Disclaimer: I claim no copyright over this song or the movie it's from If I have to provide commentary, then the movie is really bad, but the song is good and very catchy
That's something we can agree on. Just have a corny, over-the-top movie about mutated rat-people that rule the world instead of promoting it as The Nutcracker and giving it a PG rating when it literally has WWII references and disturbing imagery.
I like the idea! The setting would be after a major nuclear war that killed off all hunan life. Due to radiation, the animal life begin to evolve and get smarter until eventually creating their own civilization. The rats would be considered weak by the other races. Then one day, the rats would unclover an old history museum or something and learnt about ww2 and the Germans. They would then begin to fashion themselves after the N_zis and trainning themselves with the old world military tactics. After everything was set they would start conquering and dominate the other races.
What really bugs me is that they chose a jazz style song for the villain, and the Nazi’s hated jazz music. They considered it degenerate music (if I remember correctly from history class)
They also gave the Rat King a distinctive Andy Warhol look. And the part where he kills a shark is a reference to the famous work by Damien Hirst which is called ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’. So the director puts together all the things he detests: jazz (popular music as opposed to Tchaikovsky music), contemporary art (as opposed to pre-war Vienna and Christmas tree) and the Nazis (as something absolutely evil). And yep, it’s purely artistic choice of director Andrey Konchalovsky. In Russia he is known for both conservative views and the sympathy for classical European culture,
Another piece of this cross-cultural jigsaw: in Soviet propaganda there was always an image of evil capitalistic enemy living disgusting Western life. Among the main signs of this lifestyle were comic books, jazz music (there was also a verse "He who plays jazz today will sell his homeland to enemy tomorrow") and contemporary abstract art (for some vague reasons). Yeah, the Nutcracker 3D was made in late 2000s, long after the USSR breakdown. However, to that moment Konchalovsky was 73 years old. And he is certainly connected to all this Soviet propaganda stuff because all his family was involved in propaganda. Konchalovsky's father even wrote lyrics for the hymn of Soviet Union!
@@tomasstitny2275 So he's a grouchy old communist. "In MY day, the dictators were taken seriously! We didn't have to suppress fucking CRAB MEMES." "It's okay grandpa. Just lay back and think of the global proletariat revolution."
just to nitpick the plot is in the 20s in vienna , their uniform resemble more the late ww1 uniform (infact still use the m 1916 helmet) , mixed to the weimar later uniforms. however. i think the idea was more than representing nazis, they represent the fear of war returning, in the first scene they appear in this form a guy hold a newspaper speaking about a peace treaty with the rats. This is at least from the costume point of view, coreography wise the rat king specialy during the song rattification took reference from an austrian painter that for reasons screamed to crowds
This movie is still crappy, but hot dang is this song catchy! And John Turturro's singing and dancing is so good! Especially at 0:56! That actually brought a smile to my face.
"You know, Hans, I think he has remarkable musical stylings. Why do we hate jazz again?" "Because OUR Fuhrer is bad at it, Dieter." "Can we switch Reichs?" "Bit late. No takesies-backsies-Reichsies."
If they wanted Nazi-looking villains, that's fine. A lot of pieces of media have the bad guys look like Nazis and/or have similar facist views, it'd whatever. But to put it in The Nutcracker, let alone a children's movie, is so incredibly stupid. I actually dig the look of the Rat's. The king gives a fun performance and the buildings are imposing. Again though, don't put this in a children's movie!
The toys are a not particularly subtle metaphor for Jews and other such targets of authoritarian racial rage. The film goes out of its way to mention that all toys are alive - making their devastation appalling in a way kids can understand. Part of the whole point of the film is explaining and exploring authoritarian totalitarian regimes in a way kids can understand. Now, whether or not it works, that's a different story. But it's not just toys. This isn't even new territory - the same thing was done with Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, albeit not quite as bluntly as Konchalovsky's Nutcracker.
@Ihaveagasmask No, they don't. I've seen the movie. The main character toys are played by live actors, but they're still fundamentally toys. Which is how the Rat King is able to rip the head off one of the toys to throw it around with his soldiers before reattaching it, and the toy's just kinda dizzy. The Nutcracker is a prince who got cursed by the Rat Queen; he himself is not actually a toy. There was, however, I'm pretty certain there was a cut subplot only vaguely hinted at in the film where the Rat King wants to make humanity into rats, via the Ratification program. I firmly believe this was more of a thing at one point in production, as a nod to Pleasure Island in Pinocchio, how naughty boys get turned into literal jackasses. Humans who submit to the rats are no better than rats themselves. So, humans transforming into things was going to be a thing at one point, I think - men becoming rats.
@Ihaveagasmask When an authoritarian regime targets someone, they'll bend over backwards to paint their target as part of the out group that they hate, to justify their eliminating that person. If the nose looks Jewish enough, well, that'll work as a justification to take them down. The Rats need the Prince gone so they can rule, so, they turn him into a toy, and, I assume, planned on sending him immediately to the smoke factory to be burned, to secure their rule. This however, presents a legitimate problem I have with the film, in that a big part of the original Nutcracker story by E.T.A. Hoffman and its adaptation by Alexandre Dumas take great pains to show how and why the Prince became a Nutcracker. Konchalovsky chose to sum it up in a single line that elaborates on nothing that isn't already evident by having eyes. If I recall correctly, "The Rat Queen turned me into a wooden Nutcracker, and then, they released their army into the town square, scaring all my people." John Turturro mentioned in an interview that they cut roughly forty minutes from the film (JESUS) and I think that flashback was a big part of it, along with other things like a full human-to-Nutcracker transformation before the tree gets cut down, and I imagine a human-to-rat transformation since that's kinda a big thing in the film, Ratification, that goes nowhere. I rambled a bit. Point is, the fascist regime tends to lump adversaries as part of the outgroup, whether they actually are or not. The Rats happen to have the magic on their side to make that real. Which leads into another legitimate criticism: the relationship between the Prince and the toys is poorly defined. Is he supposed to be the king of the toys? Why isn't he a toy himself then? It's odd. That kind of thing tends to happen when you cut over a half hour out of your movie - films have been ruined just by cutting out five minutes. Especially odd in this case since Konchalovsky had almost complete creative control. Weird!
(same) ive never old anyone this... initally this film gave me nightmares but them i kinda dreamt about him. its so bizzare but i think i like the scariness and unpredictability of the character. weird first crush lmao so i dont judge u lol
My major bugbear with this: why go to the trouble to create choreography for the soldiers and then show NONE of it. Jesus Christ on a bike. I can hear dancing, but you see no footwork. Just one of a thousand problems wrong with this film.
