The Nutcracker (1973 film)

This is the Soyuzmultfilm's surprisingly good music-only short, 1973's "Shchelkunchik."


 * Adaptation Distillation: The adaptation is based on the most famous musical pieces of the ballet, with the most relevant points of the original story edited back in.
 * Composite Character: The Nutcracker is both the Nutcracker and Princess Pirlipat.
 * Dude in Distress: The Nutcracker.
 * Evil Counterpart: In the flashback, The Mouse King is set up as a full-fledged Foil to The Nutcracker: also a prince, also loves toys, but spoiled rotten and evil to the core.
 * Evil Sorcerer: Both the Mouse Queen and the King.
 * Fairy Tale
 * Flash Back: Explains The Nutcracker's origins.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: The Queen of the Mice is downright mean in this adaptation.
 * Gorgeous Garment Generation: In the end, Marie is transformed into a princess and gets a new dress created by magic.
 * Mime-and-Music-Only Cartoon: The cartoon has no dialogue, leaving everything to the music and action like, you guessed it, a ballet. (In export versions, a voice-over narration is sometimes added).
 * Overlord, Jr.: The Mouse King in the flashback, where he doubles up as a Royal Brat.
 * Popcultural Osmosis: Several generations of Russian children were introduced to the ballet (and Chaykovsky's music in general) by this cartoon.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: The mice are vulnerable to... things that make you sneeze, such as pepper.