The Snow Queen (2012 Film)

''The Snow Queen'' (russian: Снежная королева, lit=The Snow Queen, translit=Snezhnaya Koroleva) is a 2012 Russian 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure family film written by Vadim Sveshnikov and directed by Vladlen Barbe and Maxim Sveshnikov. ''The Snow Queen'' was produced by Wizart Animation and released by Bazelevs. InlayFilm acted as co-production studio. The film is a remake of the 1844 story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Ligaiy, Yuri Moskvin, Sergey Rapoport and Olga Sinelshchikova.

Like the fairy tale, the main character and heroine of the film is Gerda (voiced by Nyusha and Jessica Straus). Set after the Snow Queen invoked the spell of eternal winter, the film follows the story of Gerda who sets out on an improbable frigid journey up North to save Kai. The Snow Queen never realized Gerda was truly the last threat from winter domination when henchman troll Orm (voice of Ivan Okhlobystin and Doug Erholtz) joins Gerda's quest as a friend.

''The Snow Queen'' was one of the most anticipated projects of the Russian film industry in 2012. Inspirational evaluation of ''The Snow Queen'' at international film markets set its stage for international distribution. The film was released on 31 December 2012 in Russia. In the United States, it was released on 11 October 2013. After receiving generally positive reviews from critics, an Annecy International Animated Film Festival review noted the film's ambition is reminiscent of the golden age of Russian animation. The film also achieved significant commercial success, earning 233 million rubles domestically while total box office amounted to $13.6 million, nearly doubling its $7 million budget. The film became a milestone in the history of Russian animation as it received accolades from Moscow Film Festival and Zelenograd International Youth Film Festival.

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 shape shift into a black weasel) locates Kai, who is deemed Vegard's successor, at the orphanage St. Peter's Kids Shelter. At the orphanage Gerda sews mittens. After a tangle between both siblings and Orm, Kai is abducted by the North Wind, a polar cold spell that can only be invoked by the Snow Queen. The polar vortex shuttles Kai 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 an old lady who seems nice, but her true intentions are to drug and enslave Gerda to grow and sell flowers. Orm and Luta catch wind of the scheme and thwart it. The lady sends out her carnivorous plant, 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 Gerda.

Gerda thanks Orm for saving her life and they begin to warm up to each other. Then the three 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 the cowardly Orm survived, and the souls of the trolls remained trapped in Lake Gao. While Gerda and Luta look around, Orm is contacted by the Snow Queen with orders to bring Gerda to her. Orm helps Gerda and Luta cross the evil Lake Gao, and Gerda avoids its curse, much to Orm's amazement.

Outside the cave, the trio encounter a king on a royal hunt. The king tries to hunt Orm (in weasel form) and Luta, 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. The king and his children have an argument and start a fire, but Gerda saves them. As a reward the trio are given a sleigh for their journey.

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

Orm tries to protect Gerda and make her change her mind, but Gerda is dead set on saving her brother. At the Kingdom of Eternal Frost, Gerda finds her brother frozen. Then the Snow Queen appears. Orm turns down his reward to be free and beseeches the queen to spare Gerda. Since the queen will not listen to reason, Orm ceases to serve her. The Queen summons ice trolls and giants, but Orm transforms into a polar bear to defeat the monsters and allow Gerda to reach the throne room. Both Orm and Luta are cornered by the North Wind.

Gerda finds the queen's mirror and walks through it, entering the mirror realm. The Snow Queen tries to freeze 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, Orm turns back into a troll, Luta wakes him up and the eternal winter is finally ended. With that Gerda, Kai, Orm, Irma and Luta all set off home. Gerda and Orm finally accept each other as best friends.

During the end credits, there are scenes showing the lives of people they met throughout their journey after the Snow Queen's defeat and started living happily.

Cast

Other English dub voices:
* Doug Erholtz as King, Robbers
* Kirk Thornton as Servant, Red Head, Robbers
* Cindy Robinson as Robber Hag
* Erin Fitzgerald as Mirror, Lake Gao
* Christopher Smith as Robbers

Concept

Early history

The Danish author Hans Andersen's collection of fairy tales compiled first in '' Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. First Booklet'' (1838) has had tremendous influence on Russian culture that spans over two centuries. Russia already had its own Snow Maiden or Snegurochka that is similar to the character the Snow Queen in Andersen's fairy tale. Snegurochka is depicted as the helper to Ded Moroz, the legendary holiday gift-bringer. Today, Andersen's plots are being transmitted into new media such animation, live-action films, computer games and digital spaces.

