Clara Drosselmeyer

**Clara Drosselmeyer** is the main character in *Barbie in the Nutcracker.*

After receiving a Nutcracker from Aunt Elizabeth for Christmas, Clara's parlor is ambushed by the Mouse King and his army. Clara tries to fight them, but she is shrunk by the king's magic to the size of a mouse. In order to be transformed back to her full size, Clara must embark on an expedition to find the Sugar Plum Princess - a powerful fairy who possesses the powers to return Clara back to her normal size. Her love interest is King Eric, who she is separated from and later reunited with at the end of the story.

## Story

Clara is a Russian orphan. Her parents died when she and her little brother Tommy were very young, so they were raised by their Grandfather Drosselmeyer. When we first see Clara in the movie, she is a teenager who wishes she could go on adventures like her aunt, Elizabeth. Elizabeth came to stay with Clara on Christmas Eve, so she gave Clara a Christmas present: a nutcracker doll. Tommy wanted to play with the nutcracker, but while he was trying to take it from Clara, he broke the nutcracker’s arm. Clara fixed the arm and later fell asleep on the sofa in her parlor, with the nutcracker standing on the floor.

At midnight, magic occurred in the parlor: Magic came out of a mouse hole in the parlor; a portal to and from another world, Parthenia, opened in the mouse hole; and Clara's nutcracker became animated, as well as an owl atop the clock which belonged to Clara's grandfather. An army of mice entered the parlor through the mouse hole, so when Nutcracker saw the mice, he immediately ran to attack them with his sword. Clara woke up to see the battle, thinking she was still dreaming. To her shock, more mice came out of the hole, with their king, the Mouse King. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King began to battle, so Clara tried to help Nutcracker by attempting to trap the Mouse under a vase. Unfortunately, the Mouse King used his magic scepter to make Clara the size of a mouse.

Nutcracker protected Clara and fought the Mouse King and his army, and Clara helped by flinging her shoe at the Mouse King, knocking him unconscious. His army took their king back through the mouse hole. Nutcracker informed Clara that only the Sugar Plum Princess could reverse the Mouse King’s shrinking spell on Clara and that he himself was a victim of the Mouse King’s magic - he was not always a nutcracker doll. The owl from on top of her grandfather's clock wanted to help Clara and the Nutcracker, so she swooped down to them. The owl told Clara that she could find the Sugar Plum Princess in Parthenia, on an island across the Sea of Storms. Clara didn't want to go, but she had no choice if she wanted to get rid of the Mouse King’s spell. The owl gave Clara a locket from a Christmas decoration and was instructed to open it once she found the Sugar Plum Princess. Then, Clara would return home to her normal size.

Clara put on the locket and went through the mouse hole with Nutcracker. After a few steps, she and Nutcracker fell into the portal leading to Parthenia, but they landed in a cave made of ice. A young snow fairy appeared, and bumped into Nutcracker’s chest, hurting her wing. Clara fixed the fairy’s wing, and the fairy left and came back with more, older snow fairies. The fairies danced for Clara and opened an entrance from the ice cave to the land of Parthenia. Clara and Nutcracker talked about the Sugar Plum Princess, but the Mouse King’s spy, a bat named Pimm, overheard them. Pimm informed the Mouse King, who had never heard of the princess before. Clara and Nutcracker arrived at the Gingerbread Village, where they met two children, the Peppermint Girl and the Gingerbread Boy, and a horse named Marzipan. The children told Clara and Nutcracker that the Mouse King’s army had gotten rid of everything and everyone in the village.

The Gingerbread Boy blamed Prince Eric, the son of the king who had ruled before the Mouse King took over, for the destruction of the village. The king had left his throne and golden scepter to his then advisor, the Mouse King until Eric was ready to be king. The Mouse King enjoyed being king, so he took over Parthenia, and Eric disappeared. Clara and Nutcracker decided to take the children with them until they could find them a safe place to stay. The four of them traveled with Marzipan until they saw the Mouse King’s army carrying away things from the Gingerbread Village. Marzipan ran away, and the army noticed Clara and the others, so the army began to chase them.

