Showing posts with label Nutcracker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nutcracker. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Disney's "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" Update

Although we announced the trailer release on Twitter the day it came out, we realize there may not be a handy summary of details, the trailer and screenshots etc regarding this highly anticipated Winter release from Disney, and thought it might be nice to gather them here to bring folks up to date, especially as the film will be released a little earlier than "Christmas week" as originally planned.

We posted at length during the development and pre-production of the film HERE and HERE, explaining the sources being used and the approach (along with the cast list) so we'll just get straight to the synopsis to remind you of where the plot is being hinted at going, and the limited looks so far. (They still have a lot of work to do with special effects etc, which will likely take most of the year.)

Here's the latest on how the production is going:
(In late December), the (Disney) studio announced it was planning a massive 32 days of additional photography on the ballet-inspired fantasy movie, bringing in “Captain America: The First Avenger” director Joe Johnston instead of original filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom. The studio said Hallstrom was unavailable due to scheduling issues — though he has no other projected publicly lined up — but he will be involved with postproduction. (TheWrap)
Here's the official synopsis, released with the trailer in December:
All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift from her late mother. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Morgan Freeman) annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key—which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world. Starring Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy and featuring a special performance by Misty Copeland, Disney’s new holiday feature film “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is directed by Lasse Hallström and inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale. In theaters on Nov. 2, 2018.
Here's the trailer:
No summary would be complete without a boat-load of stills. the fantasy aspect is very apparent, though the responses to the visuals seem to be quite mixed. Some people love them, others are calling it an "Alice in Wonderland reboot". It's early days yet, considering how much still needs to be done, but what do our readers think about it so far? (Note: Pictures shown in no particular order.)





We barely get to see Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger but she's intriguing, even in just a glimpse. And she has a wooden sword...


We get glimpses of Misty Copeland dancing "all the parts" as The Ballerina. 
While we have no doubt Copeland's dancing will be phenomenal, we're yet to be wowed by this sequence and hope the end result will have more innovation than what's been shown to date. The use of Tchaikovsky's score means we'll definitely be treated to another variation on this beloved suite; definitely a plus.
This sequence where Clara sees a tag on a string, rope or ribbon, then follows it in some sort of Victorian parlour Christmas game, is intriguing. We've seen a couple of games like this in films and TV episodes before (Reign anyone?) and even vaguely remember playing something like this as children but finding information on this game is proving difficult to dig up. We're quite curious about the significance and symbolism it may have with regard to the story and the four realms. Feel free to chime in and share links in the comments, if you find some online resources on this topic.
This tree opening and framing looks really familiar! (Pan's Labyrinth, Once Upon A Time, Maleficent, among others...)










And finally a little bit of odd trivia that folklorists should enjoy, from The Times:
Margaret Thatcher’s influence has been widely felt but few would have put money on the Iron Lady being the inspiration for a Disney heroine. According to Keira Knightley, the puffed-up pink hairdo flaunted by her character, the Sugar Plum Fairy, in Disney’s forthcoming film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, was based on Thatcher’s bouffant, in volume if not colour. “There were a couple of Tory female politicians I thought of,” Knightley tells Variety. “She’s Margaret Thatcher meets Marilyn Monroe.”

Cast

This shot of Clara in the toy soldier's uniform is possibly the most intriguing to us; it indicates she's not a passive child-heroine, but an active protagonist. While the other visuals are fine, this is the one that makes us curious. Bring on November!

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

D23 Unveils Details on Disney's 'Nutcracker & the Four Realms'

People seem to be very excited about the details of Disney's live action 'The Nutcracker and the Four Realms' that have been revealed at the D23 convention this past week. No visuals, other than the title card have been released to the public yet but we're told by all fans who've seen it that "it's beautiful! - at least as beautiful as Beauty and the Beast", and there is a little intriguing information about the synopsis we can share.

(In case you missed it, you can catch up on everything we've known about this movie to date HERE so you can read the following with more context.)

