Snow Queen

This is possibly one of my favorite films. It tells the tale of a girl named Gerda (Chelsea Hobbs) who lost her mother at a very young age, so has been bought up by her father. She falls in love with the bell boy named Kai. However, on her birthday the snow queen (Bridget Fonda) comes the the hotel which her father owns and kidnaps Kai. Gurda then goes after Kai, and follows him through the four seasons in an attempt to rescue him.

I thought that this was an excellent adaption of the story with great performances from all the cast. It has wonderful special effects and the story fits together very well and is easy to follow. I think that it is a great film for all the family to enjoy. I have watched it every time t has been on since it came out and have never tired of it which is why I have given it a 10!

Hallmark wowed me with Gulliver's Travels back in the day. Even the remake of Snow White, while kind of freakish, but beautiful with Kristin Kreuk in it was a helluva lot better than this lumbering hulk of garbage.

That said, please understand that I am a loyalist, and The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid were my two favorite fairy tales of all time (you could say that Hans Christen Anderson was my first favorite author- I even liked Danny Kaye as Hans in the movie). I disliked the fact that Gerda and Kay(Kai) were so much older, and their little flirtation with romance, it felt heavy handed and false. There's no way that just after a couple of months and one kiss Gerda would chase off after Kay. Even with his silly Help Me note.

That said, I think that the bits with Kay and the Snow Queen could have been considerably edited down, and more time spent with Gerda on her travels. I am not sure about the poster who said that there was no robber girl, but there was. I do know that the travelling thru the seasons was added because of the whole "the mirror is the devils creation and he gave it to the seasons..." bs storyline. Which, of course, is utter tripe.

As far as being beautifully shot; sure, if you like white. Everything frm the frozen land looked as if it had been sprayed with canned snow, nothing really looked good. I didn't really like what they did to the snow queen; all in all, it was a complete disappointment to me. ESP the fact that I rented it and didn't think to remember that since it was hallmark it was probably a freaking miniseries or at least a two part movie. Christ I have been sitting in front of the tv for close to four hours!

Two thumbs down, and a very bad rating. The acting is horrible, and the only thing I truly liked was the clothes.

In the late 1800s the daughter (Chelsea Hobbs) of a hotel owner in a town in the Great Northwest becomes enamored with the bellboy, Kai (Jeremy Guilbaut). When an icy-but-beautiful woman known as the Snow Queen (Bridget Fonda) whisks him away, Gerda (Hobbs) seeks to find him & free him after she amazingly enters the parallel realm of the Snow Queen. But, first, she has to struggle through Spring, Summer and Autumn and the challenges thereof.

"Snow Queen" (2002) is a Hallmark production that runs 12 minutes shy of 3 hours and was based on the original fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, which was first published in two parts in 1844-1845. Elements from another folktale about the four seasons were mixed into the brew.

This is an Americanized version of the fairy tale with the events taking place somewhere out West in the USA or Canada, both of which are (North) America. The film was shot in British Columbia and takes place there or anywhere in the Great Northwest in the late 1800s (or early 1900s). It definitely doesn't take place in Denmark since (1) there are snowcapped mountains in the background and (2) everyone speaks English. I suppose someone could argue that it takes place in either Norway or Sweden, but that doesn't resolve the English-speaking issue (unless you simply imagine the characters speaking a Scandinavian language).

The long movie's worth catching just to see Bridget in her last role before marrying notable composer Danny Elfman and starting a family. Hobbs doesn't personally trip my trigger, but she's a'right. Guilbaut is bland, but serviceable. The movie comes alive whenever Fonda is present.

Most of the first half is rooted in reality and is quite good for a TV production, but the mid-section focuses on Gerda's misadventures journeying through Spring, Summer and Autumn while Kai is captive in the Snow Queen's stronghold on top of a mountain guarded by a talking polar bear. The entire middle of the picture cuts back-and-forth between these two stories with a few sequences in reality thrown in for good measure, the latter involving the father at the hotel (Robert Wisden) and his cook, Minna (Wanda Cannon).

In Gerda's quest the characters come-and-go like a rollercoaster ride. It's reminiscent of the Neverland sequences in "Hook" (1991). If you like fairy tales like "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012) or episodic fantasies like "The Odyssey" (1997), "Ulysses" (1954) and "The Lords of the Rings" trilogy (2001-2003) give this a look; just remember it was made on a TV budget and there's not a lot of swashbuckling, as with those other productions.

The film runs 2 hour, 48 minutes and was shot entirely in British Columbia (Cranbrook, Fort Steele & Vancouver).

GRADE: C+/B-

This 3-hour made-for-TV miniseries came home with us from Blockbuster's this weekend. The production company clearly spent a lot of money on sets, costuming (Bridget Fonda, especially), and special effects (including a great Jim Henson talking polar bear & reindeer). They should have spent a bit more money getting a coherent script. The story line was so loose that it really never came together. One can overlook Irish-accented Germans, but not herky-jerky storytelling. With senseless loose ends which included a special guest appearance by the Devil, this one is certainly not destined to be a Christmas Classic. A shame that they wasted good performances by the two female leads.

Although a fine production with top notch visuals, Snow Queen ultimately is a disapointment. Too long and miscast in several roles, the main problem is the opening hour which sets up a love story between Gerda and Kai. In the original, the main thrust of Gerda's quest to rescue Kai from the Queen was friendship that was revealed to be love at the end, but casting the leads as 18 year olds defeats that revelation.