La reina de las nieves

"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.

This is such a beautiful film. Seeing this as a child really spoiled me! As an adult, I searched high-and-low for it for years, then, one day, found it in a bargain-basement-bin for $1.50 at a no-name video store--isn't that irony? I just wish it would be restored and re-released--without the Art Linkletter prologue!

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.

This is one of the best-loved animated features in Russia, richly animated by the renowned Soyuzmultfilm studio. The dubbed U.S. version was released by Universal in 1959 and was widely shown on local TV stations, especially at Christmas time. A hokey prologue was added for the U.S. release starring TV host Art Linkletter and some extremely polished and starched youngsters, including Billy Booth, who played Dennis the Menace's pal Tommy Anderson on the TV series. The kids literally quote lines from Linkletter's best selling book "Kids Say the Darnest Things." Some videos of the movie do not include this prologue at all. The confusion arises when the director of the prolugue is credited with directing the movie! Several low-budget VHS tapes of this gem have been released, and to this day I have not found one with either a satisfactory film print or sound track. It's a shame, because once you see this film, you never forget it.

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.