Review of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) by Gabriel D — 03 Nov 2018

"The Four Realms" follows in the footsteps of every live-action Disney adaptation in the last decade-courtesy of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland"-with a lavish, unnecessarily dark, grim, and gritty production style that, once again, doesn't mesh too well with the material being worked with.

This reimaging is short on the simple wonder and magic popping throughout Hoffman's story, instead twisting the straightforward conflict between Clara's good and the Mouse King's evil into a subversive adaptation that's all the worse for it.

With a scrambled new story that's too simple for adults, and occasionally too scary for children, it doesn't reinvent the two-century-old wheel, but rather files its corners down to a flat, unmoving square.