Release: December 18, 2018
Film: The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)
Tagline: It's universally panned by critics and audiences everywhere. Is it worth all the anger? YES! YES IT IS!
This review contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- The toy-burning scene has the Critic musing that it's rather appropriate that this film stars Nathan Lane (as Uncle Albert Einstein), given that the aforementioned scene—with all its disturbing parallels to The Holocaust and, rather jarringly, accompanied by cheerful music and dancing from the Rat King—reminds him of the Springtime for Hitler musical from The Producers, where Lane played Max Bialystock, one half of the eponymous theatre producers-slash-scam artists, from both the 2001 Broadway production and the 2005 film.
- Greg Sestero snarks that Rachel's Darker and Edgier interpretation of Home Alone is the worst thing he has ever seen, even for someone like him who starred in The Room (2003), widely credited as the "Citizen Kane of bad movies" (where he plays Mark).
- Andre the Black Nerd complains that Rachel missed an opportunity to add a cameo of Macaulay Culkin's other role as Henry Evans in her darker spin of Home Alone. He also warns Tamara not to see that movie, assuming she has yet to do so, alluding to the latter's own series of reviews as herself, Tamara's Never Seen.
- An Aesop: Shock value only truly works if the message you are trying to convey through it outweighs the unpleasantness, and takes thorough thought and planning. Otherwise, people just end up getting disturbed by your work.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: In-universe, Rachel's Darker and Edgier Home Alone remake where the burglars are far more evil than they were in the original and many notorious real-life murderers appear turns out to appeal to absolutely nobody and is universally panned in large part because of just how impossible it is to get behind the basic premise.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: After returning, Rachel says that in California she learnt a lot about movies, storytelling, and restraining orders.
- Break the Haughty: Rachel, having spent the entire episode convinced that her Home Alone remake will break the mold despite all of the Critic's attempt to reason with her, gets a much needed reality check when she posts her work online... only for it to be destroyed by absolutely everyone, causing her to reflect upon what Critic was trying to tell her regarding her haphazard use of shock value.
- Bring Me My Brown Pants: The Critic is so horrified at the scenes where the Rat King and his soldiers play catch with Sticks's disembodied head, and when the Rat King bares his fangs, that he felt he crapped his pants.
- The Bus Came Back: Rachel Tietz, former Nostalgia Critic actress in the 2013 season, returns in this episode to have the gang help her shoot a Darker and Edgier interpretation of Home Alone. Needless to say, the euphoria of seeing her again quickly evaporates when they see just how messed up her interpretation of the film is.
- Call-Back: The review ends with Doug, Malcolm, Tamara, Rachel, Rob, Jim, Barney, Walter, Heather, Aiyanna and Fard sitting together watching the end of the Christmas Tree review
, specifically the Walker brothers' late mother Sandra's message to the audience. - The Cameo: The Cinema Snob, The Angry Video Game Nerd, Corey Taylor, Kyle Hebert, Greg Sestero, Uncle Yo, Andre the Black Nerd, Jon Bailey, Chris Atkinson and Jeremy Scott, as well as part-time Nostalgia Critic actors Jason Laws, Orlando Belisle Jr., Trevor Mueller and Rob Scallon, offer their reviews of Rachel's reinterpretation of Home Alone (and, indirectly, towards The Nutcracker in 3D), none of which are even remotely positive.
- Continuity Nod: The Snob, in giving his two cents about Rachel's Home Alone reboot, complains that the over-the-top darkness of her reinterpretation isn't going to scare away John Wayne Gacy, notorious Monster Clown Serial Killer and a recurring punchline in his own reviews.
- Darker and Edgier: Not just The Nutcracker in 3D itself , which is complete with the rats being portrayed as Nazis, disturbing imagery, graphic violence, and shockingly bad performances from the child actors, but said movie also inspired Rachel to follow suit by making her own darker version of the Christmas film Home Alone, complete with the robbers being portrayed as satanist serial killers, Kevin's family members being portrayed as Charles Manson and Lizzie Borden among others, and more.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The scene where the Nazi-like army of the Rat King round up and burn the toys that the movie clearly established are living individuals, in a very reminiscent manner of the original Nazis executing Jewish people and other "undesirables" via fire, complete with smoke filled skies and people crying at the sight of this.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Gielgud mentions that the rats burn toys, Critic makes a very disturbing realization.Critic: Wait. Like inanimate toys, or living toys, like the ones we've been seeing?
[Cut back to the first scene with the Nutcracker]
Nutcracker: All dolls are alive.
Critic: Okay, I guess that's supposed to mean they're all alive...[freezes in place, realizing what this means] You're not.
[Cut back to the scene of the Rat King speaking to the Nutcracker, Tinker and Sticks]
Rat King: You ever wonder what happens to a doll's soul when it burns?
Critic: [shakes head] You're seriously not.
[The people of the kingdom, paired as parent and child, are brought to the Rat King's palace/smoke factory to the big pile of inanimate toys before them. The rat soldiers take the toys away from the children to toss them on the pile]
Critic: Oh, yeah. You thought this was just gonna be simple bad guy Nazi imagery like in Indiana Jones or old Looney Tunes cartoons? But no. People being rounded up, children crying, and the sky filled with smoke from factories burning piles of what they just made clear are living individuals. All of this is actually happening. - Heroic BSoD: Rachel has a brief one after the incredibly scathing reviews her remake of Home Alone received. The others respond by saying that she is a very talented person, but also deliver the aesop mentioned above and suggest she look for more experienced people in the film industry to take inspiration from.
- Hypocritical Humor: The Nostalgia Critic says that "NC" for Nutcracker are "dumb initials".
- In Memoriam: The review is dedicated to Doug and Rob's real-life mother Sandra, who passed away in September 2016.
- Precision F-Strike: Invoked by Rachel and defied by The Critic. Rachel tells The Critic that most of his viewer base watches his videos because they like to see him swear and drop the F-bomb at least Once per Episode and challenges him to go a whole year without using the F-word at all. The Critic agrees, only to reveal he already gone the entire year without using the F-Word, which he uses to further his point that she shouldn't resort to shock value as the main pull if there's nothing of substance to back it up.
- Shout-Out:
- The Critic thinks that Elle Fanning's delivery of some lines as Mary is so dull she makes Natalie Portman (also criticized for her acting as Padmé Amidala) sound as good as Judi Dench.
- The Nutcracker appearance has the Critic thinking he looks like Terrance and Phillip if they were Satan's dildo.
- Andre claims that Rachel's version of Home Alone is so bad it makes Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa look like Toy Story.
- Take That!: Trevor complains that Rachel's interpretation of Home Alone didn't need to be as dark as a DC Extended Universe movie.
"Look at what I have. My father's magic pebble."
