Zemeckis Directing Motion Capture Nutcracker?

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 12th, 2009

Not content with taking three beloved books and turning them into expensive, glass-eyed renderings, Robert Zemeckis is planning yet another Christmas-themed motion capture movie.

The director of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol is considering a 3-D animated adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”  According to Pajiba’s source, it will not be a re-creation of the Tchaikovsky ballet, so at least the creepy cartoons won’t be in tights.

Instead it will be a period piece set in 19th century Russia about the origins of the Nutcracker and the battle between the dolls and the mice.

I know I have been hammering Zemeckis the last few weeks for his obsession with performance capture technology, but I can’t be the only one tiring of this gimmick.  Does the Nutcracker really need the performance of a high-profile actor when his jaw just goes up and down?  It’s a nutcracker.  Besides, one of the key problems with Christmas Carol was the level of detail on secondary characters.  Ebenezer Scrooge was intricately rendered down the pores in his nose, but the minor character standing behind him may as well be a stick figure.  That’s going to be an issue when dolls and mice collide in three-dimensional battle.

What do you think?  The Nutcracker 3-D sounds good, or please stop using motion capture?