The Snow Queen (1993)

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*The Snow Queen* is a 1993 American animated musical adventure fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is the 32nd Disney animated feature film, and was the fifth produced during the Disney film era known as the Disney Renaissance. The Snow Queen is the 5th Disney film in the era known as the Disney Renaissance. It was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and is based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 fairy tale of the same name *The Snow Queen*. The voice cast features Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Christina Ricci, Alan Rickman, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, John Goodman, Tom Hanks and Dom DeLuise.

It tells a story about a young girl named Gerda, whose quest is to go all the way from southern Sweden to Northern Sweden and search for childhood friend, Kai. Meanwhile for Kai, he happens to stumble across the Snow Queen named Sigrid, who has been in solitude for years and needs to earn Kai's trust in order for Sigrid to have a kind heart. Along Gerda's way, she meets three talking animals. A large, yet friendly polar-bear named Klaus, a smart & wisecracking beaver named Josef, and the agile hare named Magnus. Gerda also meets other children who goes along with her journey, such as the young, tough, yet kind and nice knife-holding robber-girl named Katrine, and two fun-loving kids who are royal siblings, named Prince Viktor & Princess Ingrid. The kids only need to avoid several cutthroat robbers, creatures and the man that's following them, named Jorgen.

It marks the 4th time that Alan Menken has done the songs on a Disney animated film, following previous films like *The Little Mermaid*, *Beauty and the Beast* & *Aladdin*. It also marks as the first Disney animated film to have two composers for the movie, first being Alan Menken (for the songs) and the other being James Horner (for the film score), which was the latter's first and only Disney animated film to work on in the Disney Renaissance.

**Voice Cast**

* Kirsten Dunst as Gerda - A young, kindhearted & brave eight-year old girl who is determined to go on a long journey to search for her friend Kai, after she learned that he got lost and did not return back home. During her journey, she also meets new people (whether they be new friends or enemies) along the way. Despite facing dangerous enemies & obstacles on her way to the Snow Queen, it’s her courage that helps her come so far. Glen Keane was the supervising animator for Gerda, which he modeled Gerda’s character design a bit on Kirsten herself. Kirsten Dunst provided both Gerda’s speaking & singing voice. She is the main female protagonist of the film.
* Elijah Wood as Kai - A friendly & adventurous nine-year old boy, who is Gerda’s best friend since their much younger years. He has a desire to spread good & positivity to whoever kind soul he meets and help others. Kai was in an unfortunate time when a harsh snowstorm led to him being seperated from his parents. He was then brought by the Snow Queen (Sigrid), to her kingdom for protection and as company. Mark Henn was the supervising animator for Kai, which was a new type of Disney character for Mark, after being the supervising animator for the Disney Princesses from the two previous Disney films. Elijah Wood provided both Kai’s speaking and singing voice. He is the main male protagonist of the film.
* Naomi Watts as Sigrid - She is the Snow Queen, who takes Kai with her to her home in the north of Lappland Sweden, after he gets lost from his family. Due to her loneliness (aside from her serveants as company), she starts out as a character with a cold, yet calm personality, but then learns to open her warming heart to new people she meets, when Kai gets brought to her ice kingdom. Naomi’s take on the titular character of the tale, brought an unique & well-mannered performance to her character. James Baxter served as the supervising animator for Sigrid. She is the deuteragonist of the film.
* Alan Rickman as Jorgen - An once honorable man in his time, who becomes a rather power-hungry and a ruthless person. When first seen, Jorgen seems to be a person who knows Kai, Gerda and each their own parents very well, while hiding his colder & malicious, manipulative nature. He is a high-talked soldier with a British accent, who learned some good fire powers (through his years), an elemental contrast to Sigrid’s ice powers. Jorgen is depicted as a man who thinks any Snow Queen’s powers are seen as savage, but later turns out that he uses dark powers of his own (including harming the protagonists), making him a truly evil Disney villain. Andreas Deja serves as the supervising animator for Jorgen (making the latter, the third human Disney villain in a row to be animated by Deja, following Gaston from Beauty and the Beast & Jafar from Aladdin), giving him a design as a middle aged appearance with a beard almost reminiscent of Ivan the Terrible, though with a longer beard. Jorgen is a character original to Disney, as he is not present in the Snow Queen fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. He is the main antagonist of the film.
* Natalie Portman as Katrine - A rebellious, tough, but friendly & independent eight-year old girl, whom despite her gender & age, is a kid who’s not to be easily reckoned with. Katrine is the robber girl who’s the first kid that Gerda meets on her journey. Katrine is an independent girl and a survivor for living without a home for years. She has her own reindeer companion, named Sven (who could serve as the descendant of the Sven (the first) from the Frozen-franchise, and with the same manners & design). Ken Duncan was the supervising animator for Katrine. Natalie Portman provides both Katrine’s speaking & singing voice. She is one of the human tritagonists of the film.
* Joseph Gordon Levitt as Prince Viktor - A young nine-year old prince who is high-spirited, smart, friendly & fun loving boy. He is the older brother of Ingrid. He and his sister embark on Gerda’s journey, not just to help her search for Kai, but to also experience great adventures in the world. Glen Keane was the supervising animator for Viktor (alongside Gerda), which makes it the first movie where Keane was the supervising animator for two Disney characters in the same movie. Joseph provides both Viktor’s speaking and singing voice. He is one of the human tritagonists of the film.

