‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’ Trailer: Disney Takes You On a Fantastical Family Adventure

the nutcracker and the four realms trailer

Every girl dreams of magical worlds populated by Sugar Plum Fairies, toy soldiers, ballerinas, and gangs of mice, but Mackenzie Foy gets to be the girl who stumbles upon one. In The Nutcracker and The Four Realms, the Interstellar actress plays Clara, a young girl who is swept up into a majestic fantasy world while she is searching for a precious key made by her mother. But upon her arrival, she finds that this beautiful parallel world is threatened by an evil tyrant, Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren). And naturally, Clara is the only one who can save it. And the newest The Nutcracker and The Four Realms trailer reveals just why.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Trailer

E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King gets a Disney action-packed makeover with The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which transforms the classic fairy tale into a swords-and-sorcery adventure. The whole story is a hodgepodge of fantasy and mythology influences: everything from the myth of the Minotaur, The Chronicles of Narnia, to Disney’s own action-fantasy adaptation of Alice in Wonderland get a nod in the latest trailer for The Nutcracker and The Four Realms. It’s all a bit jumbled and disconcerting, but hey Keira Knightley’s dress sure looks pretty, doesn’t it?

And in true Disney fashion, we can’t have a trailer without a creepy reimagining of a beloved song. This time it’s…No Doubt’s “Just a Girl”? I’m hearing that correctly, right? It’s a strange choice, but I guess the more-fitting “Pure Imagination” has already been overused in the trailer industry this year.

The story follows young Clara, whose godfather Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman) presents her with a golden thread at an annual holiday party that will lead her to a precious key from her mother. But at the end of the thread, she finds herself in a parallel world that was once ruled and created by her mother. At the behest of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Knightley) and a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), Clara embarks on a journey across the Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers, Land of Sweets, and the Fourth Realm to save the world from the tyrant Mother Ginger (Mirren). Misty Copeland also appears as The Ballerina, in an homage to the ballet adapted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The cast is rounded out by Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Miranda Hart, Sergei Polunin, Omid Djalili, Jack Whitehall, Meera Syal, and Ellie Bamber.

Here is the synopsis to The Nutcracker and The Four Realms:

All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift. 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 Nutcracker and the Four Realms is directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston, and inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms opens in theaters on November 2, 2018.