No hero is worth his salt without a great villain, and no actor is better at playing an animated villain than Tim Curry.
Yeah, the animation's nice for a 2001 project and yeah, it's basically a feature-length advertisement for the deluge of toyetic characters and props that it features, but you know what? They put their all into making it as entertaining an ad for toys as G.I. Joe or Transformers ever were. The story's pretty solid, the action's not to bad, Barbie is a surprisingly interesting character in her role as Clara. But by far the best element in this film is Tim Curry as the Mouse King, who you have to wonder why ANYONE would leave their kingdom and magic scepter to inherit. My only real complaint about this film are the deviations from the source material. Don't get me wrong, most of them work but a few are clearly there to pad out the movie or shoehorn in more of Tchaikovsky's original Nutcracker score.
But, seriously, if nothing else, watch this film for Tim Curry. Playing power-hungry, deliciously evil villains are when he's at his very best, and the Mouse King is no exception.
Yeah, the animation's nice for a 2001 project and yeah, it's basically a feature-length advertisement for the deluge of toyetic characters and props that it features, but you know what? They put their all into making it as entertaining an ad for toys as G.I. Joe or Transformers ever were. The story's pretty solid, the action's not to bad, Barbie is a surprisingly interesting character in her role as Clara. But by far the best element in this film is Tim Curry as the Mouse King, who you have to wonder why ANYONE would leave their kingdom and magic scepter to inherit. My only real complaint about this film are the deviations from the source material. Don't get me wrong, most of them work but a few are clearly there to pad out the movie or shoehorn in more of Tchaikovsky's original Nutcracker score.
But, seriously, if nothing else, watch this film for Tim Curry. Playing power-hungry, deliciously evil villains are when he's at his very best, and the Mouse King is no exception.