Much as I'd like to preemptively declare Sanrio's Nutcracker Fantasy the weirdest film we'll watch for this marathon, I shan't do so. It's far too early for any statement so definitive, particularly when I've watched the trailer to Nutcracker and the Four Realms multiple times over the past week in a vain attempt to understand how and why it happened. This said, today's film does make a fairly convincing case for the title, being a stop-motion animated work that rejiggers pieces of the ETA Hoffman story into a wholly new form inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with animation courtesy of several Rankin/Bass overseas animators. Per imdb's cast and crew page, those who worked on this film weren't CREDITED for much on their American televised work - director and editor Takeo Nakamura only has Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town listed as an animator, while puppet producer Sadao Miyamoto worked on Frosty the Snowman as an uncredited animator, Tadahito Mochinaga served as puppet technician and cinematographer on Mad Monster Party and animation supervisor on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and puppet designer Ichirô Komuro went on to serve as production supervisor on several of the company's 80s productions. Only four major names I can find amongst the credited crew in total, but considering how lax most visual presentations were about giving due credit to everyone who worked on a project beyond department heads (especially where foreign workers were concerned), and considering it shot at Mochinaga's own MOM Production studio same as the Rankin/Bass specials, I have to imagine there was more behind-the-camera experience with the form and style than one can ascertain from the on-screen accreditation.
Without the budgetary and time limitations of producing for an American televised holiday market, and with the eye and money of a booming Sanrio (backed by five years of Hello Kitty sales) on their side, Nakamura and crew show what this style of stop-motion can really do with Nutcracker Fantasy. Sets are substantially larger and more detailed than in the familiar Christmas specials, with the lovingly dressed, two-story foyer of Clara's home and the Mouse Queen's sprawling lair standing out as particularly impressive examples. Large crowds of characters are not only possible at a greater frequency than in Rankin/Bass' productions, they also boast a wide assortment of unique character designs, rarely resorting to mothballed old props or copycat clones. When sets of characters with the same appearance do show up, it's justified by the presence of armies of mice and wind-up soldiers, spiced up by the addition of odd-looking generals, and more than compensated for by staging a lively, multi-plane battle with several layers of action across the horizontal and vertical plane both. The camera's also far more lively than one typically sees with this style, crawling through the dolls and transitioning across interesting composite editing effects. Special effects too benefit from the loftier breathing room, with far more intricate and lively integration of sparkling lights and specialized sets for trick camera moves, well beyond the overlaid gauze and animated snowflakes of Rankin/Bass' work. I have to wonder how much Sanrio's aesthetic needs and demand for quality, or else the animators' decade-long experience with the style influenced the production, for Mad Monster Party was also produced for a theatrical release, and still suffers from the same limitations as its televised counterparts.
As an adaptation of The Nutcracker, Nutcracker Fantasy is actually a pretty fascinating reworking. In as succinct a manner as I can manage: they've taken Godfather Drosselmeyer's story about how the Nutcracker came to be with the Mouse Queen and the cursed princess and the hard-to-crack nut, transplanted it into something inspired by the looks of the Land of Sweets without the candy themeing but with the large assortment of foreign dignitaries, expanded the conflict with an ongoing war reminiscent of the opening movement's mice/toys battle, and presented it all as a maybe dream/maybe reality situation, which nicely encapsulates every important element of Hoffmann's story. It takes far more cues from medieval fantasy and lost girls stories, given how Clara's part for much of the story is to stand on the sidelines listening and worrying, but it's quite a clever way to rope in so much detail that's otherwise dropped from the ballet. Some portions seem drawn from the ballet, as when the foreign wisemen are clamoring over one another to propose solutions in a manner reminiscent of their dances (just with far, FAR more nations and... ethnicities, shall we say, represented). There's even a nod to the astronomer from Drosselmeyer's story, through the Queen of Time, whose mystical, heavenly figure of sagely advice is achieved through traditional ningyō jōruri rather than stop-motion. S'all very neat to behold, and coupled with the aesthetics of the piece, it manages to give the film its own identity while paying clear homage to its progenitor, which mark good qualities for an adaptation.
