The Snow Queen
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Movie Reviews of The Snow Queen
Movie Review: Beautiful scenery but the plot makes no sense whatsoever
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll start off by saying I'm a huge fan of fantasy movies. I'm 33, but I just adore stories like The Neverending Story (I even liked the sequel!), The Golden Compass, all the Harry Potters, etc. So, I expected to enjoy this. Sadly, however, I'm finding myself ask "why" every five seconds, in between admiring the lovely scenery.
The plot just makes no sense at all. None of the characters seem to know why they do things, and the audience, thus, knows even less! Why does the Snow Queen capture boys? Why do boys like her? Why are other seasons trying to kidnap Gerda? Why does Gerda fall for it? Why, why, why? Why does Kai write a 'help me' note to Gerda but then go off and follow the Snow Queen? Why doesn't the Snow Queen feed him if she wants him to live? etc etc etc., the list could go on and on...
I think if the actors had more of an idea of their motivation (I'm guessing they didn't?) they might be more convincing and life-like... not that they didn't do a good job, per se, but I think the acting is hampered by the crazy insane, unexplained plot.
All that said, the scenery is wonderful, I love the different lightings and mood; I think with some explanations and a more cohesive plot, it would have been a little better.
This is a review of the 2 hr hallmark version - perhaps a lot was left out???
Movie Review: Gerda is Great- The Snow Queen is a bit off >.>
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie takes FOREVER to get anywhere in the beginning- no don't argue with me, those who have seen it know that this is true. After everything and nothing is established the movie REALLY begins and it's actually even worth buying it's entertaining enough. The adventures of the young Gerda as she searches through the seasons to find her close friend Kai, who has been taken away by the Snow Queen to rebuild her mirror (fordged by the devil in a brilliant scene). Kai and the Snow Queen lack in places, but where they do everyone else makes up for them. The Girl who plays Gerda is sweet and pretty and all of the people she meets on the way are charming and delightful. The story flows nicely and it has very good dialgue. At first when I saw it I thought that it was going to end up being horrible, but it's not- well, at least Gerda and her troop aren't. The story takes place in Germany but only Gerda's father has a German accent- and to confuse one even more Briget Fonda speaking her part with a Brooklyn accent just doesn't work. That's my only real complaint, the rest with her is bearable.Movie Review: NOT FOR KIDS!
Summary: 3 Stars
I am not sure of the intended audience for this film. It is a very wierd film! Thematic elements ( eg the (suggestive) seduction of young Kai by the Snow Queen) & some very disturbing scenes render this film definitely inappropriate for children.Movie Review: "Never Underestimate the Power of a Kiss"
Summary: 2 Stars
As Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale "The Snow Queen" is one of my favourite fairytales ever, you can only imagine my delight at learning Hallmark Entertainment (who is well known for creating lavish, beautiful visual productions) was adapting it for a movie. However, despite the beautiful costuming, makeup and set design, the faults found in the story and the acting don't quite make this a movie to treasure always. Though I certainly didn't loathe it, I continually grieved during my viewing of it at the opportunities lost to bring a potent fairytale to life.
Whoever wrote the screenplay must be well aware of the original fairytale, as several times there appear tiny details from the tale, such as the shadows of dreams appearing on the wall, and the words of the hidden roses in the garden. And yet, with all the beautiful material that Anderson has to offer, they insisted on changing large portions. Gone are the Lapland women, the talkative Crows, the helpful Prince and Princess and the children's beloved Grandmother. Perhaps they would not have been missed so much if they had been replaced by equally intriguing characters and a strong plot, but instead we get a strange jumble: the mirror whose part in the book serves as a simple and poetic reason as to why some people are determined to see the world as an ugly place becomes the focus of the drama: Kai does not have to write "Eternity" with shards of ice, but piece together the mirror so that the Queen may cover the world with Winter. Though he does get a shard in his eye, its effects are dubious - he's rude to Gerda and throws a snowball, but apart from that it seems to have little purpose, and is removed not by Gerda's warm tears, but the Snow Queen's icy kiss.
