The Nutcracker Prince

The Nutcracker Prince is a 1990 animated film made by Lacewood Productions and released by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. It's one of the USA/Canadian movies based on the ETA Hoffmann's classic book The Nutcracker and The Mouse King (with music composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky); another one is by Golden Films and GoodTimes Entertainement, and was released in 1995. This particular animated holiday tale utilizes the vocal talents of such stars as Kiefer Sutherland in the title role, Megan Follows as Clara Stahlbaum, Peter O'Toole as Drosslemeier and Phyllis Diller as the Mouse Queen.

The action begins at the home of the upper class Stahlbaum family and their kids - the teenager Louise, the pre-teen Clara and the Bratty Half-Pint Fritz; the last two anxiously wait for the arrival of their dear Honorary Uncle Drosslemeier, a toy maker who always brings cool gifts. This time, aside of a lovely toy castle with lots of cool details plus stuff for everyone, he brings Clara a special gift: a cute nutcracker, who according to him as a very special story. But few things are as special as a certain adventure that takes place that night, when the Mouse Queen and her son the Mouse King come to attack the Stahlbaum home, and Clara must help the now sentient Nutcracker to protect himself and his fellow toys from them.

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The Nutcracker Prince provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Mainly the Mouse Queen when she belittles and ridicules her son about her plans backfiring. Which leads to him insulting her and forgetting about her after her death.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The Nutcracker starts as a normal one, but adquires a form that as seen in the picture above, resembles a doll-like and quite handsome teenage boy.
• Adaptation Dye Job: Marie from the original tale is said to be a blonde, but Clara here is a redhead.
• Age Lift: Marie was 7 years old in the tale, but Clara is around 12-13 here.
• Alien Lunch: The royal family seems to have a fondness for blue cheese cake.
• All Animation Is Disney: With the exception of the Story Within a Story, the art style seems to scream of Disney. Clara even looks like a younger Ariel.
• Animated Adaptation
• Art Shift: The story in the middle.
• Award Bait Song: I'll Always Come Back To You
• Badass: The Mouse King.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The Mouse Queen herself.
• Berserk Button: Clara's doll Marie gets angry when her dress is dirtied. You wouldn't like her when she's angry.
  • Also, the Mouse King's tail. Attempting to foil his plans will annoy him; damaging his tail will automatically put you on his hit list.
• Canon Immigrant: Subverted with Fritz and Clara's older sister, Louise. She was in the original story by Hoffmann, but her role in it was so minimal that many fans believe she was an Original Character created for this movie.
• Coming of Age Story: Arguably, for Clara. She seems to be around 12-13 years old and still plays with dolls, but unlike Fritz she seems to be aware that she'll sooner or later become an adult; plus, people around her comment on how she's growing up fast AND she seems to be kinda jealous of her teenage sister Louise having a boyfriend. . . And then she gets her own adventure with the Nutcracker and other living toys, having to fend off the Mouse King's attacks with them. . . The point is made clear when Clara has to choose between staying in the Land of Sweets or going back home, and she chooses the second - and all the Living Toys, including the Nutcracker, turn back to lifeless ones. Out of all of them, only the Nutcracker is seen alive at the end - as Hans, who then officially becomes Clara's boyfriend in the real world.
• Cool Old Guy: Drosselmeier
• Cute Kitten: Pavlova!
• Determinator: The Mouse King. To the point where not even getting stabbed in the chest is able to stop him.
• Disney Death: When everyone turns to dolls after Clara refuses to stay, the Nutcracker can only watch helplessly as the Mouse King chases after Clara before he reverts back to a toy; he and all the other dolls eventually disappear. However, the next day Clara meets Hans, who's again Drosselmeier's nephew and is this world's version of the Prince. . .
• Disney Villain Death: The Mouse King. His death scene involves him plunging off the gingerbread balcony into the waters below, after making a final attempt to murder Clara.
  • Of course, there's a charming little scene before that of the Mouse King staggering after Clara, clutching a fatal wound in his chest and breathing raggedly, barely alive except for a single-minded determination to kill her. So the animators probably decided to go easy on the viewers a little with his death scene.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Mouse King wants revenge against the Nutcracker for the injury to his tail, not knowing it was an accident. He later expands his hatred to include Clara for stopping his vendetta, but mostly because she injured his tail again.
• Does Not Like Magic: The Mouse Queen's son sneers at his mother's spells.
• Duel to the Death: The Nutcracker does battle with the Mouse King in a one-on-one duel. No prizes for guessing who wins.
• Fantastic Romance: Clara and the Nutcracker Prince have buttloads of Ship Tease, even when he's... well, a toy. Subverted at the very end: when Clara goes to Drosslemeier's store, she meets his cute nephew Hans - actually the Prince, now back to a human.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The Mouse King.
• Happily Married: Carl and Ingrid have quite the age difference (as it was normal in these years), but they look pretty happy together.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Drosselmeier magically shrinks Clara so she can visit the Land of the Dolls.
• Insult Backfire

Clara: Why, you're cruel and mean. Mouse King: Your flattery won't stop me.

• Intergenerational Friendship: Fritz and Clara adore their "Uncle" Drosslemeier. He also seems to spoil Clara and treats her like a daughter.
• Lady and Knight: Clara is the Lady, the Nutcracker Prince is the Knight. The poster for the movie even shows them in a pose that strongly evokes the trope.
• Lighter and Softer: Than its source material, mostly because it tones down the incident where Clara/Marie is hurt by broken glass.
• Likable Villain: The Mouse King for some fans (especially on DA).
• Living Toys: The toys that magically come to life at night, including the Nutcracker himself.
• Mouse World: Some people and fans tend to view the mice from this.
• Mythology Gag: Clara's doll is named Marie, like the protagonist of the book.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Stahlbaum parents are only known by their last names in the book, but here they're named Carl and Ingrid.
• Nice Mice: Subverted as despite many of the mice are sillier than both the Mouse King and his mother, they are still loyal to their king and try to attack the toys.
• Ocular Gushers: The queen, after the mice eat all the cheese out of the blue cheese cake.
• Official Couple: Louise has a boyfriend named Erik, and both Clara and Fritz make fun of them. Clara seems to be a bit jealous of her, tho.
  • Logically, Clara and Hans.
• Or Was It a Dream?: It was not! And Clara gained life experience and a cute boyfriend out of the deal!
• Pajama-Clad Hero: Pretty much somewhat for most of the movie where Clara's scenes are. She's mostly clad in a night gown with bloomers from the first night scenes onward (it's briefly averted when she temporarily gains her ballet dress during the Gingerbread Castle scenes).
• Pink Means Feminine: Clara's hairbow, and her winter coat.
• Pretty in Mink: Clara's fur-trimmed winter coat she wears in the beginning of the movie before she entered her home, and at the end to go see Drosselmeier.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Revenge: The Mouse King himself wants vengeance - not for the obvious reason of his mother's death, but for his damaged tail.
• Royal Brat: The whole royal family.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Louise and Clara are younger versions of their mother Ingrid. Fritz also resembles her a little.
• Snow Means Love: Clara is reunited with the now back-to-humanity Hans during the snowy Christmas morning.
• Today X, Tomorrow the World!: A variation: The Mouse King himself, upon appearing while the toys begin to awaken, states, "Finally, revenge! Today, King of Mice, tonight King of Dolls, tomorrow...KING OF EVERYTHING!! Ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
• Twice Shy: Clara and Hans, at the very end. Drosslemeier thinks it's cute and walks out.
• You Dirty Rat