Clara Stahlbaum (The Nutcracker Prince)

Clara Stahlbaum (or simply Clara) is the deuteragonist of LaceWood Productions' 1990 animated film The Nutcracker Prince. She's the youngest daughter of Dr. Carl and Mrs. Ingrid Stahlbaum, the younger sister of Louise, the older sister of Fritz and Hans' love interest. Clara is on the verge to growing up and dreams to travel the world in the grand ballet.
She's loosely based on Marie Stalhbaum from the german story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman, as well as Clara from Pyor Llinch Tchaikovsky's ballet adaptation, but unlike the Hoffman story in which the protagonist stays with The Nutcracker in the Land of Sweets, in the animated film she refuses the Nutcracker's proposal due to his wishes to growing up and do other things on her life, although at the end of the film, she reunites with him in his now human form.
She is voiced by .
==Background==
===Personality===
Clara is optimistic and kind, and is very affectionate with The Nutcracker. Although she started out as childlike and independent, she later matures halfway through the film, leading up to the point where after her dance with the Nutcracker, she explains to him and the dolls that she wants to grow up and be a ballet dancer. Sometimes, Clara can also be upset, for example, when her sister Louise has a boyfriend in Erik (a romance she was jealous of), when Clara throws a hissy fit at one point with her little brother Fritz after he breaks the Nutcracker, and later when she finds the Nutcracker gone after returning home from the Land of the Dolls. A few times, Clara can be cheered up afterward, especially by her godfather Uncle Drosselmeyer and at the end when the Nutcracker returns as a human.
While in the Land of the Dolls after the Nutcracker offers Clara to stay with him, Clara gets upset and sad, fearing that her family would miss her and that she might live on lemonade and candy instead of becoming a ballet dancer like she wants to, which triggers all the toys to become lifeless again, much to her worries. She also shows distrust and fear of the Mouse King, and becomes very protective in the first battle when she throws her slipper to stop him from burning the Nutcracker.
===Appearance===
Clara has fair skin, blue eyes, and auburn hair.
==Role in the film ==
Clara's story begins when she is giving gifts to several residents in her town on Christmas Eve. She and her little brother Fritz begin to race each other to the Christmas party, and along the way, they visit their godfather Drosselmeier, even though they refer to them as "Uncle Drosselmeier". He promises them that he will come to the party with his nephew. The two children resume racing each other to the party, and Clara wins the race as they eventually make it to their house, where their older sister Louise, their parents Ingrid and Carl, and their kitten Pavlova are waiting. Clara is jealous that Louise has a boyfriend, and is feeling upset about it and wondering about growing up, but she also teases her about it and mimics her confessions. When the siblings open their Christmas presents, Clara receives a Southern Belle doll that she names "Marie" and a pair of ballerina slippers. Eventually, party guests arrive including Louise's boyfriend Erik, and Clara retrieves Pavlova from the banquet after one of Fritz's toy cannonballs distracts Pavlova to go under the table. Clara is still suspicious of Louise and Erik's relationship when she sees them flirt with each other. Later, Drosselmeier comes to the party and presents an automated toy castle that he invented to Clara and Fritz. They find it wonderful, but Fritz quickly loses interest and prefers his new toy soldiers. Then Clara sees a mysterious nutcracker under the Christmas tree, which is given to her by Drosselmeier as a gift. She appreciates the gift, so Drosselmeier teaches Clara how the Nutcracker works by cracking a walnut between the object's teeth. Unfortunately, Fritz snatches the Nutcracker out of Clara's hands and breaks the jaw with one of his toy cannonballs. Clara scolds her brother for it and is now heartbroken, so Drosselmeier cheers her up by telling her a story about his nephew Hans, who was cursed by the evil Mouse Queen to become the same nutcracker. After the whole story is finished, Clara finds it terrible because of its ending, but Drosselmeier reassures her that Hans will rule over the Land of the Dolls as prince and that he will break his spell if he defeats the Mouse Queen's son, the Mouse King, and wins the hand of a fair maiden. Clara just sees it as only a fairy tale.
