The Snow Queen

(aka SNEZHNAYA KOROLEVA)
(1957, U.S.S.R.) color animated 63 minutes
All-Union Animated Cartoon Film Studios, Soyuzmultfilm
Story: Hans Christian Andersen
Screenplay: Lev Atamanov, Nikolai Erdman
Cinematography: Mikhail Druyan
Art Direction: Leonid Shvartsman, Aleksandr Vinokurov
Produced by Lev Atamanov
Directed by Lev Atamanov

Voices: Yanina Zhejmo (Gerda), Mariya Babanova (the Snow Queen)

English-Language Version:
Universal-International
(1959) 70 minutes
Screenplay: Alan Lipscott, Bob Fisher
Technical Supervisor: Dave Fleischer
Dialogue: Hugo Grimaldi
Music: Frank Skinner
Songs: Diane Lampert, Richard Loring
Produced by Robert Faber
Directed by Phil Patton

With: Art Linkletter (himself), Tammy Marthoch, Jennie Lynn, Billy Booth, Rickey Busch

Voices: Sandra Dee (Gerda), Tommy Kirk (Kay), Patty McCormick (Angel), Louise Arthur (the Snow Queen), Paul Frees (Old Dreamy, Cora the Crow, Bucky the Reindeer), June Foray (Henrietta the Crow), Joyce Terry (the Princess), Richard Beals (the Prince), Lillian Buyeff (Granny)

***

SYNOPSIS: It is Christmas Eve. Art Linkletter is entertaining a group of children at his palatial home. He hands out gifts to the excited children, who all have ironic comments for the bufuddled adult.

Tina Marie asks for her gift. Linkletter can't find it, so he hands her abook to read; it is Hans Christien Andersen's "The snow Queen". Tina Marie confesses that she can't read, and she traps Linkletter in a Chinese handcuff, so Linkletter tells the assembled tots about the great Danish storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen. The kids really want to hear the story of "The Snow Queen. Linkletter points at a mirror on the wall; everyone repeats a magical chant, and the mirror turns into a magic screen...

(Main Titles)

A tiny man introduces himself as Old Dreamy, the Prince of Dreams. He professes to be the inspiration for Hans Christian Andersen's great imagination; by opening his "Magic Slumberella" over Andersen's head, he causes the storyteller to dream the stuff of his great fairy tales. The tiny man boasts that his latest creation was his greatest: "The Snow Queen"!

... We enter a quiet Danish village, in which live Gerda and Kayger, two happy children who live net to each other. In fact, the boy and girl are very fond of each other, and each offers the other a rose of friendship. It is decided to plant the white and the red rose together in their garden, and hope that they stay togther, side by side, forever.

Summer turns to Autumn, which turns to Winter. During a snowstorm, Kay visits Gerda and her grandmother, who tells them the story of where the snow comes from: a bitterly cold empire on the top of the world! This empire is ruled by the Snow Queen, a beautiful witch made entirely of ice! The Snow Queen rules her empire by looking through her magic mirror, from which she can see everything.

Kay finds the story fascinating, but Gerda is a little nervous. Kay insists that the Snow Queen is no match for his superior intelligence. Unbeknownst to them, the Snow Queen watched them, enraged! She sends a torrent of ice splinters across the globe, entreating them to turn anyone touched by them into an evildoer with an icy heart!

The Snow Queen then visits the two children with her devil-blizzard, and Kay is soon stabbed in the eye by one of the evil splinters. He immediately turns cold to his true love, Gerda. He even crushes their love-roses in an atypical act of cruelty. Gerda is horrified, and runs to her grandmother's side.

The next morning, the village children play in the newly-fallen snow. Gerda pleads with Kay to accompany him on his sled. Kay grudgingly accepts, only to deliberately make her fall of the sled in tears.

As the children play, suddenly a terrible blizzard hits; it is the horrible Snow Queen and her horse-drawn ice-sleigh! Kay foolishly attaches his sled to the Snow Queen's, and is driven off against gerta's plaintive cries.

The Snow Queen, with Kay in tow, drives through her icy wonderland. She informs the small boy that she intends to rule him forever; she kisses Kay, who feels the cold shiver up his very spin. The Snow Queen travels on to her icy palace.

The winter passes, and Kay does not return. Gerda is worried sick about her true love, and when Spring finally arrives, she sets out to look for him. She asks the Springs swallows and sheep, but no-one has seen the lad. She even asks the river to lead her to Kay; she hops in a boat, and floats out to sea.

Gerda travels onward, to a strange land, where a kindly old woman bids the girl to get some sorely-needed rest. It turns out that the woman is a sorceress, and she causes Gerda to forgot all of her problems. Yet Gerda still dreams of her little playmate.

Gerda wakes up, and wonders what strange fate brought her to the witch's wondrous garden. Soon, she remembers Kay, and her quest. Gerda escapes the witch's garden, and ventures back out into the world, where it has turned to a stormy Autumn. While searching, Mr. Cora, a black crow approaches her and inquires why such a small girl is out in the wilds alone.

