The Nutcracker and The Four Realms. The film is a big-budget retelling of the classic tale of a girl who stumbles upon a magical world of sugar plum fairies, toy soldiers, mice, and fantasy. What sort of adventure waits for Clara (Mackenzie Foy) when she enters this world and can she save it from the evil Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren)? Let’s unlock the key and see.

Check out the latest trailer as well as the new poster and images here below.

The first trailer for director Paul W.S. Anderson‘s new action movie, The Three Musketeers, has been released online.

The movie certainly looks interesting — perhaps even a little too action-packed — as you might expect from an Anderson flick. You can see for yourself by checking out the trailer below; share your thoughts in the comments!

Robin Hood
DVD | Blu-ray
DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott
STARRING: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Scott Grimes, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow, Kevin Durand, Mark Strong, Alan Doyle, Danny Huston, Mark Addy, Matthew MacFadyen
Universal Pictures
RELEASE DATE: September 21, 2010

Ever since the very first news that famed director Ridley Scott would be making a realistic and historically accurate new take on the fabled tale of Robin of Loxsley, I’ve been about as excited as you can be. Hearing that a story that I and many, many others have grown up knowing being recreated in the same vein as Scott’s Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven is beautiful music to the ears of those with a love for epic period pieces, and Robin Hood just couldn’t come quickly enough for me.

Instead of using the traditional story — focusing on Robin and his Merry Men feuding with the interim king and the Sheriff of Nottingham as they steal from the wealthy and help the less fortunate — the filmmakers decided to go in a different path. This movie is about Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe), an archer in Richard the the Lionheart’s (Danny Huston) army in the year 1199. While off fighting the French, things take a turn for the worst and Robin and three of his fellow soldiers, Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes), Little John (Kevin Durand), and Alan A’Dale (Alan Doyle, in the musician’s film debut), decide to get out while they still can.