Mike Hale, New York Times: The Viennese scenes, shot on Budapest soundstages, give a new, dreary meaning to "workmanlike." Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [It] has so many terrible ideas that the terrible execution is almost irrelevant: Even if the film were well done, it would still be a travesty. Read more
Tasha Robinson, AV Club: At worst, it's a joke, an exercise in treacly bad taste, a $90 million pain in the retinas. Read more
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Delivering the cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking, The Nutcracker in 3D is an apparent Scrooge-like attempt by Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky to forever ruin children's associations with the classic Yuletide ballet. Read more
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Your Thanksgiving turkey has arrived on schedule and it's called "The Nutcracker in 3D." Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Spectacularly misconceived, bloated and incredibly ugly... Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: From what dark night of the soul emerged the wretched idea for "The Nutcracker in 3D"? Read more
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Imagine watching Tchaikovsky's ballet after taking a handful of peyote -- on a day when all of the dancers call in sick and the orchestra decides to play a different set of the composer's works. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: This non-balletic adaptation by the Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky is something gnarled and stunted and wrong, something that should never have been allowed to see the light of day. How's that for a holiday-ad pullquote? Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: One of the most misguided children's films ever made. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Who had the lamebrained idea for a post-apocalyptic 3-D Nutcracker that is lacking any trace of ballet? Read more
John Anderson, Variety: The familiarity of the music may actually be a disadvantage; the ear wants the melodies to conform to one's memory of them, but instead they've been tortured into compliance with the needs of a standard movie musical. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The wildest thing about this movie is its faith that what kids (and parents) really want for Christmas is a Nutcracker version of the Final Solution. Read more