Critics such as ''InterMedia'' have found Andersen's tales befitting in the cultural landscape of Russia because of its "archetypal proximity of the fairy tale of Andersen to the Russian mentality." The eponymous character the Snow Queen was written by Andersen as a ruler of the Laplands that includes the northern regions of Scandinavia, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

The fairy tales was interpreted into Russian for the first time by writers and poets Innokentij Annenski, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Boris Pasternak. In 1894, two St. Petersburg publishing houses, almost simultaneously, published Andersen's collected works in new high-quality translations. The first was ''Illustrated Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection in Six Volumes'' translated by B. D. Porozovskaya (publishing house F. Pavlenkov) and the four-volume ''Collected Works'' translated by A. and P. Hansen (typolithography of S. M. Nikolaev). Hans Christian Andersen writings later influenced the works of Russian authors Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. By the turn of the twentieth century, interest in Scandinavian literature from Sweden, Norway and especially Denmark became part of the cultural interaction of Russia.

In the Soviet Union era, Anna and Peter Hansen's translated version was the most popular, albeit edited and refined to fit the commissar's guidelines that gave a new interpretation to ''The Snow Queen''. The period after the revolution and into the Soviet Union is considered the moment when Andersen become part of the Russian cultural space. Andersen became “our foreign author”, as the fairy tales were influential in inspiring playwright Evgeny Schwartz to stage children's play ''The Snow Queen'' in 1938. The stage play premiered in Slovakia theaters in 1989. A 1967 live action Russian film ''The Snow Queen'' and a 1986 Moscow Studio Ekran musical ''The Secret of the Snow Queen'' also was released.

Recent history

By the second half of the twentieth century the cinematograph began adapting individual stories from Andersen's canon. One of the adaptations was the animated Soyuzmultfilm film ''The Snow Queen'' in 1957. In dedication to the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen during March 2005 at the Maly Theater of Russia, Mr. Lars Vissing, the CEO of the Andersen Foundation noted Hans Christian is very well known in Russia and the attitude towards him is "passionate."

Initially, InlayFilm had at first plans to adapt ''Peter Pan''. However, producers of the project Sergey Rapoport states, "We took this step consciously", reminding themselves ''The Snow Queen'' by Andersen is a well known fairy tale by the audiences of Russia and Europe. Inspired by the classic 1957 film as well as the fairy tale, Wizart Animation undertook a new animated version with a completely different animation style. They viewed the fairy tale with the same integrity as Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' and was eager to extrapolate the story line by Andersen to depict previously unrecorded characters.

However, the studio faithfully followed the source material. The characters of the film - the Lapp woman, little robber girl, the prince, and the princess are all derived from Hans Christian Andersen's story. They used 3D stereoscopy animation to revive the fairy tale eventually exhibiting the film, ''The Snow Queen''. The atmosphere of this Snow Queen film is decidedly more comical and was targeted for the family audience. The film was produced at the Voronezh animation studio in 3D for $7 million with over 1,000 special effects. "We have been working at it for three years. The story is classic, although there are new heroes", Dmitry Kchrustaliov reported.

Production

Development

The concept of an Hans Andersen fairy tale film was sprouted ever since 2007, when Wizart Animation was founded. Until 2012, the studio's parent company was InlayFilm with the main production site of the studio located in Voronezh, and some divisions located in Moscow. However news of a Disney production of the same name initially made the studio prioritize on other projects putting the film in the shelves.

In 2010, the production for ''The Snow Queen'' restarted that lasted over 3 years. They were planning to release the film in the New Year at the turn of 2012–2013. The studio started the production noting they reduced its production time while increasing the personnel and technological process.

The studio were honored to work again from the source material of 1957 movie by Lev Atmanov and Andersen's fairy tale. The cartoon was the directorial debut of Maxim Sveshnikov, who previously worked on the scripts of animated films such as ''Dobrinya and The Dragon''. Initially Maxim Sveshnikov was script writer who became more fascinated with the progress of the writing. The writer became convinced the script can be turned into a film that could be entertaining content for the audience. Thereafter the producers agreed to give Sveshnikov the director role. The movie was also co-directed by Vladlen Barbe who has previously adapted Soviet Union's own ''The Snow Queen'' animated film in 1991''.'' The Disney co-production narrated by Sigourney Weaver was part of the ''Stories to Remember'' series of children's animated films.''''

The exclusive first poster of the film released on 12 June 2011 by lnlayFilm featuring the eponymous character Gerda ready to summit the spiral palace of the Snow Queen in Spitsbergen.

Producer Timur Bekmambetov of the Bazelevs Company along with InlayFilm agreed to produce the film. Bekmambetov's animation credits includes '' 9''. Bazelev Company's experience in producing commercial features enabled the film to enter on a worldwide scale. Bekmambetov said, “As to ''The Snow Queen'' when we first saw the project we immediately felt its great potential and decided to step in as co-producers.” Aleksey Tsitsilin was cinematographer. ''The Snow Queen'' completed production on 22 October 2012. The date coincided with the anniversary date of 22 October 1957, the day ''The Snow Queen'' by Lev Atamanov was released in the Soviet Union.

