Disney is teasing a present to be unwrapped next holiday season and it’s one with darkness lurking within. That’s not just me projecting. Disney is promising a bit of edge in the preview nestled above.
Tuesday saw the reveal of the teaser trailer for Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (famously adapted into the immortal two-act ballet), the live-action offering showcases visions of elegant surroundings, passionate dance and Keira Knightly serving as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here’s how Disney describes the upcoming film.
All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift from her late mother. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Morgan Freeman) annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key—which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.
The teaser has some familiar touches for Disney (was that typeface on sale?) but also cautions that “the legend you know has a dark side” so that gets the mind racing. Chocolat helmer Lasse Hallström serves as director for the film which might inspire dreams of Hallström’s impressive stockpile of video work with ABBA.
Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 2, 2018.
