I was able to watch The Nutcracker today in the library, and I remember from the various other times in my life when I saw the ballet, I loved it, and it was sort of a Christmas tradition for a few years. However, at least for the version I saw, I really didn't like it. It was sappy and insipid, overly sweet and gaudy like watching It's a Wonderful Life while listening to Pat Boone singing Christmas songs, and reading a bunch of Hallmark cards. What especially ticked me off was the narrator, that the movie actually had a narrator, who sounded more fitting for narrating a chidren's show than a ballet. And yes, they decided to put in Macaulay Culkin as Drosselmeyer's nephew, which to me, just seemed to be an excuse to put in a celebrity in a performance like that. There were added sound effects and camera tricks, one of which blurrs and illuminates the edges of the picture, which I call the "OMG, it's a dream sequence!" trick. I much prefer The Hard Nut (at least compared to this production of The Nutcracker) because at while The Hard Nut is also very gaudy and rude, it's doing so as a satire or a parody, and we know Morris was trying very hard to make The Hard Nut as kitchy as possible. One final note: I heard that Tchaikovsky himself did not like The Nutckracker, and thought of it as inferior to his previous ballet, The Sleeping Beauty.