The Snow Queen

Plot
Hans Christian Andersen's story is simplified in this animated feature, which begins with an animated copy of his fairy tales, introduced by a little man, who says he is "Old Dreamy" ("Ole Lukøje"). Old Dreamy tells the viewer that on days when the master storyteller Andersen is not overtired, he puts him to sleep with his colorful, magic umbrella ("slumbrella") that also causes him to dream wonderful stories, which he then writes as his fairy tales. Old Dreamy then narrates the story of the Snow Queen, which he begins with Kay and Gerda up in their window box garden, planting two roses together, which Kay calls "our roses."

On a winter night following, Gerda's grandmother tells the two children the legend of the Snow Queen. While she tells it the viewer is taken to the Snow Queen's palace of ice in the far north (on Spitsbergen) where she sits on her throne and looks into her mirror. The Snow Queen's proud and frowning face is seen in Gerda's frosted window to Gerda's exclamation, "It's the Snow Queen!" Kay jokes, "Let her come in here, and I'll put her on a hot stove!" This angers the Snow Queen, who is watching the children from her mirror, which she smashes with her scepter, telling the ice splinters of the shattered mirror to go into the eyes and hearts of those who have offended her. Back at Gerda's home the window bursts open, letting in ice splinters that get into Kay's eyes and heart. His personality changes: he is hostile toward Gerda. When Gerda notices that the letting in of the cold wind and snow has killed their roses, which have turned black, Kay stomps on them and kicks them about in glee. He then leaves Gerda in tears to be comforted by her grandmother.

When Kay goes out on the next day to ride around on his sled in the marketplace of the city, Gerda wants to come along, riding on Kay's sled as she has always done. Kay pulls the sled fast, knocking Gerda off, but she tries not to cry. Kay ties his sled to the sleigh of the Snow Queen, which has suddenly appeared, to Gerda's horror. The Snow Queen pulls Kay on his sled out of the city, where she stops and confronts him, taking him into her arms as her willing captive, since his heart is as cold as ice. The Snow Queen's presence freezes a mother bird to death as she protects her young under her. These young birds will appear later in the story.

Old Dreamy then tells about Gerda's going out to look for Kay. She asks young birds and animals, to no avail, if they have seen Kay. A little lamb tells her, "I don't know from nothing, I was born yesterday." At the river side, Gerda begs the river to take her in a row boat to Kay. She gives her new red shoes to the river, and her boat is guided down the stream to the home of a kind, old sorceress. She comes out of her garden to the trumpeting and drumming of four toy soldiers, who stand at her gate as sentinels. As Gerda's boat approaches, the old woman uses her crook to pull it to shore. She takes Gerda into her garden, which is eternally in summer with flowers that sparkle. In her house, the old woman puts Gerda to sleep by combing her hair. It is her intention for Gerda to stay with her and forget looking for Kay, but Gerda awakes while the old woman is still sleeping. Gerda remembers that she is looking for Kay, but when she gets to the gate she finds that it is already fall outside in the garden. She begs the toy soldier sentinels not to sound their bugles and drums to awaken their mistress, and they comply.

Gerda is next found by the seashore where she is met by a raven, "Mr. Corax" (Latin for "raven"). Gerda tells him that she is looking for a "good, kind, brave boy." Mr. Corax tells her that such a boy is now living at the palace of the princess with whom he is "palsy walsy." Mr. Corax takes Gerda to the palace to find his "lady friend," a female raven, named Henrietta, who knows the palace and can guide Gerda through it. They arrive when there is a ball going on in the palace concluded with fireworks. When all are asleep the ravens take Gerda into the palace to the royal bedroom. Gerda takes a candle that she uses to see if the boy is Kay. However she finds a different boy, who is heavier than Kay. The shock of awaking him, awakens the princess, who calls her guards. The three intruders are apprehended, but when the princess is caught up in the romance of a girl seeking her boyfriend, she and her consort decide to help her.