Cora has indeed seen Kay, and informs Gerda that the Snow Queen has taken a fancy to the lad. Cora leads Gerda to another immense palace. Soon, they arrive. Cora introduces Gerda to Henrietta, his lady crow friend. Gerda watches people dancing through the big picture windows.

That night, Henrietta and Cora sneak Gerda into the palace to find Kay. After some trying obstacles, they reach a bedchamber full of sleeping children, but they don't find Kay, only other children who immediately call for the guards. The guards soon capture Gerda and the crows, who explain their situation to the royal children. The kids agree to help Gerda free Kay from her enslavement.

Meanwhile, in the Snow Queen's icy kingdom, Kay occupies himself by analyzing ice crystals. The Snow Queen reminds Kay that, "Flowers, beauty, joy all fade, and do not exist." The Queen asks Kay if he knows what love is, and the child indeed remembers his true love, Gerda.

Back at the palace, Gerda is sent off in a fine, horse-drawn carriage made of gold, to continue her quest for Kay. Unfortunately, a trio of robbers lies in wait along the highway, and ambush the caravan.

The robbers remove the gold from the coach, and kidnap Gerda. A monstrous little girl with a knife, ironically named Angel, approaches Gerda, demanding her fine gloves and hat. The robbers steal the coach and travel on to their lair, with Gerda in tow.

Angel takes Gerda down to her dungeon, in which she keeps rabbits, foes and doves prisoner. Angel is terribly mean to the animals. Gerda tells Angel all about her search for Kay. Elsewhere, the robbers celebrate their latest heist.

Soon, Angel is moved by Gerda's lament. The doves inform the girls that they know where Kay is being held: Lapland! Bucky the reindeer also insists that he knows Kay's whereabouts. Angel gives Gerda back her outerwear, and has Bucky lead her to Lapland. Angel is moved to tears by Gerda's departure, and releases all her animal friends.

Bucky and Gerda ride on to Lapland, but the trip is treacherous and brutally cold. They stop by a kindly old woman, who informs them that Kay and the Snow Queen have moved on, to Finland! The woman instructs the two to visit her cousin.

The daring duo travel onward to Finland, and soon locate the Lapland woman's cousin, who informs them that the Snow Queen's gardens are only ten miles away. The two press on through a terrible blizzard. Bucky soon falls, exhausted and half-frozen. Gerda continues on, alone, through the merciless storm.

Upon her approach, the Snow Queen sends brutal winds to knock Gerda down, but she soon wakes in front of the Ice Palace. Kay is inside, still obsessing on the dubious charms of ice crystals. Gerda walks in and spots Kay, who feigns indifference at her arrival. Gerda pleads for some kindly response, but Kay's heart has indeed hardened against love. Gerda hugs Kay, and the cursed ice splinter falls from his eye. Kay's icy heart melts! The spell is broken, and Kay embraces his true love, and saviour.

The Snow Queen returns to her throne, and insists that Kay will remain with her forever. Gerda fights the evil witch, and demands she set Kay free. On cue, Spring arrives, and melts the Snow Queen forever!

Gerda and Kay journey swiftly back to their hometown. They are happy to find their twin roses blooming again, and they vow their eternal love for each other, till death do they part.

THE END

***

The source film for this Kiddie Matinee favorite, SNEZHNAYA KOROLEVA, is certainly a winsome affair in its own right (although we could have done without the dreary epository segments of the old storyteller). Like much Russian animation, the settings and background visuals are exquisite. Less enchanting are the characterizations, which seem somewhat generic and lifeless. Also, Russian animation of this period tends to be both fluid yet lethargic, lacking any real energy. Simplistic to a fault, SNEZHNAYA KOROLEVA just passes as an adequate telling of the beloved Hans Christian Andersen tale, albeit a terribly attractive one.

THE SNOW QUEEN, the English-Language adaptation features engaging celebrity voices by Sandra Dee (GIDGET), Tommy Kirk (OLD YELLER), and Patty McCormack (THE BAD SEED). We also caught the ubiquitous Paul Frees doing at least THREE different voices!

The musical score features three new songs. The main theme, "The Snow Queen", is very similar to the popular 1950's Kiddie Record, "Suzy Snowflake". Sandra Dee sings "Do It While You're Young", and "The Jolly Robbers" is a fairly predictable affair.

For U.S. Kiddie Matinee audiences, U-I added a six-minute live-action prologue, starring TV superstar Art Linkletter and assorted Hollywood kids (including some familiar characters in TV shows of the period, like Billy Booth from "Dennis the Menace").

This heavy-handed and treacly framing device features a terminally chipper Linkletter handing out Xmas gifts to the kiddies, who respond with poorly- written ironic comments. Some sources insist that the kids' stagey remarks are lifted directly from one of Linkletter's "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" books, and we wouldn't be surprised.

Linkletter invokes the cartoon feature with the strange incantation...