Psycho's Movie Reviews #216: The Snow Queen (2012)

The Snow Queen (Russian: Снежная королева, romanized: Snezhnaya Koroleva, lit. 'The Snow Queen') is a 2012 Russian 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure family film written by Vadim Sveshnikov and directed by Vladlen Barbe and Maxim Sveshnikov. The Snow Queen was produced by Wizart Animation and released by Bazelevs. InlayFilm acted as co-production studio. The film is a remake of the 1844 story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Ligaiy, Yuri Moskvin, Sergey Rapoport and Olga Sinelshchikova.

Like the fairy tale, the main character and heroine of the film is Gerda (voice of Nyusha and Jessica Straus). Set after the Snow Queen invoked the spell of eternal winter, the film follows the story of Gerda who sets out on an improbable frigid journey up North to save Kai. The Snow Queen never realized Gerda was truly the last threat from winter domination when henchman troll Orm (voice of Ivan Okhlobystin and Doug Erholtz) joins Gerda's quest as a friend.

The Snow Queen was one of the most anticipated projects of the Russian film industry in 2012. Inspirational evaluation of The Snow Queen at international film markets set its stage for international distribution. The film was released on 31 December 2012 in Russia. In the United States, it was released on 11 October 2013. After receiving generally positive reviews from critics, an Annecy International Animated Film Festival review noted the film's ambition is reminiscent of the golden age of Russian animation. The film also achieved significant commercial success, earning 233 million rubbles domestically while total box office amounted to $13 million. The film became a milestone in the history of Russian animation as it received accolades from Moscow Film Festival and Zelenograd International Youth Film Festival.

Plot

The Snow Queen covered the world in ice. Only Master Vegard stands in her way, whose mirrors reflect not only appearances but also souls. One day the polar wind takes away Vegard and his wife Una, but they hide their children Gerda and Kai. Years later, the Snow Queen's servile troll Orm (who can shape shift into a black weasel) locates Kai, who is deemed Vegard's successor, at the orphanage St. Peter's Kids Shelter. At the orphanage Gerda sews mittens. After a tangle between both siblings and Orm, Kai is abducted by the North Wind, a polar cold spell that can only be invoked by the Snow Queen. The polar vortex shuttles Kai to the Snow Queen's palace. Gerda embarks on a journey with Orm and her pet white weasel Luta across the icy lands to rescue her brother.

They first enter a garden dome run by an old lady who seems nice, but her true intentions are to drug and enslave Gerda to grow and sell flowers. Orm and Luta catch wind of the scheme and thwart it, but the lady sends out her carnivorous plant, Ivy, but the trio make their escape. Meanwhile, in the ice palace, Kai arrives and the Snow Queen leads him to her throne room. The Queen's mirror, after examining Kai, reveals that Master Vegard has two heirs. Kai tries to hide the truth, but the Snow Queen reads it in his heart and sees Kai's painting of Gerda.

Gerda thanks Orm for saving her life and they begin to warm up to each other. Then the three stumble into Imana's caves, the birthplace of trolls. Orm briefs about how the trolls' age of peace was tainted by the Snow Queen and turned their clans to fight each other, until only the cowardly Orm survived, and the souls of the trolls remained trapped in the Lake Gao. While Gerda and Luta look around, Orm is contacted by the Snow Queen with orders to bring Gerda to her. Orm helps Gerda and Luta cross the evil Lake Gao and Gerda avoids its curse, much to Orm's amazement.

Outside the cave, the trio encounter a king on a royal hunt. The king tries to hunt Orm (in weasel form) and Luta, but he bumps into a tree. The trio are escorted to the king's castle. The king has had a trouble in which his children have literally half-shares in his property after the Snow Queen split the castle in half and Queen Anself was lost. The king takes Gerda as his prisoner, until she shows compassion for her brother. The king and his children have an argument and start a fire but Gerda saves them. As a reward the trio are given a sleigh for their journey.

The trio are captured by pirates and taken to their ship, but Gerda is able to persuade them to let them continue their quest, and the captain's daughter gives them a reindeer for the journey. Meanwhile, in the Snow Queen's ice palace, Kai is frozen by the Snow Queen. Gerda meets the Lady of Lapland in a tent, who recounts the Snow Queen's origin. As a girl, Irma, who had a gift of magic, was ostracized and went to Imana's caves where her ill wish upon the people, granted by the Lake Gao, turned her into the Snow Queen. The Lady of Lapland grants the trio a snow boat and sends them to the Snow Queen. The palace of the Snow Queen is located in Spitsbergen.

