The Snow Queen (1939)

The Snow Queen is a 1939 American animated feature film produced by Aldo Boomer Productions Inc. and distributed by Republic Pictures adapted from 1844 same name Fairy Tales story from Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

A mirror and its fragments
The devil, in the form of a troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The mirror reflects no good and beautiful aspects of people and things, and magnifies their bad and ugly aspects. The troll's minions take the mirror all over the world to distort everything, then carry it up to heaven to mock God and the angels. As they approach heaven, the mirror trembles and falls, shattering into billions of pieces. Some become windowpanes, some spectacles, and some get stuck in people's hearts and eyes, giving them a cold and bitter disposition. The troll laughs himself sore at his mischief.

Kai and Gerda
Years later, a little boy Kai (often spelled "Kay" or "Kaj" in translations) and a little girl Gerda live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city. They could get from one's home to the other's just by stepping over the gutters of each building. The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters. Gerda and Kai have a window box garden to play in, and they become devoted to each other as playmates, and as close as if they were siblings.

Gerda's grandmother tells the children about the Snow Queen, who is ruler over the "snow bees" — snowflakes that look like bees. As bees have a queen, so do the snow bees, and she is seen where the snowflakes cluster the most. Looking out of his frosted window one winter, Kai sees the Snow Queen, who beckons him to come with her. Kai draws back in fear from the window.

By the following spring, Gerda has learned a song that she sings to Kai: Roses flower in the vale; there we hear Child Jesus' tale! Because roses adorn the window box garden, the sight of roses always reminds Gerda of her love for Kai.

On a summer day, splinters of the troll's mirror get into Kai's heart and eye. Kai becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of Gerda's grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since everyone now appears bad and ugly to him. When winter comes again, the only things he finds no fault in are snowflakes, which he studies through a magnifying glass. Kai goes out with his sled to play in the snowy market square and hitches it to a sleigh driven by a mysterious robed figure. The sleigh drives through the town gate, going faster and faster through the countryside, then stops, and the driver reveals herself to be the Snow Queen. She kisses Kai to numb him from the cold, and again to make him forget about Gerda and his family. They then fly together in the sleigh up into the clouds.

The magician woman's garden
The people of the city conclude that Kai died in the nearby river. When spring arrives, Gerda goes to the river and offers it her favorite red shoes if the river will return Kai. The shoes wash back to shore, so she climbs into a nearby boat to throw them out further. The boat is unmoored, drifts away from the shore and becomes caught in the current.

Gerda drifts until she reaches the home of an old woman, who pulls her to shore with her crooked staff. The woman is a sorceress and wants Gerda to stay with her forever, so she causes Gerda to forget Kai, and causes all the roses in her garden to sink beneath the earth, since she knows that the sight of them will remind Gerda of her friend. The woman lets Gerda play in her flower garden day after day, where all of the flowers are in bloom, until one day she notices a rose on the woman's hat. She remembers Kai and begins to cry, and her tears raise one of the rose bushes from the ground. The roses assure her that Kai is not dead, since they could see all of the dead while they were underground. Gerda questions the other flowers; each sings its own song, but none have anything to say about Kai. Gerda flees the garden and discovers that autumn has arrived while she was there.

The prince and the princess
Gerda meets a crow, who tells her that he might have seen Kai. He explains that a clever princess in the land decided that she should get married as soon as she could find a man good for conversation. For two days men met the princess in hopes of marrying her, but upon meeting her they were tongue-tied. On the third day, a small fellow with shabby clothes walked confidently into the palace and won over the princess by listening to her. Gerda sneaks into the palace with the crow but finds that the prince is not Kai after all. She is offered hospitality in the palace, but instead asks for a horse, carriage and boots so she can continue looking for Kai.

The little robber girl
While traveling in the carriage Gerda is captured by robbers. Her life is spared when a little robber girl demands to have Gerda as a playmate. They ride together to the robbers' castle, where the girl's pet doves tell Gerda that they saw Kai when he was carried away by the Snow Queen in the direction of Lapland. The captive reindeer Bae tells her that he knows how to get to Lapland since it is his home.

The Lapp woman and Finn woman
The robber girl frees Gerda and the reindeer to travel north to the Snow Queen's palace. They make two stops: first at the Lapp woman's home and then at the Finn woman's home. The Finn woman tells the reindeer that the secret of Gerda's unique power to save Kai is in her sweet and innocent child's heart:

"I can give her no greater power than she has already," said the woman; "don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kai, we can do nothing to help her..."

In the Snow Queen's palace
When Gerda reaches the Snow Queen's palace, she is halted by the snowflakes guarding it. She prays the Lord's Prayer, which causes her breath to take the shape of angels, who resist the snowflakes and allow Gerda to enter the palace. Gerda finds Kai alone and almost immobile on a frozen lake, which the Snow Queen calls the "Mirror of Reason", on which her throne sits. Kai is engaged in the task that the Snow Queen gave him: he must use pieces of ice like a Chinese puzzle to form characters and words. If he is able to form the word the Snow Queen told him to spell she will release him from her power and give him a pair of skates.