Gennady Spirin's illustration of the Mouse King for The Nutcracker
From the Disney's Inside The Magic report:
The film will star Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, along with Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren. It’s a re-imagining of the classic story – a cross between Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast and Fantasia with a bit of a Narnia vibe. 
The film largely takes place in a strange and mysterious parallel world—home to Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. But it’s the ominous Fourth Realm where Clara must take on a tyrant called Mother Ginger as well as a gang of mice who’ve stolen a coveted key from Clara. 
“The Mouse King is made up of thousands of mice—a cutting-edge CG creation. But we wanted him to move in a way that would be wonderfully surprising and incredibly cool, so we called on Lil Buck to provide the style of dance that defines the character. (InsideTheMagic)
The glaring omission from this report (!) is that the ABT's Principal Ballerina, Misty Copeland, will also star and be dancing in the film, not to mention that she will be THE reason many people go to see this film.

Speaking of dance, the style showcased by Lil Buck for the Mouse King's motion style, is called 'jookin' and is basically a contemporary cross between pop-n-lock and breakdance.

Here's a little more information on the actual realms from EW:
Bailey also elaborated on the four realms that Clara visits during her magical Christmas Eve adventure: The Land of Flowers, attended by Eugenio Derbez’s Hawthorn; The Land of Snowflakes, lorded over by Richard E. Grant’s Shiver; the Land of Sweets, dominated by Knightley’s Sugar Plum Fairy; and the fourth realm, belonging to the villainous Mother Ginger, played by Mirren.
Lil Buck showcasing his 'jookin' at D23 2017
The movie is (still) reportedly inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale (he is credited with the story, while Ashleigh Powell is credited with the screenplay) but the influence of the popular revisions and ballet variations are clearly very influential as well. That said, with this being a 'darker version of the Nutcracker story' (as reported by various posts by D23 attendees) hopefully we'll see some of Hoffman's original touch - and his wonderful character of Marie, who is much less delicate than the now-traditional Clara - in there. (We highly recommend the NPR article which interviews Professor Zipes on the story HERE, and discusses Hoffman's original and how the story became watered down.)

'Nutcracker' finished filming in January this year (2017) and is currently in post-production release date for this movie has been bumped up to November 2, 2018, meaning Disney's live action 'Mulan' will be re-slated for a later debut, possibly 2019, as the Christmas/Holiday 2018 slot is set for 'Mary Poppins Returns'.

With SDCC (San Diego ComiCon) in full swing this week we should start to see some visuals released very soon, so stay tuned.

Friday, December 23, 2016

New 'Nutcracker' Inspired by Chicago World's Fair, is Evolution of Tale & Tradition

“Most “Nutcrackers” are about well-off children who already have a whole lot of toys and are about to get even more. I wanted to explore more complex storytelling — holding on to the Tchaikovsky score, which I love, and all the things that audiences expect to have happen in this ballet... And I wanted the central focus to be on how children — without the usual aristocratic manners, and without much in terms of material things — use their imagination.” (Wheeldon - source)
It's Nutcracker season, and while there have been a few interesting adaptations to challenge the tradition, Chicago now has its own unique variation, thanks to the Joffrey Ballet commissioning the work from Christopher Wheeldon, created out out of the history of the city itself. Unlike the usual story of privileged children getting presents and more, the heroine in this story is the child of a single, working-class, immigrant mother and the setting is the wintery Christmas Eve before the World's Fair in the late 1800's - leaving a lot of room to explore the construction of wonder and magic, as well as cultural diversity.


Wonderfully, setting the production during this historical event, means it's apt and relevant that the use of technology, (such as projection art, mechanical set devices and the multi-media presentation of puppetry alongside ever changing visual wonders and 'tesla lighting'), be incorporated as part of the story telling and not just part of the stagecraft and background. The transformations in the scenes and the characters throughout, echo the changing perspective on the world at the time, thanks to the fantastical inventions and wonders being showcased that seemed beyond imagination, wowing and influencing both workers and visitors of the extraordinary expo.


We like to think this is also indicative of the change happening in this Nutcracker's tale telling, but more on that later. First we'll share more about what the production and story are actually like. (Heads-up: watch for the delightful little nuts!)

