The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen
NR | 20 November 1959 (USA)
The Snow Queen Trailers

When the Snow Queen, a lonely and powerful fairy, kidnaps the human boy Kay, his best friend Gerda must overcome many obstacles on her journey to rescue him.

Reviews
Cleveronix A different way of telling a story
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Eric Stevenson I heard that this movie was an influence on Hayao Miyazaki. Really? This is definitely good, but not on his level at all. I guess I didn't like this as most people. With the mass success of "Frozen", I was eager to see what were considered some of the other best adaptations of the "Snow Queen" story. This is one of the highest ranked versions and while I personally didn't love it, I certainly enjoyed it. It's mostly because I grew up reading the classic story. I don't quite remember the events of the book, but I know it featured two kids who meet the title queen. It was more faithful than the infinitely more popular Disney movie.I'm always eager to watch all movies, including foreign ones. I was glad to have come by a dubbed version and I don't think I've ever even seen an animated Russian movie before. The weakest part is that it is too short and fairly anti-climatic. It still has good pacing most of the time. The strongest point is probably the animation. The Snow Queen sticks out above all as being the most beautifully animated character or thing. I really did feel bad for these little kids, especially when they were getting into fights. ***
Gbbooks When I first saw this "Snow Queen" at the theatre, I was 10 years old, and even then, I suspected Art Linkletter had no business being on the screen. Boy, was I right. "The Snow Queen" is now on a DVD along with two other Russian animated films, "The Wild Swans" & "Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet". English, French & Spanish are the DVD language options. The absence of a Russian track is a bit puzzling. Catherine Deneuve voices the Snow Queen in French, Kathleen Turner in English. Kristen Dunst, Mickey Rooney & Laura San Giacomo also perform on the English track. "The Snow Queen" is wonderful. Even my 12 year old son, who much prefers Japanese anime, thought it was pretty good, though he did remind me, he was too adult for such hokey stuff. Nine out of Ten.
Raymond Tucker I was entranced by this film when I saw it a kiddie matinee in the 60s, and upon repeat viewings it is truly wonderful. I just don't understand why this film has not been given a proper treatment in the west. I've seen three english versions; the original US release with Art Linkletter was what I saw in the theater. A few years ago I chanced upon a strange version with the original elf narration restored, but with portions of the score dropped out to make way for horrible contemporary pop songs. Thirdly there was a version shown on PBS sans Linkletter, but with an entirely new soundtrack, which fared better than the pop version I mentioned (though not much better) Still the imagery is fabulous regardless of which botched presentation it is, and I would go out of my way to see an unadulterated version even without the benefit of translation.
hmsgroop The film (as anyone can see) was made in the Soviet Union in 1957. Generation after generation of young Russians have grown on it. I decided to vote for it ... and imagine my surprise when I see it on imdb crediting some Phil Patton or whatshisname there. I am very glad that not only the Russians but people of other nations can now see it and buy it via amazon.com. But I firmly believe that the genuine creators of the cartoon should be credited and not those who bought it or in some other mysterious way got hold of it. One of the users of the site writes: "It's one of the most un-Disneylike cartoons." Why should it be Disneylike? Personally, I think that some of Disney cartoons are very good, indeed, though it seems to me that many of them are "syrup on sugar", too sweet, too pink, too bubble gum. This cartoon is rather inspiring. It's one of my favourite, and now my little daughter watches it again and again.