#nutcracker and mouse king

[siravalondulac]

okay but what ARE your thoughts on the nutcracker?

PANDORA'S BOX OPENED EVERYONE TAKE COVER

okokok so. where to start. i became obsessed with the nutcracker after reading the book for the first time and realising how absolutely BONKERS the story is (positively of course).

book, i hear you say? there is a book? well, yes. every iteration of the nutcracker is based on one single book: nutcracker and mouse king by e.t.a. hoffmann, or as i know it nussknacker and mausekönig because OF COURSE the nutcracker is german. did you really think someone normal could have come up with all that stuff? no!

hoffmann wrote the nutcracker in the early 1800s for his godchildren (who, as it happens, were called fritz and marie, just like the children in the book). my advice: if you want to read it, listen to an audio book. i love and respect hoffmann, but his writing style is Not It.

the original nutcracker might actually not at all be how you think. there is the regular stuff - the children getting gifts for christmas, one of them is a nutcracker that marie (yes, marie. she's nawt called clara) takes a liking to, nutcracker gets damaged, marie cares for him, then the mouse king attacks, nutcracker defends. but here is where the most common portrails of the nutcracker likely diverge.

(i assume 99% of you only know the nutcracker from the barbie film (which. Yes) so i will meet you there.)

the nutcracker and marie do not defeat the mouse king right away nor to they go to the land of sweets to defeat him there. instead what follows is a slow story about marie staying in the house and starting to learn more and more about the nutcracker, how he came to be, his curse, and his history with the mouse king. it's actually a really great book, even outside of my strange hyperfixation.

here is a non-ordered list of why i love the nutcracker:

the nutcracker's jacket is purple, not red

marie is 7 (which makes her caring for the nutcracker understandable as she is a child. any adaptation that tries to age her up clearly has problems adapting her behaviour)

the nutcracker is uncle droßelmeier's nephew

droßelmeier has an eye patch and a glass wig

the entire story around princess pirlepat and the nut krakatuk

(seriously. that's thee most bonkers part)

(look it up. or ask me, i'd be happy to lore dump)

THE MOUSE KING HAS SEVEN HEADS WTF

and each head has its own little crown awww

the entrance to the sugar land is located in a wardrobe (narnia who?)

they only go to the sugar land right at the very end of the book, in the very last chapter

marie incapacitates the mouse king during the very first fight by throwing her shoe at him

also it never gets explained why the nutcracker (a guy from the real world) became prince of the sugar land

they marry at the end (she's 7 he's 15)

everyone - even droßelmeier who knows the nutcracker is real - treats marie as if she were crazy

marie and fritz have an older sister, louise. she never appears in any adaptation

the nutcracker is gifted to them by their father, not droßelmeier

marie's last name is stahlbaum (which is german for steel tree) (translation doesn't matter, it's just a cool name)

nutcracker and mouse king is peak german phantasy. it's a christmas fairytale that feels as if it jumped directly out of the mind of a child. this book is the reason everyone nowadays associates the nutcracker with christmas.

i haven't really gotten the chance to read/watch many adaptations of the nutcracker yet (maybe i'm scared of how they'll treat my girly) but here's what i can tell you:

alexandre dumas' translation/re-telling of the nutcracker is useless. he changed some things for absolutely no reason, added an unnecessary framing device, and it's a shame that tchaikovsky based his ballet on that thing.

tchaikovsky's ballet is sort of accurate? i haven't seen it in its entirety, only listened to the music, but everything in the first act is about what happens in the book (except that he lets marie/clara and the nutcracker fight against the mouse queen, who was the mouse king's mother in the book that died before the story started). the second act is only the sugar land, and almost every figure that gets a dance in there doesn't exist in the book (yes, that includes the sugar plum fairy. she wasn't in the book). the music slaps though.

barbie in the nutcracker is a good movie! not an accurate one, but i appreciate them making droßelmeier a woman. definitely watchable, but it takes more inspiration from the ballet than the book

the german tv adaptation of the book from 2015 is the most accurate i have seen as of yet. it includes everything - princess pirlepat, the nut krakatuk, droßelmeier being a weirdo, all the toys coming to life in the first night, the mouse king constantly appearing in marie's bedroom and threatening her. they also changed droßelmeier's first name to anselmus, which is the name of the main character of another of e.t.a. hoffmann's books! they also made the mouse king sexy and flirt with marie. which. is something. (she's aged up here)

jolanthe and the nutcracker is just the opera jolanthe with a few dance numbers from the nutcracker. nothing to see for nutcracker fans sadly. the staging i saw was boring like all hell, BUT! they gave the mouse king seven heads

nutcracker and the four realms (the disney film) is very dear to my heart and i don't care what anyone says. droßelmeier has his eye patch, louise exists, the main character is called clara but her mother was marie! who discovered the sugar land before clara did! it's not a good movie but i love it. also the nutcracker is a cutie and in a constant feud with the mouse king, even after they become allies.