Take a look at the trailer:
Here's a little on how the concept developed from Chicago Sun Times' interview with Wheeldon:
Wheeldon and the Joffrey’s artistic director, Ashley Wheater... had both read Erik Larson’s 2003 bestseller, “The Devil in the White City,” and they sensed the Exposition (“minus the serial murderer,” as Wheeldon quipped), was exactly the right magical environment against which the ballet could be set, with the construction of the fair seen though a child’s eye. The fact that the Joffrey’s home stage, the landmark Auditorium Theatre, was completed in 1889, made the whole thing seem even more ideal.  (FTNH: Not to mention that historically this takes place a few days after this ballet of Tchaikovsky's premiered in Russia!) 
But there was a dilemma to solve: The fair ran from May 1 to Oct. 30, 1893, while the story had to unfold on a snowy Christmas eve. “We could either ignore history, or set the story in the post-fair ruins, or set it five months before the fair opens, while it was under construction. We chose the latter. We also found a photograph of what looked like a wooden worker’s shack on the fairgrounds, and that became our touchstone. The fair was built by many immigrant laborers, especially Poles, and we envisioned this shack as the place in which one of the many female sculptors for the fair worked. She is a single mother with a young daughter, Marie, and a son, and the ballet is Marie’s dream version of the fair. We also reimagined two of the ballet’s characters to create an element of romance, with the sculptress more or less taking over what is usually the Sugar Plum Fairy role, while Drosselmeyer, the magician, has been renamed The Great Impresario.” (And as Wheeldon describes him, he is “part Daniel Burnham, the visionary urban designer who planned the fair, along with a bit of P.T. Barnum and Nikolai Tesla, that mad scientist of electricity.”) 


Here's an example from See Chicago Dance, which describes some of the delightful differences that still follow the Nutcracker traditions, but in a new form:
We are in theater mode from the get-go, with a clear class divide of Chicago’s rich and poor at holiday time. Tchaikovsky’s traditional living room party scene music illuminates instead an urban environment where rich and poor intersect, street urchins steal what they can from unsuspecting shoppers, and rats lurk behind every corner (Basil Twist’s whimsically diabolical puppets). The resident Rat-Catcher (a wry Rory Hohenstein, with his own pet rodent perched on his hat) contrasts with The Great Impresario of the Fair (Miguel Angel Blanco), a magical and mysterious counterpart to Hoffman’s original Drosselmeyer.
Wheeldon’s Nutcracker magic reaches a pinnacle of wonder in the transformation of the scrawny pine sapling into a friendly version of the Little Shop of Horrors Monster, completely overwhelming the stage, proscenium, and audience with its massive branches and six-foot-tall pinecones. The Rat Catcher becomes the Rat King, the battle between the rats and toy soldiers unspools with predictable humor, and the Nutcracker Prince’s victory transforms the puppet Nutcracker into the handsome Nutcracker Prince who literally sweeps Marie off her feet and into a snowy wonderland. There they dance a luscious Snow Pas de Deux with elegance and charm, exuding the joy of young love. 


And here's some more nuggets excerpted from the NYTimes:
For the new Joffrey production, Brian Selznick’s story, the sets and costumes by Julian Crouch and Basil Twist’s puppetry turn out to be as crucial as the choreography. I loved learning about Chicago history from their work.There are rats, not the usual “Nutcracker” mice, and a menacing Rat Catcher. 
When the Christmas tree (a poor specimen) grows magically huge in Marie’s dream, it fills the stage, as if the action were occurring within its branches. And though the rats are later played by dancers, they’re most memorable when we see them as puppets, running along upper levels of the scenery and across the floor. As usual in “The Nutcracker,” they’re defeated in a battle with the title character and his toy soldiers (some of them cavalry).
From a wide range of reviews, it seems to be an adaptation that delights audiences and brings a new and different appreciation to what can often seem a fairly light and meaningless story (if you're not familiar with E.T.A. Hoffmann's original, at least). While critic reviews are mostly very positive, a few feel the work has yet to fully mature, although delight is clearly an element that frequents throughout.


The success so far, since opening night at the beginning of December, indicates Wheeldon's production will now be a regular part of the repertoire, and possibly a production that other companies may embrace over time as well.

What we're very interested in, is seeing America begin to "own" it's annual tradition of the Christmas production. Though Nutcracker has its origins in story, music and choreography in other lands, it's the United States that fell in love with the ballet as a nation and made it a yearly tradition across the country (something that spread from San Francisco and New York to the rest of the country after Balanchine's production in the 1960's). This may be the first time, however, that the magic and wonder of the story, has been birthed out of the country in which it is celebrated. It's an evolution of the tale and tradition and we're curious to see if America will love it's own magic as much as it has loved the enchantment that tip-toed in (literally) from other lands... even as it acknowledges the magic of many lands settling in the US, making a new home.

