Four Weirder Nutcracker Films

This year's Obligatory Thanksgiving Weekend Holiday Film is something called "Nutcracker 3D". I first heard about it via my Holiday Movie Preview issue of Entertainment Weekly, and I assumed that it was going to be essentially exactly what it sounded like: a taping of the Nutcracker ballet but in (sigh) THREE-EFFIN'-D!!!

How wrong I was.



Gaze upon what "Alice in Wonderland" hath wrought, and shudder when you realize we are going to see more - a lot more - of these. (Nightmare Fuel warning, depending on whether it's creepy wooden doll-puppets or creepy made-up animal-people that scare you. Also, people of a certain age will have horrible Large Marge flashbacks.)

Now, at first, I was going to be all like, "This holiday season, give your family nightmares!" But then I thought about it and realized that this isn't the first Nightmare Fuel-errific film adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker, nor is it the strangest.

Let's get the Nightmare Fuel out of the way. Back in the 1980's, the Pacific Northwest Ballet allowed our old friend Maurice Sendak to put his own spin on the Nutcracker ballet. The result was filmed by Carroll Ballard (better known for outdoorsy epics like "The Black Stallion" and "Never Cry Wolf"), and released to theaters as "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture". Now, for those of you who thought "Where the Wild Things Are" was too psychological and/or weird for children, I invite you to enjoy the most normal scene from "Nutcracker". (Why did you turn Uncle Drosselmeier into a creepy uncle, Maurice? Why? )

On the surface, Mark Morris' "The Hard Nut" seems like it would be stranger than Maurice Sendak's version -- but it turns out it's actually one of the better adaptations of Hoffman's original, printed-page Nutcracker. It's still very weird; check out Charles Burns' character designs. After all this, "The Nutcracker Prince" is going to look really dull. Ah well. Now, I wanted to finish this post with something special, but sadly all footage of one particular "Nutcracker" adaptation has been pulled from the internet (except for this one Spanish scene and this one English scene. Go figure.) It's a version that is available on DVD, even though it's very obscure, and for whatever reason I loved it as a child. It's "The Care Bears Nutcracker Suite". And yeah, it's weirder than you'd expect. ---- Sketch of the Day! Got something ambitious planned for Thanksgiving morning's post. We'll just have to see if I can pull it off...

Five weirder "Alice in Wonderland" varients

(Note that this was pushed back a bit from last week, thanks to the email from IF-X. And, once again, OMG YAAAAAY!!!)
When I say "weirder" adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, I mean probably weirder. I'm really not all that jazzed about "Tim Burton in Wonderland" though some of the nonhuman character designs are a lot of fun. (Honestly, this looks like the kind of movie Tim Burton could make in his sleep now, and as Sam Adams mentioned in this recent AVQ&A, it's very sad that in the last few years, Burton has "managed to rid his work of anything vaguely inventive or personal while still keeping up the facade of being the goth kid who sits alone at lunch.")
There is something about Lewis Carroll's Alice books that makes people want to do adaptations that play hard and loose with the source material. I'm limiting myself to five today, though I can certainly think of more (for example, you can't technically say that "Lost" and "The Matrix" AREN'T adaptations -however loose- of "Alice" can you?)
This is certainly not the first Disney take on Wonderland. But while everyone knows the 50's "Alice", and Disney fans are generally aware of the early "Alice' shorts, one Disney take has faded into obscurity. In the year 1990-ish, the Disney Channel announced a new series for young children. This was around the same time Disney/MGM Studios was still in use as a working television/film/animation studio and was essentially the Disney Channel's headquarters. A massive set was built upon a soundstage in the Studios, and the series "Adventures in Wonderland" was born:




Answering the inevitable question: yes, the early 1990's really were like this. Giant anthropomorphic rabbits and everything.
I've already discussed "Dreamchild" over at The Realm. Sadly, the film is not available at Netflix (which doesn't even seem to have even heard of it). Fortunately, a kind soul on YouTube has uploaded the utterly terrifying tea party scene, so I can spread the Nightmare Fuel around. (I am indeed giving this a very serious Nightmare Fuel warning. Kids, stay far away. Adults, don't watch this late at night.)
EDIT: "Dreamchild" has recently appeared in among Netflix's instant-watch options. Enjoy.
Speaking of Nightmare Fuel. There's also the odd tendency to want to make scary, dark and edgy versions of Alice's adventures and of all the Wonderland characters. When most 80's kids think of weird versions of the Alice books, their minds immediately go to this little slice of childhood trauma (again, not embedding this because, seriously, between the creepy mirrors, the parents ignoring Alice, and the monster -however cheesy the costume is- popping up in the dark hallway, the scene seems coldly designed by committee to scar a child for life). What's especially weird about this version is that this one scary scene comes right the f**k out of nowhere; the overall tone of the miniseries was upbeat and whimsical up to this point. But you can expect to say, "What the hell" at least once during the cast list in the opening credits.
Thankfully the next two weird "Alices" are far more lighthearted throughout. This was something my sister and I watched one Easter morning for some reason. This little slice of crazy stars Mr. T as the Jabberwocky. That's probably all you need to know.
Skipping right to the middle for you. This is because, as you will see, their Humpty Dumpty is... different:



And rounding out our journey through Wonderland is yet another 80's oddity. Even as a kid sitting in the theater, I thought, "This feels like the studio wanted to make an Alice in Wonderland movie, and then for the hell of it they stuck in their most famous characters." It's not hard to find the full film on Youtube:




----
Quick movie review. I watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and I thought it was cute. Yes, cute. Cute is not a bad thing. It's charming and whimsical, I love the herky-jerky low-tech stop-motion animation, and I'm curious enough to see Wes Anderson do more animated films. Also, it's interesting how the more derived adaptations of Roald Dahl books are better as movies. (If you're not sure what I mean, watch "Willy Wonka" and then watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I am not talking about the nostalgia filter here.) By the way, "Mr. Fox" is fine for kids, though I wonder what kids will think of it.
----
And in case you missed it, there's a fun review of an old "Simpsons" episode (it happens to be one of my favorites) that turns into a meditation on the use of pop-culture references over at the Onion AV Club.
----
Sketch of the Day!

Hocus Crocus Alimagocus!!!
----
Feederwatch Friday!
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 4 (!!!)
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
House Sparrow 20
----
Next week: Four-Part Walt Disney World Trip Report!!!

Wait... is it 1.18?!?

"Fun in the Backyard!" - Chapter the Third
Originally uploaded by Babbletrish

Seems like a good time to revisit this. It's "Fun in the Backyard!" - Chapter the Third. And with 4,566 views, it is - for whatever reason, I won't question it - the most popular piece I have ever uploaded. Weird.
(Though, now that I've actually seen "Cloverfield" - which was awesome - it's actually funnier. Also on-topic, new "Lost" on Wednesday!)