The Hip Hop Nutcracker

This is one of the most phenomenal productions of.. anything I have ever seen! I am a classically trained musician and huge fan of the classic Nutcracker score. This modern twist on the story was so masterfully done. From the mixed style of music, to the choreography, to the makeup, to the clever way of communicating important story elements to the audience: it was truly a modern ballet done to perfection. Cache Melvin as Maria-Clara and Dushaunt Fik-shun Stegall as the Nutcracker were such a darling pair on screen. Great chemistry and incredible talent! Cameo from Mikhail Baryshnikov was such a treat. Joseph Simmons from Run-DMC narrate-rapping story elements was so tasty. Stephen Boss was such a perfect addition to the cast. I can't believe he ended his life after this was released. What a sad loss to the world. I hope to see more productions like this going forward. So, So many delicious things to enjoy on this visually, aurally and emotionally.

I love Hip Hop specifically and dance in general, but this really missed the mark. What we can see if the dancing shows that there were a lot of talented dancers cast in the production. Many of them I know as performers at the top of their game. But the directing choices here are inexcusable. There are CONSTANT cuts. In one brief, 1 minute 30 second long routine, I counted 47 cuts. FORTY SEVEN! Add to that some absolutely atrocious camera angles, poor lighting, and laughably bad special effects and the whole thing just feels cheap. The music is pretty bad to boot - there had to have been the opportunity to do a recording of the tracks that didn't sound like it was a MIDI mixer on a $50 keyboard. I really, really wanted to like this, but it simply wasn't possible. I'd love to get a better recording with a more adept director, but with tWitch's tragic passing, we aren't going to get it.

An excellent cast of dancers overshadowed by excessive editing and camerawork. I thought we'd learned how to film dancers by now. But I suppose it's still not common knowledge among all directors. Great way to kill a dancer's performance is with too many quick cuts, especially on all the major hits, and worse, cut to showing them from the shoulders up. So we literally have zero clues what their feet are doing. Dancers use their whole bodies, head to toe. Why? Just why? And then the overbearing (at times unimpressive) effects and editing. I was stunned by the unnecessary effects applied to the Jabbawockeez performance. I mean if there was ever a group that has proven all you need to do is hit record and hush, it's the Jabbawockeez. Instead, the editor forced on us filters, and reversed speeds, and as mentioned before, too many cuts on most of the important musical moments in their performance. Cutting away from the performances to show people watching the performance is also a great way to kill a performance. You had too many amazing dancers on this project to make us look at anything else besides them. The camera did too much! The movement we wanted to see was with the dancers, not how many ways the camera can pan and zoom and what not. Some of that, I imagine was the editor, but some of that was intended camerawork and it was unnecessary. It truly ruined what should have been really impactful moments in the dancers' performances. ALL of these dancers have amassed a significant presence on social media, filming themselves, partnering with filmmakers who have mastered filming them. I don't know why these people weren't consulted for this project. And this is no dig, it's just honesty about the art of acting. If a dancer is not also an actor, trained in the craft, it shows. There was too much "acting" imposed on a cast of dancers. It made for dead air, awkwardness, and it wasn't needed to fuel the story. Should have kept it simple and just told the story with dance. That would have been enough. You know, like the Nutcracker. All in all it was certainly a feel good project and I enjoyed the heart and joy of it. Def loved seeing all my favorite dancers, but just wish I could have seen their FULL performances, uninterrupted and uninhibited. I would love to see this become a holiday tradition with improvements and better care shown to capturing the art of dance.

Very family friendly! I really appreciated the hip hop revision in this remake. The modern interpretation was not over the top and they clearly put so much effort into the choreography. Kudos to all of the dancers!! The extrinsic violin was amazing. Comfort Fedoke Is fantastic and makes a wonderful toy maker. I loved seeing the ballet taken to a new height and energy level. My only complaint was the rapping style of Joseph Simmons aka Run. His old school vocals should be left in the 80's which was clearly not the decade being portrayed in this movie. Hip Hop Nutcracker is a refreshing mash-up of old & new on a 130 old classic ballet. It's a must see!