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Character

Clara is the main protagonist in Barbie in the Nutcracker. She’s played by Barbie and voiced by Kelly Sheridan. After receiving a Nutcracker from Aunt Elizabeth for Christmas, Clara's parlor is ambushed by the Mouse King and his army. Clara tries to fight them, but she’s shrunk by the king's magic to the size of a mouse.

In order to be transformed back to her normal size, Clara must embark on an expedition to find the Sugar Plum Princess - a powerful fairy who possesses the powers to return Clara back to her normal size. Her love interest is King Eric, who she’s separated from and later reunited with at the end of the story.

Story

Clara is an orphan. Her parents died when she and her little brother Tommy were very young, so they were raised by their Grandfather Drosselmayer. When we first see Clara in the movie, she’s a teenager who wishes she could go on adventures like her Aunt Elizabeth. Elizabeth came to stay with Clara on Christmas Eve, and she gave Clara a Christmas present: a Nutcracker doll. Tommy wanted to play with the Nutcracker, but while he was trying to take it from Clara, he broke the Nutcracker’s arm. Clara fixed the arm and later fell asleep on the sofa in her parlor, with the Nutcracker laying beside her, Clara's arm wrapped around him.

At midnight, magic occurred in the parlor: Magic came out of a mouse hole in the parlor, a portal to and from another world, Parthenia, opened in the mouse hole, and Clara's Nutcracker became animated, as well as an owl atop the clock which belonged to Clara's grandfather. An army of mice entered the parlor through the mouse hole, so when the Nutcracker saw the mice, he immediately ran to attack them with his sword. Clara woke up to see the battle, thinking she was still dreaming. More mice came out of the hole to her shock, with their King, the Mouse King. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King began to battle, so Clara tried to help the Nutcracker by attempting to trap the mouse under a vase. Unfortunately, the Mouse King used his magic scepter to make Clara the size of a mouse. She backed away from the Mouse King cautiously as he walked toward her.

The Nutcracker protected Clara and fought the Mouse King and his army, and Clara helped by flinging her shoe at the Mouse King, knocking him unconscious. His army took their king back through the mouse hole. The Nutcracker informed Clara that only the Sugar Plum Princess could reverse the Mouse King’s shrinking spell on Clara and that he was a victim of the Mouse King’s magic - he was not always a Nutcracker doll. The owl from on top of her grandfather’s clock wanted to help Clara and the Nutcracker, so she swooped down to them. The owl told Clara that she could find the Sugar Plum Princess in Parthenia, on an island across the Sea of Storms. Clara didn’t want to go, but she had no choice if she wanted to get rid of the Mouse King’s spell. The owl gave Clara a locket from a Ballerina ornament that Clara's mother gave her when she was a child, and she was instructed to open it once she found the Sugar Plum Princess. Then, Clara would return home her normal size.

Clara put on the locket and went through the mouse hole with the Nutcracker. After a few steps, she and the Nutcracker fell into the portal leading to Parthenia, but they landed in a cave made of ice. A young snow fairy appeared and bumped into the Nutcracker’s chest, hurting her wing. Clara fixed the fairy’s wing, and the fairy left and came back with older snow fairies. The fairies danced for Clara and opened an entrance from the ice cave to the land of Parthenia. As they exited, blooming flowers appeared in Clara's footsteps. Clara and the Nutcracker talked about the Sugar Plum Princess, but the Mouse King’s spy, a bat named Pimm, overheard them. Pimm informed the Mouse King, who had never heard of the princess before. Clara and Nutcracker arrived at the Gingerbread Village, where they met two children, the Peppermint Girl and the Gingerbread Boy, and a horse named Marzipan. The children told Clara and the Nutcracker that the Mouse King’s army had gotten rid of everything and everyone in the village.

The Gingerbread Boy blamed Prince Eric, the son of the king who had ruled before the Mouse King took over, to destroy the village. The king had left his throne and golden scepter to his then advisor, the Mouse King, until Eric was ready to be king. The Mouse King enjoyed being king, so he took over Parthenia, and Eric disappeared. Clara and the Nutcracker decided to take the children with them until they could find a safe place to stay. The four of them traveled with Marzipan until they saw the Mouse King’s army carrying away things from the Gingerbread Village. Marzipan ran away, and the army noticed Clara and the other people, so the army began to chase them.

Clara told the group to follow her into the forest, where they were rescued by people in the Treetop Village. Major Mint and Captain Candy, two of the villagers, found Clara and the Nutcracker very suspicious and began questioning them. Clara told Major Mint that they were looking for the Sugar Plum Princess, which Captain Candy believed, while Major Mint was cynical. The Captain managed to convince Major Mint to help Clara and the Nutcracker find the princess to leave the next day. Meanwhile, the Mouse King found a description of the Sugar Plum Princess, but it was very basic, simply describing her as 'kind, clever and brave'. Frustrated by this bland clue, he decided to send something to destroy Nutcracker before he could find her, so he used a spell to make a rock pillar into a giant and ordered it to crush the Nutcracker.

