Content Warning: Some spoilers for the 1990 film “The Nutcracker Prince,” as well as discussion about some of the weird things that have come out of “The Nutcracker” world.

The other day, I watched the 1990 movie “The Nutcracker Prince” to see how it’s held up over the last 35 years. I have a soft spot for all traditionally animated movies, and as I think the art form has become increasingly rare, movies that feature traditional animation should be appreciated and preserved.

While I’m far from the first person to hold a nostalgic view towards a random movie from my childhood, I think this movie deserves a second look for the story that it tried to bring to life. There are many iterations of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” and the resulting ballet “The Nutcracker,” and while I don’t have a specific favorite, the 1990 movie does have a special place in my heart.

The movie stars young Clara (voiced by Megan Follows of “Anne of Green Gables” fame) as she attends her family’s annual Christmas party. Clara is entering that awkward time in her life when she’s beginning to outgrow her younger brother Fritz and his childish games, but isn’t quite ready to leave her childhood behind.

While at the party, Uncle Drosselmeyer gifts Clara the nutcracker (which her turd brother breaks) and tells her the story of how his nephew, Hans, was turned into the Nutcracker. During this portion of the movie, the animation style shifts, making the characters look more comical and less realistic. Drosselmeyer tells Clara the story of Princess Pirlipat, the Mouse King, and the origin of the Nutcracker, based on the original short story by Hoffmann. This section of the movie goes on for quite a while, but since it explains the origin of the Nutcracker, I thought it was a nice addition. 

After learning of the origin of the Nutcracker, Clara more or less professes her love to the Nutcracker and proceeds to dance with it. Clara’s love or Drosselmeyer’s magic or whatever causes the Nutcracker (and some of Clara’s other dolls and toys) to come to life, where they have a dramatic and kind of stupid battle with the Mouse King. The Nutcracker Prince in his enchanted doll form is a total cutie pie (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, of all people), and he bravely engages in armed combat with the Mouse King’s forces. For those curious weirdos out there, the Mouse King is not portrayed as a Rat King, though some book/stage productions do go this route, and I think it’s awesome. Anyway, Clara chucks her slipper at the Mouse King, causing him to lose the battle but earning her a top spot on the Mouse King’s Shit List.

More stuff happens, the Mouse King is mortally wounded, and Clara and all the dolls have to travel to the Land of Dolls to repair one of their own. This is the part of the movie I remember most vividly – when the Nutcracker Prince and Clara board a magical flying swan and Clara is given a grand welcome in this glittering castle. What I remember most about this scene is that it captured the intense romantic feeling of listening to “The Nutcracker: Pas De deux” for the first time. Even though this movie was not received well critically, I think critics were a little unfair in their inability to recognize the bittersweet beauty of this scene.

Bittersweet, because although Clara has fallen in love with the Nutcracker Prince, and he wants her to stay with him and rule as his Princess, she rejects him. In a move that cements Clara as a pretty awesome heroine, she tells the Nutcracker Prince that she’s only like, 12 years old, and needs to grow up, experience her own life, and follow her dreams (and before anyone freaks out at Clara’s age, the Nutcracker Prince is also young, so we don’t need to alert Chris Hansen or anything).

Unfortunately, Clara’s rejection of the Nutcracker Prince (and her desire to embrace growing up) causes the magic to fade, and in a dramatic sequence, the enchanted dolls revert to their lifeless forms.  To describe the emotional damage this scene did to my young self, imagine something between Kiki losing the ability to speak to her beloved cat Jiji and the melodramatic scene in the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” when all the cursed servants complete their transformation into household objects. But as sad as the scene is, it shows a lot of strength in Clara that she’s able to resist this beautiful fantasy so that she can pursue her dreams in the real world.

In the penultimate scene, Clara is forced to contend against the Mouse King by herself. Although he’s mortally wounded, she’s now the size of a doll and also not carrying around a massive sword, so he tries to get back at her, only to fall to his death at the last minute. The Nutcracker Prince is powerless to help Clara as she battles the Mouse King alone, and it’s devastating. She’s fine, because this is an animated family movie, and not an edgy horror, but still.

At the end of the movie, Clara wakes up from what everyone thinks is a dream and races to Uncle Drosselmeyer’s shop. Then, as she confronts her uncle, demanding to know what happened to the Nutcracker Prince, he stops her and happily introduces her to his nephew, Hans. Hans is revealed to be the Nutcracker in his human form, as Clara’s killing of the Mouse King broke his spell.

(You could technically make the argument that Clara didn’t kill the Mouse King so much as avoid being killed by him, but given her young age and fragile, bird-like physique compared to the Mouse King’s disgusting, Don-Bluth-esque exterior, I think Clara’s earned the W).

The assumption is that, going forward, Clara and “Hans” will have a normal-ish relationship, and a small part of me wishes there were some kind of continuation of the story. Although I think the not-knowing is what makes it special.

If I were to hazard a guess at why this movie was panned by critics, I think there were a few reasons. “The Nutcracker’s Prince’s” storyline feels similar to Don Bluth’s “Thumbelina,” which was less a complete narrative and more like a sequence of random events. It wasn’t entirely clear to me how the Mouse King and his army infiltrated Clara’s house beyond “magic,” but in all fairness, it’s not the ballet that makes a ton of sense either. There was clearly some effort to bring the story full circle with Clara’s final confrontation with the Mouse King. 

The animated film utilizes Tchaikovsky’s score throughout (which, considering it was in the public domain by the time the movie was made, was probably a clever way to also save on music costs), so it still feels grounded in the world of “The Nutcracker.” However, it could also be argued that at times the soundtrack jumps into a scene rather than flows with it, as if the music director were trying to find places where the score could go when the characters weren’t speaking. The result is slightly disjointed, and a reminder that seeing “The Nutcracker” live with an orchestra is still the best way to go.

If I were to guess another reason this movie is mostly forgotten, it would probably be that the director, Paul Schibli, doesn’t seem to have been involved in any other major productions, aside from a few TV shows (though he still has an artist website in case you’re interested). Apparently, the movie was originally going to be R-rated before being re-imagined as a family-friendly film, and executive meddling rarely leads to strong writing. It makes me extremely curious about the R-rated version of this movie, and I can only imagine it’s extremely violent.

There have been more “adult” reimaginings of the Nutcracker in the past, like the sexually-explicit “A Court of Sugar and Spice,” which barely manages to toe the line between fun and revolting. I don’t think the world is missing out on an adult animation version of “The Nutcracker,” so I think I’m in favor of the executive meddling.

Overall, when I rewatched this movie the other night (thanks to the Internet Archive), I had a good-enough time that I was willing to write about why it deserves a spot in your Christmas rotation. I watched this movie with a few friends who also remembered it from their childhood, and we had a really good time together.

Then, right after, we watched “Gremlins” and collectively agreed it was better. Sorry, Nutcracker Prince.