* Christina Ricci as Princess Ingrid - A young eight-year old princess who is a kind, friendly, smart and a positive girl. She is the younger sister of Viktor. She is the most open-minded & outspoken kids whom Gerda meets on her journey. She, along with her brother, always wanted to go out discovering the world and such, hence why they wanted to join Gerda with her journey and search for Kai. Mark Henn is the supervising animator for Ingrid, making it the second character in one Disney movie to work on, alongside Kai. Christina Ricci provides both Ingrid’s speaking and singing voice in the film. She is one of the human tritagonists of the film.
* Tom Hanks as Josef the Beaver - A wisecracking, comical beaver and at times overconfident beaver, who is among the animal trio. Being a beaver, he is a very good swimmer and can climb very well in trees, mountains and hard obstacles. He is one of the first talking animals that Gerda meets on the journey, and despite him being a bit too wisecracking at times, he is proven to a morally good helper through thick and thin. He even lifts Gerda’s spirit up to boost her bravery & confidence. Michael Surrey was the supervising animator for Josef. Surrey based his design loosely & closely to the un-named beaver from Lady and the Tramp & Gopher from the The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He is one of the animal tritagonists of the film and serves as one of the comic relief sidekicks.
* John Goodman as Klaus the Polar Bear - A big & strong, yet very friendly & open-hearted polar bear who serves as a defensive protector to both his human friends and animal friends. Klaus is the biggest of the animal trio and the only animal omnivore. He never attends to eat any of his friends, despite being a polar bear. He serves as a good transport for the kids to sit on his back and ride him. He can also be a good fighter due to his size and would even fight enemies who threaten his companions. Duncan Marjoribanks was the supervising animator for Klaus. Klaus’s characteristics are inspired by older & previous Disney bears such as Baloo from The Jungle Book & Little John from Robin Hood. He is one of the animal tritagonists of the film.
* Dom Deluise as Magnus the Hare - A fast & agile hare, who is the charismatic & strong at heart member of the animal trio. Magnus is sometimes mistaken for a mere rabbit, and while he definitely has nothing against being called a rabbit, he usually considers himself a hare due to being bigger and faster, and have longer ears & hind legs. Magnus is one of the two herbivores among the animal trio, alongside Josef. Magnus’s fast speed gives him the advantage to quickly run from enemies, whether they be natural enemies that wants to eat him, or bad guys that wants to kill him. He serves a good companion to help Gerda with her journey. Nik Ranieri was the supervising animator for Magnus. He is the second Disney character that is voiced by Dom Deluise (who was often a regular voice actor for many Don Bluth films) with his first one being Fagin from Oliver & Company, five years before this film. He is one of the animal tritagonists of the film.
* Jodie Foster as Birgit - The mother of Gerda and Hjalmar’s wife. She once used to travel on a journey for an adventure in her younger days.
* George Clooney as Hjalmar - The father of Gerda and Birgit’s husband. He is the
* Jeff Goldblum as Nick - The father of Kai and Hedvig’s husband.
* Elizabeth Perkins as Hedvig - The mother of Kai and Nick’s wife.

**Additional Voices**

* Frank Welker
* Macaulay Culkin
* Angela Lansbury
* Hal Smith (*Final film role*)
* David Ogden Stiers
* Philip Glasser
* Tony Jay
* Jim Cummings
* Nehemiah Persoff
* Bryce Dallas Howard
* Lacey Chabert

**Production**

**Conception and early attempts to adapt *The Snow Queen***

In March 1940, Walt Disney suggested a co-production to film producer Samuel Goldwyn, where his studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Hans Christian Andersen's life and Disney's studio would animate Andersen's fairy tales. The animated sequences would be based on some of Andersen's best-known works, such as The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes, and The Emperor's New Clothes. However, the studio encountered difficulty with The Snow Queen, as it could not find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character to modern audiences.

