Continuity mistake: Nutcracker and Marie walk by some large suckers as he says "We’re not in your closet anymore, Marie. We’re in Christmas Wood." There a lots of giant suckers to their right. The angle changes as they walk, and suddenly there is only one sucker where they just came from.
Continuity mistake: When Marie takes the Mouse King’s crowns off the Nutcracker’s sword, the camera cuts to behind the Nutcracker once they come off, and suddenly his sword becomes twice as thick.
Continuity mistake: During their fight, the Seven Headed Mouse King knocks the Nutcracker’s sword away and the Nutcracker escapes by grabbing the draw string of the curtains and swings up to a small table. The Mouse King looks up at him a moment, right next to the draw string, very close to the table. He then runs towards it. The shot cuts to a different angle and suddenly he is much further away, running towards the table.
Continuity mistake: During their final fight, the Mouse King knocks the Nutcracker back against the wall and prepares to finish him off. The Nutcracker counters by grabbing the rug the Mouse King is standing on and tripping him, leaving the rug wrinkled and messy. A few shots later, the rug is suddenly perfectly placed on the floor again.
Continuity mistake: When Marie is shown waking up to the sounds of the sword fight, there is a shelf like mantel thing on the wall beside her with items on top. A bit later when she gets up to go see, the mantel becomes thinner and the items on top squeezed closer together.
Continuity mistake: When Marie gets up to go see the fight between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, a far shot of the two battling shows them next to a window and curtains. It then cuts to a close up or them, and suddenly the draw string appears for the curtains that was not in the previous shot.
Continuity mistake: In this version of the story, the Mouse King has seven heads. But in his last fight with the Nutcracker when they are first shown, it is obvious that the Mouse King only has 4 or 5 heads at that moment.
Continuity mistake: When Marie wakes up to the sounds of the Nutcracker and Mouse King fighting, the nightstand beside her bed that was there in previous scenes is gone. But a few shots later, it is back beside her bed.
Continuity mistake: Fritz pulls a toy soldier out of a line of 3 and removes its sword to give Marie. You can see in the far shot that the other two soldiers are still in there in the china cabinet where he pulled the 3rd from, and a toy cannon on the shelf below them. It cuts to a close up of Marie, then back to a far shot, and suddenly the other toy soldiers and cannon are gone, only china being visible.
Continuity mistake: When Marie gets frustrated at the dinner table and slams her fists down, saying she didn't imagine it, you can see her fork on her plate. In all following shots where her plate is visible, her fork is lying on the table beside her plate.
Continuity mistake: At the dinner table Marie says "I swear by the love I feel for Nutcracker." In the shot where she says that line, Drosselmeier's wine glass disappears. Also a few shots before this, he suddenly has two glasses of wine for one shot.
Continuity mistake: When Marie is at the family dinner table and gets mad, saying she's not imagining it, her plate is shown. It has a full variety of food, green stuff, bread, some mash potatoes, and a bit of meat. Then just a couple shots later when Drosselmeier is about to speak, her plate suddenly is covered in just meat.
Continuity mistake: The drawer in the nightstand next to Marie's bed is facing parallel to her bed away from the wall. When she opens the drawer to give her candy to the Seven Headed Mouse King, the drawer opens up towards her bed perpendicular to it, parallel to the wall.
Continuity mistake: The day after Drosselmeier tells Marie the story of Nutcracker, her mom brings her breakfast in bed and the Nutcracker is on the nightstand beside her bed. In various shots, his arm changes from being outstretched to tucked by his chest, and the distance he is from the edge of the nightstand is constantly changing.
Continuity mistake: After the 15 year search, Drosselmeier returns to the castle with the Crackatook nut and a boy that can crack it. They come up to the throne and then Princess Perlypap walks in and confronts them. In the top shot of her on the red carpet, Drosselmeier is off to the right, not on the carpet. But a couple shots later when Drosselmeier begins speaking, he is suddenly standing on the edge of the carpet.
Continuity mistake: After Drosselmeier and the scholar find the nut and Drosselmeier's cousin that can crack it, they return to the castle and walk into the throne room. When the door opens, they walk in almost single file, Drosselmeier first, followed by his cousin then the scholar. Then it cuts to a top view and suddenly Drosselmeier and his cousin are side by side with the scholar next to him, and the red carpet becomes smaller.
Continuity mistake: When the 6 nursemaids are guarding the princess with cats in their laps, and all fall asleep, the camera pans across to show a mouse hole. When it cuts to a close up of the hole for the Mouse Queen to emerge from, the shape of the hole changes, becoming a more uniform shape.
Continuity mistake: After the Mouse Queen threatens to put a curse on the princess, the King calls his advisers, Drosselmeier and a bald guy with a beard, to find a way to prevent this from happening. The establishing shot from behind shows the bald guy standing almost in the center of the red carpet that leads to the thrones, and Drosselmeier is off to the side, not on the red carpet. It cuts to a frontal view of the two men, and suddenly both are on the red carpet at either edge.
Continuity mistake: In the montage of mice getting tricked by the traps Drosselmeier made, the second set is two mice jumping on the bed. Behind then is a table with candle and a cup. When it cuts to a close up of the mice, the candle is smaller and the cup changes shape.
Continuity mistake: When Drosselmeier at the castle is shown working on a red cage mouse trap, the far shot shows there is no cheese in the trap yet, but it cuts to a close-up and suddenly cheese appears inside.
Answer: The original 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by ETA Hoffmann features the seven-headed Mouse King. Since then there have been numerous adaptations and re-imaginings of that story in literature, on stage and screen in different forms. In the classic versions the Mouse King has seven heads wearing seven crowns, other versions he has only one head, and in a few versions three heads. In the original and other adaptations the number seven is specified several times: Marie Stahlbaum is seven yrs old; the seven-headed Mouse King; the seven steps backwards; seven little crowns. The makers of this animated movie chose to feature the classic Mouse King.
Super Grover ★