Nutcracker Fantasy (くるみ割り人形 Kurumiwari Ningyō?, lit. The Nutcracker) is a Japanese-American stop motion animated film produced 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 is directed by Takeo Nakamura and written by Shintaro Tsuji, Eugene A. Fournier and Thomas Joachim. It is officially released in Japan on March 3, 1979 and later in the United States in July 6, 1979. The film is nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture featuring youth and won the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Musical Entertainment. Nutcracker Fantasy marks as the first stop-motion project by Sanrio, followed by Hello Kitty's Stump Village 37 years later. The film's overall animation style is reminiscent of the early Rankin-Bass Film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A remastered version of the film was announced by Sanrio, with an advanced screening at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 29, 2014 and released formally in theaters in November 29, 2014 as part of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary