{"id":20483,"date":"2019-02-03T22:38:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T06:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=20483"},"modified":"2019-02-03T22:39:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T06:39:05","slug":"review-nutcracker-four-realms-4k-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2019\/02\/review-nutcracker-four-realms-4k-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em><\/strong> is hardly terrible and I\u2019d happily watch this over either of Disney\u2019s Alice in Wonderland<\/em> live-action films, but considering I hated both of those, that\u2019s faint praise.<\/p>\n

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The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/span>
\n(2018)<\/span>
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Genre(s): <\/strong>Fantasy, Family, Adventure<\/span>
\nDisney | PG \u2013 99 min. \u2013 $39.99 | January 29, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Date Published:<\/strong> 02\/03\/2019 | Author:<\/strong> The Movieman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Directed by: <\/strong>Lasse Hallstr\u00f6m, Joe Johnston
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Marius Petipa (\u201cNutcracker Ballet\u201d), E.T.A. Hoffmann (\u201cThe Nutcracker and the Mouse King\u201d short story); Ashleigh Powell (screen story, screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Eugenio Derbez, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Sergei Polunin, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DISC INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Features: <\/strong>Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Music Videos
\nSlip Cover: <\/strong>Yes
\nDigital Copy: <\/strong>Yes
\nFormats Included: <\/strong>4K, Blu-ray
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Audio (4K): <\/strong>English (Dolby Atmos), Spanish (Dolby Digital Plus 7.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
\nAudio (BD): <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 7.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
\nVideo (4K): <\/strong>2160p\/Widescreen 1.85
\nVideo (BD): <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.85
\nDynamic Range: <\/strong>HDR10
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nCodecs: <\/strong>HEVC \/ H.265 (4K), MPEG-4 AVC (BD)
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Buena Vista Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe opinions I share are my own.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE \u2014 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Plot Synopsis: <\/strong>Young Clara (MACKENZIE FOY) needs a magical, one-of-a-kind key to unlock a box that contains a priceless gift. A golden thread leads her to the coveted key, but it soon disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. In that world, she meets a soldier named Phillip (JAYDEN FOWORA-KNIGHT), a group of mice and the regents \u2014 including Sugar Plum (KEIRA KNIGHTLEY) \u2014 who preside over three realms. Clara and Phillip must now enter a fourth realm to retrieve the key and restore harmony to the unstable land.<\/p>\n

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Review: <\/strong>Disney brings us yet another re-imagining of a classic along the lines of Alice in Wonderland<\/em> and its uninspiring sequel, Into the Looking Glass<\/em>, with The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em><\/strong>, a lackluster adaptation of the Nutcracker <\/em>Ballet and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King<\/em> short story. This is a rich visual extravaganza that shockingly lacked very much imagination. The set and production and costumes designs seemed to be leftovers from other Disney family-fantasies.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, really doesn\u2019t feature very much in the way of charisma from the ensemble cast. Mackenzie Foy reminded me a lot of Mia Wasikowska from Alice in Wonderland<\/em>, in that she\u2019s not a terrible actress but not the right personality to be a lead actress either. Foy has a couple veterans surrounding her from a fairly unrecognizable Keira Knightly (giving me nightmares of Anne Hathaway from AIW<\/em>) and Helen Mirren who has a small role and doesn\u2019t make much of a mark.<\/p>\n

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The film has the unusual precedent of having two credited directors with the approval of the DGA. We\u2019ll never know the full story as Disney, unlike Warner, tend to keep their drama in-house, but veteran director Lasse Hallstr\u00f6m handled the production while Joe Johnston came in to do some extensive reshoots (36 days worth apparently) when Hallstr\u00f6m was unavailable due\u00a0 to \u201cscheduling conflicts\u201d. Whatever happened, even though this is certainly not the Frankenstein of a film that Justice League<\/em> was, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em><\/strong> certainly did lack a consistent vision and worse yet, not a whole lot of emotion either.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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This release comes with a glossy and embossed slip cover<\/strong>. Inside is a code for the Digital<\/strong> copy. Features aren\u2019t terribly extensive with On Pointe: A Conversation with Misty Copeland (4:36; HD)<\/u><\/strong> where the traditional ballerina discusses her involvement with the movie; Unwrapping The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em> (7:08; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a short behind the scenes featurette with promotional interviews with the cast and crew; some Deleted Scenes (4:05; HD)<\/u><\/strong> and lastly two music videos, \u201cFall on Me\u201d (4:23; HD)<\/u><\/strong> by Andrea Bocelli featuring Matteo Bocelli and \u201cThe Nutcracker Suite\u201d (4:06; HD)<\/u><\/strong> by Lang Lang.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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4K VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5, BD VIDEO \u2013 4.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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One would think a movie like Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em><\/strong> would look fantastic on 4K UHD and while indeed it does look nice, I can\u2019t quite say it was brilliant. When comparing with the Blu-ray disc, I didn\u2019t find it to be a significant difference. It might\u2019ve been a bit sharper sure but even something like the colors appeared more or less similar, that is the colors were at least bright. That said, both the 2160p and 1080p transfers were very nice looking and will come across the screen quite well.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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4K AUDIO \u2013 4.75\/5, BD AUDIO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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The 4K UHD comes with a Dolby Atmos track while the Blu-ray, and this is a pet peeve of mine, a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track. Why these studios don\u2019t just provide the same audio codec on both formats is beyond me. In any case, both of the tracks are effective outputting crystal clear dialogue via the center channel and there was some good depth for the variety of fantasy-\u201caction\u201d scenes making great usage of the available front and rear speakers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 2.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Overall, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms<\/em><\/strong> is hardly terrible and I\u2019d happily watch this over either of Disney\u2019s Alice in Wonderland<\/em> live-action films, but considering I hated both of those, that\u2019s faint praise. Even so, I guess this is perfectly safe for families as there is a nice message at its core and the visuals at least were nice to look at, even if some of it seemed recycled.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BXfxLIuNJvw<\/p>\n

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The screen captures came from the Blu-ray copy and are here to add visuals to the review and\u00a0do not<\/span> represent the 4K video.
\nThese are only here to give an idea of the movie\u2019s video quality and may not be truly representative of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is hardly terrible and I\u2019d happily watch this over either of Disney\u2019s Alice in Wonderland live-action films, but considering I hated both of those, that\u2019s faint praise.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4581,3],"tags":[940,1134,664,6315,5741,1416,295,5328],"class_list":["post-20483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4k-uhd-reviews","category-blurayreviews","tag-helen-mirren","tag-joe-johnston","tag-keira-knightley","tag-lasse-hallstrom","tag-mackenzie-foy","tag-matthew-macfadyen","tag-morgan-freeman","tag-richard-e-grant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20485,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20483\/revisions\/20485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}