The Snow Queen (1995 film)
Encyclopedia
The Snow Queen is a British
animated film directed by Martin Gates and inspired by Hans Christian Andersen
's fairy tale The Snow Queen
, featuring Helen Mirren
in the titular role. A direct sequel
, The Snow Queen's Revenge
, was released the following year in 1996.
) and her brother Tom (Damian Hunt) listen to their grandmother reading them a story about the evil Snow Queen (Helen Mirren
) and her troll
s. When their younger sister Polly (Sylphide Strallen) asks Tom if the Snow Queen is coming to their house, Tom says that she only exists in the story. However, the Snow Queen really does live in an icy palace in the North Pole
with her three troll servants: Eric (David Jason
), Baggy (Colin Marsh), and Wardrobe (Russell Floyd
). The Snow Queen's plan is to set up her magic mirror (that Wardrobe is convinced turns anyone who looks into it into stone) on a mountain so that it will freeze the world so she can take it over. They take the mirror on their flying machine and set it up against a pickaxe to keep it in place on the mountain; however, at the last second, the pickaxe breaks and the mirror goes flying off the mountain and lands on the propeller blades of the trolls' flying machine, causing it to shatter into pieces. Two of the pieces go flying to the village and hit Tom in the eye and the heart, turning him evil.
The Snow Queen sends her bats to retrieve the pieces. Naturally they cannot take the two that are inside Tom, so the Snow Queen goes out to kidnap Tom so she can take the pieces from him. Ellie and Tom connect their sleds to a bigger sled that is revealed to be driven by the Snow Queen. She takes Tom to her palace and cuts Ellie off of her sled, causing her to fall onto a talking bird named Peeps (Hugh Laurie
). He tells her about the Snow Queen, and she goes out to save Tom from her. He reluctantly decides to go with her. While walking through the snowy forest, they find a house belonging to an old woman (Julia McKenzie
), who appears nice and gives Ellie a room to sleep in, but is actually an evil witch who is planning on killing Ellie and using her heart for her elixir of life
so she can be eternally young. Peeps discovers this but is locked beneath a glass beaker by the old woman. Ellie hears Peeps yelling and goes downstairs, where the old woman locks her in a cell. Peeps tricks the old woman's cat, Cuddles, into chasing after him and knocking over the elixir of life, and while the old woman is scolding Cuddles, Peeps takes her key and unlocks Ellie's cell. Ellie and Peeps escape and close the trapdoor to the basement, placing a heavy chest on it so the old woman cannot get back out.
They then see two humanoid birds named Les (Richard Tate) and Ivy (Imelda Staunton
), who, from Ellie's description of Tom, tell her that Tom is going to marry the princess (Scarlett Strallen
), so Ellie becomes a member of the staff to serve the princess her food. However, she soon discovers that the prince (Rowan D'Albert) is not Tom. Meanwhile, Tom is rebuilding the Snow Queen's mirror, as he is good at puzzles. The trolls try to warn him that the Snow Queen will kill him to get the last two pieces, but the Snow Queen convinces him otherwise and kisses him, putting him into a hypnotic state while his veins are full of ice, and will kill him when it reaches his heart.
The princess and the prince give Ellie and Peeps a royal vehicle to ride to the Snow Queen's dominion, however they run into a gang of robbers that are humanoid rats. The Robber King (Rik Mayall
) promises his daughter, Angorra (Imelda Staunton
), that Ellie can become her slave, but later changes his mind because he is, according to himself, "really rotten". Ellie is locked in a room with a flying reindeer
named Dimly (Gary Martin) who crashed into a tree and was captured by the robbers. Peeps enters the room and unties Ellie's hands, and she unties Dimly. Angorra enters, but they knock a barrel on top of her and trap her. Dimly flies them away, but the Robber King grabs onto the rope that is still wrapped around Dimly, resulting in the Robber King crashing into several objects, ending with him slamming into the side of a building and falling over the edge on top of Angorra.