An interlude follows with the Snow Queen and Kay talking in her ice palace throne room. Kay is playing with ice crystals when the Snow Queen asks him if he knows what love is. He remembers Gerda, but he stays there because his heart is a lump of ice like the Snow Queen's.

The princess and her consort send Gerda on her way with a golden coach and attendants. While the coach travels through a dark woods, they are stopped by a gang of robbers, who take Gerda and strip the coach of its gold plate, sparing the attendants. An old hag takes Gerda, but when she is bitten on the ear by her daughter Angel, who is riding on her back, she listens to her request to keep Gerda with her other captive pets. These pets include a fox, little rabbits, the young birds that were spared the Snow Queen's frost earlier, and a large reindeer, named Bucky Boy. The birds tell Gerda that they saw the Snow Queen take Kay with her to Lapland. The reindeer offers to take Gerda there. It remains for the robber girl to let Gerda and Bucky Boy go, which she does. She also releases the birds, the fox, and the rabbits, but they decide to stay with her.

Gerda and Bucky get to the Lapland woman, who warms them by their fire. She tells them that the Snow Queen had stopped there with Kay but went on farther north to "Finland". She directs them to her cousin in Finland who can direct them further, and she writes a letter to her on a fish that she sends with Gerda and Bucky. When Gerda and Bucky get to the cousin in Finland, she tells them that they are just 10 miles away from the Snow Queen's palace. Gerda and Bucky leave so quickly that Gerda leaves behind her mittens and cap.

Bucky, who collapses along the way, is unable to take Gerda up to the ice palace, so Gerda goes on alone. When Gerda finally gets to the palace through the blustery wind and snow, she encounters Kay, who is released from the splinters of ice in his eye and his heart by Gerda's warm embrace. Even though the Snow Queen suddenly returns, she and her palace melt away with the coming of spring.

Gerda and Kay are taken first by Bucky Boy to the Finnish woman, who takes them further on their journey home in her dog sled. The Lapland woman takes them further in her boat, and the robber girl takes them the rest of the way in the coach that had been stripped of its gold plate. They go past the princess, her consort, and the ravens who wave them on. They are now home again in their window box garden in springtime. Old Dreamy tells the viewer that later Gerda and Kay were married, but "that," he says, "is another story."

Plot
This tale tells of the wonderful journey a modest little girl named Gerda takes while searching for her friend Kay, who has been kidnapped by the wicked fairy, the Snow Queen. Gerda meets many obstacles in her trek before she faces a final decisive battle with the Snow Queen. But Gerda’s loyal heart will overcome all the adversities in this touching story of great love, human kindness and faithfulness to one’s duty. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale.

Plot
A spectacular production of one of the most beautiful, exciting and touching fairytales of all time, using live performers, animated characters and beautiful illustrations to create a unique fantasy world. The Snow Queen follows the adventures of Gerda, a little girl who sets out on an amazing journey to find her friend Kay who has fallen under the evil spell of the Snow Queen. On her journey she has to contend with the Summer Garden Witch, the Robbers in the Wood and above all the wicked and mysterious Snow Queen herself. Only Gerda, helped by birds and animals has the to overcome them all.

Tayna snezhnoy korolevy
English Title: The Secret of the Snow Queen

Plot
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.

Lumikuningatar
Airdate: 19 December 1986

Plot
In this adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's longest story, the beautiful Snow Queen has captured two children and now keeps them apart. She has inserted a sliver of her own special ice into the eye of the boy, so that his heart will turn to ice and will be a proper match for hers. The boy's sister, meanwhile, has won free and attempts to find her brother. When she does, the warmth of her love for him melts his frozen heart and defeats the Snow Queen decisively.

Plot
This version of The Snow Queen is the first to be adapted from another adaptation. All of Sigourney Weaver's narration is from Amy Erhlich's 1982 picture book. Still, things are cut out and changed a bit. The troll/devil is gone. The mirror belongs to the Snow Queen and it is her only friend. She grows very angry and lonely and smashes her mirror. She wants a friend and since Kai is all fucked up, she takes him. The princess is cut from Gerda's journey and the crow turns out to be the Witch in disguise who helps her along the way. The Robber Girl has a mullet and is SUPER TOUCHY with Gerda. The Snow Queen lets Kai and Gerda go once she sees how much they love each other. It even melts her heart...and the rest of her.

First Movie: The Snow Queen
Ellie and her brother Tom listen to their grandmother reading them a story about the evil Snow Queen. When their younger sister Polly asks Tom if the Queen is coming to their house, Tom says that she only exists in the story. However, the Snow Queen really does live in an icy palace in the North Pole with her three troll servants: Eric, Baggy, and Wardrobe. Her plan is to set up her huge magic mirror on a mountain to reflect the sunlight away so the entire world will become her kingdom. But the mirror falls down the mountain and lands on the trolls' flying machine where it shatters into pieces. Two of the pieces hit Tom in the eye and the heart that he falls into an evil curse.

The Snow Queen sends her bats to retrieve the pieces. As they cannot take the two that are inside Tom, the Queen goes out to kidnap him. Ellie and Tom connect their sleds to a bigger sled that is revealed to be driven by the Snow Queen. She takes Tom to her palace and cuts Ellie off of her sled, causing her to fall onto a talking bird named Peeps. Ellie goes out to save Tom from her and Peeps reluctantly decides to go with her. In a snowy forest, they find a house belonging to an old woman, who appears nice, but is actually an evil witch but traps them to use Ellie's heart for her elixir of life so she can be eternally young. Peeps tricks the witch's cat, Cuddles, into chasing after him and knocking over the elixir of life, and uses the confusion to unlocks Ellie's cell. Ellie and Peeps escape and trap the witch in the basement.

They then meet two humanoid birds named Les and Ivy, who, from Ellie's description of Tom, tell her that Tom is going to marry the princess, so Ellie becomes a member of the staff to serve the princess her food. However, she soon discovers that the prince is not Tom. Meanwhile, Tom is rebuilding the Snow Queen's mirror, as he is good at puzzles. The trolls try to warn him that the Queen is going to kill him to get the last two pieces, but the Queen convinces him otherwise and kisses him, putting him into a hypnotic state while his veins are full of ice, and will cause his death when it reaches his heart.

The princess and the prince give Ellie and Peeps a royal vehicle to ride to the Snow Queen's dominion, however they run into a robber gang of humanoid rats. The Robber King promises his daughter, Angorra, that Ellie can become her slave, but later changes his mind. Ellie is locked in a room with a flying reindeer Dimly who was captured by the robbers. Peeps enters the room and unties Ellie's hands, and she unties Dimly. Angorra enters, but they trap her with a barrel. Dimly flies them away, but the King grabs onto the rope that is still wrapped around Dimly, resulting in the King slamming into a building and falling over the edge on top of Angorra.

Dimly does not know where the Snow Queen is, so he goes to his flying reindeer school and asks Freda, a Lapland woman who runs the school. Freda has Dimly fly them over to the Queen's castle. There, they meet the three trolls, who ultimately decide to help them. Tom does not have much time left, and has finished putting the mirror together except for the two pieces that are inside him. Freda reveals that the two pieces inside him will kill him, then makes a potion that will dissolve the mirror. Ellie tells Tom to drink it, but just as he is about to, the Queen blasts the vial away with her magic staff. They fight the Queen but Eric and Freda get frozen, and Baggy and Wardrobe grab her staff just as they are frozen as well. The battle eventually causes the vial to fall on top of the mirror and shatter, dissolving the mirror and forming an icy cyclone that chases after the Queen's flying carriage and freezes her solid as she attempts to escape. The mirror pieces inside Tom dissolve and the effects of the Queen's kiss go away, freeing him. Freda and the trolls are unfrozen.

