A Christmas Miracle: How Walt Disney Saved ‘The Nutcracker’

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Walt Disney and the Nutcracker Ballet

Credit: Edited by Inside the Magic

There is an extensive laundry list of Christmas classics to watch every holiday season, many of which belong to the Walt Disney Company. However, Walt Disney might be responsible for keeping one of the oldest Christmas traditions alive and well.

Tchaikovsky with a nutcracker at Christmas
Credit: Edited by Inside The Magic

Along with characters like Frosty the Snowman, Ebenezer Scrooge, and the Grinch, the Nutcracker has been a holiday icon for as long as many of us can remember. However, the wooden wide-mouthed toy soldier and the famous ballet from which he hails is a relatively new character to American audiences.

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Composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and based on the story of the same name in 1892, The Nutcracker is one of the most famous Christmas tales in the holiday’s history. What some might not realize is that Tchaikovsky and his famous “Nutcracker Suite” really didn’t have the recognizability and fame they have today before 1940. It wasn’t until Fantasia (1940) that things took a turn for the better.

Deems Taylor, the host of Walt Disney’s “Concert Feature,” isn’t being funny when he states that “nobody performs it nowadays.” During the time the film was released, the ballet had little of an audience. That is until one of Walt Disney’s collaborators took a little inspiration from the classic film.

Hop-Low and the mushrooms in Fantasia
Credit: Disney

George Balanchine is an essential figure in the world of ballet, and his friendship with Walt Disney reportedly inspired one of the most famous adaptations of The Nutcracker to date. While he was not the first choreographer to bring the ballet to American audiences, he was responsible for most of its wide-stream popularity.

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Along with other artists and creatives of the era, like Leopold Stokowski and Salvador Dali, Balanchine was exposed to Fantasia by Walt himself. Although the animated version uses the changing of the seasons rather than anything Christmas, it’s easy to see how Disney’s adaptation of “The Nutcracker Suite” inspired the choreographer to give it a colorful, fairytale adaptation worthy of a Disney film.

Clara in her uniform in Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Credit: Disney

Although Disney would later go on to adapt their own version of the ballet in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018), Balanchine’s version presented by the New York City Ballet has been a holiday staple for decades. Anyone who’s ever seen the timeless performance (or the filmed version with Macaulay Culkin in the lead role) can easily see Disney’s influence on his adaptation.

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Tchaikovsky’s music is timeless, and it more than likely would have still been a popular Christmas soundtrack with or without Fantasia, but American audiences might not have been so exposed to the ballet if it wasn’t for George Balanchine’s connection to Walt Disney. Out of an artistic collaboration, an eternal holiday tradition was born.

What’s your favorite adaptation of The Nutcracker? Tell Inside the Magic in the comments below!

 

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