Orm tries to protect Gerda and make her change her mind, but Gerda is determined. At the Kingdom of Eternal Frost, Gerda finds her brother frozen. Then the Snow Queen appears. Orm turns down his reward to be free and beseeches the queen to spare Gerda. Since the queen will not listen to reason, Orm ceases to serve her. The Queen summons ice trolls and giants, but Orm transforms into a polar bear to defeat the monsters and allow Gerda to reach the throne room. But both Orm and Luta are cornered by the North Wind.

Gerda finds the queen's mirror and walks through it, entering the mirror realm. The Snow Queen tries to freeze her heart but, guided by the spirits of her family, she regains hope and retaliates with the magic mirror. The Snow Queen's curse is finally broken, Irma is transformed back and Gerda banishes the evil curse from returning. Irma revives Kai, Orm turns back into a troll, Luta wakes him up and the eternal winter is finally ended. With that Gerda, Kai, Orm, Irma and Luta all set off home. And Gerda and Orm finally accept each other as best friends.

During the end credits, there are scenes showing the lives of people they met throughout their journey after the Snow Queen's defeat and started living happily.

Production

Development

The concept of an Hans Andersen fairy tale film was sprouted ever since 2007, when Wizart Animation was founded. Until 2012, the studio's parent company was InlayFilm with the main production site of the studio located in Voronezh, and some divisions located in Moscow. However news of a Disney production of the same name initially made the studio prioritize on other projects putting the film in the shelves.

In 2010, the production for The Snow Queen restarted that lasted over 3 years. They were planning to release the film in the New Year at the turn of 2012–2013. The studio started the production noting they reduced its production time while increasing the personnel and technological process.

The studio were honoured to work again from the source material of 1957 movie by Lev Atmanov and Andersen's fairy tale. The cartoon was the directorial debut of Maxim Sveshnikov, who previously worked on the scripts of animated films such as Dobrinya and The Dragon. Initially Maxim Sveshnikov was script writer who became more fascinated with the progress of the writing. The writer became convinced the script can be turned into a film that could be entertaining content for the audience. Thereafter the producers agreed to give Sveshnikov the director role. The movie was also co-directed by Vladlen Barbe who has previously adapted Soviet Union's own The Snow Queen animated film in 1991. The Disney co-production narrated by Sigourney Weaver was part of the Stories to Remember series of children's animated films.

The exclusive first poster of the film released on 12 June 2011 by lnlayFilm featuring the eponymous character Gerda ready to summit the spiral palace of the Snow Queen in Spitsbergen.

Producer Timur Bekmambetov of the Bazelevs Company along with InlayFilm agreed to produce the film. Bekmambetov's animation credits includes 9. Bazelev Company's experience in producing commercial features enabled the film to enter on a worldwide scale. Bekmambetov said, “As to The Snow Queen when we first saw the project we immediately felt its great potential and decided to step in as co-producers.” Aleksey Tsitsilin was cinematographer. The Snow Queen completed production on 22 October 2012. The date coincided with the anniversary date of 22 October 1957, the day The Snow Queen by Lev Atamanov was released in the Soviet Union.

Russian artists Nyusha voiced the heroine Gerda, and Ivan Okhlobystin voiced the troll Orm. Troll Orm fit the voice of Okhlobystin perfectly who was invited to the voice studio without any finalized conclusions beforehand. Supporting ensemble voice cast included Galina Tyunina as Snow Queen, Ramilya Iskander as Kai, Erin Fitzgerald as Luta, Dmitry Nagiyev as Housemaster, Yuri Stoyano as King, Olga Shorokhova as shopkeeper, Lyudmila Artemyeva as Flower Lady, Mikhail Tikhonov as Prince, Olga Zubkova as Una, Anna Ardova as Lapp woman and Liza Arzamasova as Alfida.

