“The Snow Queen” teaser

By
on

Not to be confused with Disney’s forthcoming Frozen, here’s the English-language trailer for a Russian version of The Snow Queen, which is scheduled to be released toward the end of 2012. It will be released in Stereoscopic 3D and was produced on a budget of $7 million (US$). Moscow’s Wizart Animation is the producer/production company. More information and artwork can be found on the official Snow Queen web site.

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  • http://www.dancinglineproductions.com Anik

    Looking good!

  • Hubertcumberdale

    It looks like an amazing film why does Disney need to make a Snow Queen Film when Russia is getting close to making two?

  • http://hobsonproductions.blogspot.com/ Kevin

    This may just be me, but I feel like this version of “The Snow Queen” is completely different from the original story. The animation looks like it was made by college students. Plus, for a movie titled “Snow Queen,” I’m not seeing much of the queen.

    I’m hoping Disney’s “Frozen” will be as good as “Tangled” in terms of story, characters and animation.

  • Nat

    Hmm…This is odd since Russia already came out with an adaptation of the Snow Queen in 1957. It is rather famous in its home country and Hayo Miyazaki sites it as one of his influences. I’m a bit dubious about this one. And why change the Disney one’s name to frozen? I guess they want to ‘attract more male viewers’ like they what they did with the name Tangled.

  • http://www.animatorisland.com/ J.K. Riki

    I must say, that was a FANTASTIC trailer. Absolutely timed beautifully. Unfortunately I’m not sure I can say the same about the animation itself, which seems a little lifeless in places. Not all, some was very nice, but spots. I want to want to see this, but I’ll need to see if they clean it up a bit before I could sit through several hours of that. :)

    I feel like the “This is great art!” joke would be terrific if it was timed differently. Like, the boy who flips the paper needs to already be on screen or something… And then move faster in the turn. Maybe some more extreme poses would help? I just don’t know, but something feels off.

    High hopes for what this turns into!

  • Hanna
    • Chris Sobieniak

      Too bad Art Linkletter’s not around to do an intro this time around.

  • Hank

    Was that CG? The camera never stopped micing enough for me to tell.

    Or maybe it’s leftovers from that horrible Hugo movie?

  • Skip

    Impressive for only $7 million dollars. I’m sure the disney version will be a better film, but than again, I wonder what the Disney version would look like with only a $7 million dollar budget?

  • http://youtube.com/user/Mesterius1 Mesterius

    “Based on a fairy tale by H. C. Ande sen”? Oh my god…

    The Snow Queen is one of my all-time favorite H. C. Andersen fairy tales, but this film looks – to be honest – pretty crappy. The story seems to have gone through a lot of changes (for the worse), the character designs look lazy and clichéed, Gerd has been given the obligatory cute animal companion, there is a grown man/villain who was not a part of the original story and seems incredibly annoying… and even the logos look awful! Please let the upcoming Disney movie be MILES better, whether it’s handdrawn or CGI (I guess we all know the answer to that question) and despite its idiotic title change.

  • Scarabim

    The 1957 Russian 2D version of “The Snow Queen” is soooooo much better-looking than this trailer, which looks rather pedestrian. I have a copy of that version, and even though the film is badly in need of restoration (get on it, Russia!), it’s still quite enjoyable.

    Um…”H.C. Anderson”??? What, is that supposed to conjure up visions of “J.K. Rowling” or something?

    I hope Disney’s Snow Queen looks better than this. But I bet it still will lack the charm of the Russian version…

  • DB

    I find all the fascination with the Snow Queen kind of odd, because I find the story REALLY odd (but interesting).

    I always figured the subtext of the story was essentially about a boy not old enough to be emotionally prepared for a sexual relationship being seduced into one by a selfish adult woman and emotionally scarred as a result.

    A girl of his own age has to ‘save’ him via a more age-appropriate kind of romantic/child’s love.

    What’s interesting too is that according to some theoretical speculation, HC Anderson had pedophile-leanings (likely never acted upon), so that just adds psycho-sexual layer to the whole thing.

