Bura and Hardwick present the Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Bob Bura and John Hardwick were a major name in stop motion animation for kids in the UK, animating several programs for young children, such as Camberton Green, Trumpton, Chigley and You and Me as well as producing segments for the series Music Time. One of their shorts for the series was indeed based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. (Another was Coppelia, an adaptation of a ballet based on two other Hoffmann tales.)

I've found a few conflicting dates on this adaptation, but when I found it won a BAFTA in 1979, it seems it should have been first aired around Christmas 1978.

The short runs for just under 20 minutes and features very smooth stop animation, thanks to the animators having refined the method for stop-motion. My searching for information turned up that they commissioned a special camera and would turn out perfect stop-motion photography. They would also design their puppets and props with little clues for how to move it for the next frame.

Anyway, the story begins with Clara and Fritz's family's Christmas party, all the scenes being set to Tchaikovsky's score. Fritz is again depicted as a younger brother and a nice shot shows him sliding down a bannister. Drosselmeyer is the last to arrive to the party with a mechanical castle and a swan, but the narrator says Clara likes the Nutcracker (which was seen on the tree) most of all.

It seemed a little odd to me how the entire party seems to focus on Clara joyfully cracking nuts and then babying the Nutcracker. To break it up, Fritz begins playing with toy instruments loudly and to stop it, Drosselmeyer reads the Nutcracker's story, that a king and queen had a lovely daughter, but had also set several mouse traps, which upset the Mouse Queen and her seven-headed son. In retaliation, the Mouse Queen curses the baby princess, saying it can be only broken if the silver nut is broken by a young man. The King and Queen promise the Kingdom of Sweets to whoever can break it, and a young prince answers the call and comes through, but steps on the Mouse Queen, who turns him into a Nutcracker, who can only be restored if he defeats the Mouse King and wins the love of a young woman.

The guests go to dinner, Fritz taking the Nutcracker from the crib Clara put him in and putting him on top of the castle. That night, Clara goes downstairs and sees the Nutcracker lead the toys against the mice, climaxing with him fighting the Mouse King on the castle and pushing him into a moat where he drowns.

Then the Nutcracker is turned into a prince and the castle grows to a large size, where the swan takes the Prince and Clara across the moat to the castle where sweets (actual candy) dances. The film ends with a swirling of faces before fading to Clara in bed, with narration asking if it was real or if Clara was just dreaming.

Overall, the story is simplified and is aimed more at introducing children to the stories that go along with classical music. And really, the fact that we get the story of how the Nutcracker came to be shows that the adaptation went for a combination of the ballet and the original Hoffmann story. (Or perhaps Dumas' rendition.) While it does lack depth, it effectively handles the Mouse King, making that part a little scary for youngsters who'll enjoy coming back to it later, or even looking to other versions of the story.

So, while it was BAFTA winning and overall definitely isn't bad, this is more of a "My First Nutcracker" rather than a great full-fledged adaptation. And that's perfectly fine.