There was no blind audition except that which was used for a few actors. Instead the quality of work determined the casting. Ivan Okhlobystin fit the character Orm who gave "so much energy, humour, and some sparkling acting impromptu." Lyudmila Artemyeva who voiced the flower girl was well received by the public as well by Artemyeva herself who stated, "How did I do that? This is probably my brightest role." Dmitry Nagiyev as Housemaster gave a short cameo. Nyusha gave the role of Gerda as noted by the creators of the film a "bundle of energy and lively reactions." The voice cast by Galina Tyunina for the Snow Queen "is incomparable! Her words are bone-chilling!" according to the creators of the film. A review noted the high quality Russian language voice cast.

The English cast was picked by René Veilleux. Jessica Straus who has over 200 credits in games, animation, and anime voiced Gerda. Doug Erholtz was picked as Orm, Cindy Robinson as Snow Queen, Marianne Miller as Kai and Dee Bradley Baker as Luta. On 20 November 2013, the PRL Studio In Poland, recorded a dubbing for the film. Alfida the pirate was voiced by Małgorzata Socha, Maciek Rock as Prince, and Arkadiusz Jakubik as troll Orm. For the Latvian cast, actresses who took part in production included Laila Kirmuška while the Snow Queen was spoken by Riga Theatre actress Sandra Zvīgule. Latvian actors included Gints Grāvelis and Uldis Anže.

The cast for the Korean release included actress Park Bo Young as Gerda and comedian Lee Soo-geun as troll Orm. According to Zum of Korea, Park Bo-Young "brought the character's charm to life with a lovely voice" while Lee Soo-geun "overpowered the atmosphere with his distinctively jovial voice" for troll Orm. Mother of actor Cha Tae-hyun, Choe Soo-min, voiced the Snow Queen, while Jang Gwang, a voice actor played the King and Housemaster. The movie was one of the most anticipated projects to come out of Russia in 2012.

Adaptation from Source Material

The Sveshnikov brothers script writers mostly followed the abridged Soviet Union fairy tale of The Snow Queen used by many other directors such as Soyuzmultfilm animator Atamanov and playwright Schwartz. Maxim Sveshnikov was very emotional when he saw the Soyuzmultfilm film for the first time. He tried to convey the same emotional qualities to the script of the 2012 film. The research for the script included the animated, live-action features, and TV series of The Snow Queen brand. However, the script tried to be a unique dynamic take from the rest of the stories.

Sveshnikov explains, "We tried to keep the spirit of the fairy tale, the spirit of family values by Andersen." However, to relate the Soviet classic to modern audience, the team used a combination of modern technology with traditional animation to evoke the "magic atmosphere" of the original to create a new adaptation. From the script perspective, the writers who couldn't completely follow the 1957 film or Andersen's fairy tale because both had religious undertones and was decidedly targeted for an historical era.

The writers read both the original Andersen's translation considered the "adult" version and post-Soviet Union version considered the "nursery" version. The script integrated the narration portion from the nursery version and the mirror of the trolls and the trolls themselves from the "adult" version. Together with additional input in comedic schemes they were able to achieve an educational content material.

The project is dedicated to the family and is a family film. The audience of the film is as stated by the creators of the film: "Of course, first of all for their loved ones, for parents and relatives who live all over the world, for the family you love. It's so nice to get feedback from them, these are the simple things that bring joy and give energy for further work."

By the final edit of the script, many events had to be refined. Gerda and Kai become sister and brother rather than neighbours. The robbers from Andersen's story become pirates for the film. The script did keep the concept of the magic mirror intact. However the mirror of the devil that reflects evil from Andersen's fairy tale was completely changed to the magic mirror of Master Vegard that reflects souls. The difference was added to highlight the conflict between the characters of Master Vegard who is described as an artisan wizard and The Snow Queen. Another difference from the source material is the character troll will kidnap Kai, instead of the character the Snow Queen. The concept of a wind that seeks its enemies called the North Wind became one of the main antagonists of the story. Gerda is characterized as a spirited, pugnacious girl who fights for justice in contrast to the moral, upright Gerda found in Andersen's fairy tale. Kai the brother from the fairy tale is depicted as a talented artist in the film.

The script tried to concretize the character Snow Queen with the characterization meant to convey a universal antagonist appeal that explains to the audience why "her heart is so cold." However, they added time loop flashback sequence for the character that will define the benevolent beginnings of the Snow Queen as Little Irma. A review stated, "The creators do not adhere to Andersen slavishly, but remain faithful to him at least in the basics."

