History Animation / TheSnowQueen1957

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 her, 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.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Snow Queen was an ambiguous figure in the book; here she's an all-out villain.

* BigBad: The Snow Queen.
* TheBully: Kai. Then again, he was possessed by the Snow Queen.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Kai when he's possessed by the Snow Queen.

* FatAndSkinny: Respectively the prince and his sister the princess.
* FaceHeelTurn: Kai when he is struck by the Snow Queen's mirror.

* HalfIdenticalTwins: The prince and princess.

* HotWitch: The Snow Queen.

** The prince and princess are a couple in the original story, but here are [[AgeLift aged down]] to children and portrayed as siblings. In the 1959 dub, he’s the princess’s ‘playmate’[[note]]which is the same term Gerda uses to describe Kai[[/note]] rather than a sibling.

* {{Disneyesque}}: The film has many visual similarities to ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' (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 TheStoryteller is an elderly goblin resembling Jiminy Cricket.

* ExposedToTheElements: Gerda leaves her coat, mittens, and boots at the Finn woman's house and rides through the blizzard in her summer dress.

* IceQueen: The Snow Queen has a [[JustForPun cold]] personality.

* DoesNotLikeShoes:
** The Robber Girl spends her entire screen time barefoot.
** As in the original story, Gerda throws her own red shoes into the river and goes barefoot until she reaches the palace.

* AdaptationalTimespanChange: In the original story, Gerda's journey is implied to take place over years; she and Kay have both grown to adulthood by the time they reach home in the end. In the film, they stay children from beginning to end.

* TheBully: Kay. Then again, he was possessed by the Snow Queen.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Kay when he's possessed by the Snow Queen.

* ChekhovsGunman: When the Snow Queen is abducting Kay, 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 Kay and which way they went.
* CompositeCharacter: The Snow Queen is the one to freeze Kay's heart and strike his eye, not the Devil and his mirror.

* {{Determinator}}: Nothing stops Gerda for long in her quest to find Kay.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The Snow Queen froze Kay's heart and kidnapped him over a childish joke.

** In the film's second English dub, released on VHS in the '80s, Gerda and Kay's names are changed to Yvette and John.

* FaceHeelTurn: Kay when he is struck by the Snow Queen's mirror.
* GracefulLoser: At the end of the movie, the Snow Queen calmly acknowledges that Gerda has won and allows her and Kay to leave without complaint.

* JerkassRealization: Kay, after Gerda's tears melt the ice from his heart.

** Kay tramples Gerda's dead roses after his FaceHeelTurn.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Gerda's kindness convinces the robber girl to send her on her way to save Kay.

* ReallyWasBornYesterday: Gerda tries to ask a baby goat where Kay is. The goat replies that it does not know anything because it was literally born yesterday.

** The prince and princess are a couple in the original story, but here are [[AgeLift aged down]] to children and portrayed as siblings. In the 1959 dub, he’s the princess’s ‘playmate’[[note]]which is the same term Gerda uses to describe Kay[[/note]] rather than a sibling.

''The Snow Queen'' is a 1957 Soviet AnimatedAdaptation of ''Literature/TheSnowQueen'', produced by Creator/{{Soyuzmultfilm}}. An English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Creator/SandraDee 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 [[https://archive.org/details/the_snow_queen_1959_animation here]], with a higher quality version available on the streaming platform [[https://www.darkroom.film/streamingdetail/the-snow-queen Darkroom.]]

** 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 while.

** The Snow Queen kills a bird.

%%* KnifeNut: The Bandits.

''The Snow Queen'' is a 1957 Soviet AnimatedAdaptation of ''Literature/TheSnowQueen'', produced by Creator/{{Soyuzmultfilm}}. An English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Creator/SandraDee 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 [[https://archive.org/details/the_snow_queen_1959_animation here]].

* SparedByTheAdaptation: 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.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: When the robbers seize the golden carriage, they merely beat up the drivers and attendants instead of kill them. They later wake up and run away.

%%* BigBad: The Snow Queen.
%%* TheBully: Kay. Then again, he was possessed by the Snow Queen.
%%* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Kay when he's possessed by the Snow Queen.

* CompositeCharacter: Here, the Snow Queen is the one to freeze Kay's heart and strike his eye, not the Devil and his mirror.