The Nutcracker (Mickey Mouse Works)

"The Nutcracker" is an animated short originally aired as part of an episode of ', and was later incorporated into the ' episode "Pete's Christmas Caper" and the film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. As the title suggests, it is an adaptation of "The Nutcracker", but it also finds its roots in the stage show Mickey's Nutcracker, which was performed at Disneyland's Videopolis theater in 1991.

Synopsis
It is Christmas Eve, and a girl named Maria (played by Minnie Mouse) is admiring her Christmas presents as an offscreen narrator (voiced by ) rhetorically asks "Who could describe them all?" At that point, Maria's guardian, Godpapa Drosselmeyer answers that by attempting to describe the toys before the narrator interrupts him, telling him that he wasn't really supposed to answer his question, and orders him to "pretend I'm not even here." Drosselmeyer proceeds to present Maria with his special gift for her - a beautiful nutcracker doll in the likeness of Mickey Mouse, which took him all year to build. During this, he again argues with the narrator when he keeps describing the doll before Drosselmeyer himself can finish it. Maria loves her nutcracker and is even more enchanted when she pulls the wind-up key on its back and it starts dancing. Drosselmeyer, however, points out that it's not supposed to dance, and unscrews its head off in an attempt to find out why. But Maria takes offense at him "breaking" the nutcracker, and the narrator promptly kicks him out of the story.

Maria ties the Nutcracker's head back on and expresses her desire for him to be real, so that she could dance with him. The Nutcracker suddenly flashes a smile at her, which startles her and makes her wonder if she's seeing things. She suddenly shrinks to the size of the Nutcracker and finds herself panicking at the sight of her now-gigantic, evil-looking toys. In the course of this, she trips on some giant skates and gets herself tied up in the tree trimming. Fortunately, the now-living Nutcracker shows up to cut her loose, saying he wants to thank her for her kindness. The two engage in a romantic dance, but their interlude is cut short by the appearance of the villainous Mouse King, played by a reluctant Donald Duck. Donald objects that he does not want to play the part and immediately storms off, but the narrator convinces him to stay by telling him that "the Mouse King wins in the end." With that, Donald resumes the part as normal and, as the Mouse King, arrives to kidnap Maria so he can make her his queen. The Nutcracker tries to stop him, but the Mouse King promptly kicks him out of the way and whisks off with the captive Maria, sealing the entrance to his "kingdom" (one of the gift boxes) behind him.

As the Nutcracker ponders a way to get in, Goofy suddenly shows up behind him. Mickey steps out of character for a moment to ask Goofy what he's doing here. Goofy responds that he's come to help, to which Mickey responds by asking what role he's supposed to be playing. ("Uh, ?") After Mickey clarifies his question, Goofy answers that he'll be the Magical Snow Fairy who will transport the Nutcracker to the Mouse King's kingdom, and then promptly opens the doorway with a snap of his fingers. The two make their way to the Mouse King's castle, where the Mouse King is attempting to crown Maria his queen, to no avail (she keeps dodging her head). The Nutcracker demands the "mousey monarch" to let Maria go, and then gets into a duel with the Mouse King. During this, the Snow Fairy tries to untie Maria, but without success. In the course of the fight, the Mouse King accidentally leaps off of the platform and falls downward. The Nutcracker then frees Maria from her ropes, and they try to escape, but the Snow Fairy gets zapped by the Mouse King and is trapped in his scepter.

Upon making it back into Maria's home, she and the Nutcracker try to seal the doorway to the Mouse King's world, but he makes it back out anyway thanks to his train. They manage to destroy it by splitting the tracks in half. The Mouse King then chases the pair up Maria's Christmas tree. Upon reaching the top, the Nutcracker slices the star off the top so that it knocks out the Mouse King, causing him to drop all the way to the floor and end up getting zapped by and trapped in his own scepter. (Upon hearing Donald's complaint about him not winning as promised, the narrator remarks, "Sorry, I made a mistake.") With the Mouse King is now stuck having to play card games with the Snow Fairy, Maria and the Nutcracker resume their dance.

