First there was The Polar Express in 2004. This year saw the release of A Christmas Carol. Next on Robert Zemickis’s list for animated Christmas tales? The Nutcracker.
Zemickis’s adaptation of the story of the nutcracker prince will be taken from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, rather than Tchaikovsky’s balletic interpretation (the form with which most people are more closely acquainted).
The film will focus on the war between the mice and the dolls, but will also seek to answer the question of the Nutcracker’s origin and explain the curse that turned him into a toy. The Nutcracker will also be made as a period piece, taking place in 19th century Russia, as in the original story.
The Nutcracker will, of course, be shot in the motion-capture animation style that Zemickis is turning into his trademark.
No production details have yet been released.