Russian artists Nyusha voiced the heroine Gerda, and Ivan Okhlobystin ( ''Interns'') voiced the troll Orm. Troll Orm fit the voice of Okhlobystin perfectly who was invited to the voice studio without any finalized conclusions beforehand. Supporting ensemble voice cast included Galina Tyunina ( ru) as Snow Queen, Ramilya Iskander ( ru) as Kai, Erin Fitzgerald as Luta, Dmitry Nagiyev as Housemaster, Yuri Stoyano as King, Olga Shorokhova as shopkeeper, Lyudmila Artemyeva ( ru) as Flower Lady, Mikhail Tikhonov as Prince, Olga Zubkova ( ru) as Una, Anna Ardova ( ru) as Lapp woman and Liza Arzamasova as Alfida.

There was no blind audition except that which was used for a few actors. Instead the quality of work determined the casting. Ivan Okhlobystin fit the character Orm who gave "so much energy, humor, and some sparkling acting impromptu." Lyudmila Artemyeva who voiced the flower girl was well received by the public as well by Artemyeva herself who stated, "How did I do that? This is probably my brightest role." Dmitry Nagiyev as Housemaster gave a short cameo. Nyusha gave the role of Gerda as noted by the creators of the film a "bundle of energy and lively reactions." The voice cast by Galina Tyunina for the Snow Queen "is incomparable! Her words are bone-chilling!" according to the creators of the film. A review noted the high quality Russian language voice cast.

The English cast was picked by René Veilleux. Jessica Straus who has over 200 credits in games, animation, and anime voiced Gerda. Doug Erholtz was picked as Orm, Cindy Robinson as Snow Queen, Marianne Miller as Kai and Dee Bradley Baker as Luta. On 20 November 2013, the PRL Studio In Poland, recorded a dubbing for the film. Alfida the pirate was voiced by Małgorzata Socha, as Prince, and Arkadiusz Jakubik as troll Orm. For the Latvian cast, actresses who took part in production included Laila Kirmuška ( lv) while the Snow Queen was spoken by Riga Theatre actress Sandra Zvīgule ( lv). Latvian actors included Gints Grāvelis ( lv) and Uldis Anže ( lv).

The cast for the Korean release included actress Park Bo Young as Gerda and comedian Lee Soo-geun as troll Orm. According to ''Zum'' of Korea, Park Bo-Young "brought the character's charm to life with a lovely voice" while Lee Soo-geun "overpowered the atmosphere with his distinctively jovial voice" for troll Orm. Mother of actor Cha Tae-hyun, Choe Soo-min, voiced the Snow Queen, while Jang Gwang, a voice actor played the King and Housemaster. The movie was one of the most anticipated projects to come out of Russia in 2012.

Adaptation from source material

The Sveshnikov brothers script writers mostly followed the abridged Soviet Union fairy tale of ''The Snow Queen'' used by many other directors such as Soyuzmultfilm animator Atamanov and playwright Schwartz. Maxim Sveshnikov was very emotional when he saw the Soyuzmultfilm film for the first time. He tried to convey the same emotional qualities to the script of the 2012 film. The research for the script included the animated, live-action features, and TV series of ''The Snow Queen'' brand. However, the script tried to be a unique dynamic take from the rest of the stories.

Sveshnikov explains, "We tried to keep the spirit of the fairy tale, the spirit of family values by Andersen." However, to relate the Soviet classic to modern audience, the team used a combination of modern technology with traditional animation to evoke the "magic atmosphere" of the original to create a new adaptation. From the script perspective, the writers who couldn't completely follow the 1957 film or Andersen's fairy tale because both had religious undertones and was decidedly targeted for an historical era.

The writers read both the original Andersen's translation considered the "adult" version and post-Soviet Union version considered the "nursery" version. The script integrated the narration portion from the nursery version and the mirror of the trolls and the trolls themselves from the "adult" version. Together with additional input in comedic schemes they were able to achieve an educational content material.

The project is dedicated to the family and is a family film. The audience of the film is as stated by the creators of the film: "Of course, first of all for their loved ones, for parents and relatives who live all over the world, for the family you love. It's so nice to get feedback from them, these are the simple things that bring joy and give energy for further work."

