This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This movie held me in keen anticipation ever since the start. It's a brilliant movie which is simply so intriguing and adventurous. Quite frankly I'm surprised this movie isn't more popular than Frozen, the most overrated movie of 2013.The animation was fantastic. The drawings were superb and realistic (except for the fact that the troll looks more like an anteater). The only flaw-if you could call it that, was the English dub (since the original movie's in Russian). It was done rather poorly, and the lip movements didn't match the words at all. It may seem like a big deal, but after ten minutes into the movie, it won't matter, trust me, you'll be took caught up in the story.I didn't understand one thing in the beginning though. If Gerda's dad was such a great wizard, why didn't he fly away on some arctic bird (or a magical carpet or whatever), instead of using a wagon and get his family and himself to safety, even if he wasn't powerful enough to face the Snow Queen on his own?Also, didn't the Snow Queen kill off all the wizards? (except for Gerda and her brother Kai) So how did the flower lady give life to a plant, the ivy?Another thing was that Gerda was very, very lucky to have met so many people on the way who ultimately helped her reach the snow queen. Talk about luck. It seems like the only reason those people were in the movie as sub-plots were to help her. The first people gave her a sledge, next she got a reindeer and after that she even got a boat that took her directly to the Snow Queen's castle. Of course, Gerda's a nice polite girl, but my, she's sure got a lot of karma on her side.I may just be nitpicking though. This movie's amazing, and you should definitely watch it!

Okay I will be blunt in this review. Like many Americans who saw the trailer for this film I judged it too quickly solely by its appearance in animation. Living in America I'm engulfed mainly by CGI animation. Any time I want to see an animated film it's nothing but CGI. I'm not saying that I don't like CGI, I just hate knowing that everyone's jumping the band wagon. The only time I see non-CGI animation is when I usually watch a foreign animated film. I don't know what's with foreign countries in making CGI animated films. They usually turn out creepy, abysmal, or just plain weird. Granted making CGI is costly, but like every animated film ever, it's the amount of effort you put into that counts. Usually if a 100% percent effort of work is put into animated film, then the film's budget won't be too expensive. Enough talk, here's my review. The animation- Like i said before, I live in America and if there is one flaw to our CGI animated films is that they usually cost more than they should. While most of what we make in CGI is beautiful and amazing in both an artistic point and a technical one, certain films shouldn't cost so much. Some examples are The Nut job, Chicken Little, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and many others. This film had a budget $7 million.I was shocked to learn that such good animation came from $7 million! The animation isn't perfect 10 praise worthy, but pretty it's impressive on an economic stand point. The character designs aren't equal enough, and there many moments of slowed down scenes that aren't required, or help the animation look better. However it's the art direction that made me fall in love with it. It's a mixture of fairy tale drawn designs, and a certain amount of CGI texture that makes the characters look painted. Unfortunately not all of the characters could receive the same amount of treatment. Some of them look like the laziest things in all of animation, but at least they kept the backgrounds equally impressive. I should note that the cinematography in this film is masterful! Up there with some of the best from studio Ghibli and Disney's Tangled. I'll be brutally here if this was done in 2D animation then this film would have looked beyond gorgeous! But for a CGI animated foreign film it's really impressive! Score 7.9/10 The story- The story is based off the fairy tale with the same name. The film does justice to the source material, and adds parts of its own that make it even better. The origin story for the films villain the ice queen is something I didn't expect and is a welcomed addition. Gerda and Kai being siblings instead of friends helps the story because people won't think that they're in love with each other like most animated fairy tales films do. But even with all of these improvements the film fails hardcore in storytelling because of the god awful pacing! No joke, no exaggeration this film has some of the worst pacing in all of animation. The film barely ever likes to take brakes. Every story element in the film is rushed, never allowing the audience to take in what happened. This especially apparent in the films jokes. The movies jokes are pretty good if you can catch them in time. The characters are never allowed to show why we should root for them, or be interested to watch them on the screen, all except for a troll named Orm. He's the only character the movie allows to show development. It made wonder why he isn't the protagonist. I can't even get into the interesting mythology that the movie has created, it doesn't give me the time I need. Score 2/10 Verdict- Honestly if it wasn't for the good looking visuals I would have quit watching the film 22 minutes in. This film could have been perfect 10 material, but it ended up being mediocre. Score 5.5/10 Now I don't regret watching this film, in fact it has altered my perception on CGI animation forever. It showed me the quality still reigns over quantity, even in an era in America where CGI has taken over animation. I actually recommend you watch this film if your an American. Normally I never would tell people to watch a film that I gave a score below a 6, but if you truly want to understand what I'm talking about take the dare and watch the film for yourself.

Not great by all means(the animated adaptation of the story from the 50s is much better), but a more than acceptable version of one of Hans Christian Andersen's best stories. In detail it sticks much more faithfully to the story than Disney's Frozen did, though that film had more polish and magic from personal opinion, and it has that mysterious and poignant spirit of the original story if not its darkness, understandably. Some of the story here did have a slightly rushed nature to it pace-wise, maybe part of the reason for some skim-the-surface character development, the characters are very recognisable and have personality but lack dimension(rather archetypal in a way)in places. The dialogue also can sound cheesy and not as flowing as it could have done. However, much of the story does work, the latter parts of the film do pack a powerful punch, it always did engage me at least and there is some nice messaging. The heart-warming and tense parts are done well as well. The animation is very well done, it doesn't try to do too much and it looks completely natural from the smallest details to bigger effects like snow fall and the lake reflections. Everything moves smoothly and the colours are very lavish and atmospheric, the characters look good and match their personalities fine. The music added a lot to what was going on, the scoring was beautifully melancholic, hauntingly powerful and any tense parts to the music were done very rousingly and enough to make you bite the nails. The voice acting is more than serviceable with everybody playing with heart and commitment, with only Gerda's voice actress having occasional unevenness, big emphasis on occasional because she did do a good job. Overall, not a definitive version, though it never intended to be and I wasn't expecting to be either, but a good one. The original story is a classic and while with some obvious foibles The Snow Queen(2012) does very little to disgrace it. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is a nice adaptation with style and ability.It is not in par with Disney stuff but clearly above the average.Voices in French are not perfect and the script is sometimes lacking but animation is good and the overall story is solid. There are clearly delimited stages with their own graphic styles but an overall graphic unity midway between 3D and a fairy tales book.It avoids the ever-joking bias of many current days animation productions and remains faithful in spirit to an European tale.This is promising debut for Wisart Animation studio, and a nice leisure for the whole family starting age 6.