The Nutcracker Memories

Since it's Christmas, I decided to take a little break from my Nightmare On Friday the 13th reviews and instead, tell you about one of my favorite Christmas fairy tales of all time, The Nutcracker.
I don't know what's so intriguing about it because of how simple the story is but it's filled with such magic, romance, and adventure that I couldn't resist loving it. And as a kid I was a sucker for those types of stories.
There have been many adaptions from what I remember. Hmm.....there was a animated film in 1990.

Which surprisingly starred Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer) as the voice of titled character. It wasn't particularly well-known until I seen it on the Disney channel a long time ago. I pretty much enjoyed this, it definitely had much more adventure than the source material and I guess the reason for it's obscurity because some people seemed to think this as a commercialized Disney knock-off, but I think it should've have deserved a bit of a cult classic status.

There was also a 1993 ballet production having Macaulay Culkin as the starring role, which was later made into a film. Even though it's not the most highly remembered or highly regarded by most, This was the I definitely remembered when I was about wee five years old. I was a big Macaulay Culkin fan and so my Dad got me most of his movies. Somehow he looked upon George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, along with the movie storybook. I was....Entranced. The sets were so beautiful and elaborate, the contrast between stage and film blended so perfectly, the ballet were so flawlessly choreographed. It was like watching a live-action fairy tale. Again, it's not the most well-known of the Nutcracker but I think it was a magical experience to watch as a kid.

Then it was introduced as Barbie's first movie and since it was, of course, Barbie's first movie, I gave it a watch.

Most notably, The Rat King was voiced by Tim Curry, whom was a childhood favorite of mine (even though, he scared the hell out of me in the movie IT).

It's probably not one of the best adaptions but a pretty enjoyable watch. It still has the same feel as the original story, including a ballet dance between Barbie and Ken.

But unfortunately, this will lead me to the universally hated The Nutcracker in 3D. Well, I haven't exactly seen this version though from what I heard it has nothing to do with the source material. So my thoughts on seeing this movie will and forever be scrapped.

But the most memorable of all of the adaptions is and will always be the ballet productions. And shall I present you my most favorite songs and scenes:

So there are my fond childhood Christmas memoires of The Nutcracker. From way back when and even til this day, I think it's a holiday classic that will forever be treasured.