Clara said goodnight to the Gingerbread Boy and the Peppermint Girl before they went to sleep because she would be leaving them in the Treetop Village for their own safety. She went to talk to the Nutcracker outside. She told him she knew he was really Prince Eric, and he told her that he didn't want to be the prince. He just wanted the Parthenians to be happy. The next day, Clara, the Nutcracker, Captain Candy and Major Mint set off on their expedition to find the princess, led by the Major. They crossed some floating stepping stones, and Major Mint ordered Clara and the Nutcracker to find supplies while he and Captain Candy made a boat to cross the Sea of Storms. They came across a valley which the Mouse King had destroyed, where they found some flower fairies. The fairies thought Clara was beautiful, and they danced for her and made the valley lush and healthy again. However, the rock giant arrived and began to chase and terrorize everyone.

The snow fairies helped everyone by freezing the Sea of Storms, and they led Marzipan back to Clara and the other people. Everyone got into Marzipan’s sleigh, and they began to cross the frozen sea, but the rock giant followed them. The Nutcracker broke some ice with his sword, so the giant fell into the sea. After that, the group still had trouble crossing the sea because it became foggy. Pimm, who had been secretly riding on the back of the sleigh, told the Mouse King that the Nutcracker had defeated the rock giant.

Meanwhile, Major Mint thought it would be too dangerous to continue crossing the sea because of the fog. Clara got out of the sleigh and saw that the island was not far away. When they had all reached the island, they eventually found the Sugar Plum Princess’s castle. The Nutcracker, Major Mint, and Captain Candy walked towards the castle, but it turned out to be a trap, and they were caged and taken to the Mouse King’s palace. However, Clara had managed to get away.

Clara was left alone with no way of getting off the island until the flower fairies came to her rescue. They carried a seat made of leaves for Clara, so Clara sat on it, and they flew her to the Palace of Sweets. Clara crept into the palace, and the fairies quickly left to encourage the Parthenians to stand up to the Mouse King, which Pimm overheard and informed the King about. The Mouse King demanded that every villager be rounded up and brought to the palace courtyard to witness him finally destroy the Nutcracker in a bonfire.

Clara looked around the palace until she found a dungeon, which appeared empty, but Clara was clever and realized there was an invisible wall that was hiding the Nutcracker, Captain Candy and Major Mint. Clara smashed the wall, and they all went to the courtyard. Nutcracker and the Mouse King fought against each other, but when Clara tried to help, the Mouse King tried to use a spell on her to make her even smaller. The Nutcracker used his sword to reflect the spell back onto the Mouse King, and so the Mouse King was shrunk, and his scepter was destroyed. The Mouse jumped into the sewers. The Nutcracker was knocked to his feet with the impact of reflecting the spell, and Clara was very worried about him. She kissed him, which magically reversed the Mouse King's spell on the Nutcracker, turning him back into Prince Eric. Captain Candy and Major Mint were shocked, but Clara's kiss made Eric realize that Clara, whose nightgown transformed into a glittering tutu, was the Sugar Plum Princess.

Eric told Clara that she had been the Sugar Plum Princess for the entire time because it made sense that she had saved everyone several times, and she had reversed the Mouse’s magic. Clara had broken all of the Mouse’s evil enchantments, so the Palace of Sweets transformed to how it had been before the Mouse had taken over. Eric was free to take his rightful place as King, and the Parthians were all so happy that they forgave Eric, and everyone celebrated by dancing. Clara and Eric shared a romantic dance together, and afterward, he asked her to stay in Parthenia instead of going home, so she could be his Queen. Clara agreed because she felt at home in Parthenia, and she kissed Eric again.

However, Pimm and the Mouse swooped by and snatched Clara’s locket off her neck. The Mouse opened it, so Clara automatically had to go home. Clara faded away before Eric could tell her he loved her, leaving him distraught, and Clara woke up on the sofa in her parlor. Clara couldn't find her Nutcracker doll anywhere, but Aunt Elizabeth came into the parlor with the son of a dear friend of hers she had run into when she was taking her morning stroll: Eric. Eric had been invited by Elizabeth to stay for Christmas dinner, which Clara thought was a wonderful idea. Clara and Eric were left alone, so Eric gave Clara her locket and they danced together.

Personality

"You are the Sugar Plum Princess! It all makes sense. You saved me from the Mouse King in your parlor, you rescued us from his dungeon, your bravery led to his defeat and... your kiss has broken his spell."
—Prince Eric.