There are several new characters present, including a travelling Conjurer and a band of huntsmen who briefly use Gerda for target practice and then disappear. Other characters are warped beyond recognition: the magnificent reindeer who gallops through the snow in his delight at being freed is now a decrepit beast with a silly name. The nurturing, yet subtly overwhelming old woman becomes a psychotic personification of Spring with a bizarre taste in clothing. The children's beloved grandmother becomes a middle aged housekeeper who for some reason speaks in an Irish accent, which quite baffled me.
But despite contradicting several other reviews, I must say I enjoyed Bridget Fonda's performance as the Snow Queen. She is the only professional actor in the cast, and manages to bring to her character something I never perceived in Anderson's fairytale: a sense of vulnerability. It was a fascinating twist on the archetypical "ice-queen" and one cannot help but feel a twinge of pity for her at times. She carries herself like a true queen, and the cool tones of her voice perfectly match her appearance. Other notable performances include Kai, who is quite the sweetheart, and despite the distain of other reviewers, I found the Robber Girl's performance quite refreshing and very true to the book, with her spoilt and temperament nature. And the polar bear who works as the Queen's guard and in love with her himself is a fascinating creation (due credit given to Jim Henson's Creature Shop), and one of the changes to the story that worked for me. The ambiguity of his transformation at the end may confuse some viewers, but I liked the extra touch of mystery it brought.
But a few performances bring this production screeching to a halt. It is said that eyes are the window to the soul, and forming expression within them is certainly one of the most important thing an actor can develop. But Chelsea Hobbs, who plays Gerda displays only one thing in them: complete and utter boredom. Though the fault may lie with the abysmal dialogue she is given, it hardly helps that she wanders through every scene as if in a stupor. And since the entire movie revolves around her as the protagonist, the core of the story cannot hold. If one does not care about the hero/heroine, one does not care about the movie and she is hardly helped by the actor playing her father Wolfgang, whose portrayal of grief is to sulk in a chair.
Likewise, the context of the story is in doubt: though it should have taken place in an "olden day" setting, the time placement is rather confusing to behold. The villagers search the wood with lanterns, yet on Wolfgang's desk is an electrical desk lamp. The Snow Queen's white sled is replaced with a flying snow-mobile. And as another reviewer pointed out, the use of modern slang, especially when its coming out of the mouths of the fairytale characters, is very jarring.
Despite beautiful visuals there is something severely lacking in this production, and I can only hope that one day someone will tell this story on the screen the way it ought to be told. If I could, I would give it two and a half stars, making it an exact balancing act between lost potential and complete mess.
Movie Review: Boring, like watching snow melt...
Summary: 2 Stars
The Snow Queen is an ancient story from Northern Europe about a beautiful lady with a heart of ice who resides near the North Pole, and uses winter to take the lives of innocent human beings, and uses her beauty and charm to seduce innocent men. Live action movies and cartoon versions of this story have been made in numerous decades in multiple languages. One of the later ones is this 3 hour version by Hallmark Entertainment. Taking place somewhere in Scandinavia; most likely Denmark, the setting is a small rural village in the mid 20th century. A father loses his wife to winter, and raises his daughter at their hotel. One day, he hires Kai, a young man, to help with labor around the hotel. He and the daughter fall in love, but the Snow Queen steals Kai away. The daughter sets forth on a journey across earth and the four seasons to find the lair of the Snow Queen to rescue Kai.
The movie's story is quite good and offers much promise. But the movie drags too much; the dialogue is often muted, and the Snow Queen is somewhat wooden; not enough emotion. The idea of a beautiful queen of ice is done much better in the Chronicles of Narnia than here, as Bridget Fonda does not do much talking at all. The idea of the robbed girl having to travel across the spring, summer and autumn to find Kai is quite innovative and only possible by the crew of Hallmark, but again it was not done well. The action scenes were somewhat fake, and most importantly, the snow in the winter scenes clearly looked like fake snow. Overall, a good attempt but a bad result.