Nutcracker Fantasy

Nutcracker Fantasy (くるみ割り人形, Kurumiwari Ningyō, lit. The Nutcracker) is a Japanese stop motion animated film produced by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffman's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It is directed by Takeo Nakamura and written by Shintaro Tsuji, Eugene A. Fournier and Thomas Joachim. It is officially released in Japan on March 3, 1979 and later in the United States in July 6, 1979. The film is nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture featuring youth and won the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Musical Entertainment. Nutcracker Fantasy marks as the first stop-motion project by Sanrio, followed by Hello Kitty's Stump Village 37 years later. The film's overall animation style is reminiscent of all the original Rankin/Bass "Animagic" productions including The New Adventures of Pinocchio, Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Daydreamer, Mad Monster Party?, The Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and Here Comes Peter Cottontail, shot at Tadahito Mochinaga's MOM Production (later renamed Video Tokyo Production) in which Nakamura work for. A remastered version of the film was announced by Sanrio, with an advanced screening at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 29, 2014 and released formally in theaters in November 29, 2014 as part of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary.