The Nutcracker - freely adapted from the novel by E. T. A. Hoffmann

It's Christmas eve. Marie and Fritz's mom has invited her new boyfriend, Christian Drosselmeier. He gives Marie a little nutcracker, and Fritz gets a strange mythical creature called a "Simurgh". Later, Drosselmeier reads them a story. There's an enchanted prince and a vengeful mouse king...and that's about all Marie can catch before she falls asleep. In the night, she is being awakened by battle noises: the toys are heroically defending against a mouse army which is trying to destroy the Nutcracker. Surrounded by enemies, Marie and the Nutcracker escape into Drosselmeier's picture book and enter a world with new adventures on every page. It seems that only in the Simurgh's castle the nut cracker can break the spell and become human again. But in order to get there, he and Marie must not only take on spiders, giants and mermaids; the proud, selfish Nutcracker must learn to open his heart for love, and this seems not very likely at first.