The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is an American fantasy movie directed by Lasse Hallström and written by Ashleigh Powell and Simon Beaufoy. It is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker". It is about a young girl who finds a Nutcracker doll among the family's gifts and is charged by her parents to take special care of it.