Later that night after everyone goes to bed, Clara is unable to sleep and sneaks downstairs to check on the Nutcracker in the toy cabinet. She introduces him to her dolls Marie, Trudy and general Pantaloon, along with Fritz's set of toy soldiers. Recalling some of Louise's words to Erik from earlier, Clara then dances with the Nutcracker and sings to the tune of "Waltz of the Flowers" until Pavlova interrupts. As she decides to go back to bed and puts the Nutcracker away, Drosselmeier's ghost appears above the grandfather clock, much to her surprise, and an army of mice arrives, led by the evil Mouse King, who is seeking revenge on the Nutcracker for crushing his tail. Drosselmeier brings all the toys in the cabinet to life, including the Nutcracker himself, who was stuck as a doll since his curse. Clara is astonished that the dolls are alive, but then she witnesses the battle between the toy army and the Mouse King's soldiers. However, as the Mouse King prepares to slash the Nutcracker with his sword and burn him alive, Clara steps in and throws her slipper at him, saving the Nutcracker's life. The Mouse King's rear is caught on fire by the candle he tried to use, causing him to retreat from the living room in defeat, but then Clara accidentally slips on a toy cannonball, falls backwards and hits her head on the glass of the grandfather clock, knocking herself unconscious for the rest of the night.
The next morning on Christmas, Clara awakes in bed with a bandage around her head. While she is recovering from her injury, Fritz gives her a box of chocolates, which were half-eaten by him, much to Clara's disgust. Clara tells him about last night and that there were mice everywhere in the living room, including the Mouse King, whom she describes as a huge one that is as mean and ugly as a rat. Fritz does not believe her, but is called downstairs by Ingrid. After Clara puts the chocolates away in her nightstand drawer, Drosselmeier returns with a newly repaired Nutcracker (now back in toy form), which he gives back to Clara. She accuses Drosselmeier of putting his nephew in danger, but he replies that he is not the one to break the spell. Ingrid comes to her room to take the Nutcracker, and Clara unsuccessfully tries to tell her that there was a battle between the dolls and the mice last night, but her mother tells her that she needs to rest some more so she can recover from her head injury, and leaves to put the Nutcracker back in the cabinet as Drosselmeier promises Clara that he will keep an eye out on him before leaving as well, much to Clara's disappointment as she hears her mother and Drosselmeier talk and she takes her bandage off.
Later on night as Clara is sleeping, the Mouse King returns in her bedroom and hands back her slipper, angry about what she did to him last time. Clara tells the mouse it was not her fault that she set fire to his tail, but says that she just had to stop him from hurting the Nutcracker. The Mouse King retorts that he was about to burn the doll into ashes. In response, Clara angrily calls the Mouse King "cruel and mean", which amuses the mouse so much he calls Clara's insult "flattery" and says it will not stop him from carrying out his revenge mission. Then the Mouse King continues to ramble on to Clara about how he plans to take out the Nutcracker to fulfill his revenge, but when he turns to go do so, Clara prevents him while begging, and distracts him by offering the same chocolates that she put in the drawer. The rodent goes into the drawer to eat them, and Clara slams it shut and traps him inside, injuring his tail which is sticking out from the drawer, thus angering him as he swears his vengeance on Clara.
Clara rushes downstairs to retrieve the Nutcracker from the toy cabinet and tries to hide him from the Mouse King's sight, but before she can get out the door, it is suddenly closed shut by the Mouse King himself, who managed to make his way out of the drawer, preventing Clara from going back. The Mouse King confronts Clara and orders her to hand over the Nutcracker, but Clara refuses, prompting the large rodent to take Pavlova instead. Clara intervenes and reluctantly gives in, and summons Drosselmeier to bring the Nutcracker and the other toys back to life. Drosselmeier's ghost reappears and does so. The Nutcracker asks for a sword, so Clara decides to give him the sword that belongs to Pantaloon as the Mouse King and his entire army make fun of the Nutcracker. Clara tells the Nutcracker to be careful, to which he replies by reminding her not to worry. However, to Clara's horror, the Mouse King sneaks up on the Nutcracker from behind and strikes him on the shoulder with his sword. The two engage in a duel as Clara witnesses it worried for the Nutcracker's life. The fight rages on and continues to the top of the Christmas tree, but just as the Mouse King prepares to strike the killing blow, the Nutcracker thrusts Pantaloon's sword into his chest and stabs him, fatally wounding him. Clara is shocked to hear the screams of pain, but after the Mouse King's body falls down from the tree and the Nutcracker comes back down, Clara is amazed to see that the Nutcracker has survived the duel when he defeated the rodent ruler, saying that she was awfully frightened. However, Pantaloon was also damaged in a brief fight with the Mouse King, so the other dolls decide that they must take him to the Land of the Dolls to nurse him back to health, although Clara had never thought that place exists. The only way to go there is through a portal inside Drosselmeier's toy castle, but Clara says that she is too big to fit in, so Drosselmeier uses his magic to shrink her down to doll size. Pavlova pleads for Clara to stay, but Clara promises her kitten she will come back and not stay in the fantasy land much longer. She departs with the Nutcracker and the other dolls as Pavlova looks on dejected, and they go inside the toy castle.
