‘Nutracker’ is pretty, but has no substance

Posted on November 9, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

Disney seems obsessed these days with turning every property they can get their hands on into a live-action film, even ones they haven’t previously turned into cartoons.

The latest film is “The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms,” based on the classic ballet and the short story from which it was adapted. Based on the trailers, I was expecting something along the line of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” a flawed, yet still engaging, film that turned a classic tale into a visual wonder, and a relatively passive female heroine into an action star.

It’s obvious that this film, directed Lasse Hallström (“The Cider House Rules”) with an assist from Joe Johnston (“Captain America: The First Avenger”), is trying to do just that, but despite the beautiful costumes and sets, and a few interesting performances, we are left with a film that ultimately has no substance beneath its pretty exterior.

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