Strictly speaking, there is only one movie produced by Disney Pictures this year, that is, the Christmas story "The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms" released during the year-end holiday schedule. The other is The Incredibles 2, which was co-produced with Pixar Animation Studios.
From the perspective of the number of outputs, Disney's own productions are not concentrated or high-yield, and they have maintained a frequency of about one per year. In recent years, Chinese audiences have been impressed and praised, such as "Frozen" in 2013, "Zootopia" in 2014, and "Heart of the Ocean" in 2015 (the box office and response were not as good as the previous two films) ), and the 2017 remake of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Further on, it's pretty much the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and it's been more than a decade since the first one came out.
Some people say that Disney is the kingdom of dreams, but it is not true. But simply dreaming is not its only mission. It brings beautiful fantasy and artistic conception to children. The wonderful characters in its fairy tale world and its colorful adventures and legends, and the stories it tells are either gentle and timeless, or full of challenges and indomitable will, all reflect the face of the real world. Its unparalleled imagination and creativity are amazing, and its perfect presentation of filmmaking skills and visual effects and music creation represents the highest level of the industry. In particular, Disney's spiritual world is constantly changing with the times. With the passage of time, each of its works strives to make the characters more plump and three-dimensional, and the script creation is also richer in story and character diversity.
In addition to writing new stories, there are actually many gems in the treasure house of Chinese and Western literature. As a children's story, "The Nutcracker" happens to be one of the beautiful ones (our Chinese gem is Mulan), so this story was chosen to be made into a fairy tale movie , both as a matter of course and naturally.
Western audiences are very familiar with The Nutcracker. First, because the original German writer ETA Hoffmann wrote it in 1816. Second, Tchaikovsky's famous ballet suite was created on its basis. Moreover, this ballet is also the most frequently staged repertoire during Christmas every year. In contrast, Chinese audiences have heard a lot of this name, and probably few are familiar with the storyline. Compared with the well-known works such as "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast", the level of understanding is quite different.
But it's actually a wonderful little story: A little girl who received the Nutcracker Soldier as a gift on Christmas Eve liked it so much that she put it by the bedside. At night, in her sleep, a large group of mice suddenly burst out on the floor and attacked her. At this time, the Nutcracker soldiers grew bigger and defended her from the army of mice. She helped the Nutcracker to repel the mice and followed him. A magical kingdom of candy and a wonderful and warm hospitality there.
Of course, whether it's the original book or the ballet's synopsis, the plot will be a little weak when it's explained in film, especially for today's audience. So Disney expanded and extended the plot, adapting a heartwarming story of how Clara, a little girl, through adventures, showed courage, and got out of the knot of losing her mother during Christmas.
If we evaluate it fairly, the story line of this year's "The Nutcracker" cannot be regarded as very brilliant and powerful in the eyes of many more critical fans, and it is even almost inclination to the ordinary, and the design in some places There are small weaknesses. For example, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy from the Candy Fairy and the Queen Mother Jiang is somewhat expected in the eyes of adults as the plot develops; and Clara opens the gift silver egg and sees herself in the mirror and understands her mother The meaning of it is somewhat far-fetched; besides, the other two regents have done almost nothing, and they have not even been able to serve as decorations for a few minutes, and they are a bit too weak. Still two kingdoms.
But it's still a good movie overall, and Disney's standards are proof of it. In the story, when it comes to the love of the siblings and father for Clara, it is very warm; there is a festive atmosphere to set off, and try to resolve Clara's sadness. The setting is very beautiful and grand, whether it is the Christmas party at the godfather's house, or the kingdom and castle after entering the illusion, especially when showing the fourth kingdom, which is Queen Jiang's border, there is a little horror and dark atmosphere. Smaller children should be frightened when they see it.
I love Clara's father, played by British actor Matthew Macfadyen, who loves his daughter but doesn't know how to express the grief of losing his wife, he and Keira Knightley in the 2005 remake The "Pride and Prejudice" starred Darcy and Elizabeth respectively, very deep British charm.
Keira Knightley and Helen Miller are both very good actresses, they are almost impeccable in the main characters; however my second favorite is Jayden Fowora-Knight who plays the Nutcracker soldier, he is really beautiful , The makeup artist commented that he was too much like a Nutcracker soldier, so he didn't need to pay any attention to styling at all, just give him a little golden bronze glitter!
Aside from two very suitable actors, I personally think the most outstanding and memorable are the two guards at the palace gate. The two small roles are British comedians Jack Whitehall and Omid Djalili. They have a very special look, which makes people feel funny at first glance, and they feel that they are such people who love to make mistakes and to be unreliable (laughs). Although there are not many appearances and only three clips, no matter from the action performance to the line design, it adds a very pure joke.
The most worth mentioning is that there is also a very beautiful ballet performance in this movie, that is, the grand celebration held by the Candy Fairy and the regents of the other two kingdoms to welcome Clara's arrival. In this celebration, in order to introduce the characteristics of the three kingdoms to Clara, the screenwriter specially integrated ballet elements to present to the audience. This beautiful ballerina is one of the three most prestigious classical ballet theaters in the world, Misty Copeland of the American Ballet Theater. She was regarded as a child prodigy since she was a child. An African-American female ballet dancer who was promoted to Principal Dancer status. I think she looks a lot like Prince Harry's Princess Meghan in a way, so she's beautiful.
Fairy tales tell the truth, in fact, the truth is almost the same. Some are to bring beautiful dreams to children, and some are to teach children to be brave and strong. 1816's "The Nutcracker and the Kingdom of the Mouse" is simply about a little girl's wonderful dream after receiving a Christmas gift. It doesn't even want to convey any special meaning, but it already has a story of ups and downs. and children's characteristics, is a good story full of children's imagination.
For adult audiences, although we are no longer children, we still need to go back to that wonderful fairy tale world once in a while and experience such a tortuous fairy tale adventure. Because we may sometimes face difficulties without knowing it, or without knowing how to find direction in real life. Sometimes, a story that was meant to be told to children might help us before we know it.
For Clara, going through the four kingdoms mentally has more or less helped her out of the pain of losing her mother. But real life is always there.
Every little girl (and little boy) who grows up reading fairy tales is bound to face the test of reality. Whenever the difficulty is too great and it seems that we can't handle it, we still have fairy tales that we can hide in and read, absorb some courage, and gain some wisdom, even if there is no wisdom at all... However, Those gentle tone of voice, wonderful and lovely characters, always optimistic and positive attitude and happy ending in the story can help us not to be knocked to the ground by setbacks, and tell us not to give up our confidence, to muster the courage, and to make persistent efforts.
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