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By Black River Santa
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was born on this day in 1840, in Votkinsk, in the Russian Empire. Though he never played Santa Claus, the score he wrote for the two-act ballet, “The Nutcracker,” adapted from E.T.A. Hoffman’s story, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," is part of our collective Christmas soundtrack, and attending a stage performance is an annual family tradition for many during the holiday season. I know this has to be a @Drosselmeyer favorite!
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By Drosselmeyer
Ok
so - took my wife on a double date with our son and his girlfriend to see Nutcracker and the 4 Realms this evening. Since the movie has been discussed in anticipation, now it is time to share thoughts about the movie now that I have seen it.....
Earlier today I was expecting to write about the Lone Ranger movie - as an old school Lone Ranger purist the new movie was a poor representation of the original characters - at best it was a gross retelling of the story that in no way represented the intent of the original TV series. This is what I expected from Nutcracker....that was the comparison I expected to make.....
but I was wrong. The movie was not based on the storyline of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - but another story using some of the characters called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. I won't say too much about the plot for those that want to see the movie - but it is a different story all together - somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and Narnia. Clara is an intelligent young girl whose mother has passed and left her a puzzle box gift. Her Uncle Drosselmeyer knows she has to journey to the land of the realms to restore the balance her mother had there when she was queen. Aside from the names of the characters and the fact that the story happens at Christmas - there is nothing much else it has in common with the Nutcracker ballet. Even the Nutcracker music is more for ambiance than part of the storyline (the ballet shows up in the story to tell the narrative of Clara's mother). (by the way - some of the stuff in the trailers is not even in the movie...)
Part way into the movie my wife and I looked at each other and predicted who the true villains and heroes of the story were - it wasn't that deep. It was a lot of CGI and a pure steampunk fantasy. But we had a nice evening out. Time well spent with family. Don't expect a big Hallmark Christmas movie. Don't expect the Nutcracker ballet. It's just another Disney fantasy movie....
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By Drosselmeyer
I had seen this discussion in the sidebar previously....
I did not see it in the theatre - but I did pick up a copy and I have to say I was impressed.
I would agree that the title is a little pompous - Charles did not invent Christmas - to me the movie played not as a documentary but more as a historical fiction - a story build around what we know of his life and the history of the time - no one can know what was in his head, but the movie did a great job of capturing his imagination - his characters were real to him - he spoke with them - and they "haunted" him....
I think the idea of "inventing" was more to the place where his publishers commented that Christmas was passe - not all that much more than an "excuse to pick a mans pocket every 25th of December" - Charles used the story and his characters to compel an understanding of the dreadful price of greed and the richness vs. being loving and giving. (note the historical reference in the end that due to his book charitable giving exploded) With this story Charles created a fresh inspiration to what had for many become a mundane holiday....
Most interesting to me was that Charles identified primarily with Scrooge - Scrooge was his own personal demon that he could not reconcile - it was not until he recognized that he could change that he was able to let Scrooge change and be redeemed.
Perhaps a little heavy and slow at times - but overall I really enjoyed the movie - at the end it conveyed not much more than the same moral lesson than "A Christmas Carol" - but it does so through the story of the life of Dickens - not Scrooge....
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