Wheeldon's Nutcracker is playing in Chicago until December 30th this year - and if you're able to go, we'd love to hear what you thought. (More information on tickets and times HERE.)

We'll finish with some delighted audience responses and more glimpses of this 'wonder-filled' production.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Latest on Disney's 'The Nutcracker and the Four Realms'

The Nutcracker by Niroot Puttapipat
(All silhouette illustrations by Puttapipat)
Although the film isn't due out until 2018, Disney's Nutcracker and the Four Realms keeps popping up in casting coup headlines and looking at the list below, confirmed as of October 15, 2016, it's quite a stellar one.

The most recent addition, announced this last week, (October 11, 2016), is that comedy favorite Miranda Hart, has just signed on to play a comical fairy named Dew Drop. While you'd think that might gives you some clues as to how this film might develop, the rest of the casting makes it difficult to pin down, though the possibilities are intriguing.

We know the movie will be a fantasy and family movie, with at least some ballet, and there will be funny moments. Though funny tends to be stock-in-trade for family fare, how that happens can be surprising, so we hope that we are (surprised in a good way).

While news of Hollywood stars, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and Mackenzie Foy is impressive, it's hard to beat the excitement of seeing the American Ballet Theater's first African-American ballerina*, Misty Copeland, be added to the cast as the lead in the big solo dance piece.

Though it isn't clear if Copeland will have any other role through the course of the movie it's still a history-making move on the part of Disney to cast her, and we know there will be at least one legitimate dance piece in the film, which is quite a departure from the live action films Disney has done to date. (This will also be Copeland's big screen debut.)
Misty Copeland - Principal American Ballet Theater
It means Disney will be, at the very least, giving a nod toward the classic and much-loved two act ballet, traditionally watched over the Winter/Christmas season.

It also would seem, especially due to Copeland's ballet solo, that we'll be hearing Tchaikovsky's classic music, which is wonderful. It's not Disney's first time using Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score, with the original Fantasia exploring the magic wonder of the natural world and the changing seasons in perfectly complimentary animation. We admit we have hopes that Disney will perhaps pay a little homage to the beloved animation sequences from Walt's art experiment, and with the art and effects direction of films like Maleficent, Alice and Cinderella paving the way, the possibility of that happening in a magically-real sense are very possible.

We also know, however, that the writer, Ashleigh Powell, worked on the script for two years before Disney quietly bought it in a "competitive situation", last year, so it's unlikely the bones of the script have a Disney connection, but the potential for including the concept of seasons, (Four Realms folks!) and an homage to the original Fantasia being explored via production design and other art departments working on the film, is a definite possibility.

Here's the cast so far:

With Morgan Freeman in Drosselmeyer's role we envision a few different directions, not the least of which might be related to Copeland and her role. Drosselmeyer is an elusive figure, sometimes benevolent, sometimes cruel, always mysterious, and with much more complicated motives, in attending the Christmas party and giving Clara the enchanted nutcracker, than most explorations usually tap.

We do hope it's something juicy for the legend to sink his teeth into.

So far the only official description of the plot is...
 A young girl is transported into a magical world of gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice.
 ...which could go many different ways. (Gingerbread soldiers against hungry mice would seem to be at a large disadvantage, don't you think?) Otherwise it sounds kind of bland.

The Disney film is set to use Minley Manor, in Hampshire, England, as one of its locations (we're guessing Clara's house), so we're definitely in for a large scale, lavish production.
Minley Manor
Whatever happens with the film, it's pretty much guaranteed to be better than the 2009 effort of The Nutcracker in 3D (which included Nazi planes... and, er, songs - yikes! We never quite reach 'The End' on that one.)

We're looking forward to seeing which way Disney's version goes.

We also know it will be based on ETA Hoffman's story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which is actually quite a bit longer, and darker, than the ballet. The ballet wasn't based on Hoffman's story, exactly, but instead a lighter version adapted by Alexandre Dumas. His story is much closer to that of the beloved ballet, which,  although contains Hoffman's creations, has quite a different emphasis. Dumas, however is not credited with the original story in the IMDB production database, which is usually very accurate about attribution. Instead Hoffman is given full credit, and we are taking that as a good sign.