    It would be interesting to see someone handle such layers in a film intended for adults – but the Snow Queen always makes me a little uneasy as material for children’s films.

    • James

      According to much internet “theoretical speculation” virtually all writers of children’s stories had pedophile leanings at one time or another, especially if they have never married or had a troubled romantic life.

      Also, isn’t Hans Christian Andersen suppose to have been a homosexual now based on circumstantial evidence?

      • A

        what’s being homosexual have to do w/ pedophile leanings exactly? How’s that connection go in your argument? Just curious what the correlation is and how the synapse in your mind are firing to make that connection in your “insightful” point

        …

        I’m sorry. Man, i keep forgetting this is a cartoon blog. Apologies.

      • The Brewmasters

        Ok, everyone, keep it on topic. Snow Queen.

  • Toonio

    CGI Perestroika!

    Nice character design, hope to get the chance to see it.

    Do svidanya.

  • http://franticfilms.com Bill Stewart

    $7 million? Did they pay their people $.50 an hour? Considering that Pixar and the other big studios are spending upwards or $100+ million on their films..this looks pretty darned good. Of course…all the effects and camera moves in the world won’t help a weak story but I was still pretty impressed by the look. The voices? Not so much.

  • A Painter

    Damn 7 Million? Time to rethink career moves….hmmm

  • http://animationinventory.blogspot.com/ Teodor

    None of them will make a better version than those from 1957

    Can be found on the tube
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0hg1dJ46DY

  • http://animationinventory.blogspot.com/ Teodor
  • http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/ Michael Sporn

    I’ll skip this new version and watch the old Russian version. Then I’ll watch the Dave Fleischer recut for US audiences. There are some great songs in that film. The Snow Queen is pretty terrific too (although it’s rotoscoped.) The film has haunted me since I saw it back in 1957.

  • GO

    That looked really good! … and it looked FANTASTIC for 7M. That’s about an equivalent of a 3 or 5 minute big studio budget. Look forward to seeing this Snow Queen somewhere in the U.S.

    On a side note, even though it looked great, aren’t all the CG movies looking the same or is it me? From 200M budgets to 7M, I bet the public can’t tell.

  • http://www.yahoo.com Jeff

    If the Russian version does a better job than Disney’s version, which comes in November 2013 (if we surpassed December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan Calendar and natural events), that will prove that title changing is NOT the answer. The real answer is story writing to support the original title than come up with a title to attract boys. I have a strong feeling that Wizart’s version will top it off. Wizart said that their version was supposed to be modern to today’s audiences, like Disney’s, “Rapunzel (Tangled),” but without the title change.

  • Lime

    Hey, it’s what Rapunzel should have looked like at the end of Tangled…

    Seems like it has a sincerity and innocent charm about it. It’s not the billion-what not dollar monstrosities we’re used to, but/so I’ll gladly give it a chance.

  • dbenson

    One hopes these various adaptations inspire somebody to restore and release the 57 version — The only DVD I was able to find is really sorry.

    For that matter, will we ever get an American release of the completed “King and the Chimney Sweep”? Or Jiri Trnka’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream”? Or even the Asterix series?

    • http://youtube.com/user/Mesterius1 Mesterius

      “King and the Chimney Sweep”? I presume you mean Paul Grimault’s finished version of his feature “Le Roi et l’oiseau” (The King and the Mocking Bird) from 1980, which was made partly by using elements from Grimualt’s uncompleted 1952 feature “La Bergère et le Ramoneur” (The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep, based on the H. C. Andersen fairytale of the same name). Well, at least you can find English fan subs for the completed 1980 film online… so it IS possible to enjoy for English-speaking audiences:) Thank God for the internet.

  • http://olgaparshina.blogspot.com/ Olga

    apart from $7 mil budget there’s only 6 (!!!) animators on that studio total. They do have freelancers though, but most of the material got animated by 6 people. The lipsync’s not working because it originally was created for the russian version.

  • http://los-utopicos.blogspot.com allari

    Doesn’t look very russian. More like generic CGI.