The director also remarked, the film will elaborate on rarely explored elements of the 19th century fairy tale that previous film adaptations missed. A classic example of renewing forgotten characters is the troll Orm, who was forgotten by the directors of many previous TV and film versions of the winter tale, and yet Andersen had it. According to Reuters, the erstwhile troll from Andersen's tale depicted as an arch villain and an associate to the Snow Queen with dark undertones was completely converted into a harmless creature. Just like animated films, the troll became a comedic relief character as well as the accompanying character, weasel Luta.

Themes

The film's motto was, "Cold can freeze your heart, love can set you free." The concept of love and empathy is encompassed in the motif object, the mirror of Master Vegard. The character Snow Queen's demands to track down Gerda and the children of the Master through a secondary character troll Orm disguised as a black ferret contributes to new themes of illusion and friend or foe concept. The themes of family values, friendship and selflessness is explored through the character Gerda's quest. The film explores the effects of deception, lies, betrayal and cynicism. The concept of the character Gerda's willpower to combat the society of the Snow Queen and help save the world from the prejudice against artists echoes the theme of tolerance and the role that books and literature play in a free and informed society.

The film evokes the stories of Charles Dickens such as Oliver Twist, as orphanage street children confront the Snow Queen at the ice palace that also evokes rags-to-riches, underdog theme. The theme of self-belief is used to explore the actions of Gerda that helps her gain inner strength, fight evil and win. The theme is primarily described in Gerda's confrontation with the Snow Queen. Gerda and Kai living as orphans was a completely new take from Andersen's tale, yet the idea parallels Andersen's own lifetime. Andersen who was the son of a shoemaker was born to a poor family. He was orphaned at an early age. Nevertheless, Andersen had keen insight in literature that was developed to create critically acclaimed works in genres of fairy tales.

The fundamental theme of childish innocence is explicated in the film. The flashback of the Snow Queen as the character Irma allowed the audience to see the symbolic growth of Gerda as a human being in her Arctic pilgrimage as opposed to the de-growth of the Snow Queen back to her child form in the finale. The climax is intended to explain the qualities of a good heart and the beneficial effects of being children.

Animation

One of the animation directors of the film was Alexander Dorogov. Acclaimed artist Artur Mirzoyan was also part of the team. Wizart Animation's main advantages is its work on 3D stereoscopy. For a report by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the animation studio in the city center is described like a fairy tale with an elevator traveling into the creative departments. Yuri Moskvin noted that the studio innovated in many animation methods despite the context they were living in. Russian CG industry was still developing at that time. The workforce was built from the grounds up as there was no animation school to recruit new animators. The film presented challenges because it had the most effects done in a Russian CG film during that time period. Vladimir Nikolaev noted the film is not pseudo-3D, but produced simultaneously in real-time multiple camera shots. For every 12 seconds there is a special effect. An in-house research and development team helped the studio's Maya-based tool set. The most difficult part of the animation was the editing and deciding what take that will go into animation.

Animators were present in many departments including backgrounds, textures, cloth movement dynamics. Animation technology included operating, lighting and sound engineering. The animator's novelties included fish frozen in icebergs, robbers from Andersen's fairy tale turning to pirates living on an icebreaker brig and the intricate details of the items at the merchant shop.

Soundtrack

Mark Willott, an Emmy winning composer from UK joined with Wizart Animation to compose the soundtrack for the film. The theme song "We Will Never be Apart" is sung in English in the closing credits of the film with vocals by Phil Gwynne. The official soundtrack was heard in trailers 1 and 3. A Russian music video for the film was made and performed by singer Nyusha that was titled "This New Year."

Latvian band Brainstorm performed the main track called "Shine Clear" that became the theme song in the animated film. The song was composed with animation and was played at the finale of the film. The verses were written by Riga poet Sergey Timofeev. Their song got translated into English titled "Flashlight" sung by Scottish band "Travis" with lead voice by Fran Healy. The song premiered internationally. Henry Huo performed the title track for the film in China.

