Nutcracker Fantasy is a stop motion animated film by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffman's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture featuring youth. It won the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Musical Entertainment. The film was released in two versions - Japanese and English. The voices credited below are those of the English-language version, but certain moments that appear only in the Japanese version are described. The movie begins with the narrator (voiced by Michele Lee) talking about the Ragman, a creepy and mysterious old man who turns children into mice if they don't go to bed on time. The Ragman roams around the city looking through windows of people's houses, spying on sleeping children. A little boy is up past his bedtime reading, whereupon the Ragman turns the boy into a mouse. After the opening, Clara (voiced by Melissa Gilbert) and her Aunt Gerda (voiced by Lurene Tuttle) are in Clara's bedroom, and Clara is talking about how excited she is about her cousin Fritz's upcoming visit.