Nice, Brief Introduction to ‘Nutcracker’

To all those sincere, affectionate community productions of “The Nutcracker,” we may now add a sincere, affectionate screen version, “The IMAX Nutcracker.” Clearly intended as a fuzzy-warm Christmas evergreen for children, it makes tasteful use of 3-D cinematography and avoids any startling special effects, dark themes or, for that matter, a ballet company.

Although E.T.A. Hoffmann’s early 19th century fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” is most familiar nowadays as a story ballet, this brief outing of less than 40 minutes sticks to a more ordinary, not to say pedestrian, mode of storytelling. The movie offers a lovingly told narrative--accompanied somewhat haphazardly by the lush music of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite”--about 8-year-old Clara’s visit to Uncle Drosselmeier’s house with her brother and her parents one snowy winter day in London and the fantastic events that befall her on the way home.

Drosselmeier, played by a monocled Heathcote Williams with the slightly ferocious stare of someone mildly possessed, is no ordinary boring uncle. He’s a gadget collector who has filled his well-appointed home with antique marvels: dolls and puppets, music boxes, toy soldiers, marionettes and, the piece de resistance of his collection, a miniature castle made of spun sugar that must be kept under glass to protect it from mice. Of course, Drosselmeier also has a wonderful Christmas present for Clara: a very dignified Nutcracker carved out of wood to look like a Hussar in a flamboyant red-white-and-blue officer’s uniform.

Despite its brevity, the movie manages to go slack midway through the story, following the imaginary battle between the Nutcracker’s troops and the Mouse King’s. And it loses its narrative drive altogether during Clara’s dreamscape voyage to the Sugar Palace with her handsome escort, the Nutcracker, who has been magically transformed into a young prince. But young viewers probably won’t notice. Clara’s stagy boat ride on billowing clouds of dry ice is not likely to discourage their fantasies any more than it does hers.

The action picks up again nicely at the palace, where she and the prince are greeted by Sugar Plum and a circus troupe of tumblers, stilt-walkers, clowns and, at last, the Sugar Fairy, a slim ballerina doing an exquisite series of pique turns. When all is said, moreover, “The IMAX Nutcracker” evokes a poetic mood that requires only a short attention span, making it ideal as an intimate introduction for young children to a wholesome Christmas tradition.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: suitable for children.

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‘The IMAX Nutcracker’

Miriam Margoyles: Sugar Plum

Heathcote Williams: Drosselmeier

Lotte Johnson: Clara

Benjamin Hall: The Nutcracker Prince

Harriet Thorpe: Mother

Patrick Pearson: Father

Daniel Wylie: Frederick

Tamara Rojo: The Sugar Fairy

A Sands Films production, released by the IMAX Corp. Director Christine Edzard. Producers Olivier Stockman, Lorne Orleans. Executive producer Andrew Gellis. Screenplay by Christine Edzard, based on “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Stereographer & camera operator Noel Archambault. Costumes Claudie Gastine, Sabine Dutilh and Sadie Frederick. Music by Tchaikovsky, arranged by Michael Sanvoisin. Production design and art direction Annabel Hands, Neale Brown and John McMillan. Running time: 37 minutes.

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* Exclusively at Edwards Imax 3-D Theatre, Irvine Spectrum, 65 Fortune, Irvine, (714) 450-4900; and Edwards 3-D Imax Theatre, Ontario Mills Mall, (909) 481-4442.