(CNN) Disney has become such a franchise/sequel factory there's hesitation criticizing an attempt to try something even a little bit different with its live-action movies. But like "A Wrinkle in Time," "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" is an expensive but clunky fantasy, mashing together mythical elements but mostly hitting discordant notes.

Loosely based on the original 19th-century story and the Tchaikovsky ballet (including a cameo by ballerina Misty Copeland that, awkward as it is, winds up being a highlight), the film -- again, like "Wrinkle" -- centers on a teenage girl, Clara (Mackenzie Foy), who stumbles into a fantastic world that calls upon her to find the hero within.

In this case, Clara is growing up in London, still grieving from the loss of her mother and providing little solace to her father (Matthew Macfadyen), who is equally confused as to how to express himself to his three children.

"The real world just doesn't make sense to me anymore," she says, right before being liberated from it.

On Christmas eve, Clara's dad presents the kids with gifts that their mother left behind, including a mysterious box for Clara. After a meeting with the wild-haired inventor Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman, briefly), she's whisked off to the Four Realms, a slightly less frenetic version of Wonderland, where she's hailed as a princess, her mother having been its Queen.

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