The Nutcracker and the Four Realms - A World Without Worldbuilding

(This post contains minor spoilers.)

There are two things I love as a fiction writer - loose adaptation and worldbuilding. I have always been fascinated with the process of adaptation from very short stories. Sometimes they embellish the story, expanding it to feature-length, such as 2018's The Grinch, or twist the original tale, such as 2018's other mainstream Christmas theatrical release, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which I recently saw on DVD. It’s a tricky thing to get right and I have already tried my hand with this in a couple of projects in development. Because of this, I was very interested in the movie and had there been a second-run theater less than an hour from where I lived, I might have seen in theaters. While confusing twists in a trailer (such as the lack of a visible nutcracker) make more sense in the context of the plot, I found many of the concepts really interesting. In my wanting to see the film last year, I accidentally heard that there was a villain twist, so I cannot comment on whether it was a genuine surprise. I did feel though that the machine that the key opens was ripped too much from The Santa Claus 2, a movie that terrified me as a kid, and the depiction of the Mouse King mirrors that of the climax of Ralph Breaks the Internet, which was released only three weeks later. Worldbuilding, especially in sci-fi and fantasy, offers a lot of creative freedom. But one of the challenges is constructing a story that compels the readers or viewers to explore this world that you’ve spent so long developing. One of the reasons The Lord of the Rings feels so epic is because the characters’ trek through diverse places over long distances and conveys the feeling that the whole world is truly at stake. The Chronicles of Narnia, in the course of seven books, also does a great job of exploring different parts of the fantasy world. The characters’ expeditions become those of the readers/viewers. The Hunger Games’ dystopian world leaves out many details about every district, but since it is written from a first-person perspective, we only really see the world through Katniss’ eyes. And that is enough. And worldbuilding was where I think The Nutcracker and the Four Realms failed the most. It had so much potential and feels like it started as a good idea. I love the idea of the four realms being clear, distinct lands that encompass all the different elements of The Nutcracker since there is a lot to work with. But the problem is we don’t spend enough time in them to become acclimated. Three of the realms - the Lands of Flowers, Snowflakes, and Sweets, are only shown in a few seconds per realm, and those were the most interesting shots of the entire movie. It’s a shame because the production design is fantastic and some of the most imaginative that I’ve seen for a Nutcracker adaptation. But Clara’s adventure doesn’t linger there or enhance the plot. Her low-key tour of her kingdom merely offers a brief montage. The only areas of this world that we really spend time in are the castle and the Land of Amusements, which, because of its outcast nature, isn’t as interesting to look at as the other three. As a result, the film didn’t feel as epic as it needed to be, which was the biggest takeaway that I took from the film, and we don’t feel like we learned enough about the four realms to fall in love with them. Fantasy films that involve other worlds are usually epic because they tend to implement worldbuilding, amplifying the story to the fullest. Because of this, this movie should have felt more epic and possibly have a slightly longer runtime to accommodate this. As a result, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms could have been great but is instead an example of an interesting world that entices the audience to enter in, but without a well-crafted story to explore it.