The Snow Queen is a 1957 Soviet Animated Adaptation of The Snow Queen, produced by Soyuzmultfilm. An English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk, was released in the U.S. in 1959. It was dubbed again in 1985 and again in 1995. The film is now in the public domain and can be legally viewed here, along with being streamed on Tubi.

The story begins with Gerda's (Dee) grandmother telling her and Kai (Kirk) the legend of the Snow Queen. When the children make fun of the Snow Queen, she tells the splinters of her shattered mirror to go into the eyes and hearts of those who have offended her. Kai grows cold and distant from Gerda, and the Queen takes him away... and Gerda goes out to rescue him.

Hayao Miyazaki named The Snow Queen as one of his favorite films and one of his biggest influences to keep him in the animation industry.

Not to be confused with The Snow Queen (1977), The Snow Queen (1995), The Snow Queen (2005) anime, or The Snow Queen (2012).

The Snow Queen provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adults Are Useless: Subverted by the Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman, but aside from that, what does Gerda's grandmother do when the snow queen attacks and blows the window open to cast the spell? Nothing. She sits in her chair and knits all the while. The guards that protect the princess and prince? Incompetent to the max. One of them is leaning on his weapon and asleep.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: In the original story, Gerda's journey is implied to take place over years; she and Kai have both grown to adulthood by the time they reach home in the end. In the film, they stay children from beginning to end.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In Andersen's story, the Prince and Princess are a couple, but here they're aged down to children and just described as inseparable friends.
  • The female crow is introduced as the male crow's "fiancée" in the original Russian and as his "lady friend" in the 1959 dub, but as his wife in the other English dubs.
  • In neither the original story nor most dubs of the film is there any connection between the Snow Queen and the story's other antagonists. But the 1995 dub implies that the Snow Queen manipulates the old woman in the spring garden to enchant Gerda, and later causes Gerda to meet with the robbers.
  • In the original Russian version, Gerda repeatedly calls Kai her "sworn brother." The 1959 dub casts their bond in a more romantic light, as Gerda asks Kai "Can I be your girlfriend?" in their first scene together, and Ol' Dreamy states at the end that when they grew up, they were married.
• Adaptational Villainy: The Snow Queen was an ambiguous figure in the book and wasn't the cause of the mirror shards; here she's an all-out villain.
• Adapted Out: Since this is a Culturally Sensitive Adaptation for Soviet Russia, all the original story's religious aspects are cut. The Devil (or demon, goblin, or troll) who built the magic mirror in Andersen's version is omitted, and the mirror belongs to the Snow Queen instead. Later, the monstrous snow animals from the original story that try to stop Gerda, only to be dissipated when she says the Lord's Prayer, are cut, and in their place Gerda just struggles through a blizzard. Ditto for the ice shards spelling out the word "Eternity" when Gerda and Kai reunite in the Snow Queen's palace. The episode in the Old Fairy's garden where the different flowers each tell Gerda a story is also cut.
• Age Lift: The Prince and Princess are portrayed as children, when in Andersen's version they're old enough to marry.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The film appears to be set in the 1820s, but the garden sorceress and the prince and princess wear clothes more fitting the 18th century.
• The Bully: Kai, when he's possessed by the Snow Queen. He tramples the roses he and Gerda grew together just to upset her, and later makes Gerda fall off his sled when she rides on it.
• Break the Haughty: The Robber Girl is deeply moved by Gerda's kind words and breaks down crying as she sets her animals free, realizing that she has been keeping them prisoner just as she kept Gerda prisoner.
• Celestial Deadline: In the 1995 dub, if Gerda doesn't reach Kai by the time the first storm of winter ends, he'll belong to the Snow Queen forever. There's no such deadline in the original Russian or the other dubs, however.
• Chekhov's Gunman: When the Snow Queen is abducting Kai, she pauses to use her powers to kill a bird, but leaves her chicks alive. The grown-up chicks later show up as pets of the Robber Girl, and they tell Gerda that the Snow Queen took Kai and which way they went.
