Introducing The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Disney completely surprised everyone with their footage of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Before D23Expo, I never even knew that Disney was making a new Nutcracker movie. What we saw was beautiful and very fantasy like. It takes place in a strange and mysterious parallel world.  It is inspired by E.T.A Hoffmann’s classic tale. The Parallel world is home to the Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. But it’s the ominous Fourth Realm where Clara must take on a tyrant called Mother Ginger as well as a gang of mice who’ve stolen a coveted key from Clara.

ANAHEIM, CA – JULY 15: President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey took part today in the Walt Disney Studios live action presentation at Disney’s D23 EXPO 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney) *** Local Caption *** Sean Bailey

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms stars Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Clara is played by newcomer Mackenzie Foy and Helen Mirren is Mother Ginger, while none other than Morgan Freeman is the godfather Drosselmeyer. There will be a special performance by the famous dancer Misty Copeland.

Sean Bailey said, “The Mouse King is made up of thousands of mice—a cutting-edge CG creation. But we wanted him to move in a way that would be wonderfully surprising and incredibly cool, so we called on Lil Buck to provide the style of dance that defines the character. He is so talented and the way he makes this character move is unbelievable.”

We were lucky enough to see Lil Buck dance for us. Los Angeles-based dancer Lil Buck hit the stage at D23 Expo 2017 to demonstrate the kind of street dancing—called jookin—that informed the way his character moves in the film. The performance earned a standing ovation because he was amazing. His dance moves put Michael Jackson’s moonwalk to shame. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as he was dancing across the stage. My body would never move like that. I had to search for you guys so you could see what he looked like as we weren’t allowed to take pictures or video during this panel.

ANAHEIM, CA – JULY 15: Dancer Lil Buck of THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS took part today in the Walt Disney Studios live action presentation at Disney’s D23 EXPO 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS will be released in U.S. theaters on November 2, 2018. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney) *** Local Caption *** Lil Buck