Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)
Me and a friend are working our way up the Barbie movies, starting from the Nutcracker. I’m not very good at reviews and decided this was a good chance to learn how to write by doing them, so here I am.
Title: Barbie in the Nutcracker.
Release: October 23, 2001.
Running time: 1h16min.
Genres: animation, family, romance.
Summary: Barbie shows that if you are kind, clever and brave, anything is possible in this tale of Clara and her amazing Nutcracker, who set off on an adventure to find the Sugarplum Princess.
More info: IMDb, Wikipedia.
My rate: 7/10.
I’m a huge fan of Barbie movies. Well, I used to be, when I was younger, before my teenage years, when I started thinking animation movies were bullshit and I was too grown up for them. So I had some idea of what to expect from the movie, though it was pretty vague because this one particularly wasn’t one of my favorites (that’s the princess and the pauper and the 12 dancing princesses), and I watched it only once. Basically I knew there was a scene in which Barbie was going to get carried away through the sea on a plant swing thingy. Yep.
I was pleasantly surprised by how the movie turned out, because I wasn’t expecting much of it. For starters, it uses the songs Tchaikovsky wrote for the Nutcracker ballet, including my favorites the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Waltz of the Flowers and, most importantly, the Sugar Plum Faerie and Her Cavalier. It mixes ballet on the story all the time, which is really nice (though at times it stops the story for it, so be warned). Sadly, the movie has a very shitty 3D animation, which is why I can’t tell you OMG THIS IS SUCH A VISUALLY SATISFYING MOVIE. It isn’t. The animation is terrible. But there is a lot of potential and it is very well meaning, so I give it points for that. The Waltz of the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers are both very sweet. The dancing scenes at the ending, particularly the one with Clara and The Nutcracker, are really, really nice.
The villain surprised me greatly. There’s something really appealing to dramatic, evil kings who have stupid minions and get angry at their stupidity. The rat king’s dynamics with the bat that I do not remember the name was pretty great. Another thing that I found amazing was the fact that in order to cast spells, the rat king has to rhyme!! I mean, can you picture that? The king keeping a list of rhymes so he knows which words to end the sentences with, or training it on a mirror. Sadly that makes it so the spell takes time to complete, and I disliked it how while he was rhyming the people just stood there looking at him. Run away, Clara!!!!
Another duo whose dynamics I really enjoyed were the Captain and the Major. I was really sad that they made the Major stupid and clueless, I feel like the movie didn’t really need him as a comic relief and his character was wasted. He could have been stern like Clara’s grandfather, but he was ridiculous instead. And I don’t think that after suffering under the reign of the rat king, the people would accept such a snob and proud leader. Regardless of that, his relationship with the Captain is great and I ended up shipping the both of them, oops. Also the Captain is really #relatable. Look at this gif of him:
Yes, captain, I wanted to roll my eyes at the Major as well. I feel you.
Another thing that bothered me greatly, and there’s a spoiler on this paragraph so maybe avoid it if you don’t want it, is the fact that Clara wasn’t the one to off the rat king. I mean, she’s the fucking Sugar Plum Princess, the one they’ve been searching for the whole time, and ok, she was really helpful at several points, but prince Eric was still the one to off the rat while she just stood there and waited to be shrunk again. Maybe if she didn’t look so helpless I’d be less disappointed, but the movie made me expect a feminine heroine, and Clara is an amazing protagonist (really smart, loyal, kind, responsible, brave), but. BUT!!! The sword was there, lying on the floor, and she stood there looking at the king and it was up to the nutcracker to save the day. Zzzz.
Anyway, the movie is worth the watch, really, if you don’t mind the ugly animation and the ??? proportions. It has a beautiful soundtrack, a sweet story, a really nice female protagonist, interesting side characters (I didn’t even mention Elisabeth, but she’s amazing on her own right) and some really nice scenes that make you go “I didn’t expect that!!!”. The story can be slow at times, as it stops progressing for the dancing scenes, but that isn’t a very big problem.