Clara is kind, clever, and brave. She is reluctant at first to go to Parthenia, because her grandfather has probably sheltered her, and she has never been allowed to travel with her aunt.

Abilities

As the Sugar Plum Princess, Clara is a powerfully magical fairy who was shown to possess the powers of:

  • Clear Sight: Even before she was revealed to be the Sugar Plum Princess, Clara had the ability to perceive and see through the glamour and illusions of magic, though it required her to first make physical contact with said glamour - while she was initially unable to see or hear the Nutcracker, Captain Candy, and Major Mint in their invisible prison, she saw the Nutcracker when her hand touched the prison.
  • Spell Negation: Even before she was revealed to be the Sugar Plum Princess, Clara had the ability to negate spells - by kissing the Nutcracker on his cheek, she dispelled the Mouse King's evil enchantment on him, enabling him to resume his original human shape as Prince Eric.
  • Restoration: After she was revealed to be the Sugar Plum Princess, Clara manifested the ability to restore both living and non-living things to their optimum state - the Palace of Sweets turned from dark and dreary back to bright, colorful, and flowery, the bonfire turned back to a large fountain, the overcast sky turned back to blue, and the villagers (who were turned into stone statues by the Mouse King's magic) turned back to normal. In fact, as she and Prince Eric danced, the rest of Parthenia was completely and utterly freed of the Mouse King's evil influence, turning back into a lush, green, and vibrant paradise filled with bridges, flowers, and trees.
  • Enhanced Dancing: After she was revealed to be the Sugar Plum Princess, Clara was shown to be a master dancer - she and Prince Eric flawlessly danced a Pas De Deux, and back in Clara's world, they danced a waltz.

Relationships

Family and Family Friends

Clara’s grandfather is a strict man, but he cares about his grandchildren. Clara doesn’t seem to really talk to her grandfather, though, and is more closer to her Aunt Elizabeth. Her Aunt is a fun and interesting woman to Clara, and Clara enjoys hearing about her travels. She wants to travel with her Aunt, but she knows her grandfather would never allow it because he wants Clara to stay at home. Clara considers Elizabeth her favorite Aunt and a mother figure, seeing as her own mother is gone.

Clara and her snarky brother Tommy have a typical brother-sister relationship. They squabble a lot, and one of their quarrels leads to Tommy breaking Clara’s Christmas gift: her Nutcracker. He does show that he feels bad and says he’s sorry, but in the morning, he just refers to the Nutcracker as a hunk of wood and says, “Why would I want him?” showing that he may not have been sorry about breaking the Nutcracker after all (and was possibly just more afraid of getting in trouble, as the purchaser of the gift saw it break, and his grandfather is, of course, very strict).

Clara is able to talk to the family maid casually and was never shown giving the maid any orders, but rather treating her like an acquaintance.

Other Relationships

Clara is a kind girl who is easily capable of befriending people. She’s treated nicely by the fairies of Parthenia, (who absolutely adore her), and they help her throughout her journey. She was also quickly accepted by Marzipan, the horse, as Marzipan allowed Clara to pat her. Clara showed that she prefers to resolve conflicts through peaceful conversation rather than physical violence when she met the Gingerbread Boy and the Peppermint Girl. Instead of attacking the children with snowballs, Clara picked up the girl’s doll and gave it back to her, gaining their trust. When the Mouse King was invading her parlor, she was most likely going to just trap him in the vase she was holding rather than kill him. However that quickly backfired when the Mouse King shrunk Clara with his scepter.

Major Mint and Captain Candy

The Major and the Captain weren’t very close to Clara, but they never disliked her. The Major didn’t seem to think he needed to treat her with too much respect (because he was unaware that she was the Sugar Plum Princess and thought the princess didn’t exist altogether) while he didn't hate her, he was a little sexist towards her when she came running down the hill. Captain Candy was more polite as after Peppermint Girl says that Clara and the Nutcracker are not their enemies, he politely asks them if they would answer a few questions. The Major and the Captain were interested in assisting Clara and the Nutcracker on their expedition to find the Sugar Plum Princess, showing they meant well.

The Mouse King

The Mouse King didn’t seem to find Clara too much of a threat but more of an obstacle. He only used her to get information about the Nutcracker from Pimm because he intended to defeat the Nutcracker once and for all. After Clara was first shrunk, she was slightly afraid when the King approached her but he was knocked down by the carriage the Nutcracker was on. When she wasn't captured by Pimm and his bats, he wasn't bothered by that at all, as he was only after the Nutcracker. She has no difficulty speaking up to him, even though he cannot stand it when that happens. He accuses her of having a big mouth and that shrinking Clara did not stop her at all, he tries to shrink her again but thanks to the Nutcracker for shielding her, the Mouse King is the one who gets shrunk. However after Clara agrees to stay, the King comes back on Pimm and snatches the locket, opening it and thereby sending her home.

