Blonde ambition. (News).

New York City Ballet has left its footprints on the narrated children's video Barbie in the Nutcracker: Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins choreographed it, and a handful of principal dancers supplied the moving bodies on which Mainframe Entertainment set the stop-motion computer animation. The final product, however, which Artisan Entertainment released in October, features very little dancing and only faintly resembles the original plot.

An orphaned Clara (Barbie) lives with her Grandfather Drosselmeyer, but it's her globe-hopping Aunt Drosselmeyer who gives her the Nutcracker. After Clara and her wooden friend battle the mice, the Mouse King (whose voice, in a moment of directorial clarity, was supplied by Tim Curry) shrinks Clara with his scepter. At this point the film begins to echo the Wizard of Oz, with bits of Fantasia thrown in for good measure: A kindly owl gives Clara a locket that will transport her home once she meets the Sugarplum Princess (ruby slippers not included), and she and the Nutcracker subsequently fall, Alice in Wonderland-like, down a mouse hole into the candy kingdom.

The London Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's score, but it's edited as heavily as the dancing; the snow scene and the Waltz of the Flowers consist of Tinkerbell-ish fairies flitting (and occasionally bourree-ing or passe-ing) around Clara, led by miniature, cherubic winged Barbies who communicate in high-pitched squeaks. In her epic search for the Sugarplum Princess, Clara is escorted by a long-maned pony named Marzipan and four hapless but steadfast pals: Captain Candy, Major Mint, and the Nutcracker, aka Prince Eric, aka Ken. The Mouse King tries to destroy these interlopers, but Clara levels him as expediently as Dorothy melted the Wicked Witch. In the celebratory dance that follows--a snippet of the Cossack Dance--we learn that Clara/Barbie was actually the Sugarplum Princess all along. Her dancing debut, excerpted from the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, suggests what viewers might have guessed: Barbie's got great extension, but her artistic interpretation lacks a certain something.

Mattel and Artisan aren't the only companies to benefit from the sale of the video, although there is an extensive product tie-in campaign, with ballet bags, Christmas ornaments, sleepwear, and dolls based on the video. The toy company also announced at press time that it would sponsor the English National Ballet's six-week run of The Nutcracker in London this month. That said, people who love Barbie are likely to enjoy the video, but people who love ballet might be better served supporting their local dance companies.