Clara told the group to follow her into the forest, where they were rescued by people in the Treetop Village. Major Mint and Captain Candy, two of the villagers, found Clara and Nutcracker to be very suspicious and began questioning them. Clara told Major Mint that they were looking for the Sugar Plum Princess, which Captain Candy believed, whilst Major Mint was cynical about it. The Captain managed to convince Major Mint to help Clara and Nutcracker find the princess, so they would leave the next day. Meanwhile, the Mouse King found a description of the Sugar Plum Princess, but it was very basic, merely describing her as 'kind, clever and brave'. Frustrated by this bland clue, he decided to send something to destroy Nutcracker before he could find her, so he used a spell to make a rock pillar into a giant, and ordered it to crush Nutcracker.

Clara said goodnight to the Gingerbread Boy and the Peppermint Girl before they went to sleep, as she would be leaving them in the Treetop Village for their own safety. She went to talk to Nutcracker outside. She told him she knew he was really Prince Eric, and he told her that he didn't want to be the prince, he just wanted the Parthenians to be happy. The next day, Clara, Nutcracker, Captain Candy, and Major Mint set off on their expedition to find the princess, led by the Major. They crossed some floating stepping stones, and Major Mint ordered Clara and Nutcracker to find supplies while he and Captain Candy made a boat to cross the Sea of Storms. They came across a valley which the Mouse King had destroyed, where they found some flower faeries. The faeries thought Clara was beautiful, and they danced for her and made the valley lush and healthy again. However, the rock giant arrived and began to terrorize everyone.

The snow fairies helped everyone by freezing the Sea of Storms, and they led Marzipan back to Clara and the others. Everyone got into Marzipan’s sleigh, and they began to cross the frozen sea, but the rock giant followed them. Nutcracker broke some ice with his sword, so the giant fell into the sea. After that, the group still had trouble crossing the sea because it became foggy. Pimm, who had been secretly riding on the back of the sleigh, told the Mouse King that Nutcracker had defeated the rock giant. Meanwhile, Major Mint thought it would be too dangerous to continue crossing the sea because of the fog. Clara got out of the sleigh and saw that the island was not far away. When they had all reached the island, they eventually found the Sugar Plum Princess’s castle. Nutcracker, Major Mint and Captain Candy walked towards the castle, but it turned out to be a trap, and they were caged and taken to the Mouse King’s palace. However, Clara had managed to getaway.

Clara was left alone with no way of getting off the island until the flower fairies came to her rescue. They carried a seat made of leaves for Clara, so Clara sat on it and they flew her to the Palace of Sweets. Clara crept into the palace, and the fairies quickly left to encourage the Parthenians to stand up to the Mouse King, which Pimm overheard and informed the king about. The Mouse King demanded that every villager and fairies be rounded up and brought to the palace courtyard to witness him finally destroy Nutcracker in a bonfire.

Clara looked around the palace until she found a dungeon, which appeared empty, but Clara was clever and realized there was an invisible wall that was hiding Nutcracker, Captain Candy and Major Mint. Clara smashed the wall, and they all went to the courtyard. Nutcracker and the Mouse King fought against each other, but when Clara tried to help, the Mouse King tried to use a spell on her to make her even smaller. The Nutcracker used his sword to reflect the spell back onto the Mouse King, and so the Mouse King was shrunk and his scepter was destroyed. The Mouse jumped in the sewers. The Nutcracker was knocked to his feet with the impact of reflecting the spell, and Clara was very worried about him. She kissed him, which magically reversed the Mouse King’s spell on the Nutcracker, turning him back into Prince Eric. Captain Candy and Major Mint were shocked, and, but Clara's kiss made Eric realize that Clara was the Sugar Plum Princess.

Eric told Clara that she had been the Sugar Plum Princess for the entire time because it made sense that she had saved everyone several times, and she had reversed the Mouse's magic. Clara had broken all of the Mouse’s evil enchantments, so the Palace of Sweets transformed to how it had been before the Mouse had taken over. Eric was free to take his rightful place as King, and the Parthenians were all so happy that they forgive Eric, and everyone celebrated by dancing. Clara and Eric shared a romantic dance together, and afterward, he asked her to stay in Parthenia instead of going home, so she could be his Queen. Clara agreed, because she felt at home in Parthenia, and she kissed Eric again.

However, Pimm and the Mouse swooped by and snatched Clara’s locket. The Mouse opened it, so Clara automatically had to go home. Clara faded away before Eric could tell her he loved her, leaving him distraught, and Clara woke up on the sofa in her parlor. Clara couldn't find her Nutcracker doll anywhere, but Aunt Elizabeth came into the parlor with the son of a dear friend of her's she had run into when she was taking her morning stroll: Eric. Eric had been invited by Elizabeth to stay for Christmas dinner, which Clara thought was a wonderful idea. Clara and Eric were left alone, so Eric gave Clara her locket and they danced together.