Physical Appearance

Clara is a teenager with pale skin and dark blue eyes. She has long, straight, shiny blonde hair. She is the same height as her aunt Elizabeth, who said that Clara had grown 'at least a head taller' since she had last seen her.

Clara's nightgown is light pink. It has long sleeves, and the skirt goes past her knees. The top of the dress is an empire cut that sits just below her chest, and there is white lace trim on the center of the bodice. There is a white band at the bottom of the bodice, sitting just below her chest. The shoulders are puffy, and the sleeves are tight, ending in white lace. The skirt has two bands of white lace running just above her knees. She wears pale pink slippers with a low heel. After shrinking, Clara wears a gold heart-shaped locket.

When Clara transforms into the Sugar Plum Princess, her hair becomes wavy and tightly curled. She wears a small gold tiara on her head and a glittering pink ballet dress. The dress's bodice is sequined, has a snowflake pattern, is glittery and pale pink with sheer, ruffled trimming. The tutu is made of tulle, is full and a darker shade of pink. She wears white tights and pink ballet shoes.

Quotes

  • "A nutcracker! He's wonderful! Thank you, Aunt Elizabeth!"
  • "This has to be a dream!"
  • "We're trying to find the only one who can defeat him, the Sugar Plum Princess."
  • "You're risking your life to save your kingdom! Isn't that what Princes do?"
  • "I should never have come. What was I thinking? That I was going to find a magical princess?"
  • "Then perhaps you should be looking for the Princess too."
  • "This locket was supposed to take me home, but in my heart, I feel like I'm already there."
  • "I couldn't say 'no' to the king."
  • "Mother gave it to me the Christmas I saw my first ballet."
  • "What am I saying? I can't leave! I'm their only hope."

Trivia

  • Mattel auditioned 70 people to find the right voice for Barbie and Clara, and they eventually picked Kelly Sheridan.
  • One animator was devoted to Clara's hair, ensuring it would move naturally when she dances.
  • Clara's dancing was done by NYC ballet performer Maria Kowroski.
  • Clara is based on Marie Stahlbaum, a girl who’s 12-years-old from the original "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"'fairytale. However, the main character was also named Clara in "The Nutcracker" ballet version and the 1990 movie "The Nutcracker Prince".
  • There's also a Sugar Plum Fairy in Barbie in The Pink Shoes.
  • When Clara threw her shoe at the Mouse King to save the Nutcracker, her shoe was on her foot again. This is a movie goof.
  • Clara is actually one of the few Barbie characters to not have an animal sidekick

Belongings

Locket

Locket on Clara

The Sugar Plum Princess's Locket is a magic locket in Barbie in the Nutcracker.

After the Mouse King shrunk Clara to the size of a mouse, the owl from the grandfather clock in Clara's parlor came to life. When Clara decided to help the Nutcracker return to his normal self, the owl gave the locket to Clara. The owl took it from the Sugar Plum Princess ornament and told Clara to open it to return home. She would return her normal size.

Nutcracker (101)

The locket on Ballerina ornament

Clara wanted to open it when she was on the Sugar Plum Princess' island but decided not to do it because her friends had been kidnapped and she was their only hope. It was opened against her will when the Mouse King snatched it off her neck and opened it, making her disappear from Parthenia.

When Clara woke up, Elizabeth came in with Eric, who she described as the son of a dear friend. He gave Clara the locket, and they danced together.

Decoration

The Sugar Plum Princess Decoration is an ornament in Barbie in the Nutcracker. Clara told the maid that her mother gave the decoration to her as a gift for the Christmas she saw her first ballet. The decoration wears a locket, which the owl gives to Clara after Clara is shrunk by the Mouse King and has to defeat him to reverse the spell. When the locket is opened, Clara returns home her normal size.

Differences from the show and the film

  • In the ballet, Clara is about 9 or 10 years old, here she is a teenager
  • While the ballet didn’t have Clara become the Sugar Plum Princess in the end, many fans say that this was the perfect conclusion as the princess was really someone who represented the spirit and qualities of the princess.

Gallery

Barbie in the Nutcracker
Barbie in the Nutcracker Digital Copy

Media: Barbie in the Nutcracker

Characters: Clara | King Eric | Mouse King | Pimm | Major Mint | Captain Candy | Peppermint Girl | Gingerbread Boy | Marzipan | Rock Giant | Faeries | Elizabeth Drosselmayer | Owl | Grandfather Drosselmayer | Tommy | Barbie | Kelly | Mouse King's Army | Maid

Locations: Ballet Studio | Grandfather Drosselmayer's House | Parthenia

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