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.

Recently we saw some images from Disney’s upcoming adaptation of author E.T.A. Hoffmann‘s 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

The movie stars Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Jayden Fowora-Knight, and Misty Copeland, and is directed by Lasse Hallström (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House Rules).

Now a teaser trailer has been released for The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. You can check it out below, along with a synopsis and a recently released motion poster.