Disney already has three $1B films under their belt in 2018 and we’re only in August. The sheer number of potential blockbusters left to come before the year is through is stunning, and one the Mouse House is expecting a lot from is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which is primed to be the biggest films of the holiday season.
A new trailer for the fairy tale adaptation is here, a reworking of Tchaikovsky’s beloved classic, The Nutcracker. This looks like Disney doing what they do best, and it probably won’t break too far from the formula established with Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, or any of Disney’s other hit remakes. The action is a little more intense than you might expect from a Disney holiday film, which is a plus in my opinion, but that lame cover of No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” has got to go.
Behind the camera are co-directors Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston, with Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Misty Copeland, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren leading the A-list cast. Here’s the synopsis:
All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift. 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, Disney’s new holiday feature film “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston, and inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale.
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms opens November 2nd.
