The Four Realms are the titular locations featured in the 2018 Disney live-action film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
Background[]
The Four Realms are the names of four distinct kingdoms located in a magical world. Each of them has a distinct theme and a name to match each landscape's layout. In addition, the landscapes each have their own natural color palette: the Land of Snowflakes primarily has white coloration mixed with icy blue all across the landscape, the Land of Flowers have brightly distinct colors all around the landscapes, the Land of Sweets has more synthetic, saturated colors, and the Fourth Realm has a mixture of red, gold, and blue palettes - albeit with faded shading and worn down to reflect the decimated state of the realm[1]. According to the map, there are four drawbridges that connect each realm to a palace. At the time Marie Stahlbaum was alive, the Four Realms were founded when she was little where she used a machine that brought toys to life turning them into real people. However, after Marie passed away, the Fourth Realm declared war on the other three realms thanks to the Sugar Plum Fairy who started this conflict. However, after Sugar Plum was defeated, Clara managed to save Marie's legacy and put an end to the war, bringing peace once and for all.
The Realms[]
Land of Flowers[]
The Land of Flowers is the first realm located within a magical world, where most of the inhabitants who live here live within a flower-themed environment. The layout of this realm contains inspiration from Dutch windmills as well as an English village. Hence its vegetation-derived name, the Land of Flowers is filled with flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The regent of this realm is Hawthorne.
Land of Snowflakes[]
The Land of Snowflakes is the second realm located within a magical world, where most of the inhabitants who live here live within a snowscape. Hence its name, snow falls throughout the realm with frozen fountains located within the layout where the snow never melts. Inhabitants who live in this realm work as politicians, ice producers, or miners. The transportation used within this realm primarily relies on using reindeer on sleigh. The regent of this realm is Shiver.
Land of Sweets[]
The Land of Sweets is the third realm located within a magical world, where most of the inhabitants who live here live within an environment themed around sweets such as life-sized lollipops, gingerbread houses, and many other sweets. The facilities decorated within contain nougat walls, chocolate tile roofs, and stained-glass windows crafted through the use of boiled sweets. The regent of this realm was the Sugar Plum Fairy, who used to rule this realm before she betrayed everyone in the Four Realms.
The Fourth Realm[]
The Fourth Realm (originally known as the Land of Amusements), hence its name, was the last realm made around Marie's lifetime. Prior to its destruction, part of the landscape was themed around architecture found in carnivals or amusement parks such as roundabouts and was located within a fairground. However, since Marie's death, the Land of Amusements became forgotten and abandoned, leading the Fourth Realm to begin a war against the other Three Realms. The regent of this realm is Mother Ginger. It is also inhabited by other entities living within such as mice or humans such as the Polichinelles. A forest known as the Christmas Tree Forest covers a partial part of the large dense forest where the area is filled with pine trees. According to Sugar Plum, this was where all the trouble began in a war between Mother Ginger and the residents.
Role in the film[]
As Clara attempts to cross the bridge from the Christmas Tree Forest to the Fourth Realm, Phillip the Nutcracker forbids her from entering under orders from the regents due to a war going on. After a misunderstanding, Phillip gives Clara access to the Fourth Realm. As they arrive at the Fourth Realm, Phillip asks Clara what she is looking for, which she replies to him that she is looking for a gold key that would open Marie's music box. While exploring, they encounter the Mouse King with a key in his mouth and as Clara attempts to retrieve the key and insults him, he and the other mice form into one giant creature made out of countless mice. Phillip defends Clara from the Mouse King and his followers while wandering around the forest. As they are on their way to the Palace, a giant automaton of Mother Ginger appears and accuses them for being intruders which the two escape from Mother Ginger while an owl watches them, which they end up in the Palace of the Four Realms approached by Cavalier and Harlequin.
As 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 her to avoid entering this realm under orders of the regents. During a meeting, Shiver, Hawthorne, and Sugar Plum are discussing a tour of the Four Realms through a pageant. As Clara wears a dress for the pageant and watches the ballet, Sugar Plum tells her that the ballet tells the story of the Four Realms of how her mother discovered them with the Ballerina Princess being the visual representation of Marie. As the Ballerina Princess dances, flower backdrops and flower-themed windmills appear on stage dancing with people dressed as residents of the Land of Flowers to represent the First Realm which the Ballerina dances with the Flower Cavalier just before the scene transitions into the Land of Snowflakes.