Dimly does not know where the Snow Queen's castle is, so he goes to his flying reindeer school and asks Freda (Julia McKenzie
), a woman from Lapland
who runs the flying school. After packing up supplies for fighting off the Snow Queen, she has Dimly fly them over to the Snow Queen's palace. There, they meet the three trolls, who ultimately decide to help them. Tom does not have much time left, and has finished putting the mirror together except for the two pieces that are inside him. Freda makes a potion that will dissolve the mirror. Ellie tells Tom to drink it, but just as he is about to, the Snow Queen blasts the vial with her magic staff and impales it on an icicle. They fight the Snow Queen and Eric and Freda are frozen. Baggy and Wardrobe grab her staff just as they are frozen as well. The battle eventually causes the vial to fall on top of the mirror and shatter, dissolving the mirror and forming an icy cyclone that chases after the Snow Queen's flying carriage and freezes her solid as she attempts to escape.
The mirror pieces inside Tom dissolve and the effects of the Snow Queen's kiss go away, returning him to normal. Freda and the trolls are unfrozen. Freda says that the Snow Queen is not destroyed and will eventually return. She has Dimly take Ellie, Tom, and Peeps back to the village, and then come back for her and the trolls. Dimly crashlands in the village and Ellie, Tom, and Peeps go to listen to the rest of the story as Dimly heads back to the Snow Queen's palace. The film ends with a close-up shot of the frozen Snow Queen's eyes, sparkling with anger.
by UCA Catalogue in 2004, and then together as a double-pack in 2005. Previously, the two films were also released on the VHS
by Warner Brothers.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
animated film directed by Martin Gates and inspired by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's fairy tale The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is a fairy tale by author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda....
, featuring Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in the titular role. A direct sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, The Snow Queen's Revenge
The Snow Queen's Revenge
The Snow Queen's Revenge is the 1996 sequel to the 1995 children's fantasy animated film The Snow Queen. It has some of the voice cast changed, including Julia McKenzie cast in the titular role of the Snow Queen.-Plot:...
, was released the following year in 1996.
Plot
Ellie (Ellie BeavenEllie Beaven
Ellie Beaven is an English actress. She was educated at St. Mary's R.C. Primary School in Isleworth then at Gumley House Convent School, Isleworth.-Film & television:...
) and her brother Tom (Damian Hunt) listen to their grandmother reading them a story about the evil Snow Queen (Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
) and her troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s. When their younger sister Polly (Sylphide Strallen) asks Tom if the Snow Queen is coming to their house, Tom says that she only exists in the story. However, the Snow Queen really does live in an icy palace in the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
with her three troll servants: Eric (David Jason
David Jason
Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
), Baggy (Colin Marsh), and Wardrobe (Russell Floyd
Russell Floyd
Russell Floyd is a British actor. He played Michael Rose in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1996 to 1999, and DC Ken Drummond in the ITV police drama, The Bill, from 2002 to 2005...
). The Snow Queen's plan is to set up her magic mirror (that Wardrobe is convinced turns anyone who looks into it into stone) on a mountain so that it will freeze the world so she can take it over. They take the mirror on their flying machine and set it up against a pickaxe to keep it in place on the mountain; however, at the last second, the pickaxe breaks and the mirror goes flying off the mountain and lands on the propeller blades of the trolls' flying machine, causing it to shatter into pieces. Two of the pieces go flying to the village and hit Tom in the eye and the heart, turning him evil.
The Snow Queen sends her bats to retrieve the pieces. Naturally they cannot take the two that are inside Tom, so the Snow Queen goes out to kidnap Tom so she can take the pieces from him. Ellie and Tom connect their sleds to a bigger sled that is revealed to be driven by the Snow Queen. She takes Tom to her palace and cuts Ellie off of her sled, causing her to fall onto a talking bird named Peeps (Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
). He tells her about the Snow Queen, and she goes out to save Tom from her. He reluctantly decides to go with her. While walking through the snowy forest, they find a house belonging to an old woman (Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
), who appears nice and gives Ellie a room to sleep in, but is actually an evil witch who is planning on killing Ellie and using her heart for her elixir of life
Elixir of life
The elixir of life, also known as the elixir of immortality and sometimes equated with the philosopher's stone, is a legendary potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life and or eternal youth. Many practitioners of alchemy pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create...
