The Realm Palace[1] is a location featured in the 2018 Disney live-action film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
Background[]
The palace is located in the center of a magical world that connects the Four Realms each via drawbridge. There are four drawbridges lowered connecting all the Four Realms - the Land of Flowers, Land of Snowflakes, Land of Sweets, and the Fourth Realm.
The palace itself is primarily decorated with red with Russian-influenced architecture such as onion-topped towers and is loosely based on Russian architecture such as the designs of onion-topped towers and vivid colors such as Saint Basil's Cathedral and the bell tower in Novodevichy Convent.[2] There are multiple towers of varying sizes. Inside, there are various rooms that are used by the Sultan and his family. Outside, there are waterfalls located below the palace
Places of interest[]
- Throne Room: The place where the Regents govern the Four Realms from day to day. Each throne was purposely placed before four large windows.
- Clock Room: A large room filled with large interconnecting cogs consisting of a conveyor belt giving people a tour of the real world. When Clara and Sugar Plum went on a brief tour, they briefly saw a glimpse of the real world where Clara saw her family. The inside of the clock within is actually connected to Drosselmeyer's astronomical clock as evidenced when Clara and Sugar Plum take a glimpse in the real world.
- Grand Stage: A large theater used for special occasions such as pageants. A pageant would normally consist of a ballet accompanied by an orchestra, telling the story of the Four Realms. Clara wore a special dress when watching the pageant through a ballet show telling the story of how the Realms were created before they were in war with the Fourth Realm until Clara managed to bring peace between all the Realms.
- Observatory: A small room located inside a green domed roof decorated with telescopes and a large chandelier. Outside the observatory is a large platform decorated with sculpted heads of large concrete swans.
Role in the film[]
As Clara and Phillip escape the Fourth Realm from Mother Ginger and the Mouse King, they approach Cavalier and Harlequin who ask them a few questions to know if they are involved with any rodent-related incidents or not to which after a survey, the two are accepted to enter. Clara and Phillip encounter various people who live in the palace of the Four Realms while the trumpeters announce their arrival as the citizens of the Four Realms view Clara and Phillip as heroes
Clara approaches the regents - Hawthorne, Shiver, and Sugar Plum, she and Phillip recap that they arrived at the Fourth Realm escaping from Mother Ginger and the Mouse King, which Hawthorne warns Clara to avoid entering this realm under orders of the regents after showing her the throne Marie used to sit before she died. During a meeting, Shiver, Hawthorne, and Sugar Plum are discussing a tour of the Four Realms through a pageant. While walking across the hall, Sugar Plum recaps that Mother Ginger used to be a regent of the Land of the Amusements prior to her banishment due to her war against the other three realms. Clara and Sugar Plum arrive at the clockwork room where they went on a moving platform giving them a short tour around Drosselmeyer's ballroom seeing the Stahlbaum family worried just before returning back to the palace where the clock strikes three.
As Clara wears her dress to the pageant and arrives at the grand stage, the trumpeters sound a fanfare while Shiver and Hawthorne announce the arrival of Princess Clara where she was applauded by the folk on her way to watch the ballet pageant. Later, as the ballet begins, a conductor begins to conduct an orchestra with the Ballerina Princess performing on stage which tells the story of the Four Realms as portrayed by dancers, which is about how Marie created these three realms before a war with the Fourth Realm, which Sugar Plum thinks that Clara would bring peace between all the four realms. The ballet pageant then ends with the backdrops representing the Four Realms and the Palace respectively with the Ballerina and the other performers praised by the crowd for a wonderful performance.
After the pageant, Sugar Plum recaps that Marie was the one who brought the inanimate toys to life and brought transformed them as real people walking across the Engine Room, explaining that the Engine is a large device that brought the toys to life transforming them into the size of real people. Sugar Plum them explains that the Engine is the only resource that can help conquer the Four Realms, attempting to find the key that is required to activate the machine (whose keyhole matches the same shape seen on the egg-shaped music box). Clara explains that the key she and Phillip were looking for is connected to Mother Ginger and the Mouse King at the Fourth Realm. Fearing that the Fourth Realm is very dangerous to enter, Clara discusses with Phillip a plan to retrieve the key, despite his warnings about the Fourth Realm being filled with dangerous hazards within.
That night, Clara dreams of her moments with her mother before she died, and after the dream, Clara looks around the balcony and sees the Four Realms around her, telling her mother that she would be proud if she were alive just before a shooting star passes by after telling her what she should do to make her happy. Afterwards, the owl behind Clara flies away.
