The Nutcracker and The Four Realms (Dir Lasse Hallström & Joe Johnston, 1h 39m)

Perhaps the most notable thing about this richly Christmassy Disney re imagining of the classic Tchaikovsky ballet, The Nutcracker, itself based on the classic ETA Hoffman short story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, is that it's actually, despite its rather strange mix of PG13 children's fantasy, Disney whimsy and, uh, ballet, together with well-known production issues, a rather good film. Re imaging the struggle of the ballet and the novel as a power struggle between four countries, into which Clara (Mackenzie Foy), , the free-spirited but grieving daughter of the previous monarch of this fantasy realm, steps, it's a lively, visually stunning retelling, with enough changes from the original source material to keep it fresh, and more Christmas cheer than you can shake a candycane at.

The Nutcracker, entwined as it is with Christmas-one only has to hear the opening celestia notes of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (in this case, an enjoyably wild, and slightly manic performance that calls to mind the better roles of Helena Bonham Carter, but with more sugar than spice) to instantly feel in a Christmas mood. And rarely has a film exuded the festive season more than this, not only in its framing scenes of the classic Victorian Christmas, complete with frost fair, the sumptuous richness of tree and decoration and colour, in which Clara, her father and her siblings, have to come to terms with the loss of their mother and wife, but throughout the entire film. One, indeed, needs to go back to films that are already classics of the festive period, and this film seems destined to become another.

The sumptuousness of the film does not stop at its mere portrayal of Christmas. With Clara receiving a present of a locked egg, to which she can find no key, and, after meeting with a friend of her mother, Drosselmeyer, (Morgan Freeman, as usual in fine form), finds that his present leads her to another world to find the key to it. The four realms each have their own identity, and, although briefly seen in a whistle-stop tour of the world, once Clara reaches the capital, each is an excellently designed place. from the Narnian Land of Snowflakes, to the faintly, uh, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu-ian Land of Sweets.

In particular, the fourth realm, stripped of its name by the other three,  and which Clara chases a mouse carrying the key she needs into, is an eerie, dark and twisted place, reminicent of a mixture of Tolkien's Mirkwood, and the best work of Stephen King, with a dilapidated and disturbing fairground, ruled over by Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren, whose cracked, doll-like makeup is one of the visual highpoints of the film's character design). With a conflict brewing between her and the other three realms, so Clara must travel into her kingdom, reclaim the key, and bring balance back to the Four realms, with the help of the titular Nutcracker, played by the charismatic and incredibly likable Jayden Fowora-Knight.

If this film, despite its excellent cast, including a barely recognisable Richard E Grant as the lord of the Land of Snowflakes, good set design, and excellent use not only of Tchaikovsky's ballet score, but also an extended, beautifully shot and choreographed ballet scene, filling in the backstory of how Clara's mother came to the other world, has one flaw, it is plot. There's a pair of face-heel turns in the third act that are so telegraphed that one can see them coming from miles off, and even though this gives us some excellent scenes of one of the film's stars merrily chewing scenery for the final half hour, it's a poorly written and awkward reveal, with slightly concerning innuendo involving "men in uniform" for a film aimed squarely at a teen demographic.

Elsewhere, despite the film's excellent framing narrative, Clara's motives seem muddled, and the film's build to a final battle between good and evil begins to make you realise that Disney's live action adaptions of classic novels do rather have a formula. Strip away the Christmas wrapping, and one is left holding an oddly familiar present-it may not have his mall-store-goth hallmarks, nor the collaborators Depp and Bonham Carter, but a tale of a young woman without a parent trying to find her sense of purpose in a largely computer-rendered magical land at war with itself calls to mind Disney's earlier adaption Alice in Wonderland.

Nevertheless, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is certainly a wellmade gift for this time of year, and if one wants to while away a couple of hours getting themselves in the Christmas spirit, it's the perfect start to the season.

Rating: Recommended