During the scene, dancers wearing snowflake-themed clothing representing the Second Realm dance together while the Ballerina dances with the Snow Cavalier, as a large steamboat prop moves across the stage with snowflakes falling and later the Land of Sweets. As the scene transitions to the Land of Sweets, the Ballerina dances with the Sweets Cavalier while decorations representing candy cane, ice cream, and gingerbread men are shown within. Suddenly, the vision pans to Clara and Sugar Plum traveling across the Lands of Sweets, Flowers, and Snowflakes respectively, interpreting of what the people would do if they visited their homes. The ballet pageant then continues with props representing the Land of Amusements during the show where a circus tent with three large elephant heads placed on top of it. All of a sudden, a dancer wearing a clockwork mouse costume appears with the scene transitioned to the Fourth Realm, the place where the conflict all began with the clockwork mice dancers dancing briefly and the Ballerina avoiding them, which Sugar Plum thinks that she would be the one who would put an end to the war. 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.
Later during Clara's flashback with her late mother Marie, she recaps to her daughter that she found the Nutcracker ornament at Drosselmeyer's workshop, reminding her of the Four Realms which she discovered when she was young just before placing it on the Christmas tree. Back in the present, 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. The next day, Clara puts on a soldier outfit and gathers 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. As they arrive, the army halts to see an arch modeled after a clown and as they search the Realm, they approach the remains of the amusement park and amongst one of the landmarks they pass through is a monkey statue with a mouse perched on its head. While exploring, Clara and the soldiers equipped with lanterns approach an abandoned swinging ride but not before some soldiers unexpectedly become caught by an unseen entity, just before gathering at the carousel to avoid getting caught into a trap. Clara then turns on the lights of the carousel to help the soldiers see what they would fight, which it is revealed that the mice have arrived, attacking Clara and the other soldiers, forcing Clara and the other soldiers to retreat just before she gets taken to Mother Ginger. The automaton of Mother Ginger grabs Clara, who asks her to reclaim everything taken from her mother, which she tells her to come inside the skirt of the giant automaton.
As Clara enters, she encounters a group of six clowns, the Polichinelles, who dance and play around her as a form of surprise and as one of them leads her to a seat where a pipe organ is placed, she finds the key that she was looking for. Mother Ginger approaches Clara, telling her of what brought her to the Fourth Realm. She demands Mother Ginger to give her the key so she can open the music box her mother gave to her, blaming her for ruining everything her mother created for her but not before Phillip arrives with Clara taking the key from Mother Ginger and then escapes with him - albeit ignoring Mother Ginger's warning that Sugar Plum is lying. Having escaped the Fourth Realm, Clara opens Marie's last gift using the key she retrieved from Mother Ginger, only to find out that it is a music box. Phillip then reminds Clara that her journey is not over yet, advising her that the kingdom still needs to be saved. 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 of toy soldiers, as Clara and Phillip become furious of her betrayal, leading Sugar Plum to hold them hostages, alongside Hawthorne and Shiver. 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.
As the battle becomes more intense, the automaton of Mother Ginger arms itself with a tree to repel the soldiers while more beginning to climb over the large automaton, causing it to tumble due to it being tumbled by too many toy soldiers. Phillip then takes on more soldiers while Mother Ginger comes to the rescue at the Palace to stop Sugar Plum's evil plans. Meanwhile at the Fourth Realm, Sugar Plum commands the soldiers at the Fourth Realm to kill Phillip, which he approaches the Mouse King forming into a giant mouse made out of thousands of mice once again. As the battle continues at the Fourth Realm, Clara who is at the Palace directs the Engine to fire a beam at Sugar Plum, turning her into a lifeless porcelain doll. As a result, the toy soldiers chasing Phillip turn to their lifeless forms, resulting in victory for Phillip and the Mouse King (and his army of mice).
With Sugar Plum defeated, Clara is praised as a heroine for protecting the Four Realms, just before leaving the Realms to return home and reconcile with her family by opening the music box that Marie gave to her to impress Benjamin, Fritz, and Louise.
Trivia[]
- The Christmas Tree Forest, which was located on the map of the Four Realms, was somehow named "Christmas Snow Forest", suggesting that this was an early name of the forest before being referred to as "Christmas Tree Forest" in the final version of the film.
- According to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: The Secret of the Realms extended novelization tie-in, each realm had a different association:
- Flowers: Beauty
- Snowflakes: Memories
- Sweets: Happiness
- Amusements: Love
- In the original story of The Nutcracker, part of the plot focused on Marie traveling into a magical world inhabited by mice, nutcrackers, dolls, and other animate toys, unlike in the Disney adaptation, where the singular magical world was reimagined into four different landscapes.
References[]
- ↑ Bonus feature: "Unwrapping the Nutcracker and the Four Realms (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Blu-ray disc)
External links[]
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