Product Description

Based on the hans christian andersen classic the story of a young innkeepers daughter who sets off on an adventure of a lifetime to rescue her first love after he falls under the spell of the evil snow queen. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/13/2005 Starring: Bridget Fonda Run time: 180 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27957 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2003-01-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.com
What begins as a simple, bittersweet tale about a widower's daughter grandly unfolds into a rich, mythical adventure in Hallmark's production of Snow Queen. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, this story whisks viewers to a remote mountain town where winter claims a surprising number of lives, beginning with the local innkeeper's wife. Many years later, the woman's daughter, Gerda (Chelsea Hobbs), finds true love when her father hires Kai (Jeremy Guilbaut) as the inn's new bellboy. About one hour into this three-hour production, the mood turns rather sinister as the Snow Queen (Bridget Fonda) bewitches and captures Kai. Scenes of Gerda's search--through the lush temptations of each season personified--are interspersed with downright creepy scenes of Kai held prisoner in the Snow Queen's ice palace. Keen acting and smart direction engross the viewer, but those under 8 years old might not be ready for the repetitive themes of seduction and temptation. --Liane Thomas

Customer Reviews

Drags On and On...Just Like Winter
I recently took this off the shelf at my local video rental store because the picture on the box showed a white haired Bridget Fonda dressed in a beautiful sparkly white dress and a snow white cloak made of feathers. It looked to me like Hallmark Entertainment was going to at least try to do this film up right.
As it turned out, a lavish budget did provide many beautiful costumes, sets, and location scenery, but the simplicity and innocence of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale got lost in three hours of so-so acting, a poor screen play, dreadful dialog, bad film editing and lousy direction from David Wu.

In the original fairy tale the protagonists are two children named Kay and Gerda. In this film Kay has been changed to Kai and both Kai and Gerda are young adults who are in love.

One day Kai gets beguiled by the Snow Queen who rules the season of Winter and he is kidnapped and taken to her Ice Palace. Gerda begins a long (and in this film I do mean LONG) quest to discover his whereabouts and to rescue him. In order to do this she must travel through the lands of the other Seasons. She meets with the eccentric denizens of Spring, Summer and Autumn and each of them attempts to kidnap her. The idiosyncratic Andersen's take on the seasons was odd enough in the original story, but in this film is all the more exaggerated.

Kai has a talking Polar Bear (crafted with skill by Jim Henson's Creature Works) for a prison guard. His involvment with the polar bear is one of the many reasons this movie drags. Several ridiculous minutes are spent with Kai teaching the bear to ice-skate, for example.

The actors portraying Wolfgang, the father, Gerda, and Kai are tolerable if not note-worthy. Bridget Fonda, in my opinion, was not right for the part of the Snow Queen. Her performance is lackluster and she delivers her lines as though she's LaFemme Nikita rather than a character in a fairy tale. She looks the part but she doesn't seem particularly frosty or seductive as the script calls for her to be. Her lines are delivered in a flat emotionless way that I suppose is meant to be icy, but comes off as dull. You really wonder how in the world Kai could have been beguiled by such a person.

The interior sets, the costumes, the lighting...all the cosmetic trim of this film are beautiful and they are what made me so want to love this movie, but the magic is missing and I was never able to get swept away by the story.

At three hours in length and with a plot that focuses on mature themes of love lost, grief and seduction, even suicide, this film is most decidedly NOT for children of any age. Yet, with the corny talking bear and a talking reindeer and some really silly robber characters, I can't say it is a film for adults, either.

There is some really cheesy dialog that is too much like modern slang for example when the Summer Princess comments on Gerda's dress by saying, "That peasant look is so last year," or later when she asks Gerda, "Do I look a porker in this dress?"

There is a whole lot of trite symbolism featuring red roses that further takes up time for no real benefit. In the original story Andersen has a "demon" creating havok with a magical mirror but in the film the minor league demon has been changed to Satan himself and they actually say the mirror is crafted in Hell. They make the devil look really cliche in this film and I feel it was too heavy-handed and out of sync with the rest of the picture. Sadly, this production just doesn't work. Even with a big budget, lavish decorations and costumes, talented actors, and a story that has enchanted people for over a century and a half, it still falls flat. I'd say skip this one...and for sure, do not try to make your kids sit through it. It's no fun.

Enchanting
Wow, I didn't know you could still find good mainstream movies without vulgarity or massive amounts of sex. This was really good.

The plot was good. Seeing the main characters overcoming their long-lived sadness at the death of the main character's mother was worth the whole movie. The scenery and characters were a delight. I especially liked the polar bear who was in love with the Snow Queen.

The only things that kept this movie from getting five stars are as follows:

1. The "Fall Robber Queen" and her daughter. The former just didn't seem to fit and the latter was just plain annoying.

2. The movie was rather long. Around three hours, actually. This is a little much for the "whole family," as younger children will probably not keep their attention focused for that long. And, if they do . . .

3. The scene where Satan is forging the mirror was a bit creepy for an adult. I can just imagine how a child will react to it.

But it is still a wonderful alternative to the stuff that normally comes out of Hollywood.

Slow but moderately enjoyable
I bought this DVD because I enjoy the Hallmark productions of various fantasy tales, not because I was familiar with the original Hans Christian Anderson story. Therefore, I'm not equipped to judge it based on it's adherence to the original story but only as a bit of television entertainment.

The basic story is about how the Snow Queen wants to dominate all the seasons so that it is winter year-round. Part of what we see in the movie is how she attempts to do this and how the heroine attempts to stop her. The way in which the story unfolds in regards to this plot is where a lot of the entertainment value lies so I won't spoil it.

The main problem lies in the pacing of the story. The first hour, which is largely dedicated to establishing the characters and relationships between them, moves far too slowly. While I believe time dedicated to character development can be of great value, some of the scenes are unnecessary or unnecessarily long (such as the ice skating scene where pro skater doubles perform twirls and other manuevers real skaters would never bother with). The odd thing is that I believe the extra time spent showing us how the hero and heroine fall in love actually undermines the credibility of the passion they supposedly feel for each other rather than enhances it. The languid pace shows a slow build of affection rather than a rapid burn which might incite the heroine to face great danger on her love's behalf.

Unlike other reviewers who believed Bridget Fonda's portrayal of the snow queen didn't explain the hero's attraction to her, I simply concluded it wasn't her beauty or her behavior that drew him to her but simply magic. Nonetheless, I think that there should have been a clearer explanation of the "mechanics" behind what she was doing, particularly when she behaved so cruelly at times and still was able to hold those around her in her thrall. Perhaps such an explanation wouldn't have been necessary if she had been portrayed in a more sensual manner. However, I think that these family-oriented presentations seek to avoid too much sexually-driven content.

There are some beautiful scenes and the story has a satisfying ending but it seems disjointed at times and I could easily see some viewers growing bored waiting for the story to move along. The overall "feel" of the movie was also disrupted (for me personally) by the relatively modern music that was used at times. All in all, I think that the father and son producers (the Halmis), who have made a lot of these types of productions for Hallmark, dropped the ball on this one. They had a lot of good pieces but put them together wrong.