Filming Locations and Sets of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

The new big-budget Disney movie is updating the story of The Nutcracker, the classical ballet scored by Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky.

The storyline follows young Clara entering a magical world containing four extraordinary Realms: The land of Flowers, always in bloom, the Land of Snowflakes sparkling with frost, the sugary land of Sweets, and the mysterious fourth realm where trouble reigns.

The movie stars Mackenzie Foy (Interstellar) as Clara, Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice) as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Morgan Freeman as the godfather Drosselmeyer and the prestigious professional dancer Misty Copeland plays The ballerina, among others.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms was filmed in England, mostly on the soundstages at Pinewood Studios near London.

However, we went the extra mile to find some of the real places and locations that inspired production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas to create the world for the movie where every single set was a piece of art.

One of the few real locations of Disney's The Nutcracker is the Minley Manor in Camberley, Hampshire.

This magnificent stately home was also featured as the Enola Holmes school in the 2020 Netflix movie.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures and Skyvantage - Map

This French-style manor house, built in 1860, is a private location that was also used to film scenes for the 2007 fantasy movie Stardust, starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures and Skyvantage

The hall pictured was filmed at Syon House Great Conservatory in west London.

According to KFTV, some interiors for Clara’s family home were shot at Harefield House near Pinewood.

Also were used for filming a lecture hall in Dulwich College (southeast London) and Kensington Gore, a thoroughfare on the east side of the Royal Albert Hall.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures and Thaddeus Maximus - Map

The obvious inspiration for the architecture of the Palace is the traditional Russian architecture, with onion-topped towers and vivid colors.

Elements from Saint Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square or the bell tower of Novodevichy Convent, both in Moscow, compose the fantastic design of the building.
Images by Walt Disney Pictures, Atlas of Wonders, and Reibai - Novodevichy Map

We found out that visiting the Land of the Snowflakes is not so hard: the frosty village matches the postcard town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria, Germany.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures and Vera Izrailit - Map

Surprisingly, the production designers didn't go too far to make this image for the concept art of the Land of Sweets: This candy street composition looks like the same Bavarian town of Rothenburg.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures and Mattia Panciroli

These are images from the stunning sets built at Pinewood Studios.

Also Disney's 2017 remake of the Beauty and the Beast was filmed mostly on studio soundstages, taking as inspiration real European towns and places.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

The set from The Fourth Realm, the place previously known as the Land of Amusements, had some of the most impressive sets of the whole production.
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

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