After the United States entered World War II, Disney focused on making wartime propaganda, which caused development on the Disney–Goldwyn project to grind to a halt in 1942. Goldwyn went on to produce his own live-action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, Charles Vidor directing, Moss Hartwriting, and Frank Loesser penning the songs. All of Andersen's fairy tales were, instead, told in song and ballet in live-action, like the rest of the film. It went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following year. Back at Disney, The Snow Queen, along with other Andersen fairy tales (including The Little Mermaid), were shelved.

Between the late 1980’s and early 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started developing a new adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of The Little Mermaid. After an unsuccessful attempt from the 1940’s, Disney shelved the project in development hell for almost 50 years.

### Development & Resurgence

Development of The Snow Queen began in the late 80’s after the financial successes of *The Great Mouse Detective* , *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* and *Oliver & Company*. The studio had approached John Musker and Ron Clements to direct the film, but they turned down the offer, saying they were "tired" after just having finished directing Disney's recent successes like *The Little Mermaid and Aladdin* . However, Eisner felt that the duo that would be perfectly fit to direct the next Disney film, are Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise. After the tremendous success of *Beauty and the Beast* (1991), Trousdale & Wise were given the task of directing a second Disney animated film as a follow-up.

**Casting**

The voice actors were chosen for how they fit and could add to the characters. One example is the Snow Queen herself, Sigrid. Originally, actresses like Jodie Foster & Sharon Stone were considered for the role. However, Disney saw that a newcomer in stardom like Naomi Watts, would be the best fit for the title character, giving her character a more dignified & unique tone of personality. She was so happy for always wanting to work with Disney and thanked the company for letting her do a voice acting, and fully accepted the role. Eventually though, Jodie Foster did accept to do voice acting on another character in the Disney film, as Birgit (Gerda’s mother in the story). Other Hollywood celebrities were automatically chosen for voices of several characters, like George Clooney as Hjalmar, Jeff Goldblum as Nick, Elizabeth Perkins as Hedvig, etc.

The interesting task however, was the voices of the kid characters. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, always had Kirsten Dunst as the main character of Gerda. Dunst not only fully said yes to being a voice actress, but also showed the director duo, her singing talents. They were so happy that they also let Kirsten sing in the musical numbers of the film. As for the voice of Kai, Disney wanted a voice with heroism & kindness to up the well-developed personality. And the actor who automatically accepted that role, was Elijah Wood. Due to the fact that he always wanted to voice a Disney character in his life. Out of all the actors & actresses in the voice cast though, the most surprising one was newcomer Natalie Portman, who automatically became the voice of Katrine in the movie. At the time, Portman was just new in Hollywood, so for her to do a voice in a Disney film, came off as a huge surprise for the people at Walt Disney Studios.

For the role of Viktor & Ingrid, in the former’s case, the character was originally depicted as a proper & a bit snobby type. However, Viktor’s personalities & characteristics were changed to be much more friendly, upbeat, high-spirited boy who loves fun & adventures, when Joseph Gordon Levitt came in. He really liked doing a fun & positive character, resulting in making Viktor the Disney character that everyone knows his as, ever since. Lastly was the voice of Princess Ingrid. Eventually, Christina Ricci fully accepted to be the voice of a more colorful & kind character, in contrast to how Ricci did in The Addams Family for example.

For the voice of the main Disney villain, Alan Rickman was always the number one choice for Jorgen. Even Disney always had Alan Rickman in mind. And because of his work in movies as villains like Die Hard & Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, he was ultimately chosen to be Jorgen’s voice due to his charismatic performance with a British accent.

**Music**

Song Composer Alan Menken returned to do the songs, in his fourth Disney film to work on. However, since Howard Ashman died before the release of *Beauty and the Beast,* and Tim Rice, after the work of *Aladdin*, went to work with Elton John with songs from the new upcoming Disney Feature *The Lion King*, Menken was originally left alone to do the music, much to his pressure. But then during production, all hopes & faith of a musical score arrived in the name of duo of songwriters *Barry Mann* & *Cynthia Weil* and singer *Celine Dion*, whom the latter also helped and contributed with some of the songs in the movie. Also, joined singer movie composer *James Horner*, who the always wanted to do the music score in an animated film from Disney itself for a change after working with animated films produced by Steven Spielberg (while also we’re working on the Amblin animated feature *We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story*, at the same time). Alan was so relieved & glad to have Horner do the music score of the film, while Menken himself worked on songs for the feature. Alan publicly said that “Having James Horner to work with me on the music for this feature, is a legendary honor”.

**Critical reception**

Upon its release, *The Snow Queen* received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its emotional & adventurous narrative, animation, screenplay, characters, musical score, musical numbers, and voice acting. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of a rare 100%, which makes it one of the few films with a perfect 100% rating and among the highest rated animated films. The website's critical consensus reads, "Emotional, magical and helped by flawless animation and memorable characters, *The Snow Queen* is one of Disney’s more perfect animated motion pictures“.