When the film plays with its own material, it's not always quite so charming. The beginning takes several minutes to establish a sinister Rag Man figure who seems like he'll play a major role, yet drops clean out've the narrative once the Nutcracker portions begin. I'd suspect his loss has something to do with the English dub (the only one easily available, unfortunately) chopping out about ten minutes of footage, including two live-action dance segments, though I cannot find any substantial information on the differences. More probably common to both versions is the court of foreign wisemen, which turns entirely on lazy stereotype humor, and mostly gets past my hackles for its clear demonstration of how varied the puppet design is in this film, as well as containing both a joke about Stalin's five year plan AND an offhand reference to Der Fuehrer's Face, both of which threw me for a loop. The film's attempts to give Clara something to do in the climax mostly center on her wandering through a magic forest and meeting several symbolic original figures who lack much of what makes the Queen of Time interesting to watch and consider. Most they have going being voiced by Christopher Lee, with one seeing him attempt a rather bad Irish accent. It really must be said, while it's admirable to try and exercise Clara's emotional intelligence during this stretch, prior to the effort she has nothing to do but stand around waiting for the plot to move on, rendering her an undynamic protagonist in love with the soldier-turned-Nutcracker Franz because he looks handsome and heroic. And, well...
I say the story's weaker when it's striking out into its own concepts, when I should really say it's at the weakest when it pulls in the one thing I'd never have imagined we'd pull from the Hoffmann story. The reasoning behind the Mouse Queen's ire, I get snipping it out. Clara not throwing her slipper to distract her an afford the Nutcracker a win, weird considering the ballet keeps this and makes it a more decisive action than in the story, but whatever, the sequence plays out fine on its own. Making the secret to cracking the nut and breaking the Mouse Queen's power a pearl sword rather than someone's teeth, I guess I'm fine with it despite lessening the importance of Franz becoming a Nutcracker - these puppets don't exactly have articulate jaws. But having Clara awake from her dream, meet her visitor Fritz, find him identical to Franz, and get married to him despite a doubtless decade-or-more age gap betwixt them? Hoy. Bad enough an implication when it's the 1810s and marital customs were far different than now. Even accounting for this film's still-40 year age and differences in Japanese culture, it's still a bit of a Thing to take the story beyond a young girl's self-flattering dream world and into "They actually literally got married in real life and went to live in her fantasy kingdom, which is real, forever." Gets one chewing one's cheek lining in discomfort, and makes some of the wholesomeness drain out've the story, not at all helped by how Clara's undying love as the only thing that can save the Nutcracker from his transformed state dropping into the story a few minutes prior with a "We've been trying to tell you this was the case all along!" line, despite this very much not being the case. You were trying to tell her the kingdom of toys and ethnic stereotypes needed saving from a two-headed mutant mouse monster so your newfound beloved could marry someone else entirely. Don't try to sell me a story you weren't telling in the final minutes, even if I'm in your target audience, and especially don't heavily imply a marriage between child and teenager at best, child and adult at worst.
There's other problems with Nutcracker Fantasy, mostly pertaining to the English dub - the voice acting is serviceable at best, the inclusion of Tchaikovsky snippets token, the American musical numbers not really to the standard of what their contemporaries were producing, which don't do much for me anyhow. Taking it all into account and looking for the right ribbon with which to it it in a bow, though, I think an ultimately positive assessment is in order. The spectacle of seeing Rankin/Bass' particular take on stop-motion design and animation given greater cinematic flair and polish than I've ever seen leaves a big impression, and the way it remixes The Nutcracker and the Mouse King into its own mini-fantasy war plot whilst homaging the source material leaves me with charm aplenty to overcome the less than stellar original material. Just the simple fact of the Queen of Time's live puppetry amidst this collection of invisibly maneuvered figures is a memorable and impressive enough testament to the creativity on display here to get me over the "why are we implying child marriage?" hurdle. A strong start to the holiday programming proper, and one I hope at least one non-Fantasia film can surpass before the month's out.
(Points for giving at least one mouse monarch multiple heads. We'll see if anyone managed the full seven.)
3.5/5
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