Freda warns the Queen is not dead and might return in the future. She has Dimly take Ellie, Tom, and Peeps back to the village, and then come back for her and the trolls. Dimly crashlands in the village and Ellie, Tom, and Peeps go to listen to the rest of the story as Dimly heads back to the Snow Queen's palace. The film ends with a close-up shot of the frozen Queen's eyes lighting up.

Second Movie: The Snow Queen's Revenge
The plot is picking up where the previous film left off. After the evil Snow Queen was defeated and frozen solid, Dimly the flying reindeer arrives back at the village with Ellie, her brother Tom, and Peeps the sparrow. By now it is almost spring. Back at the Queen's palace, her now uncontrolled three trolls, Eric, Baggy and Wardrobe, prepare for Dimly to take Freda back to the flying school and return for the trolls. As the trolls try to figure out where to go, the Snow Queen's bats take her magic staff and place it in her hand, setting her free moments after Dimly returns. The furious Queen decides to kidnap Dimly so Ellie will come to her and she can get her revenge. She moves with Dimly and the trolls to the South Pole, as it is now too warm in the North Pole.

The Snow Queen contacts Ellie, telling her that she has captured Dimly and daring her to rescue him. Ellie does not know where the Queen is now, so Peeps takes her to Brenda, a bird that is said to know everything. Meanwhile, the Queen reaches her palace set on a frozen volcano and locks Dimly away in a cell next to her ferocious reindeer, which attempt to break into his cell and eat him. Brenda takes Ellie and Peeps toward the South Pole. They stop at a restaurant for food, where the proprietor (a greedy humanoid pig) and her minions capture Brenda and try to cook her to serve as food. Ellie and Peeps stop them and escape, destroying the restaurant.

The Snow Queen begins work on the final part of her plan, creating the Iceosaurus, an ice pterodactyl. Meanwhile, Ellie falls asleep and she and Peeps fall off Brenda and into the ocean, where they are picked up by a humanoid walrus, Clive and his partner Rowena, on a ship named the S.S. Quagmire. When Ellie and Peeps describe how they are on their way to the Queen's palace, they realize that she set the whole thing up to lure Ellie there. Clive and Rowena are revealed to be bounty hunters who plan to give Ellie to the Queen for a big reward, and imprison her and Peeps. When Brenda realizes that they have fallen off, she comes back and rescues them.

Brenda, Ellie, and Peeps arrive at the South Pole, but the Iceosaurus freezes Brenda. Ellie and Peeps discover a magic talisman that turns into a salt shaker which Ellie uses to unfreeze Brenda. Brenda separates from Ellie to find a high place to take off. Ellie and Peeps encounter Pearl and Elspeth, two humanoid penguins who clean the palace for the Snow Queen, and Ellie traps them inside a bubble using the device. They find Dimly and release him from his cell by turning the device into a key, and locking the Queen's reindeer inside. The group attempts to escape, but Dimly is too weak to fly at the moment. The Queen and the Iceosaurus attack them, but Freda's device turns into a kind of shield that Ellie uses to deflect the ice beams the Queen shoots at her, causing one to hit the Iceosaurus. It falls and crashes into the ground, creating a massive volcanic eruption. Brenda escapes the flood of lava and gets Ellie, Peeps, and Dimly to safety. The panicked Snow Queen attempts to flee on feet, but is unable to escape her crumbling palace and falls down into the lava.

As Brenda takes Ellie, Peeps, and Dimly back home, Eric, Baggy, Wardrobe, Pearl, and Elspeth watch as the Snow Queen's castle is destroyed, and walk off once the eruption is over. The final scene shows the Queen drifting through the river of molten magma, her body semingly intact but now turned to stone, and still holding her magic staff. Her eyes glow onimously before the credits roll.

Plot
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale is told here as a digital theater piece. The visual point of departure is fashioned by découpages created by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who is also the narrator. The découpages serve to establish the mood around the story of the children, Kaj and Gerda. They consist of a countless number of clippings, which are subsequently subjected to the processes of computer animation and mixed with graphics, live actors and music into an unique fairy tale universe.

