Let the mystery unfold.

Directed by Lasse Hallström (A Dog's Purpose) and Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger), The Nutcracker and the Four Realms kicks off the festive season in Hollywood. Debut screenwriter Ashleigh Powell adapts the legendary tale. Mackenzie Foy (Twilight) stars alongside Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean), Morgan Freeman (Invictus) and Helen Mirren (The Queen). "A young girl is transported into a magical world of gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice". After a month of reshoots (with a different director), has Disney successfully reimagined The Nutcracker and the Four Realms?

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms never looked promising. Disney essentially ripped off all of their previous hits in an attempt to make The Nutcracker succeed; the posters resemble Beauty and the Beast (2017), the costume design and visual palette are identical to the Alice in Wonderland films and the plot is very similar to the first Narnia movie. By trying to tick boxes and following their proven formula, Disney has created a film that implodes on itself. This isn't going to be a hit with critics or audiences. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms has some glorious visuals but is too predictable and juvenile to be something worth recommending. 

After an additional 32 days of reshoots, it is likely that The Nutcracker that just hit cinemas shares little in common with Lasse Hallström's original vision. Disney's meddling is blatant; what's left is a very safe film that tells a very simple and conventional story. Even after all of that extra time spent working on the film, a major restructuring would be beneficial. There's a random flashback midway of Clara's mother telling her about her childhood visiting The Four Realms and how one day, Clare will embark on that same journey herself. This would have been an ideal opening scene. Instead, the film opens with a very sombre Stahlbaum family preparing for Drosselmeyer's ball. Disney films might be infamous for absent parents and effective emotional manipulation but The Nutcracker's touching and moving moments fall flat because Ashleigh Powell's script makes no effort to establish the Stahlbaum family prior to the mother's death (even though she has an overarching presence throughout the entire film!). 

'The Nutcracker' ballet has become a staple of the holiday season. Families around the world rush to see a performance of it every year. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms will not have the same longevity. In fact, it will be forgotten by January. Disney really missed a trick; this film could have been packed with beautiful choreography. To the demise of many, there is only one ballet performance and it is often undercut by Kiera Knightley's irritating voice. Misty Copeland does a fantastic job and is the best thing about The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. I would have rather watched the same film with a dancing Copeland at its centre instead of an expressionless Foy. There's plenty of Nutcracker music but that isn't the same. The Nutcracker himself, played by Jayden Fowora-Knight, is hardly in the film. The character is one-dimensional with barely any scenes and forced chemistry with Clara. Considering he is the titular character, The Nutcracker could be omitted from the film and the same story could be told. Disney was praised for casting Copeland and Fowora-Knight but unfortunately, they were cast in insignificant roles...forced diversity? With its lack of ballet and The Nutcracker himself, the film's target audience is ambiguous. Who was this film made for?

The simple answer to that question is children. The Nutcracker is full of juvenile (but also inappropriate) humour that will make anybody over the age of ten cringe. This cringe-worthy humour is brought to us at the courtesy of Keira Knightley's Sugar Plum. I'm not sure what Knightley was thinking, but her performance is one of a kind. With her extremely annoying voice, Sugar Plum is sickeningly sweet and mind-numbingly childish. Knightley is exercising her character-acting skills and leaves a realm's worth of room for improvement. Knightley is tolerable until the third act when her character's true agenda is revealed and she becomes...evil? Knightley's interpretation of evil is seductive and raunchy dialogue spoken in an infantile tone. It's creepy, weird and inappropriate. Sugar Plum's lines range from "Hello boys!" to "I like a man in uniform" to "I'm the king of the castle and you're the dirty rascal". Knightley's performance and character slowly became more laughable and embarrassing. It was cool that she had candy floss for hair though. Sugar Plum is another poorly written character; her motivations and masterplan are vague (she simply wanted to create division?) and generic. 

Sugar Plum's evil turn reveals a device she plans to use to turn Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren) back into a toy. Firstly, none of the characters looked like they were once toys - the toy soldiers were still wooden and hollow when brought to life so why were the film's main characters just like humans? Disney has pulled this visual off before in Oz the Great and Powerful and James Cameron is about to with Alita: Battle Angel. This once again shows how little Disney cared for this property. Aside from the characters, The Nutcracker is visually impressive with beautiful scenery, gorgeous costumes and solid CGI. The Rat King is a disgusting creation - a human figure formed by live rats - but it has been realised well. Mirren's Mother Ginger, who has an obsession with rats and clowns, has a hilariously silly name and wears Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter rejects. Mirren only had to visit set for a few days but her talent is wasted. In fact, The Nutcracker also wastes Morgan Freeman who has just two scenes. A visually stunning film full of hollow characters. 

Clara, played by Mackenzie Foy, is this reimagining's protagonist. The script doesn't let on much about the character other than her having a deceased mother and being interested in science: unsurprisingly, another one-dimensional role. Clara isn't satisfied with the world and the Four Realms open her eyes to a mesmerising universe. It's not very clear, but at the end of her journey, she returns home happier, more confident and more appreciative of her family (basically every family film). Clara does have one touching moment when it is revealed that her mother's gift to her is herself - all she needs is right in front of her. This was one moment that was executed well. Clara's purple dress is beautiful and her Nutcracker-inspired armour is fantastic! Unfortunately, Mackenzie Foy's performance doesn't do much to elevate the character. She started off as Bella Swan's daughter in Twilight and she has grown up to be just like Kristen Stewart's performance: expressionless and wooden. Foy is graceful and elegant, but not a dancer. The Nutcracker's message of self-love is enough to make its thinly written protagonist likable. 

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms has three redeeming qualities: the ballet performance, the Christmas setting and the heart-warming message. Everything else falls flat. Kiera Knightley and Mackenzie Foy lead a cast of underwhelming and pretty poor performances. This is a blatant attempt from Disney to capitalise on the Christmas market; the source material is disregarded and transformed into a generic story about boring characters that could take place in any setting. For a studio known for imagination, this is a very lacklustre effort. Narnia meets Alice in Wonderland in this fantastical misfire.