While inside the toy castle, they enter the portal that leads them to the Land of the Dolls, which Clara is delighted at for its sights and wonders. She and the Nutcracker meet two swans, whom the latter introduces as Hero and Leander, and they go on a flight on one swan through a snowy forest with Christmas trees, with Pantaloon and Trudy riding the other swan and Marie fearfully riding a duck. The swans approach the Gingerbread Castle, and fly through a magical waterfall which gives Clara and the Nutcracker new attire and heals Pantaloon. They eventually make it to the castle where a guard greets Clara and the Nutcracker and leads them to the court.
Soon, as they enter the castle, the Nutcracker is hailed a hero by the cheering toy subjects. He and Clara share a beautiful "pas de deux" dance together, a defining moment for their relationship. After their dance, the Nutcracker kneels to Clara and offers her to stay with him as his princess and rule the Land of the Dolls together with him for eternity. Clara is delighted at first and praises him and the fantasy world, but upon realizing the real world needs her, she becomes doubtful about the Nutcracker's hand in marriage. She rejects his offer by saying that even though she loves him and everyone in the Land of the Dolls and sees it as a wonderful place, she wants to grow up and do other things like joining a ballet, and that she cannot stay in this world forever. However, this negates the magic that animated all the dolls, and they revert to lifeless toys. Clara becomes shocked at it, and as she desperately tries to make amends with them and panics about leaving the real world and her family behind, she turns around to see the crazed wounded Mouse King, who suddenly appears before her! Clara flees from the enraged gigantic mouse in horror, and he gives chase with his dying strength in an attempt to attack her. The Nutcracker attempts to intervene and save Clara, but is unsuccessful as he transforms back into a wooden nutcracker. Clara sees some food on the banquet table, and tries to ward off the Mouse King by throwing a pie and a tray of cupcakes at him, but it infuriates the wrathful rodent even further. Clara eventually lures the Mouse King to the gingerbread balcony, and after having run out of cupcakes, she tosses the now-empty tray at him, but to no avail while the vicious mouse closes in on her. As the Mouse King raises his sword to kill Clara, he finally starts to expire and loses his footing, his body toppling towards Clara, and they both fall off the balcony, but Clara barely survives and manages to hold on for dear life, leaving the Mouse King to plummet into the river below and die. Clara climbs back up to find everyone in the castle now gone as mist fills the room. She tearfully calls for the Nutcracker to come back, but the fog continues to fill up the castle as the Land of the Dolls turns black and eventually shuts down and she continues crying out louder for the Nutcracker.
Clara wakes up the next morning in the real world, and finds herself back in bed when Fritz excitedly tells her about an ugly mouse that Pavlova discovered near the toy castle, who seemingly happens to be the now-dead Mouse King. Clara promptly bolts out of her bed and runs downstairs to the toy cabinet to check if the Nutcracker is okay, but to her horror, he is now gone! Panicking over the Nutcracker's disappearance, she rushes outside to Drosselmeier's toy shop for help, and begs her godfather to know if the Nutcracker was really his nephew and if the Mouse King was real, until she sees a figure carry a clock to the shop. The figure is revealed to be Drosselmeier's nephew Hans, who is actually the Nutcracker after his spell is broken as he is now back as a human. He reunites with Clara and greets her, to which Clara responds by greeting back and still calling him "Nutcracker" because of his familiarity.
==Relationships==
==Gallery==
==Trivia== 
*In both the original story and the ballet which it was based on, Clara's real name was Marie Stahlbaum and Clara was the name of her doll. It's usual that in every adaptation to the original fairy tale, the protagonist's name changes to the one of her doll.
*In some point of the movie, when Clara trips on the clock after she throws one of her slippers to the Mouse King, it seems that he is wearing both slippers, instead of having one slipper.
*Clara's design bears a strong resemblance to Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise.
**Coincidentally, Dorette Hugo, Ariel's voice actress in the German dub of The Little Mermaid also voiced Clara in the German dub of The Nutcracker Prince.
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