Here is a cinematic adaptation of Léo Delibes’ ballet that blends animation, visual effects and live-action dancing, drawing on the rejigged story and score created for a Dutch National Ballet production of the show from 2008.
Like several other modern productions, this version updates to the present the 19th-century ETA Hoffman-derived story of a village boy lured away from his human sweetheart by a mechanical doll controlled by an evil genius. Instead of a lifesize wind-up toy danced by a prima ballerina, here Coppelia is imagined as an animated dancebot whose high blond beehive with flip curls recalls Lisa Marie’s alien temptress from Mars Attacks! Her controller, Doctor Coppelius (Vito Mazzeo), seems to be offering his services to the townsfolk as a kind of plastic surgeon, but he’s actually using brainwashing techniques to steal their human essences – strength, intelligence and something symbolised by a heart (emotional intelligence? Passion? Emoji power?) – and transfer them into Coppelia.
