It stars Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, Kyra Nichols, Bart Robinson Cook, Macaulay Culkin, Jessica Lynn Cohen, Wendy Whelan, Margaret Tracey, Gen Horiuchi, Tom Gold, and the New York City Ballet.

In honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia,[9][10] tea from China,[11] and candy canes from Russia[12] all dance for their amusement; Marzipan shepherdesses perform on their flutes;[13] Mother Ginger has her children, the Polichinelles, emerge from under her enormous hoop skirt to dance; a string of beautiful flowers perform a waltz.

Development on The Nutcracker began around Christmas 1989, when Peter Martins, Master-in-Chief of the New York City Ballet, learned that Time Warner Entertainment Chairman Steve Ross wanted to produce a film with the company.

[18] Bob Krasnow, an avid ballet fan and executive of Time Warner subsidiary Elektra Records, worked on the film as a producer.

[18] George Balanchine's trust hired Emile Ardolino to direct the film and Macaulay Culkin was cast as The Nutcracker Prince due to his stardom as well as his experience dancing as “Fritz” for the School of American Ballet during the 1989 and 1990 seasons.

"[20] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was mixed on it, and gave it 2 out of 4 stars criticizing it for not adapting the dance for a film audience and also its casting of Culkin who, he writes, "seems peripheral to all of the action, sort of like a celebrity guest or visiting royalty, nodding benevolently from the corners of shots.

"[21] In The Washington Post, Lucy Linfield echoed Ebert's criticism of Culkin, stating that "it's not so much that he can't act or dance; more important, the kid seems to have forgotten how to smile...all little Mac can muster is a surly grimace."

She praised the dancing, however, as "strong, fresh and in perfect sync" and Kistler's Sugar Plum Fairy as "the Balanchinean ideal of a romantic, seemingly fragile beauty combined with a technique of almost startling strength, speed and knifelike precision.

"[22] The New York Times' Stephen Holden also criticized Culkin, calling his performance the film's "only serious flaw", but praised the cinematography as "very scrupulous in the way it establishes a mood of participatory excitement, then draws back far enough so that the classic ballet sequences choreographed by Balanchine and staged by Peter Martins can be seen in their full glory.

The film was released on DVD on August 11, 2015, from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (now owned by Disney) through their exclusive partnership with Regency Enterprises.