Release/Reception/Box Office

A special pre-release was arranged in Riga, Latvia on 27 December 2012. In Korea, it was released on 7 February 2013. In Lithuania, it was released on 22 February 2013. On the same day, distributor company PlayArte released the film in Brazil in over 200 screens. In Israel, it was released on 7 March 2013. In Indonesia, it was released on 13 March 2013. In France, it was released on the fall of 2013 under Universal Studios. In Poland, it was released on 26 December 2013. Due to rules of the cinema industry and the context of the time period of 2013, in the United States the film did not have the chance to release in theatres. However it managed to release in video on demand on 11 October 2013 and in DVD on 28 January 2014.

After its 2012 premier, The Snow Queen continued to open to new territories. The film premiered theatrically or on home entertainment in seventeen countries till the end of 2015, that include Canada, South Africa, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Snow Queen became the first Russian animated film to get a wide release in China. It released to 3,400 screens on 31 July 2015. On 30 October 2015, The Snow Queen released in South Africa. For the first time in the history of Russian animation, a project was voiced in Afrikaans. Composer band Brainstorm's Flashlight theme song for the film was localized in Afrikaans. Local star cast for South Africa included South African actress Heidi Mollentze.

The Snow Queen, was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Real 3D Blu-ray in Russia by musical company Misteriya Zvuka on 31 January 2013. It was released on VOD on Thursday, 10 October 2013. The film was released on DVD in the United States on 28 January 2014. With distributor Universal, more than 13,000 DVD and Blu Rays have been sold sold. As of January 2014, more than 100,000 DVDs have been sold. On 23 December 2019, the film was second in audience rankings as it aired in France 2. Three million viewers or 14.6% of the prime-time viewers saw the film.

The film received mixed reviews abroad. JM Willis reviewed that he liked the characters in The Snow Queen: "The animation, story and score is enough to help this film stand on its own." A review from The Village Voice said, "A Russian animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, Snow Queen proves both visually cruddy and narratively muddled."

Mike McGranaghan for The Aisle Seat commented that "there's nothing inherently wrong with Snow Queen. It's a pleasant enough movie with some nice visuals... That said, the problem faced by the movie is that, while it's not bad, it's also simply not good enough." In particular the review took issue with the plot structure stating "the story is kind of disjointed... These moments feel more like a set of ideas than an actual plot, however. Never are they substantially integrated into the main idea of the movie", concluding finally that "Compared to big name American animated films, Snow Queen is an also-ran."

A RogerEbert review stated: "The message gets muddled with plot strands going every which way, though the real culprit is some awkward animation." Review at Movie Mom stated the film was lacklustre by stating, "The vocal performances are uninspired and uninvolving. And the one effect that works, a 360 degree swoop-around, is relentlessly overused. The script is muddled and dull." Common Sense Media stated, "As for the story's plotline, it's a bit muddled and confusing, but at least Gerda the protagonist is sweet -- if not very confident. Gerda's desire to save her brother Kay is the movie's biggest redeeming factor."

Jennie Kermode for Eye for Film complimented the film's appropriateness for children, remarking that the film's "esoteric scenarios may not make much sense to adults but they're conveyed with a sincerity that kids will find appealing." Oscar award expert for The Hollywood Reporter shortlisted the film for the best Oscars animated feature.

Brazilian review by Alisson Oliveira from Reuters, noted the film starkly contrasts from past Snow Queen adaptations by stating: "Unlike the animations of recent times The Frozen Kingdom is not a comedy, but an adventure in a fable tone." A Lithuanian review from Alfa.lt remarked at the exhibition of the female characters. A German review from Kinderfilmwel, states "if you feel like an entertaining adventure and want to put yourself in a pleasant winter mood with great, snowy landscapes and lots of sleet, this is the right place!"

Polish review Kultura Poznan by Sylwia Klimek was surprised by how Wizart Animation adapted Andersen's fairy tale: "It turns out that Andersen - without profanities - can be shown in 3D." The review compared the film to a video game: "It's a modern, three-dimensional, glamorous film. Using the latest advances in technique, and from Andersen's fairy tales, drawing only those passages that allow the whole resource to be made interesting. It is like a good computer game: dynamic three-dimensional images, interesting graphical solutions, saturated colors, expressive characters." The audience reaction for the Polish review was positive as the children's themselves are jubilant after the ending: "And after the screening, they clap loudly. It's quite a challenge to create an animation today that children will react to that way."

