Underplayed Gems

The Snow Queen (1957)

The Snow Queen poster
Original title
Снежная королева
Directed by
Nikolay Fyodorov, Lev Atamanov
Genre
fantasy film, adventure film, cinematic fairy tale, children's film, Christmas film
Country
Soviet Union
Runtime
1h 03m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 111 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A young girl named Gerda sets out on a long journey to rescue her friend Kai from the icy palace of the Snow Queen. She meets many strange characters along the way and must rely on her courage and love to break the Queen's spell.

whimsicalmelancholicdreamlikecoldmagicalatmosphericgentlenostalgic

What happens

The Snow Queen (Russian: Снежная королева, romanized: Snezhnaya Koroleva) is a 1957 Soviet animated musical fantasy film directed by Lev Atamanov. It is the ninth full-length animated production by Soyuzmultfilm and is based on the 1844 fable "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film is one of the earliest cinematic adaptations of the Scandinavian Danish fable since its publication in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection. The film was originally released in the Soviet Union on November 1, 1957. The film was re-released with an English soundtrack in 1959, 1993, and 1995. The film was translated into several major languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Finnish and Swedish. In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, Universal Pictures acquired the film for U.S. theatrical distribution (as the first animated film from Universal). In foreign dubbings of The Snow Queen, popular actors were cast to play most characters. The Snow Queen was voiced by Russian actress Maria Babanova. Vladimir Gribkov (ru), Yanina Zhejmo, Sergey Martinson and Anna Komolova (ru) also were part of the voice cast. The screenplay was written by Nikolai Erdman, Georgy Grebner (ru) and animation by Alexander Vinokurov (ru), Leonid Shvartsman, Elizabeth Komova, Vladimir Krumin and Fyodor Khitruk. After a 2007 Ghibli Museum Library release in Japan, an interview revealed that the dialogue, compositions, animation and themes of the film influenced Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. An HD film restoration re-release of The Snow Queen was published in Russia on 19 December 2020 by Soyuzmultfilm. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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