Nutcracker Fantasy


1979 stop-animated feature

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Kind of like the other versions of this story.

Yesterday, I learned that Tchaikovsky was a profoundly depressed human being. Merry Christmas, everybody!

This Japanese stop-motion version of the movie is loosely based on the original as far as I can tell. I really don't remember the particulars of the story to be honest. Some of Tchaikovsky's music is in here along with some 70's-sounding cheese. The characters look like they're straight out of the creepy stop-animated Christmas classics from Rankin-Bass, but the settings are more detailed and the little cameras used to film the characters move ore creatively through the locations. Some 70's psychedelic effects peppered throughout always keep things fun.

Christopher Lee voices one of the characters, at least in the American release. He's the one with the eye patch.

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