However, Nikita Krasnoglazov of Vesti Segodnya with a rating of four stars did not think the film was a game but instead a poetic "synthesis of genres." The three year work put into this exhibition drew from many facets of film making including the voice cast, the poetic verses of the song and the special effects of the animation.The Snow Queen received 85% of positive reviews from critics, adults and children in Russia. Maria Tereshchenko review for Kino Teatr commented, "The winter world through which Gerda and the Troll travel is absolutely fascinating with its computer-generated glamorous beauty (however, small islands of summer are also good, for example, in the magic garden), the interiors are pleasing to the eye, the Queen's palace with strange ice goblins is perfectly invented." Lora Mjolsness of KinoKultura Russian cinema reviews stated: "The new film also supports the original tale's message about the strength of a child, albeit in a different way. In The Snow Queen Gerda is certainly able to stand up for herself, yet her personality is different. Her power is based on physical force, on her wit, and on her determination. Her heart is not as innocent and she appears older and more street wise on her quest." An Annecy review gave the film four stars.

On 6 January 2013, The Snow Queen at the Russian box office made only $5.16 million in the first week. But on 31 January 2013, it was considered a box office success as it had drawn 1.3 million viewers. On 1 February 2013, it grossed $8.8 million. Preliminary results of the New Year holiday box office collections in Russia which was the highest from any of the previous years showed The Snow Queen at seventh place. Only The Three Bogatyrs on Distant Shores was the other animation movie to top the list at second place before The Hobbit. The results of a record year in 2012 for animated films in Russia was noted by a review as an "indicator of the recovery of society. The increased attendance of cartoons in cinemas means that Russians are choosing family holidays and that they have more and more children to spend time with."

In total, the film collected 233 million rubbles (~$7.7 million) in Russia. On 7 February 2013, the film released in South Korea. According to the results of the first weekend in Korea, the cartoon took the fifth place in the local rating of collections, earning $540 thousand on 311 screens and even managed to surpass the results of the Pixar cartoon Monsters University ($337 thousand on 173 screens). On 15 February 2013 in Korea, it grossed $1.5 million at the box office. The film also grossed $1 million in Brazil. As of November 2013, the total box office ratio was 78.87% for Russia and the rest of the countries – 21.13%. In total, The Snow Queen made $14 million at the box office. The profit was twice the budget.

Budget $7.0 million

Box office $13.6 million

My Review

The Snow Queen is a Russian animated movie based on Hans Christian Andersen's original story of the same name. The Snow Queen herself (later named Irma) is attempting to destroy all of the world's current wizards and their offspring as they are the only people on Earth who could defeat her. She mistakenly orphans two siblings of the very last wizards and as time goes on her power grows. She finds out from her haunted mirror that those children have grown up and have potential to destroy her. The children, Gerda and Kai, are unaware they are siblings, and once they learn who they are, they are quickly separated. The Snow Queen recruits her slave troll, Orm, to get Gerda to come to her. If he is successful, he will be freed. The rest of the movie is Orm guiding Gerda to the Snow Queen in a journey to save Kai.

The animation of this, while not at the quality of the higher-budget, current Disney movies, is still impressive. For a budget of nearly 9 million dollars, this is very polished. The ice has so many awesome, gritty-looking textures, which in a way, I prefer to the icy textures in a movie like Frozen (2013), which are much more reflective than this. The backgrounds of every location also hold a lot of character to them. The locations like the ship stuck in the ice, the castle divided in two, the greenhouse, the caves, and especially the Queen's spiky palace, with the room of mirrors, royal hall, the blizzard outside, and the throne room. The ice palace has so much more character in it than a clean-cut palace. There is more menace and these cool-looking spikes lining the outside of it just add to the look. The character designs are a little too simplistic and wide-eyed for my taste. The few I like are the stag, the white horse, and the Queen herself. While most characters have a rounded design, large eyes, and soft skin, her appearance is more bony and edgy. She has smaller and narrower eyes, thinner lips, icy-textured skin, cold stares, and her dress and hair blend into a snowy fog. Her design is so memorable compared to most of the other representations of Snow Queen, including Elsa herself.