i really want to read/watch more adaptations (including the ballet). on the top of my list is definitely that weird nutcracker movie that takes place in vienna and that made the mice singing and dancing nazis.

[denniskdraws]

My 2023 holiday illustration for cards sent to friends and family: Nutcracker vs. Mouse King

[annadrawscg]

sketch

[sarakipin]

🌲 🐁 👑 🕯️

[artist-issues]

Rise of the Guardians doesn’t lend itself to a sequel.

But if they made one, the villain should be The Pied Piper. And instead of endangering kids’ childhood using fear, like the Boogeyman, The Piper would endanger childhood by causing strife with the parents, making the kids feel like they don’t belong in their own homes.

Plus he’s enticing kids with wanderlust, which sounds fun, so he starts to feel like the photo-negative of Jack Frost and definitely tries to outdo him in terms of style and flamboyant charm. And maybe because he knows “memories of childhood” would be a big threat to his work on the parents, the Piper straight-up kidnaps Tooth Fairy (since kidnapping the fairies themselves didn’t work out for Pitch)

And then you can have Bunnymund and Jack Frost fighting armies of super rats and Sandman trying to hold his sand-constructs together as the Pied Piper’s musical vibrations destabilize them, and then North seems to be the only one who’s a match for the Piper in group showdowns, until the Piper summons his chief hench-rat and it’s the Mouse King from the Nutcracker

I know Rise of the Guardians can’t have sequels

but in this pitch I will—

[porcelain-requiem]

After we got some snow last week, I watched The Nutcracker Prince with my baby. She loved it, which made me smile since it's my favorite version of The Nutcracker (especially since it's very faithful to the original book.)

So here's some Hans/Clara art. Enjoy!

[thefugitivesaint]

Adrienne Segur (1901-1981), ''Nussknacker und Mausekonig'' by E. T. A. Hoffmann, 1954

A brief selection of illustrations from the above work.

[shinyzango]

You know what? I completely forgot to post these doodles from last week.

Really need to draw more often on paper.

[canisalbus]

I was watching a comp video of Barbie Nutcracker and about choked when I saw this dude

MACHETTE?!??!?!?!

Love your lil guys 💚

That sure is a creature.

[noreemii]

❄️🌨️👑

[lonesomedreamer]

marie stahlbaum ❅ the nutcracker’s princess

“you are a princess born, Marie, and you rule a bright and beautiful kingdom. but you will have much to suffer if you take poor deformed Nutcracker’s side… only you can [save him]. so be constant and true.”

[siravalondulac]

Have you read 'Hiddensee' by Gregory Maguire?

not yet! it's been standing on my shelf for ages, but i have never quite found the time to read it. after hearing of maguire's (original) version of wicked, i'm maybe also a bit scared of what he did to my babies

[hoodie-doodles]

Back in my Nutcracker fixation agaiiiin!~

I had a lot of fun working on this!

[potatocrisp]

Messing around w changing up zarras usual outfit

[ruby-lith]

Rat King!!!

[marie--soul]

My winter sketches from my adaptation of The Nutcracker.

In my adaptation, Marie goes on a quest with Chris the Nutcracker to find the Krakatuk nut to lift the Mouse King's spell on herself. He turned Marie into a mouse when she interfered in the midnight battle.

Also along for the journey are Nick, Marie's younger brother, and Princess Pirlipat, who must learn to be a princess of her people.

Nick: - Mar, look! This princess looks like you!

Eventually, the team of teenagers and the child find the nut, defeat the mice, and a year later (that is, next Christmas), Marie meets the disenchanted Chris in the toy store where Marie met the Nutcracker.

Chris: - Hello, Marie.

Marie: - Chris?..

And my adaptation is called «Marie, the Nutcracker and the Nut Krakatuk»

Marie, Nick and my version of Ellie from The Wizard of the Emerald city