Plot
The film's story is roughly based on Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Snow Queen" but features a number of significant changes. Most prominently are that Gerda and Kai are openly romantically attached to each other, instead of simply being best friends. Another significant change is that the opening and ending portions of the film take place in a modern "realistic" setting, while Gerda and Kai's adventures are dream-like and surreal. It is never explained whether the events experienced by Gerda and Kai really took place.

Gerda and Kai
Gerda is initially in mourning over the death of her mother. Although her mother died nine years previous, Gerda has not been able to move on until she meets Kai. In this version Kai is a new staff member at the hotel owned by Gerda's father, and he immediately sets out to befriend Gerda and help her heal. It is because Kai has helped Gerda find new purpose in life that she sets out to rescue him when he is kidnapped by the Snow Queen. The Snow Queen refers to Gerda and Kai's relationship as "true love".

The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen in this version is intentionally malicious towards Gerda and desires to keep Kai for herself. Throughout the movie it is slowly revealed that the Snow Queen has been hoarding power for some time, intending to destroy all the other seasons and ruling the earth alone. She intended to achieve this goal using the Devil's mirror, which was shattered into thousands of pieces above the earth. The Snow Queen initially kidnaps Kai because the final piece of the mirror fell into his eye, but she takes him to her palace and charges him to fix the mirror the way it was. Additionally, it is implied that the Snow Queen caused the death of Gerda's mother because she was also a magically inclined rival of the mighty Snow Queen. There is also a minor sub-plot involving a fierce talking polar bear who is the Snow Queen's henchman, and stays by her side because he is in love with her. After her defeat he carries her off and is seen taking the form of an elegantly dressed man.

The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Winter Autumn
Various characters that Gerda meets in the story have been altered. The witch of eternal summer has become the "Spring Witch", the prince and princess of the palace have been merged into the "Summer Princess" and the Robber Girl's mother has become the "Autumn Robber". In the film all three women are sisters of the Snow Queen who, like their winter sister, want to keep Gerda for various differing reasons. Together, the four sisters are known as the "Four Seasons". Gerda has to escape from all three women before she can face the Snow Queen herself. It is stated in the legend that the three sisters have been severely weakened by their sister's attempt to take almighty power. When they hold Gerda they claim they are doing it for her own protection as their sister is much stronger than they can ever imagine.

The Mirror
The magic mirror is the central piece of the plot and the catalyst for Gerda's adventure to rescue Kai. Listening to a legend it is learnt that the mirror was forged by Satan who gave it to the Four Seasons so they could admire their work. When Spring, Summer and Autumn looked in to the mirror it reflected the essence of their power and promise of life while Winter saw a cold and barren reflection, which was the way of her season. Satan however had made the mirror twisted so that, as Winter gazed at her reflection, she desired for that winter to be absolute. Thus the Snow Queen one day steals the mirror, taking it to where no one can find it. This was not enough for the now Snow Queen since her sisters still lived though greatly weakened. Taking the mirror up to the sky, she flew to Heaven to demand that winter be made the dominant power on Earth. The magic of the mirror and the magic of heaven did not sit well together and the mirror shattered scattering to the four winds and starting the quest for the recovery of the shards that fell into human eyes.

Plot
Gerda and Kai have been neighbors and best friends since childhood. Gerda is now eleven, Kai twelve. They were happy children who worked and played as they should. All that changed when the Snow Queen's mirror broke. The shards spread all through the world, each containing evil. If a shard went inside your eye, it would turn your heart to ice. A shard went into Kai's eye. After that, he grew cold to those he loved. One night, the Snow Queen came after him. She took him into her carriage and they went back to her ice castle at the farthest north point of the world. Everyone in Kai and Gerda's village didn't know where he went and believed he died from drowning in the frozen-over lake. Gerda doesn't believe this, for she dreamed of seeing Kai enter the carriage. When a drunk man admits that he also saw this, Gerda starts realizing that maybe what she saw wasn't a dream. She packs her things and goes on a journey to save Kai and bring him back home.