Just as Maria's dream is ending, Godpapa Drosselmeyer suddenly reappears, explaining to the narrator he needed to come back in to reclaim his scepter. Drosselmeyer explains that he is actually the King of the Sugar Plum Fairies, who was usurped by the Mouse King; now that he has his scepter back, he can resume his royal duties, and then flies off with his fellow Sugar Plum Fairies. The narrator ends the story by saying he had no idea what this last part had to do with anything, and promptly leaves.

The Disneyland stage show
In 1991, eight years prior to producing the Mouseworks short, Disney had also done a similar telling of the Nutcracker story in the form of Mickey's Nutcracker, a stage show performed at the Videopolis theater at Disneyland. A televised version of this stage show was also aired on the Disney Channel. As expected, being closer to the original story, the stage show is quite different from the later Mouseworks short, with the only real similarities being the casting of Mickey as the Nutcracker and Minnie as the female lead, as well as the breaking of the fourth wall.

The stage show opens with Minnie hosting a Christmas party at her house, attended by fellow Disney characters Goofy,, , and Tigger, and human neighbors Conrad, Tina, and Ethel. The story's narrator then arrives to give Minnie her Christmas present - a nutcracker in the likeness of Mickey Mouse. After the party (which the narrator remarks to the other characters needs to be over in order to continue the story), Minnie, too excited to sleep, starts dancing with her new nutcracker. When midnight strikes, Mickey the Nutcracker suddenly comes to life. He explains to Minnie that every year at Christmas Eve, he comes to life, accompanied by his friends - a quintet of tap-dancing, singing tin soldiers.

After their song, the soldiers and the mice go to get some snacks when suddenly, an evil pack of rats show up. After the narrator introduces them to the leads, the rats' leader, the Rat King, arrives. The narrator explains that the Rat King was once a handsome prince who was put under an evil curse that can only be undone by the thing rat kings hate most, sugar. The Rat King announces his plans to ruin Christmas and picks a fight with the Nutcracker and his soldiers, but Minnie tells them she won't have a big fight going on in her house. The soldiers knock out the Henchrats, and Minnie conks out the Rat King when he attempts to kill the Nutcracker. The rats quickly escape, and the soldiers go off to get another snack. The Nutcracker, grateful to Minnie for saving his life, offers to take her to his home kingdom, Candyland, using a sleigh (driven by Pluto as a reindeer) as their mode of transportation.

Shortly into their journey, they arrive at the Enchanted Snowflake Forest, where they meet and dance with the Dancing Snowflakes and their leader, the Queen of the Snowflakes (who, as Minnie notices, resembles Ethel). After the pair depart, the Rat King suddenly shows up in the forest, looking for the mice. The Snowflake Queen tries to cast a spell of her own on him, but her wand shorts out, so she decides to call Acme Exterminating. The Rat King then overhears the narrator talking about Minnie and the Nutcracker going to Candyland and worries about having to go there.

The Nutcracker and Minnie arrive at Candyland, where they're greeted by the mayor, who resembles Goofy. The mayor declares Minnie as Candyland's national heroine for saving the Nutcracker's life earlier. Minnie is introduced to the town's candymasters (Chip 'n Dale), the dentist (Roger Rabbit), and the sheriff (Tigger), and engages in song and dance. During this, the Rat King ties up the narrator and then takes over the story, saying that everyone got sick on the candy they ate. He then peeks ahead in the story, sees that he's supposed to get arrested by the sheriff, and promptly tears that page out of the book. The Rat King makes up his own ending in which he takes over Candyland (or stops the actual show in the TV version, which confuses the rest of the cast), but the Nutcracker puts a stop to this by clouting him with a bag of sugar. The sugar turns the Rat King back into the handsome prince he used to be (who resembles Conrad). No longer evil now, the prince thanks the Nutcracker for changing him back in time for the ending. Goofy then asks the narrator how does the story end, but the narrator doesn't know, since the last few pages got ripped out. The Nutcracker comes up with one, though - he asks Minnie if she'd be his princess and stay in Candyland with them, which she happily agrees to.