so she can be eternally young. Peeps discovers this but is locked beneath a glass beaker by the old woman. Ellie hears Peeps yelling and goes downstairs, where the old woman locks her in a cell. Peeps tricks the old woman's cat, Cuddles, into chasing after him and knocking over the elixir of life, and while the old woman is scolding Cuddles, Peeps takes her key and unlocks Ellie's cell. Ellie and Peeps escape and close the trapdoor to the basement, placing a heavy chest on it so the old woman cannot get back out.
They then see two humanoid birds named Les (Richard Tate) and Ivy (Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...
), who, from Ellie's description of Tom, tell her that Tom is going to marry the princess (Scarlett Strallen
Scarlett Strallen
Scarlett Strallen is a British stage actress who made her Broadway debut on 9 October 2008 at the New Amsterdam Theatre playing the title role of Mary Poppins...
), so Ellie becomes a member of the staff to serve the princess her food. However, she soon discovers that the prince (Rowan D'Albert) is not Tom. Meanwhile, Tom is rebuilding the Snow Queen's mirror, as he is good at puzzles. The trolls try to warn him that the Snow Queen will kill him to get the last two pieces, but the Snow Queen convinces him otherwise and kisses him, putting him into a hypnotic state while his veins are full of ice, and will kill him when it reaches his heart.
The princess and the prince give Ellie and Peeps a royal vehicle to ride to the Snow Queen's dominion, however they run into a gang of robbers that are humanoid rats. The Robber King (Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
) promises his daughter, Angorra (Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...
), that Ellie can become her slave, but later changes his mind because he is, according to himself, "really rotten". Ellie is locked in a room with a flying reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
named Dimly (Gary Martin) who crashed into a tree and was captured by the robbers. Peeps enters the room and unties Ellie's hands, and she unties Dimly. Angorra enters, but they knock a barrel on top of her and trap her. Dimly flies them away, but the Robber King grabs onto the rope that is still wrapped around Dimly, resulting in the Robber King crashing into several objects, ending with him slamming into the side of a building and falling over the edge on top of Angorra.
Dimly does not know where the Snow Queen's castle is, so he goes to his flying reindeer school and asks Freda (Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
), a woman from Lapland
Lapland (region)
Lapland is a region in northern Fennoscandia, largely within the Arctic Circle. It streches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula . On the North it is bounded by the Barents Sea, on the West by the Norwegian Sea and on the East by the White Sea...
who runs the flying school. After packing up supplies for fighting off the Snow Queen, she has Dimly fly them over to the Snow Queen's palace. There, they meet the three trolls, who ultimately decide to help them. Tom does not have much time left, and has finished putting the mirror together except for the two pieces that are inside him. Freda makes a potion that will dissolve the mirror. Ellie tells Tom to drink it, but just as he is about to, the Snow Queen blasts the vial with her magic staff and impales it on an icicle. They fight the Snow Queen and Eric and Freda are frozen. Baggy and Wardrobe grab her staff just as they are frozen as well. The battle eventually causes the vial to fall on top of the mirror and shatter, dissolving the mirror and forming an icy cyclone that chases after the Snow Queen's flying carriage and freezes her solid as she attempts to escape.
The mirror pieces inside Tom dissolve and the effects of the Snow Queen's kiss go away, returning him to normal. Freda and the trolls are unfrozen. Freda says that the Snow Queen is not destroyed and will eventually return. She has Dimly take Ellie, Tom, and Peeps back to the village, and then come back for her and the trolls. Dimly crashlands in the village and Ellie, Tom, and Peeps go to listen to the rest of the story as Dimly heads back to the Snow Queen's palace. The film ends with a close-up shot of the frozen Snow Queen's eyes, sparkling with anger.
Home releases
Both films were separately released on the DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by UCA Catalogue in 2004, and then together as a double-pack in 2005. Previously, the two films were also released on the VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
by Warner Brothers.