The next day, Clara puts on a soldier outfit while Sugar Plum wishes her luck. Cavalier and Harlequin volunteer to join the fight where they follow alongside Clara and Phillip alongside an army of soldiers to approach the Fourth Realm, which the army walks on the lowered drawbridge for them to march towards the Fourth Realm. Having escaped the Fourth Realm and then Clara opens Marie's last gift using the key she retrieved from Mother Ginger (only to find out that it is a music box), she returns to Sugar Plum who arrives at the Engine Room as part of her goals she was planning to do. Sugar Plum tells the guards to assemble an army of toy soldiers using the Engine, putting them to life as she assembles a large army of life-sized soldiers. However, it turns out that Sugar Plum, was revealed to be the real villain the whole time as she is planning to conquer the Four Realms by summoning an army toy soldiers, as Clara and Phillip become furious of her betrayal, leading Sugar Plum to hold them hostages, alongside Hawthorne and Shiver who are locked into the observatory. Clara, realizing the incoming army marching towards the Fourth Realm, decides to find a way to protect the inhabitants. Sugar Plum then assembles more toy soldiers to conquer the Four Realms.
Having escaped, Clara and Phillip hear Sugar Plum commanding the army of toy soldiers to conquer the Four Realms. The Mouse King leads Clara and Phillip a way to stop Sugar Plum from conquering the Four Realms. As Clara decides to enter the area where Sugar Plum is using the Engine, she orders the Mouse King to help Phillip gather Mother Ginger to help fight off the toy soldiers by returning to the Fourth Realm. As Phillip returns, he tells the Polichinelles that he comes as a friend and then warns Mother Ginger that Sugar Plum built an army of soldiers to conquer the Four Realms - including her. This leads Mother Ginger a plan to stop Sugar Plum by accepting Phillip"s trust with help from the Mouse King where they decide to defend the Fourth Realm from the army of toy soldiers, where the automaton of Mother Ginger repels the incoming army. Clara looks at Marie's music box and says what her mother used to tell her before she died, which she realizes that she puts her determination in herself, asking Phillip to help her.
Clara uses a rope and places it on a swan sculpture to help her and Phillip escape while Sugar Plum and the army of toy soldiers march towards the Fourth Realm as the heroes plan to find a way to stop her from conquering the Four Realms. Seeing that there are too many toy soldiers patrolling, the Mouse King helps Clara and Phillip find a way into the Engine Room via manhole where they find themselves at a waterfall. Clara then devises a plan to Phillip to have him report to Mother Ginger with help from the Mouse King at the Fourth Realm, which Phillip follows Clara's orders just before the latter navigates across the waterfall and uses a water wheel to help her get into the Engine Room undetected. Meanwhile, Sugar Plum watches from a balcony and sees the automaton of Mother Ginger approaching while more toy soldiers are being assembled. In a plan for her to get to the Engine, Clara uses a box of clockwork mice to distract the toy soldiers while the Polichinelles outside knock down the marching army of toy soldiers.
As the battle continues at the Fourth Realm, a Polichinelle brings Mother Ginger to the Engine Room where she defends Clara from various incoming toy soldiers as she attempts to stop Sugar Plum's evil plans. Sugar Plum captures Mother Ginger and attempts to use the Engine to fire a beam at Mother Ginger, but Clara defends her from the tyranny she has caused. However, due to the modifications Clara made on the Engine, the contraption instead directly fires a beam at Sugar Plum turning her into a lifeless porcelain doll. As a result, all the active toy soldiers turn revert to their lifeless forms, resulting in victory for Phillip and the Mouse King (and his army of mice) while Mother Ginger thanks Clara for putting an end to the war.
With Sugar Plum defeated, the owl flies across the palace while Clara is praised as a heroine for protecting the Four Realms, while Mother Ginger tells her that her mother would have been proud if she were alive. Mother Ginger then commands Phillip to escort Clara so that she can the Realms to return home.
Trivia[]
- The palace being designed after Russian-themed architecture is a reference to Russia, the country where the original Nutcracker ballet performed, which in turn became a story written by E. T. A. Hoffman.
- The scene where the conductor is tuning in the orchestra at the Grand Stage is reminiscent of the orchestra scenes from the 1940 Disney film Fantasia, where one of the segments, the "Nutcracker Suite", contains music from the Nutcracker ballet.
- Although The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is based on the original Nutcracker ballet, the only scene in the film featuring the dancing sequences was the scene during the ballet pageant featuring ballet performances by Misty Copeland as the Ballerina Princess.
References[]
- ↑ The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: The Secret of the Realms (pg. 54)
- ↑ "Filming Locations and Sets of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms". Atlas of Wonders.
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