Continuity mistake: When the King is first shown, screaming about mice, the crowns on top of his and the Queen's throne are very large. Then it cuts to a view from behind the throne at Drosselmeier and suddenly the crown on the King's throne is about half the size it was.
Continuity mistake: After she knocks herself out, Marie awakens in bed cause Fritz is playing loudly at the foot of the bed. Shots from the perspective of anybody looking at the bed from the foot show that there are lots of studded animals on the trunk, the animals sitting against the railing at the foot of the bed. But the close ups of Fritz looking through the railing shows that the animals have vanished. They keep appearing or disappearing repeatedly throughout the scene, depending on the camera angle.
Continuity mistake: After Marie throws her shoe at the Seven Headed Mouse King, then slips and knocks herself out, she awakens the next morning in bed. The first shot of this is a close up, and the nightstand beside her shows the side of a lamp. This is the only shot where the lamp looks the way it does, with handles on the sided and a traditional lamp shape, ans is on the nightstand alone. After this, the lamp has a different style, and there is a book and cup with it on the nightstand.
Continuity mistake: When the battle starts, the Seven Headed Mouse King yells, "destroy them all!" and then knocks down the Nutcracker. The Mouse King's sheath has vanished from his side.
Continuity mistake: When the army of mice marches out of the fireplace, you can see between their legs behind them that the logs that were smoldering and smoking only a moment ago have disappeared. Then a few shots later when the mice are advancing on the toy soldiers, the fireplace is visible behind them and the logs are suddenly there again, and don't appear to be the slightest bit burned.
Continuity mistake: When Mari gets up from the chair to go put the Nutcracker away, she walks towards a china cabinet. You can see by the shapes of the items through the windows in the doors of the cabinet that it is full of various dishes. But when she opens it, it is suddenly full of dolls and doll accessories.
Continuity mistake: When Marie goes to sit down by the fireplace to care for the Nutcracker, who just had his teeth broken by Fritz, the chair has purple cushioning. Moments later when she is about to get back up, the chair changes styles, and the cushioning is blue.
Continuity mistake: After Fritz shoves too many nuts in the Nutcracker's mouth and breaks his teeth, he gives it back to Marie and she cries out, "now you can't have him!", in this shot only a few teeth are missing. About 1 from the top row, and 1 or 2 from the bottom row. After the shot of Fritz saying, "will I ever survive?" in a very sarcastic manner, it cuts back to Marie with the Nutcracker, and suddenly a lot more teeth are missing. About 2 or 3 from the top row, and 4 or so from the bottom row, and they are more spread out in the bottom row.
Continuity mistake: When the father takes the Nutcracker out of the tree, there is a bowl of nuts on the very edge of the table behind him. After the close up of him saying, "let me show you how it works first." It cuts to a different angle as he bends down to grab a nut, and the bowl has moved half way across the length of the table.
Continuity mistake: When the father pulls down the Nutcracker from the tree, a bowl of nuts suddenly appears on the table that was not there in any of the previous shots showing the table.
Continuity mistake: After the bell is rung, Marie and Fritz run over to where their gift from Godfather Drosselmeier is, still hidden under a veil by their parents. As they do, they rub past a table that is by the window, which is a considerable distance away from the Christmas tree by a few feet. But when Drosselmeier points out the Nutcracker hanging in the tree, the table is suddenly at most right up next to the tree.
Continuity mistake: When the toy castle is unveiled, the drawbridge is facing towards the Christmas tree, and is the same way in pretty much all the shots it is shown. But when Fritz scoffs and says "well it's kinda interesting" he walks off towards the tree. In the shot showing him heading to the tree, the drawbridge is suddenly facing the door, perpendicular to the tree.
Continuity mistake: Godfather Drosselmeier switches on the mechanisms in the toy castle to make the figures inside and around it begin moving as music begins playing from it as well. The soldier on the tower begins spinning around the tower. But after the kids look at it for a moment and then Fritz begin a asking in Drosselmeier to make the soldiers in it do different things, the figures have stopped moving, and in some shots disappear. Yet the music is still playing from the castle and the sounds of the mechanical components moving can still be heard.
Continuity mistake: When the father pulls the cover off the toy castle that's Drosselmeier's gift to Marie and Fritz, there are no soldiers visible in or on any of the towers. But when there is a close up of Marie asking how Drosselmeier got in, there is a soldier on the tower next to her head. Then the camera cuts to a different angle as Drosselmeier approaches and the same tower is visible, but with no soldier.
Continuity mistake: After you hear Godfather Drosselmeier off screen say, "That's not amazing!" the camera then cuts to him walking in the door to the living room. Beside the door on a mantel is a large round vase with a bushy green plant in it, and there is a picture frame on the wall with a red picture in it. Then it cuts to a close up of Drosselmeier saying "I'll show you amazing." Suddenly the vase is much smaller and shaped like a cup, the plant is now flowers, tulips by the looks of them, the picture in the frame on the wall turns blue with clouds in it, and a stand up picture frame and green box suddenly appear on the mantel next to the vase.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the film when it is showing several townsfolk mingling in the snowy streets, a horse drawn carriage with a driver and a woman holding a present goes by a brick house. A few shots later after you see a guy waving, the same carriage with passengers goes by, again in the same direction.
Continuity mistake: When Marie and Nutcracker are in Christmas Wood, some shooting stars fall to them and turn into sugar plums. In the first shot there are 3 of them, but when it cuts to the next shot where they turn into plums, suddenly there are 5. Then when the plums come down and begin circling around Nutcracker and Marie, there are 8 of them.
Continuity mistake: In Marie's bedroom, the finials atop the tall cabinet beside the door appear and disappear, and when Marie gets out of bed while Nutcracker and Mouse King duel, the cabinet now has an additional pediment.
Continuity mistake: After the bell is rung, when Marie and Fritz rush over to their parents the tall cabinet has a flat top, but once the toy castle is uncovered there's a pediment atop the cabinet, which vanishes and reappears in following shots.
Continuity mistake: After Fritz breaks Nutcracker's teeth, Marie removes the ribbon bow from her waist and wraps the ribbon around Nutcracker's mouth. When Marie walks to the cabinet we see the back of her dress minus the bow as it should be, but when Marie walks toward the clock the bow returns to the back of her dress. It then vanishes and reappears in following shots.
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 ★