## Personality and Powers

*"You are the Sugar Plum Princess! It all makes sense; you saved me from the Mouse King in your parlor, you rescued us from his dungeon, your bravery led to his defeat and... your kiss has broken his spell."*
—Prince Eric.
Clara is kind, clever, and brave. She is reluctant at first to go to Parthenia, as her grandfather has probably sheltered her, and she has never been allowed to travel with her aunt.

## Relationships

### Family, and Family Friends

Clara's grandfather is a strict man, but he cares about his grandchildren. Clara does not seem to be able to really talk to her grandfather, though, and is closer to her aunt Elizabeth. Her aunt is a fun and interesting woman to Clara, and Clara enjoys hearing about her travels. She wants to travel with her aunt but knows her grandfather would never allow it because he wants Clara to stay at home. Clara considers Elizabeth her favorite aunt, and possibly a mother figure, seeing as her own mother is gone.

Clara and her snarky brother Tommy have a typical brother-sister relationship; they squabble a lot, and one of their squabbles leads to Tommy breaking Clara's Christmas gift: her Nutcracker. He does show that he is guilty, and says he is sorry, but in the morning he just refers to the Nutcracker as a hunk of wood and says "Why would *I* want him?", showing that may not have been sorry about breaking the Nutcracker after all (and was possibly just more afraid of getting in trouble, as the purchaser of the gift saw it break, and his grandfather is, of course, very strict).

Also, Clara is able to talk to the family maid in a casual way and was never shown giving the maid any orders, but rather treating her like an acquaintance.

### Other Relationships

Clara is a kind girl who is easily capable of befriending people. She is treated nicely by the faeries of Parthenia, and they help her throughout her journey. She was also quickly accepted by Marzipan, the horse, and Marzipan allowed Clara to stroke her. Clara showed, when she met the Gingerbread Boy and the Peppermint Girl, that she prefers to resolve conflicts through peaceful conversation rather than physical violence; instead of attacking the children with snowballs, Clara picked up the girl's doll and gave it back to her, winning the girl's, as well as the boy's trust. Also, when the Mouse King was invading her parlor, she was most likely going to just trap him in the vase she was holding, rather than kill him.

The Major and the Captain were not very close to Clara, but they never seemed to dislike her either. The Major not seem to think he needed to treat her with too much respect (as he was unaware that she was the Sugar Plum Princess, and though the princess did not exist altogether). The Major and the Captain were interested in assisting Clara and the Nutcracker on the expedition to find the Sugar Plum Princess, however, showing they meant well.

The Mouse King did not seem to find Clara to be too much of a threat, but more of an obstacle. He only used her to get information about the Nutcracker from Pimm, as he was intent on defeating Nutcracker.

## Physical Appearance

Clara is a teenager with light skin and blue eyes. She has long, straight, shiny blonde hair. She is the same height as her aunt Elizabeth, who said that Clara had grown several inches taller since she had last seen her.

### Party Gown

For a party, Clara wore a detailed purple gown. The bodice has a square collar and is trimmed with white crisscrossing braid and butterfly shapes where the lines meet. There is a lace trim above her chest. She has three quarter length sleeves that end just below her elbow. The sleeves have three layers of sheer, white, ruffled material and a white bow below the elbow. The skirt is full and she wears white stockings and purple heeled shoes. Her hair is half up and half down.

#### Nightdress

Clara's nightdress is light pink. It has long sleeves, and the skirt goes past her knees. The top of the dress is an empire cut that sits just below her chest, and there is white lace trim on the center of the bodice. There is a white band at the bottom of the bodice, sitting just below her chest. The shoulders are puffy and the sleeves are tight, ending in white lace. The skirt has two bands of white lace running just above her knees. She wears white slippers with a low heel. After shrinking, Clara wears a heart-shaped locket.

#### Sugar Plum Princess Attire

When Clara transforms into the Sugar Plum Princess, her hair becomes wavy and tightly curled. She wears a gold tiara on her head, and a glittering ballet dress. The bodice of the dress is glittery and pale pink with sheer, ruffled trimming. The tutu is full and a darker shade of pink. She wears white tights and pink pointed shoes.