I remember seeing this as a child, but I never wrote a review for it, so I decided to watch it again when I was grown up, on Christmas Eve, to see what I'd think, based on the fairy tale by Han Christian Andersen. Basically, Ellie (Ellie Beaven) and her brother Tom (Damian Hunt) listen to their grandmother (Marple's Julia McKenzie) reading the story of the Snow Queen to their younger sister, Polly (Zizi Strallen). She asks if the Snow Queen will be coming for her, they assure her that it is only a story. But in the North Pole, the Snow Queen (Dame Helen Mirren) does exist and is planning to use her giant magical mirror to take over the world, plunging it into an eternal winter. However, after the Queen's troll servants: Eric (Sir David Jason), Baggy (Colin Marsh), and Wardrobe (Russell Floyd) place the mirror on top of a mountain, an accident causes it to fall. The mirror is shattered into pieces, going all across the snowy landscape. Two of the pieces hit Tom in the eye and his heart, he falls under a curse making him nasty. The Snow Queen sends her bats to retrieve the pieces. She realises the two pieces inside Tom cannot be removed, so she kidnaps him, and with his speed in being able to solve puzzles, he offers to help put her mirror back together. Ellie realises Tom has disappeared, and accompanied by her new friend, a talking bird named Peeps (Hugh Laurie). Wanting to find somewhere to rest, in a snowy forest, they find a house belonging to an Old Woman (also McKenzie), who appears nice. But she is an evil witch who wants to use Ellie's heart for her elixir of life for eternal youth. With the help of Peeps, confusing the lady's cat, Cuddles, Ellie manages to escape and trap the witch in the basement. They then meet two humanoid crows named Les (Richard Tate) and Ivy (Imelda Staunton), who describe a prince that they work for who is getting married, and from the description Ellie assumes it is Tom. The birds bring her to the palace, helping her to become a staff member. She meets the Princess (Scarlett Strallen), but is disheartened to find that the Prince (Rowan D'Albert) is not Tom. Meanwhile, while repairing the mirror, the trolls try to warn Tom that the Queen is going to kill him to get the last two pieces, but the Queen puts him into a hypnotic state, filling his veins with 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, on the way, they they run into a robber gang of humanoid rats. The Robber King (Rik Mayall) intends to give Ellie to his daughter Angorra (also Staunton) as a slave. She is locked in a room with a captured flying reindeer named Dimly (Gary Martin). Peeps finds and unties them. They trap Angorra and Dimly flies them away, the King grabs onto the rope wrapped around Dimly, but he slams into a building and falls. The three go to see Freda (Julia McKenzie) at Dimly's flying school in Lapland to find out where the Snow Queen is. Freda joins them as they fly over the Queen's castle, where the three trolls decide to help them. Tom has finished putting the mirror together apart from the two pieces that are inside him. Freda reveals that the pieces inside him will kill him and makes a potion to dissolve the mirror. Before Tom can drink it, the Queen blasts the vial, and freezes Eric, Freda, Baggy and Wardrobe. The battle eventually causes the vial to smash on top of the mirror, dissolving it and forming an icy cyclone that chases after the Queen. She tries to escape on her flying carriage, but she is frozen solid by the cyclone. The mirror pieces inside Tom dissolve and the effects of the Queen's power vanish, freeing him, and the others are unfrozen. Ellie, Tom and all their friends depart the castle, but the eyes of the Queen are seen lighting up, meaning that she is still alive and may return. The voice cast are all chosen well for their parts, the animation is relatively good, and it is a simple story, even if it slowed down by silly songs and supporting characters distracting proceedings, but overall, it is something the family can enjoy, a fun animated fantasy adventure. Worth watching!
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jboothmillard28 December 2020
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SnoopyStyle5 February 2016Tom and Ellie live in a small town listening to their grandmother tell the story of the evil Snow Queen. The Snow Queen sends his trolls to set up her mirror but it shatters. Two shards get embedded into Tom turning him evil. The Snow Queen recovers the pieces and kidnaps Tom to put the pieces back together. Ellie sets off to rescue her brother Tom.
