Movie Review: The Nutcracker (1993)

The movie stars Macaulay Culkin, Jessica Lynn Cohen, Bart Robinson Cook, William Otto, Peter Reznick and Kevin Kline (as the narrator).

Mostly because the weather was pretty cruddy, my family decided not to attend Beaver Dam's annual holiday parade yesterday evening (it wound up getting canceled anyway) and, instead, opted to make a couple pizzas and watch a family movie. Since it was the first day of December, I decided to find us a Christmas movie and, when I came across this 1993 ballet on Netflix, it immediately became my choice. As it turns out, it was a good decision.

At first, I wasn't really sure if this is something my kids would want to watch with us. My youngest daughter takes dance lessons but is still at an age where non-animated movies don't always keep her interested. And, I wasn't sure if either child would be interested in watching a ballet rather than a regular movie.

However, both girls wound up loving this film. They liked watching the various dance numbers and were fascinated by some of the characters, especially Mother Ginger (Otto). In fact, my youngest was so excited by this movie, she was trying to do some of the dance moves she saw the ballerinas perform.

My wife and I also found we enjoyed this film. I thought it was a pleasant, family-friendly way to spend 90 minutes. I'm not a big Macaulay Culkin fan but thought he was an excellent choice as the nutcracker/prince (I didn't know he could dance). In fact, this is the first version of this ballet I've seen that used children for the nutcracker and Marie (Cohen) and I thought that made a nice difference.

Also, even though it wasn't traditional, I did find I liked having the narration from Kevin Kline because it explained some concepts I (and the kids) might not otherwise have understood just from trying to interpret the ballet, especially when it came to the characters that were supposed to be representing various forms of food and drink. It was something that will stick with all of us the next time we see this performed.

I've seen this ballet performed live on multiple occasions. But, this filmed version was easily my favorite so far. I recommend taking the time to watch it this holiday season.

My Grade: A