As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This adaptation of The Snow Queen is likely the most well-known animated film from Russia and rightfully so. It's a beautiful film with a lovely color palette and interesting character animation. Unlike the recent musical-comedy Frozen (2013), this is more faithful to the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and the central bond between Gerda and Kay feels comes across as much more poignant than anything in the later film, as Gerda goes through hellish scenarios for Kay's sake.Unfortunately, the ending dilutes the emotion of the story. (SPOILER WARNING) Once Gerda makes it to the Snow Queen's palace and finds Kay, the confrontation with the titular character is less than convincing. Gerda simply shouts, "Go away!" and the mildly agitated queen disappears, leaving the children to make their way home and live happily ever after.Now I was not expecting a ridiculous battle for the climax, but I felt it could have been handled with more power, with Kay forced to pick between the safe but soulless domain of the Snow Queen and Gerda's love. It would have been more satisfying. Or they could have kept the original ending too. Either of these would have been better than what was chosen. I'm not the only one who feels this way either; even director Hayao Miyazaki expressed his displeasure with this film's finale in an interview.Still, this is among the better adaptations of the fairy tale to date and classic animation fans should not miss out.

I have fond memories of this film as a child... Watching it today, it actually still holds up well. The Russians have adapted one of Hans Christian Anderson's lesser-known tales quite well, and utilizes a talented cast for the English-language version: Sandra Dee, Tommy Kirk, Patty McCormick and even June Foray("Rocky" of ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE fame). Like most of Anderson's stories, THE SNOW QUEEN has many dark moments, and might actually be a little frightening for the little ones, but also treats the viewer to a little bit of morality- that of the love and devotion of two childhood friends. While the actual film is great, the American-added prologue with TV Host Art Linkletter and a bunch of kids really dates the material... fast-forward and enjoy this wonderful treat for young and old.

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.

The film (as anyone can see) was made in the Soviet Union in 1957. Generation after generation of young Russians have grown on it. I decided to vote for it ... and imagine my surprise when I see it on imdb crediting some Phil Patton or whatshisname there. I am very glad that not only the Russians but people of other nations can now see it and buy it via amazon.com. But I firmly believe that the genuine creators of the cartoon should be credited and not those who bought it or in some other mysterious way got hold of it. One of the users of the site writes: "It's one of the most un-Disneylike cartoons." Why should it be Disneylike? Personally, I think that some of Disney cartoons are very good, indeed, though it seems to me that many of them are "syrup on sugar", too sweet, too pink, too bubble gum. This cartoon is rather inspiring. It's one of my favourite, and now my little daughter watches it again and again.