The animation style is basically 80s Saturday morning TV cartoon. It's perfectly fine. The songs are rather boring. There is an adventure born from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. It's comical with childish humor. It would be helpful if the story is more compelling but it's basically one extended road trip. It's not that good except for the littlest kids and I fear that even they could be bored. -
disdressed1227 December 2007this old style animation movie might be likable by young kids,but that might be a bit of a stretch.it's just too slow,with a story that isn't very strong.plus it tries to be dark at times and lite at others. the amusing bits are overdone,and not really amusing.again,young kids might find these sequences funny.yet the movie is also a bit too dark,in my opinion,for young kids.so it's hard to say who the movie would be suitable for.or maybe i'm just blowing it out of proportion,and young kids would have no problem with it.for me though,i just found the whole thing a bit too weak.my vote for the animated version of The Snow Queen is a 4/10
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superlycan20 October 2005I'm not sure if you could spot spoilers or not but better safe than sorry.
I have seen this movie more times than I can count. Having a niece that is under 5 will do that to you.
This movie is basically about a young girl's (Ellie) journey to find her older brother(Tom) after they hitch a ride with the Snow Queen's sleigh.
Her only companion on her quest is a sparrow named Peeps.
This all happens when a mirror that belongs to the queen breaks into a thousand pieces and 2 of the pieces get lodged in Tom's heart and eye. This turns the boy evil and cold hearted.
The snow queen then forces him to put her mirror back together because he is very good at doing puzzles.
In this movie you meet several interesting, and some sinister characters. Such as a gang of trolls, a wicked witch who wants to regain her youth, a gang of rat thieves, a flying reindeer, and a married crow couple who work for a royal family.
I give this 8 out of ten because there is a good story buried in this movie but like most animated features this is a musical.
Also like most animated musicals this is an ideal movie for a family movie night. -
jennythemusicmaker22 September 2007When I first watched it I found it to be very good. However, I was young at the time. I have a great memory at remembering things and I realised that it just wasn't as good as I thought it to be. OK, so the animation is overall good with bouncy colourful characters like the trolls, to the Snow Queen herself, who is of course more elegant, but has been designed well. The cast was also good, with Hugh Laurie and Helen Mirren being at the top of my list! Shame they changed the names of Gerda and Kay to Tom and Ellie, though. That I didn't really like.
However, the worst criticism I can give this is that it is overall very unrealistic. By that I don't mean flying reindeer, talking animals and magic mirrors. No! That's what fantasy is supposed to be like! I mean how a child of Ellie's age could not know where the North Pole is, or just go gallivanting off to find Tom without taking some kind of food with her! In the real story the boat that Gerda is on takes her downstream, so it's impossible for her to do that, but Ellie chooses to go and rescue Tom herself.
The whole kerfuffle at the gates of the Snow Queen's palace is also a big let down. If Ellie crept into the palace alone without a sound, that would have been good. But it was as though she rang the royal doorbell! She was polite to her enemies and persuaded the trolls by the fact that she had come a long way. This is something that horrible people don't normally care about! I also found Ellie's voice rather annoying at times, which put me off, rather than her being my heroine.
So I give this 4/10. -
TheLittleSongbird7 March 2010The Snow Queen is a good underrated film. By all means it isn't perfect, the amusing parts are a tad overdone and the film is too short. But I liked the style of the animation with its lovely backgrounds and bright luscious colours. And the music, while not something to completely rave about, was pleasant and worth listening to. The story is a timeless one, I have cherished it for many years and even at 17 I still like to read it. This film changes a few things here and there, but forms the basics of the story pretty well and the characters are at least interesting. The voice acting is very well done, Hugh Laurie is amusing as Peeps and David Jason is great as Eric. But I have to say Helen Mirren is superb as the voice of the Snow Queen, who looks as imperiously chilling as she sounds. Overall, good movie and worth watching. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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natethescot16 April 2022I got The Snow Queen and TSQ's Revenge on VHS as a kid and would watch them whenever i was off sick from school. I remember it being quite scary in parts to my younger self, but overall it remains a magical and very enjoyable adventure.
The film boasts an incredible cast of Oscar winning actors and actresses, who do such an excellent job bringing a unique personality to each of the characters Ellie encounters on the adventure, that when combined with the top notch animation it becomes a truly memorable experience, even 20+ years on. The film is absolutely worth a watch and the fact it's not "yet another sickly Disney film" is honestly reason enough even by itself. The fact it's truly a quality film in its own right is a bonus hah!
The "top review" on here seems incredibly negative for no particular reason and i disagree with most of what it says, even though it doesn't say much! Clearly just some boring and miserable person who never watched it as a child and doesn't have kids of their own to watch it with so why they even reviewed it i don't know.