• Composite Character: The Snow Queen is the one to freeze Kai's heart and strike his eye, not the Devil and his mirror.
• Creator Cameo: Not of the filmmakers, but the original story's author. At the beginning of the story proper after Ole Lukøje's introduction, a tall, lanky gentleman with a long nose and auburn hair walks down the street and is accidentally sprinkled with water by Gerda from the rooftop garden above. He looks distinctly like Hans Christian Andersen, and the 1995 dub explicitly identifies him as "Mr. Andersen."
• Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: The film, although generally faithful to the original, removes all the religious themes to conform to Soviet values. The Snow Queen, instead of the Devil, is made the owner of the magic mirror.
• Determinator: Nothing stops Gerda for long in her quest to find Kai.
• Disney Death: As Gerda and the Reindeer struggle against a blizzard on their way to the Snow Queen's palace, the Reindeer collapses from exhaustion. Gerda begs him to get up, but is finally forced to go on alone, leaving him lying motionless in the snow with closed eyes. But after Gerda frees Kai from the Snow Queen, he returns, fully recovered and accompanied by a herd of other reindeer, and he carries Gerda and Kai part of the way home.
• Disneyesque: The film has many visual similarities to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty (incomplete in 1957), especially the roundness, colored outlines and soft eyes of the children, and the smooth animation based on live action footage. The Snow Queen is similar in appearance to Maleficent and Ole Lukøje resembles Jiminy Cricket.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Snow Queen froze Kai's heart and kidnapped him over a childish joke.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Kai jokes that if he met the Queen, he would put her on a hot stove, and melt her. The Queen overhearing this flies into a rage, turning his heart against Gerda and abducting him later into the story.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the film's second English dub, released on VHS in 1985, Gerda and Kai's names are changed to Yvette and John.
  • The Robber Girl's name varies according to the dub. In the original Russian, she is just the Robber Girl. In the 1959 dub, she is called Angel. In the 1985 dub, she is called Shee. In the 1995 dub, she is called Chicky.
  • Ole Lukøje keeps his Danish name in the original Russian and in the 1995 English dub, but in the 1959 dub he's called Ol' Dreamy, and in the 1985 dub he's called Charles Evergood.
  • The male crow's name is Karraks in the original Russian and the 1959 dub, Hector in the 1985 dub, and Carson in the 1995 dub. The female is unnamed in the Russian version, but named Henrietta in the 1959 dub, Louise in the 1985 dub, and Carana in the 1995 dub.
  • Some of the dubs give names to characters who are unnamed in both the Russian version and all the other dubs. The 1959 dub calls the Reindeer "Bucky," and the 1985 dub calls the Old Fairy "Miss Pennyworth" and the Lapp Woman "Neda."
• Exposed to the Elements: Gerda leaves her coat, mittens, and boots at the Finnish woman's house and rides through the blizzard in her summer dress.
• Faint in Shock: The female crow faints when Gerda wakes the Prince only to discover that he's not Kai.
• Fat and Skinny: The Prince (fat) and Princess (skinny), and later the two coachman who drive Gerda's carriage.
• Face–Heel Turn: Kai when he is struck by the Snow Queen's mirror and becomes a cold-hearted brat. Gerda's loving embrace and tears break the spell and change him back to his old self in the end.
• Graceful Loser: At the end of the movie, the Snow Queen calmly acknowledges that Gerda has won and allows her and Kai to leave without complaint.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Robber Girl releases all her pets, gives Gerda her reindeer, and later takes her home in the stolen coach.
• Hot Witch: The Snow Queen is beautiful, but her icy power is deadly.
• Human Pet: The Robber Girl declares Gerda is her new pet and even puts a leash on her.
• Ice Queen: The Snow Queen has a cold personality.
