Nutcracker and the Four Realms

     Sometimes, when you’re young, you see a movie, or read a book, and know that your destiny has just been sighted. Things don’t always work out that way, but one can dream. I grew up in upstate New York, so there were definitely times when it was cold and snowy. There was a pond behind our house, and during the summer we could swim, fish and chase frogs. But during the winter, that pond became something else. Frozen, it turned into another world, running and sliding on the ice worked for a while—and then I read about Hans Brinker and his silver skates.  

    A dream, coincidences, God moments, and a young boy getting an opportunity to be a hero. I knew that if I just had my own pair of silver skates, that I too could be a hero. Or a famous athlete, or an Olympic medalist. The world at my fingertips.

   I begged, I left reminders, circled skates in all the catalogs, wrote my letter to Santa, included a plea for skates in my evening prayers, and promised to be good. And then on Christmas morning, there they were.

    Skating wasn’t quite as easy as it looked, and I managed to spend more time sitting on the ice than gliding across it, but eventually I got the hang of it. I never got called to play professional hockey, my speeds didn’t qualify me for anything, and as a figure skater—well, let’s just say that my figure 8’s looked more like a kindergartner using a crayon to learn how to write, than anything done by a calligrapher. 

    But in my mind, I was the heroic Hans, living a dream, restoring the family, and selflessly allowing someone else to shine. 

    The magic of a dream: a boy, a frozen pond, a pair of used skates, and a big imagination. 

     And there’s another dream that we watch for every year: the magic of the Nutcracker, and this year, it goes a step further with the release of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

About The Movie (Synopsis)

All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Morgan Freeman) annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key—which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world. Starring Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Disney’s new holiday feature film “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston, and inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale.  “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” releases in theaters on November 2.

you can watch a clip HERE

or watch the music video of Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo singing FALL ON ME