Gerda runs up to Kai and kisses him, and he is saved by the power of her love: Gerda weeps warm tears on him, melting his heart and burning away the mirror splinter in it. As a result, Kai bursts into tears, which dislodge the splinter from his eye, and becomes cheerful and healthy again. He remembers Gerda, and the two dance around so joyously that the splinters of ice Kai had been playing with are caught up into the dance. When they tire of dancing the splinters fall down to spell "eternity," the very word Kai was trying to spell. Kai and Gerda leave the Snow Queen's domain with the help of the reindeer, the Finn woman, and the Lapp woman. They meet the robber girl, and from there they walk back to their home. Kai and Gerda find that everything at home is the same and that it is they who have changed; they are now grown up, and are also delighted to see that it is summertime.

At the end, the grandmother reads a passage from the Bible: ""Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3)."

Characters

 * Gerda, the protagonist and the main heroine of this tale, who succeeds in finding her friend Kai and saving him from the Snow Queen.
 * Kai in Danish and Norwegian (often spelled Kay or Kaj in other European languages including English), a little boy who lives in a large city, in the garret of a building across the street from the home of Gerda, his playmate, whom he loves dearly. He falls victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror and the blandishments of the Snow Queen.
 * The Snow Queen, is the protagonist villainess and main antagonist of this tale, she is the queen of the snowflakes or "snow bees", who travels throughout the world with the snow. Her palace and gardens are in the lands of permafrost, specifically Spitsbergen. She takes Kai back to this palace after he has fallen victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror. She promises to free Kai if he can spell "eternity" with the pieces of ice in her palace.
 * The Troll or the Devil, who makes an evil mirror that distorts reality and later shatters to infect people with its splinters that distort sight and freeze hearts. Some English translations of "The Snow Queen" translate this character as the "sprite" or the "hobgoblin".
 * The Grandmother, Gerda's grandmother, who tells him and Gerda the legend of the Snow Queen.
 * The Old Lady who Knew Magic, who maintains a cottage on the river, with a garden that is permanently in summer. She seeks to keep Gerda with her, but Gerda's thought of roses (the flower most favoured by herself and Kai) awakens her from the old woman's enchantment.
 * The Crow, who thinks that the new prince of his land is Kai.
 * The Tame Crow, who is the mate of the field crow and has the run of the princess's palace. She lets Gerda into the royal bedchamber in her search for Kai.
 * The Princess, who desires a prince-consort as intelligent as she, and who finds Gerda in her palace. She helps Gerda in her search for Kai by giving her warm, rich clothing, servants, and a golden coach.
 * The Prince, formerly a poor young man, who comes to the palace and passes the test set by the princess to become prince.
 * The Old Robber Woman, the only woman among the robbers who capture Gerda as she travels through their region in a golden coach.
 * The Little Robber Girl, daughter of the robber hag. She takes Gerda as a playmate, whereupon her captive doves and reindeer Bae tell Gerda that Kai is with the Snow Queen. The Robber Girl then helps Gerda continue her journey to find Kai.
 * Bae, the reindeer who carries Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace.
 * The Lappish Woman, who provides shelter to Gerda and Kai, and writes a message on a dried cod fish to the Finnish Woman further on the way to the Snow Queen's gardens.
 * The Finnish Woman, who lives just two miles away from the Snow Queen's gardens and palace. She knows the secret of Gerda's power to save Kai.

Voice Characterizations

 * Mel Blanc
 * Pinto Colvig
 * Billy Bletcher

Credits

 * Supervising Director: Rollin Hamilton
 * Sequence Directors: Charles Hastings, William Nolan, Thomas McKimson, Andrew Hutchison
 * Writters: Howard Dietz, Edmond Seward, Cal Howard, John McGugin, Leslie Elton, William Wallett, Tedd Pierce, George Manuell
 * Character Designers: Nick Gibson, Joe Grant
 * Supervising Animation: Robert Bentley, Tony Pabian, Bill Tytla (as Vladimir Tytla), Norm Blackburn (as Norman Blackburn)
 * Animation: Frank Tipper, Les Carroll, Dick Hall (as Dick Marion), Fred Abranz (as Alfred Abranz), Ray Fahringer, William Nolan, Steve Milman, Bernard Garbutt, Willis Pyle, Grim Natwick, Robert Cannon, Jack Dunham, James Zinnen, Stephen Bosustow, Al Eugster, Shamus Culhane, Ed Friedman, Leslie Waldman, Richard Lang, Robert De Grasse, Fred Grable, Bill Weaver (as William Weaver), George Cannata, Robinson McKee
 * Art Directors: Shamus Shaar, Maurice Day, John Niendorff, Roman Zingler, Robert Dranko, Arthur Heinemann, Edward Haber, Adrian Woolery, Don Smith, Robert Griffin
 * Backgrounds: James Fitzgerald, Douglas Rickert, Don Schaffer, Joseph Smith, Marion Stirrett, Ralph Baker, Paul Julian
 * Assistant Animation: Robert Gesteland, Stanley Faulkner, Leighton Black, Wally Washer, Brad Branson, John Karas, Norton Callaway, Bernard King, Robert Ginsberg, Lester Cushman, Cliff Cushman, Herman Ginsberg, Herman Hoffman, Kay Silva, William McIntyre, Marshall Branson, George Baker, Lewis Goldberg, Daxton Spalding, George Crenshaw, Jules Engel, Harry Wichman, Frank Spangler (all uncredited)
 * Music: Frank Marsales, Del Castillo, Ben Oakland