Why, you may ask?

Well here's some background on Hoffman, who was a genuine German Romantic, and the themes and ideas that stirred him to write, compose and paint. You'll see how it's directly related to the type of story our society could use in our present social (and political) climate. From NPR (emphasis in bold is ours):
Hoffmann was actually named Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, but he changed the Wilhelm to Amadeus out of admiration for Mozart. And he didn't just write about music, he also composed it. He drew, he painted and — again, here's the connection to this time of year — Hoffmann wrote stories, spooky tales that trespassed the border between fantasy and reality. They were such famous stories that other composers read them and set them to to music throughout the 19th century — for example, Jacques Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann. 
One of the episodes in The Tales of Hoffmann is based on a story called "The Sandman," in which evil inventors create a robotic girl. It was also — loosely — the basis for Leo Delibes' comic ballet Coppelia, about the misadventures of a young man who falls in love with a life-size dancing doll. 
Inanimate things come to life in many of Hoffmann's stories. He was a champion of the imagination run wild. 
... Jack Zipes says Hoffmann was rebelling against the dominant movement of the time, the Enlightenment, and its emphasis on rational philosophy. "He believed strongly, as most of the German Romantics at that time, that the imagination was being attacked by the rise of rationalism ... throughout Europe," Zipes tells Siegel. "The only way that an artist could survive would be to totally become dedicated to another way of looking at the world, and to reclaiming nature, reclaiming innocence, reclaiming an authentic way of living."
People are already speculating parallels between the Alice live action movies and Nutcracker, with the plot of a young girl, after battling a Mouse (or sometimes Rat) King with her nutcracker doll that's come to life, being transported to the fantastical Land of Sweets, where, frankly, anything can happen. (We might get a clue early on as to the tone, if the Mouse King happens to have seven heads, as he was originally written.)

The addition of "Four Realms" to the title suggests an adventure or traveling story, which, to us sounds more interesting than being stuck in the Palace of Sweets watching a parade of dancing candy and live dolls. It also suggests season and maturation - a theme Disney didn't seem to be able to manage in trying to get Snow Queen off the ground, but perhaps they've found the right avenue here. We admit we always found the second act of the ballet story rather saccharine, with the sense that it didn't fit the journey Clara was 'encouraged' into by Drosselmeyer, and we are wondering if there isn't a movement back toward Hoffman's original ideas and intentions in the story, which are less sweet and light and, importantly, less easy to dismiss, and they're certainly possible to reflect in metaphors of seasons and growing up.

Again from Jack Zipes via NPR:
"What is interesting are the names, sometimes, that Hoffmann uses sometimes in 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,'" says German professor Jack Zipes. "The family in his story, in contrast to the ballet, is called Stahlbaum, which means 'steel tree.'" Marie, (Ed note: whom Dumas changed to Clara) Hoffmann's protagonist, "is imprisoned within the regulations of the family, the family follows rituals in a prescribed way, and she feels somewhat constrained by this." 
Then, Marie's strange and provocative godfather, Drosselmeier, appears.
"It's very difficult to translate the word 'Drosselmeier,' but it's somebody who stirs things up," Zipes says. "And Drosselmeier certainly shakes things up. He brings these amazing toys that he's made, and ignites the imagination of the young people in the celebration of Christmas.
If these ideas are explored in the film, as would resonate with the current cultural conversation, the potential for an excellent film here is huge.

Dare we hope?

We'll keep you posted as more news from this interesting looking film becomes available.


Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day:
It was recently announced that Misty Copeland will be returning to Southern California to dance The Nutcracker ballet in Orange County.
American Ballet Theater - Snowflakes from The Nutcracker
The American Ballet Theater will be bringing their production of The Nutcracker to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a run of shows. Of them, the company has announced Misty Copeland will be the principal dancer on December 9 and 16 and the evening show on December 17. The lead will rotate through other members of the company for each show, so on other nights you might catch Hee Seo, Isabella Boylston, Gillian Murphy or Stella Abrera performing the famous role.The American Ballet Theater production of The Nutcracker runs from December 9 to 18 at Segerstrom Hall. Performances are at 7pm with matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $29 to $279.  

*Principal is the highest rank in a ballet company.