The Nuttiest Nutcracker

***The Nuttiest Nutcracker*** is a 1999 direct-to-video CGI animated Christmas film loosely based on *The Nutcracker*, directed by Harold Harris and produced by Dan Krech Productions, starring the voices of Jim Belushi, Cheech Marin, and Phyllis Diller. This film tells about a group of fruit and veggies trying to help the Nutcracker's army get a star up on a Christmas tree before midnight, and stop a rodent army from destroying Christmas. The film was released in IMAX theaters overseas (Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Canada) in July 10, 1999 and on home video by Columbia TriStar Home Video in October 19, 1999. The film aired on CBS in December 4, 1999. The film was also shown on cable.

## Plot

On a snowy Christmas Eve, Marie (Debi Derryberry) and her brother Fritz (Derryberry) are home alone with their Uncle Drosselmeyer (Jim Cummings). Marie and Fritz's parents are away for the night and Marie is dismayed at having to spend Christmas Eve without them to the point that she wishes for it to go away forever.

A group of anthropomorphic nuts, Colonel (Jeff Bennett), Mac (Cheech Marin), Sparkle (Desirée Goyette), Stash (Kevin Schon) and Gramps (Cummings) overhear her plight, but become relieved at the scene of Uncle Drosselmeyer giving his niece and nephew Christmas gifts: a cannon for Fritz and a nutcracker doll for Marie. The nuts believe that the doll may be their prince (Cam Clarke) and proceed to tell Little Pea (Tress MacNeille), the youngest of the nuts, the story of how the nutcracker prince's relationship with a princess cursed by a mouse queen had turned him into a wooden figure, revealing that only true love will break the spell. Fritz takes the nutcracker and a chase up the ladder of the Christmas tree results in the doll falling hard to the floor. Upset by how "hurt" her nutcracker is, Marie turns Fritz away. She forgives her brother later in private, telling her nutcracker that out of all her gifts, she loves him the most. After kissing the doll on the lips, Marie becomes too tired and falls asleep in the couch.

The nuts have fallen asleep as well, unaware of being targeted by the mouse queen's son, Reginald (Jim Belushi). He plans to steal the Christmas star on the top of the tree and take over Christmas Kingdom. With his army of mice, he attempts to capture the nuts. The nuts fight toy soldiers, who prove no match against the mice. Mac stages a coup d'état with his own army of fruits and vegetables. The foods are eventually exhausted by fighting and Gramps is captured by three mice. Marie, awakened by the battle, sees her doll alive, fighting Reginald as she intervenes. Reginald is infatuated with Marie, who brushes the mouse off her foot using the Christmas star. However, as the foods celebrate their victory, Marie is magically reduced to nutcracker prince's height by Uncle Drosselmeyer.

The foods inform Marie that without the Christmas star, Christmas will be "gone forever". Fortunately, Marie still has the star. They head into the Sugar Plum Fairy's kingdom to seek help in getting the star back on the tree. However, just as the entourage reaches the fairy's castle, Reginald shows up and captures Marie. Imprisoned in the cheese foundry of Reginald's palace, Marie laments her failure to save Christmas and imagines herself slow dancing with the prince in a chapel to emotional music before she is summoned to Reginald, who offers to marry her. She refuses, but eventually sympathizes with the mouse king after learning nobody gave him a single Christmas gift.

The prince and the foods arrive at Reginald's palace, adamant on rescuing Marie and the others captured by Reginald's army. The foods are reluctant at first, but agree to sneak into the palace after noticing the prince's courage and the prince is reunited with Marie just after Reginald and his sergeant perform a dance number. Chaos ensues when Reginald overhears a black-eyed pea laughing at him for not winning Marie's heart; a chase on flying motorcycles made of crackers and olives follows suit. In the middle of it all, Reginald's palace starts to collapse inexplicably. After rescuing the foods, Reginald's vehicle runs out of fuel and he falls into the cheese river. Marie, having grown soft for the king, saves him, losing the star in the process. However, Reginald admits that it was "the first nice thing that anyone had ever done to him" and he produces the star to Marie.

The group arrives at the Sugar Plum Fairy's castle where she reveals that the Christmas star is able to grant any wish, including the power to bring Marie's parents home. After making her wish, Marie gently tosses the star to the ceiling and all goes to white. Marie wakes up to find her parents, including Marie's mother (Goyette), greeting her along with Uncle Drosselmeyer and a guest resembling the prince on Christmas morning. The film then ends with Marie and the prince sharing a kiss while Mac and the other nuts provide the mistletoe underneath them.

Following the end of the movie in the credits during the song "Keep The Faith", the Sugar Plum Fairy stops the ending sequence requesting the credits and thanks for her role in saving the Christmas Kingdom. This occurs three times with no apparent thanks before the movie ends with the last part of the song.

## Voice cast

* Debi Derryberry as Marie, the protagonist in a hot pink dress / Fritz, Marie's little brother

* Cam Clarke as the Prince, a nutcracker / Asparagus / Mouse Sergeant

* Jim Belushi as Reginald the Mouse King

* Cheech Marin as Mac the Macadamia nut

* Phyllis Diller as the Sugar Plum Fairy in a lavender fairy costume

* Desirée Goyette as Sparkle, a human nut in a cerulean blue dress / Marie's mother

* Tress MacNeille as Li'l Pea, a peanut kid / Broccoli Floret, a broccoli in a light hot pink tutu

* Jeff Bennett as Colonel, a peanut / Mouse Doctor / Mouse Soldier / Toy Soldier

* Jim Cummings as Uncle Drozzelmeyer / Gramps the Walnut

* Kevin Schon as Stash, a cashew with a news reporter hat

## Goofs/Errors

* The idea of adding anthropomorphic fruits, vegetables, and nuts in a Nutcracker story can get really confusing.

* Weak CGI animation, even for direct-to-video standards, to look like an old PSOne game, and it doesn't even help Softimage 3D to do that, the old animators of *VeggieTales* from 1993 to 1999 and Dan Krech, animated this using Alias Wavefront Maya.

* The story is a great idea, but it is not well-executed, and how the result of the story is nonsensical and frustratingly idiotic.

* Mediocre grasp of the source material.

* Marie is a bland and weak protagonist.

* By looking at the video cover, you will think the foods are the main characters, but when you watch the movie, it will turn out that Marie is technically the protagonist.

* Annoying characters (most of the time).

* The Nutcracker Prince doesn’t do much but fight the Mouse Army.

* While the character designs on the fruits and nuts are decent, they might look like rip-offs of *VeggieTales* characters.

* Weak humor.

* While the voice acting is good, it can be somewhat annoying at times.

* Forgettable musical numbers.

* A lot of useless filler that only exists to pad out the runtime.

## Trivia

* Good voice acting, particularly from Cheech Marin, Jim Belushi, and Phyllis Diller.

* Reginald is a likable character and an entertaining antagonist.

* The characters can actually be tolerable at times.

* The story was a wonderful idea, and will have been done better if actually well-executed.

* The animation does look nice in some parts.

* The character designs are okay, despite looking like rip-offs of the *VeggieTales* characters.

* Some funny parts here and there.

* It does teach valuable lessons in helping others and keeping a good attitude no matter how badly the things you wish worked out go.

* While most of the humor is weak, there are still some hilarious moments.

## Videos

Nuttiest NutcrackerThe behind the scenes footage of the movie.