The story is okay; it is your basic buddy road-trip movie, but it does have a little bit of an edge in comparison to what I was expecting. For one thing, the wizards themselves are not blatantly explained to be a type of person, but it is implied that they are all artists, musicians, creators and such, which is definitely inspiring. There are also some mature themes in this of slavery, civil war, identity, hatred, torture. The best parts are when there is either an action scene, a moment between Orm and Gerda where they talk to each other, or even some exposition scenes about the Queen. I am also glad they include the mirror in this story, as that is probably the coolest idea to me in a story.

I must warn you though, this may not be a movie for young children. There are some slight undertones of incest. Because Gerda and Kai are not aware at first that they are family, they both kind of have a crush on each other. Kai paints a picture of Gerda (which could also be interpreted as a vision or dream of her) but Gerda makes sure she looks presentable before she enters Kai's room in the boiler, and hides behind a curtain before he sees her. It is very quick, and can be interpreted differently, but there are undertones.

Characters, again, are very basic, with maybe a few quirks to their personality here and there. For example, the King with the divided court who wants to cut Gerda in half, or the greenhouse keeper with the dead flowers. Gerda herself is your standard good-natured girl who just wants to save her brother, but cares about everyone equally, with a little hint of snark. Kai is just a motive for Gerda to want to go to the Snow Queen. Orm is a jaded, angry troll who is snarky, but he clearly does not want to get on the Queen's bad side. He is the last troll alive, but he was a coward. He wants his freedom, but he knows it comes at the price of taking his only friend to her death. The Snow Queen is the other character with a good backstory. She was once a young wizard with a talent for connecting to nature. When people could not understand who or what she was, they discriminated against her. And when she could not convince them to be a little nicer to her, she found dark magic in the caves and wished upon the waters for the abilities she has now, letting her anger and power consume her.

The background soundtrack is alright, nothing entirely special. However, there is one track that I think is one of the coolest scores for a movie like this. It is the Snow Queen's theme, which is played in the background of her backstory reveal, when she freezes Kai's blood, and when she enters the throne room for the final action scene. It starts in a soft haunting piano theme, while it builds in the number of instruments every time it is played. After the piano, an eerie vocal humming joins in, very ethereal. The instruments continue to climb in the action scene with violins and such. I wish it was available on iTunes, or even YouTube, as I would totally listen to it on repeat.

In the end, I prefer this story to Disney's "Frozen" as I enjoy the ice textures more, the Snow Queen steals every scene she is in, the darker tone and morals set in a bleaker world are more consistent, and the theme of independence Orm learns more and more. It sticks more to the book than "Frozen" and has cooler, darker ideas than it. Most things do not need to be dark, unless they serve a purpose. The darkness in any "Snow Queen" story is necessary. The Snow Queen herself is meant to be a dark, elegant figure of malice and mystery, and this was closer to that than Disney's adaptation.

Not great by all means (the animated adaptation of the story from the 50s is much better), but a more than acceptable version of one of Hans Christian Andersen's best stories. In detail it sticks much more faithfully to the story than Disney's Frozen did, though that film had more polish and magic from personal opinion, and it has that mysterious and poignant spirit of the original story if not its darkness, understandably. Some of the story here did have a slightly rushed nature to it pace-wise, maybe part of the reason for some skim-the-surface character development, the characters are very recognisable and have personality but lack dimension (rather archetypal in a way) in places. The dialogue also can sound cheesy and not as flowing as it could have done. However, much of the story does work, the latter parts of the film do pack a powerful punch, it always did engage me at least and there is some nice messaging. The heart-warming and tense parts are done well as well. The animation is very well done, it doesn't try to do too much and it looks completely natural from the smallest details to bigger effects like snow fall and the lake reflections. Everything moves smoothly and the colours are very lavish and atmospheric, the characters look good and match their personalities fine. The music added a lot to what was going on, the scoring was beautifully melancholic, hauntingly powerful and any tense parts to the music were done very rousingly and enough to make you bite the nails. The voice acting is more than serviceable with everybody playing with heart and commitment, with only Gerda's voice actress having occasional unevenness, big emphasis on occasional because she did do a good job. Overall, not a definitive version, though it never intended to be and I wasn't expecting to be either, but a good one. The original story is a classic and while with some obvious foibles The Snow Queen (2012) does very little to disgrace it. 7/10