• Jerkass Realization: Kai, after Gerda's tears melt the ice from his heart.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Kai tramples Gerda's dead roses just after his Face–Heel Turn, and later pretends to agree to take her sledding, but then deliberately makes her fall off the sled and laughs at her.
  • The Snow Queen kills a bird. With that being said, it's unclear whether the Snow Queen killed the bird on purpose or whether her sheer icy presence froze everything nearby (including vegetation and later the bird) because she had stopped in place for a moment while spreading snow.
• The Kindness of Strangers:
  • A major theme of the film. Gerda constantly asks strangers to help her, and most of them oblige.
  • Implied with the Robber Girl's birds. The Snow Queen leads to the death of their mother while they were small, helpless chicks, yet by the time Gerda finds them in the care of the Robber Girl, they are healthy adults, indicating that someone, possibly the Robber Girl herself, raised them after their mother died.
• Maybe Ever After: In the original Russian version, Ole Lukøje remarks at the end that for Kai and Gerda, there are surely "many more wonderful fairy tales in store." Averted in the first English dub, where he says that eventually they were married.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Kai changes from a kind-hearted boy to a bullying brat when the Snow Queen's mirror fragments pierce his eye and heart.
  • The tough, harsh Robber Girl hugging Gerda after she hears her story, and later crying after she lets Gerda and all her animals go.
• Pimped-Out Dress: The princess wears a fancy dress in a late 18th century style.
• Plucky Girl: Gerda will stop at nothing to reach the Snow Queen's palace and bring Kai home.
• The Power of Friendship: Gerda's kindness convinces the Robber Girl to send her on her way to save Kai.
• Pretty in Mink: As the prince and princess send Gerda off, she is wearing a red coat and hat each trimmed with ermine. The princess is also wearing a white ermine muff, and gives that to Gerda as well. The Robber Girl eagerly claims the hat, muff, and Gerda's red mittens for herself, but she later gives back the mittens and hat, though she keeps the muff.
• Really Was Born Yesterday: Gerda tries to ask a baby goat where Kai is. The goat replies that it does not know anything because it was literally born yesterday.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • In the 1959 English dub, the Lapp and Finn women become cousins.
  • The 1985 and 1995 English dubs cut the original Russian version's mentions of the Prince having newly arrived in the Princess's kingdom and become the Princess's best friend, so the Prince and Princess appear to be siblings instead.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Prince and Princess lend Gerda their coach, and give her lots of food and some warm clothes.
• Shoo the Dog: When the Robber Girl sets her menagerie of animals free, she angrily shouts at them to go, claiming "I'm sick of you!" since she still can't bring herself to admit that Gerda's influence has changed her and that she's freeing them out of kindness. As soon as they're out of sight, she drops the facade and breaks down in tears... and the animals see this and come back to her.
• Sizeshifter: The Snow Queen is the size of a human for most of the story, but in her final scene, she is a giant.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • When the robbers seize the golden carriage, they merely beat up the drivers and attendants instead of killing them. They later wake up and run away. Lampshaded in the 1959 dub, which adds some dialogue when they wake up and has the drivers express amazement that they're still alive.
  • In the original fairy tale, the male talking crow is mentioned to be dead near the end of the story. He survives here and its shown at the end with the other characters.
• Straw Vulcan: The Snow Queen is both literally and figuratively and Ice Queen, and tells Kai that true contentment lies in feeling no emotion at all: no joy, but no sorrow either.
• There Was a Door: Gerda is not permitted to enter the palace because she’s barefoot, so the crows decide to sneak her in after dark - rather than just borrow her a pair of shoes to wear.
• Vocal Dissonance: Kai, a small boy who looks no older than 10, is voiced in the first English dub by 18-year-old Tommy Kirk, whose voice had already changed. Averted in the original Russian and in the second English dub, though, which both have him voiced by a woman, and in the third English dub, where he's voiced by a real pre-pubescent boy.