The Snow Queen (1959)

Simply Perfect

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This adaptation of The Snow Queen is likely the most well-known animated film from Russia and rightfully so. It's a beautiful film with a lovely color palette and interesting character animation. Unlike the recent musical-comedy Frozen (2013), this is more faithful to the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and the central bond between Gerda and Kay feels comes across as much more poignant than anything in the later film, as Gerda goes through hellish scenarios for Kay's sake.Unfortunately, the ending dilutes the emotion of the story. (SPOILER WARNING) Once Gerda makes it to the Snow Queen's palace and finds Kay, the confrontation with the titular character is less than convincing. Gerda simply shouts, "Go away!" and the mildly agitated queen disappears, leaving the children to make their way home and live happily ever after.Now I was not expecting a ridiculous battle for the climax, but I felt it could have been handled with more power, with Kay forced to pick between the safe but soulless domain of the Snow Queen and Gerda's love. It would have been more satisfying. Or they could have kept the original ending too. Either of these would have been better than what was chosen. I'm not the only one who feels this way either; even director Hayao Miyazaki expressed his displeasure with this film's finale in an interview.Still, this is among the better adaptations of the fairy tale to date and classic animation fans should not miss out.

"Snezhnaya koroleva' (1957) aka "The Snow Queen" directed by Lev Atamanov is a beautiful animated movie of my childhood that I'd seen dozens times back in Moscow even before we had a color TV. It is creative, colorful, sometimes dramatic and intense, and always poetic and moving Russian adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of voyages "The Snow Queen". Seeing it last night after such a long time together with my husband, we both agreed that this is one of the timeless classics. This story of the devoted heart of a little brave girl and the friendship and love which are above everything and are worth to fight for and to go to the end of the world, will never get old. Two best voices of Soviet stage and cinema participated in the narrating of "The Snow Queen", Maria Babanova - The Snow Queen and Yanina Zhejmo – Gerda. Zhejmo was absolutely charming as Cinderella in the Russian adaptation "Zolushka" (1947) which is also one of my all time favorites.The film was released on DVD by the company "Films by Jove" with the original Russian soundtrack and English subtitles and is available from the company's site. Four more excellent films by Lev Atamanov are included on the DVD: "Golden Antelope", the Indian fairy tale and three short animations, "Bench", "Cyclist", and "Fence" adapted from the cartoons of Herluf Bidstrup, celebrated Danish artist, famous for his comics, humorous drawings, series of graphical anecdotes, and caricatures.

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.

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.