The Nutcracker: An Index and my Top Five

Between 2011 and this year, I have written blogs about thirty works based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. There are more, of course. Little audio adaptations, stage productions that aren't ballets, little animated video versions thanks to internet video being widespread, and countless more adaptations of the ballet. But given that there are so many, it was important to just say, "this is enough for now."

Perhaps some day, if the mood strikes me, I'll write about more of them. I avoided going to the ballet as many of them have similar if not identical structures, the differences being in the exact choreography and costume and set designs. I made an exception for the Stowell/Sendak adaptation of the ballet as it tried to hew closer to the original Hoffmann story. As such, if I do write about the ballet adaptations, I don't expect to repeat my thoughts.

I feel my more recent writings are better than my 2011 efforts, not just that I've improved my writing style, but I tried to do more research about the versions I was looking into. As such, I discovered more versions and discovered many interesting things about the people involved with the properties.

So, here is a list of the Nutcracker blogs from this year and 2011, arranged in order of their release.

• The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, the story that started it all, my original 2011 blog, and my 2018 blog: Cracking the Shell of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Classic
• Histoire d'un casse-noisette, the French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas
• Carl Reinecke's Nutcracker and the Mouse King suite
• The Nutcracker Ballet, the famous adaptation scored by Tchaikovsky, my original 2011 blog and my more researched 2018 blog.
• Warren Chappell's 1958 Nutcracker picture book
• Dziadek do orzechów (1967), the Polish film adaptation
• Щелкунчик (1973), a Russian animated adaptation
• Caedmon Audio's presentation of Janet Schulman's 1977 adaptation of the story
• The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Bura and Hardwick's 1978 stop-motion adaptation 
• Nutcracker Fantasy, Sanrio's 1979 stop-motion adaptation
• The Nutcracker, the Kent Stowell and Maurice Sendak 1983 production and its 1986 film
• The Nutcracker, F Production's 1985 puppet adaptation
• The Care Bears Nutcracker Suite, the 1988 Christmas special
• The Nutcracker Prince, the 1990 theatrical animated film
• The Nutcracker, an episode of Funky Fables
• Lamb Chop's Nutcracker Suite, Shari Lewis' 1993 audio adaptation
• The Nutcracker, a 1994 animated adaptation from Storyteller's Classics
• The Nutcracker, a 1995 anime adaptation from Jetlag Productions
• Le Fiabe più Belle. — Lo Schiaccianoci, another 1995 anime adaptation from Toei
• The Nuttiest Nutcracker, a 1999 animated adaptation
• The Nutcracker, a 2000 episode of Hello Kitty's Animation Theatre
• Barbie in the Nutcracker, the 2001 animated film
• Katya and the Nutcracker, a 2001 animated version
• Щелкунчик, a 2004 Russian animated version that was also redubbed in English
• The Secret of the Nutcracker, a 2007 Candadian film inspired by the story
• The Nutcracker in 3D/The Untold Story, the film eventually released in 2010
• The Nutcracker and The Mouse King, an adaptation from BBC Radio
• The Nutcracker Sweet, a 2015 animated adaptation
• Nussknacker und Mausekönig (2015), a German television adaptation
• Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker, a 2017 novel by Gregory Maguire
• The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Disney's 2018 film inspired by the story

In addition, I wrote a blog about my personal feelings about the Nutcracker in 2011 and I wrote up my top five best and five worst adaptations. This year, here are my new top five Nutcracker adaptations:

5. Dziadek do orzechów, the 1967 version follows Hoffmann faithfully and does so delightfully, but is unable to fully immerse itself in fantasy by cutting the scenes in the Land of Sweets.

4. Щелкунчик (1973), the Russian cartoon manages to stay in the top 5 by still being a dialogue-less adaptation with style, smartly timing itself to Tchaikovsky's music.

3. Nussknacker und Mausekönig, this 2015 German television adaptation enters the top five with a solid adaptation that plays a loosely with the story but sticking to the themes of the original and updating the storytelling

2. Nutcracker Fantasy, moving up to the number 2 position, this stop motion version goes full out for fantasy while wholly reworking the plot, but keeps the heart of the story intact.

1. The Nutcracker Prince, this animated adaptation sticks faithfully to Hoffmann's story while smartly reworking it for cinematic effect. It goes even further by fleshing out the cast with some of Clara's toys come to life, in keeping with the original story's moments of Marie talking to her dolls as if they're people.