Continuity mistake: When Godfather Drosselmeier walks into Marie's bedroom before he tells her the story, the bedroom door opens from the left, but after Marie's mother brings her the breakfast tray the door now opens the opposite way, from the right.
Continuity mistake: After Marie wakes up to her parents at her bed and they think her story was a dream, she pulls out the crowns worn by the Seven Headed Mouse King, and her hand is cupped with thumb in. The angle changes and suddenly her thumb is outstretched to the side.
Continuity mistake: In the Swan boat, Marie looks out at the waves and sees her reflection as a princess. The waves are spread out enough that she can see them by looking sideways. But when it cuts to a long shot, the waves are suddenly close to the boat, where she can’t see them, and she is looking straight back towards the back, her in the front.
Continuity mistake: When Marie and Nutcracker first arrive in Christmas Wood, they are standing on a frozen creek next to a tree. The tree is not on a hill. But a couple shots later when they start moving, they are suddenly walking, not on the frozen creek, but on a hill that has appeared under the tree.
Audio problem: When Marie is hearing the sword fight in the hall, any shots showing her bedroom door show flashes under it corresponding to the sounds of the swords hitting. They are timed perfectly the first time and for the first part of the second time. When Marie gets up to go look, you hear a pause in the sword fight as you hear the Mouse King and Nutcracker struggling for a moment, but no sword clanks. Yet the flashing under the door continues.
Other mistake: When the Seven headed Mouse King is confronting Marie the second time, asking for her dresses and books, he is sitting on the ledge talking to her with his forward most head. As he is talking with the head to the left, the eye on the head to the right does weird things. The iris rapidly expands and contracts in size a few times taking up the white space in the eye under the iris a few times before returning to normal for that head to talk.
Continuity mistake: Marie’s mother brings her breakfast in bed the morning after Drosselmeier tells her the story of the Nutcracker. In most shots, the Nutcracker is standing with his mouth open. But after her mother leaves and she leans in close to talk to the nutcracker, his mouth is shut.
Continuity mistake: When the Princess comes in and is confronting the king and queen, she is standing on the red carpet. Drosselmeier is to her right on the floor, and Drosselmeier’s nephew is on her left on the floor. But when The Court Astrologer gives him the crackatook nut, Drosselmeier is suddenly on the same side of the carpet as him standing right behind him.
Continuity mistake: The camera pans across showing the 6 nurses with the princess, all sleeping. When the camera cuts to a different angle as the Mouse Queen is coming out, suddenly all the nurses are closer together.
Continuity mistake: When Madam Mouserink confronts the King and Queen about the loss of her family, the King is standing on the left and the Queen on the right. When it cuts to a close up of Mouserink when she runs up to them, the King is suddenly on the right.
Continuity mistake: In the mouse trap montage in the castle, one shows a mouse tiptoeing out of a hole next to a cat. It cuts to a close up and suddenly the cat is much closer to the hole.
Revealing mistake: Their mother tells Fritz to come with her out of the room so Drosselmeier can visit with Marie. As he is getting up, a sudden imperfection in the art appears as a crude white line appears on the chest by he bed and stays there as he moves.
Continuity mistake: In the first battle between the mice and the toy soldiers, the Seven Headed Mouse King yells back at one point "Now my hearties! Take them!" When he says this you can see he only has 5 heads instead of his usual 7.
Continuity mistake: When Marie is putting Nutcracker in the china cabinet, and is startled by the sound of a owl, she looks over at the grandfather clock with an owl on it. The clock face is not fully round, looking slightly squashed in an oval shape. It has a loop on top that makes it look like a round combination lock that does not go to the top of the clock. And the rest of the face of the clock around it is smooth. When it cuts to a close up of the clock, the face of the clock is now perfectly round, and the loop stretches up to the top of the wood almost on the clock. Also a square indention appears around the clock.
Continuity mistake: When Marie and Fritz run up to where Drosselmeier’s gift is for them, the shot shows it by the window with red curtains. When it cuts to a close up of the kids, the folds and ruffles at the top of the curtain suddenly become more elaborate. As well as more layers appearing.
Continuity mistake: At the very end, after the Nutcracker has turned back into a human, he and Marie are dancing at the Marzipan Castle and she puts her head on his chest. When she does this, her hands go to his shoulders as they spin, and her hand keeps moving to either side of the ruffle on his shoulder.
Continuity mistake: At the end when Drosselmeier introduces his nephew, they walk in and the doors they are by are a light grayish blue. But when it cuts to a close up, the doors are an orangish brown.
Continuity mistake: Earlier in the film before the mouse army attacks, the toy soldiers are shown to have all their eyes looking to their right. This is before the magic spell was put on them to bring them to life, so they were made with their eyes looking right. But at the end of the film when the toy soldiers are in the China cabinet with Nutcracker, all their eyes are facing forward. The toys return to their original state when the spell wears off, even Nutcracker, so their eyes should still be facing right.
Factual error: Many times in the film, the Nutcracker is shown to be standing at rest, but with its mouth open. It is at rest with nobody touching it, so its handle/lever would be in the down position by gravity. Yet the Nutcracker’s mouth is open. If a nutcracker is sitting at rest with the handle down, the mouth should be closed.
Continuity mistake: Marie sits up and says "Mother, I had the most wonderful time last night." The first shot shows her fold her arms with her sheet under her arms. It cuts to a close up and suddenly more of the sheet is exposed up her belly.
Answer: The original 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by ETA Hoffmann features the seven-headed Mouse King. Since then there have been numerous adaptations and re-imaginings of that story in literature, on stage and screen in different forms. In the classic versions the Mouse King has seven heads wearing seven crowns, other versions he has only one head, and in a few versions three heads. In the original and other adaptations the number seven is specified several times: Marie Stahlbaum is seven yrs old; the seven-headed Mouse King; the seven steps backwards; seven little crowns. The makers of this animated movie chose to feature the classic Mouse King.
Super Grover ★