The Snow Queen (2005)
Airdate: December 24, 2005

Plot
One night in winter, a young girl named Gerda sees a young boy on the side of the street and shivering in the cold. Gerda gives him her blanket, and Gerda's mother eventually takes the boy in, feeding and clothing him. The boy, whose name is Kay, strikes up a warm friendship with Gerda. One night Gerda's mother tells the pair the story of the Snow Queen, who rules winter. As Kay looks out the window, something falls into his eye, and from that moment on he is cruel towards Gerda. Although Gerda is confused over Kay's sudden change of personality, she continues to try to mend their friendship.

One day, Kay goes sledding in the woods when he sees the Snow Queen. He hitches the rope of his sled to the Queen's own sled and travels off with her. He does not return and when his sled is discovered in the river, he is presumed dead. When Gerda mourns him by the river, she is visited by a talking raven who tells her that Kay is not in the river.

Gerda decides to find Kay, traveling a far distance and meeting many characters. One of the people she meets is a King, who tells her the story of the Devil's mirror. It is said that the Devil once made a mirror that would distort the image of anyone who looked into it, and the King suspects that it is a shard of that mirror that fell into Kay's eye.

Gerda eventually arrives at the Snow Queen's palace, where she finds KaI unconscious on a table of ice. The Snow Queen confronts Gerda, intent on destroying her, but Gerda's strong and pure sisterly love for Kai gives her the strength and bravery to defeat the Snow Queen outright. Gerda wakes Kay with her tears, and the pair escape as the Snow Queen's palace collapses around them.

Plot
Wintry fairytale for adults. The unusual love story is based on the motifs of H. C. Andersen's fairytale. A woman living in an ice castle lures a boy to her. He becomes so spellbound by the woman and her land of ice that he forgets the real world. The woman hides the secret of why she is living in the cold from the boy. Those, who know the original story by H.C. Andersen, will also remember that only a few lines spoke of the relationship between the boy and the Snow Queen. The question remained unanswered: what did the boy and the Snow Queen do in the ice castle for all of the time the girl spent looking for the boy?

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 shapeshift into a black weasel) locates Kai, who is deemed Vegard's successor, at an orphanage. After a tangle between both siblings and Orm, Kai is abducted by the polar wind 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 a pretty lady who seems nice, but her true intentions are to drug and enslave Gerda to grow flowers. Orm and Luta catch wind of the scheme and thwart it, but the lady sends out her carnivorous plant named 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 her.

Gerda, Orm and Luta 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 Orm survived, and the souls of the trolls remained trapped in the lake Gow. Orm is contacted by the Ice Queen with orders to bring Gerda to her. Orm helps Gerda and Luta cross the evil lake Gow and she avoids its curse.

Outside the cave, the trio encounter a king on a royal hunt. The king tries to hunt the weasels, 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. Gerda saves the king and his children from a fire they started in protest. As a reward the trio are given a sleigh for their travel.

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 the Lady's tent, who recounts the Snow Queen's origin. As a girl, Irma, who had a gift of magic, was ostracised and went to Imana's caves where her ill wish upon the people, granted by the lake Gow, turned her into the Snow Queen. The Lady of Lapland grants the trio a snow boat and sends them to the Snow Queen.

Orm tries to make Gerda change her mind, but Gerda is determined to save her brother. Inside the ice palace, Gerda finds her brother frozen, then confronts the Snow Queen. Orm turns down his reward and beseeches the queen to spare Gerda. Since the queen will not listen to reason, Orm ceases to serve her. The Queen summons ice monsters, but Orm transforms into a polar bear to defeat the monsters and allow Gerda to reach the throne room. Both Orm and Luta are carried away by the polar wind.

Gerda is able to find the queen's mirror. The Snow Queen almost freezes 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 and eternal winter has finally ended. With that everyone sets off home.