By the final edit of the script, many events had to be refined. Gerda and Kai become sister and brother rather than neighbors. The robbers from Andersen's story become pirates for the film. The script did keep the concept of the magic mirror intact. However the mirror of the devil that reflects evil from Andersen's fairy tale was completely changed to the magic mirror of Master Vegard that reflects souls. The difference was added to highlight the conflict between the characters of Master Vegard who is described as an artisan wizard and The Snow Queen. Another difference from the source material is the character troll will kidnap Kai, instead of the character the Snow Queen. The concept of a wind that seeks its enemies called the North Wind became one of the main antagonists of the story. Gerda is characterized as a spirited, pugnacious girl who fights for justice in contrast to the moral, upright Gerda found in Andersen's fairy tale. Kai the brother from the fairy tale is depicted as a talented artist in the film.

The script tried to concretize the character Snow Queen with the characterization meant to convey a universal antagonist appeal that explains to the audience why "her heart is so cold." However, they added time loop flashback sequence for the character that will define the benevolent beginnings of the Snow Queen as Little Irma. A review stated, "The creators do not adhere to Andersen slavishly, but remain faithful to him at least in the basics."

The director also remarked, the film will elaborate on rarely explored elements of the 19th century fairy tale that previous film adaptations missed. A classic example of renewing forgotten characters is the troll Orm, who was forgotten by the directors of many previous TV and film versions of the winter tale, and yet Andersen had it. According to ''Reuters'', the erstwhile troll from Andersen's tale depicted as an arch villain and an associate to the Snow Queen with dark undertones was completely converted into a harmless creature. Just like animated films, the troll became a comedic relief character as well as the accompanying character, weasel Luta.

Themes

The film's motto was, "Cold can freeze your heart, love can set you free." The concept of love and empathy is encompassed in the motif object, the mirror of Master Vegard. The character Snow Queen's demands to track down Gerda and the children of the Master through a secondary character troll Orm disguised as a black ferret contributes to new themes of illusion and friend or foe concept. The themes of family values, friendship and selflessness is explored through the character Gerda's quest. The film explores the effects of deception, lies, betrayal and cynicism. The concept of the character Gerda's willpower to combat the society of the Snow Queen and help save the world from the prejudice against artists echoes the theme of tolerance and the role that books and literature play in a free and informed society.

The film evokes the stories of Charles Dickens such as ''Oliver Twist'', as orphanage street children confront the Snow Queen at the ice palace that also evokes rags-to-riches, underdog theme. The theme of self-belief is used to explore the actions of Gerda that helps her gain inner strength, fight evil and win. The theme is primarily described in Gerda's confrontation with the Snow Queen. Gerda and Kai living as orphans was a completely new take from Andersen's tale, yet the idea parallels Andersen's own lifetime. Andersen who was the son of a shoemaker was born to a poor family. He was orphaned at an early age. Nevertheless, Andersen had keen insight in literature that was developed to create critically acclaimed works in genres of fairy tales.

The fundamental theme of childish innocence is explicated in the film. The flashback of the Snow Queen as the character Irma allowed the audience to see the symbolic growth of Gerda as a human being in her Arctic pilgrimage as opposed to the de-growth of the Snow Queen back to her child form in the finale. The climax is intended to explain the qualities of a good heart and the beneficial effects of being children.

Animation

One of the animation directors of the film was Alexander Dorogov. Acclaimed artist Artur Mirzoyan was also part of the team. Wizart Animation's main advantages is its work on 3D stereoscopy. For a report by ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'', the animation studio in the city center is described like a fairy tale with an elevator traveling into the creative departments. Yuri Moskvin noted that the studio innovated in many animation methods despite the context they were living in. Russian CG industry was still developing at that time. The workforce was built from the grounds up as there was no animation school to recruit new animators. The film presented challenges because it had the most effects done in a Russian CG film during that time period. Vladimir Nikolaev noted the film is not pseudo-3D, but produced simultaneously in real-time multiple camera shots. For every 12 seconds there is a special effect. An in-house research and development team helped the studio's Maya-based tool set. The most difficult part of the animation was the editing and deciding what take that will go into animation.

Animators were present in many departments including backgrounds, textures, cloth movement dynamics. Animation technology included operating, lighting and sound engineering. The animator's novelties included fish frozen in icebergs, robbers from Andersen's fairy tale turning to pirates living on an icebreaker brig and the intricate details of the items at the merchant shop.

Soundtrack

Mark Willott, an Emmy winning composer from UK joined with Wizart Animation to compose the soundtrack for the film. The theme song "We Will Never be Apart" is sung in English in the closing credits of the film with vocals by Phil Gwynne. The official soundtrack was heard in trailers 1 and 3. A Russian music video for the film was made and performed by singer Nyusha that was titled "This New Year."

Latvian band Brainstorm performed the main track called "Shine Clear" that became the theme song in the animated film''.'' The song was composed with animation and was played at the finale of the film. The verses were written by Riga poet Sergey Timofeev ( ru). Their song got translated into English titled ''"''Flashlight''"'' sung by Scottish band "Travis" with lead voice by Fran Healy. The song premiered internationally. Henry Huo

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