Before Disney\'s Frozen, A Russian Snow Queen

[Brendon Connelly]

Seeing as the budget was only around $7 million, this trailer for an animated version of Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen looks surprisingly well-detailed and nicely lit. The character design is fair too, if rather derivative, but the animation is, shall we say, variable.

And the voice work? Shocking.



The film has been produced in Russia and will be released in both 2D and 3D later this year, beating Disney to the punch by way over a year. Because it is a race, obviously.

Thanks to Cartoon Brew for the embed.

Footnote: There was a 1957 Snow Queen made in Russia too, and that one was not only more faithful to the story and better looking, it is regularly cited by Hayao Miyazaki as an influence. Here's a bit of that one.

[notthathard]

Is Disney's Frozen going to be a comedy like Tangled? I hope not. I miss when Disney did straight-forward adaptations of fairy tales without a comical or modern twist (The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, etc.). The original princess era (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty) was the best. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were the last good Disney fairy tale movies.

[Joe Kalicki]

Is Disney's Frozen going to be a comedy like Tangled? I hope not. I miss when Disney did straight-forward adaptations of fairy tales without a comical or modern twist (The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, etc.). The original princess era (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty) was the best. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were the last good Disney fairy tale movies.

Wow, I actually agree with notcatsmeow. Although I do like Princess and the Frog, I am not a fan of the Dreamworks-esque Hercules and Emperor's New Groove-type movies.

[fredmanson]

Disney is beaten on its proper domain!!!! WOW!!!! It great to see that other animation studios are doing very beautiful works!!

I bet a Pound that it was done on Blender!!!! What do you think???

[Galahad]

I'd rather see the 1957 Snow Queen than any of the new crap coming out, it looks amazing and i see what Miyazaki is talking about.