The Nutcracker (1993 film)
| The Nutcracker | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Emile Ardolino |
| Produced by |
Robert Hurwitz Robert A. Krasnow |
| Written by | Susan Cooper (narration) |
| Based on | Peter Martins's stage production of The Nutcracker |
| Starring |
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| Narrated by | Kevin Kline |
| Music by | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky |
| Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode |
| Edited by | Girish Bhargava |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19 million |
| Box office | $2,119,994 |
The Nutcracker, also known as George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, is a 1993 American Christmas musical film directed by Emile Ardolino. The film stars Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, Kyra Nichols, Macaulay Culkin Wendy Whelan, Margaret Tracey, Gen Horiuchi and Tom Gold. The film was released by Warner Bros. on 24 November, 1993.
The movie follows the traditional plot of the Nutcracker.
The Nutcracker received generally mixed reviews from critics. Based on seven reviews, the film holds a rotten rating of 57% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The film was criticized by James Berardinelli for not capturing the excitement of a live performance; he wrote that it "opts to present a relatively mundane version of the stage production... utilizing almost none of the advantages offered by the (film) medium."Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the film for not adapting the dance for a film audience and also its casting of Culkin who, he writes, "seems peripheral to all of the action, sort of like a celebrity guest or visiting royalty, nodding benevolently from the corners of shots." In The Washington Post, Lucy Linfield echoed Ebert's criticism of Culkin, stating that "it's not so much that he can't act or dance; more important, the kid seems to have forgotten how to smile... All little Mac can muster is a surly grimace." She praised the dancing, however, as "strong, fresh and in perfect sync" and Kistler's Sugar Plum Fairy as "the Balanchinean ideal of a romantic, seemingly fragile beauty combined with a technique of almost startling strength, speed and knifelike precision."The New York Times' Stephen Holden also criticized Culkin, calling his performance the film's "only serious flaw", but praised the cinematography as "very scrupulous in the way it establishes a mood of participatory excitement, then draws back far enough so that the classic ballet sequences choreographed by Balanchine and staged by Peter Martins can be seen in their full glory."
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Wikipedia