=== **Box office**

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*The Snow Queen* was released on November, 24, 1993 to overwhelmingly positive reactions from critics, who praised the film for its music, characters, story and animation. At the time, it finished its theatrical run as the highest-grossing film of 1993, (overtaking Steven Spielberg's *Jurassic Park* from Universal) and became the highest grossing animated film at the time with $1.833 billion worldwide, massively outgrossing the previous Disney films such as *The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast & Aladdin*’s worldwide grosses all combined. It kept the record as the highest grossing animated film for 13 years until Disney’s own ”*Thumbelina*” in 2006. *The Snow Queen* later outgrossed *Thumbelina* and *The Princess and the Pea* (which initially came out the same year as *Thumbelina* in 2006) in 2011, with a strong 3D-rerelease in November, following the surprise hit of *The Lion King* 3D-rerelease, back in September. During the 1990’s, it was also was the highest grossing film worldwide at the time initially for four years until James Cameron’s *Titanic,* which then that movie’s worldwide box office record was taken back by *The Snow Queen* years later, thanks to the re-releases it got, including an IMAX-release, which boosted it’s worldwide box office gross to over $2 billion+, making it the first film in history to reach that feat.

**Original theatrical run**

At the time of it’s release on it’s opening weekend on Thanksgiving Day, it grossed to a three-day of $40.8 million - which at the time in 1993, marked it as the biggest opening weekend for an animated film and the third biggest opening overall (3rd biggest opening weekend behind *Jurassic Park* & *Batman Returns*), winning the weekend. *The Snow Queen’s* $40 million opening was more than four times the $9.6 million opening of *Beauty and the Beast*, and more than twice the $19.2 million opening of *Aladdin.* The 3-day opening weekend was one of the highest sums for a Disney animated film at the time, alongside *The Lion King*. It also earned a rare "A+" rating from Cinemascore. It’s 5-day weekend was much larger, making $76.6 million since its Wednesday launch, giving it the biggest 3-day and 5-day Thanksgiving opening for an animated film and film in general, until 6 years later, where it’s records were taken by Pixar’s *Toy Story 2* in 1999. On it’s full opening week, it grossed $91.6M, which was the biggest opening week for an animated film at the time. It held at the top for long, resulting in extraordinary legs. By the end of its original theatrical run, it had earned $721 million domestically, being the highest grossing film of 1993 and the highest grossing animated film domestically at the time.

Outside of North America, the film grossed $1.112 billion overseas, for a worldwide total of $1.833 billion worldwide, making this the first animated film in history to reach over a billion at the box office.

**Re-releases**

Later around the mid 2000's & early 2010's, *The Snow Queen* got re-released in theaters numerous of times, including Christmas-re-releases, an IMAX-release and a 3D-release. The re-releases boosted it domestic gross from $721 million to $1.013 billion and it's worldwide gross from $1.833 billion to $2.922.7 billion, (making it one of the few blockbusters from the 90's to earn a 3D-convertion). *The Snow Queen* is currently the 9th highest grossing film of all time.

### **Accolades**

*The Snow Queen* was nominated for eight Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound & Best Original Song (with four songs nominated) and won for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score & Best Original Song (one of them). It became the first animated film in history to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, which was a feat that no other animated film could do before it.

**Box office analysis and impact**

Some box office analysts compared the film to Disney's previous animated feature *Aladdin* by saying that the film's story was not as "immediately interesting" and that "marketing has yet to sell this to boys the way *Aladdin* did". Even Jeffrey Katzenberg himself was a bit hesitant about the film’s box office performance and thought it would do well, but he was more focused on *Pocahontas* being the potential box office juggernaut and considered both *The Snow Queen* & Disney’s next film (after Queen) “*The Lion King*” as appetizers before the grand meal. Noting that the 1993 holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) lacked compelling content for families, analysts predicted that the film would "play well all the way through Christmas" and end up grossing $210-220 million in North America (similar to *Aladdin*), due to the goodwill from previous Disney animated films.

However, in November, most of the people & crew at Disney (including directors Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise) were hopeful to *The Snow Queen*’s chances to go bigger than the previous because of the raving & glowing reception the film was getting at around $300-360 million. After *The Snow Queen* finished its first weekend with a record $76.6 million during Thanksgiving, most box-office watchers predicted that it would end up grossing between $360-400 million in North America, with a chance of outgrossing *Jurassic Park & E.T: The Extra Terrestrial* for the highest grossing film of all time. Box-office watchers also noted that it would be "the exclusive choice for family audiences" and attributed its successful opening to strong word-of-mouth and the studio's marketing, which highlighted the connection between *The Snow Queen* and Disney's previous successful releases like *Beauty and the Beast* and *Aladdin*, as well as the elements of humor, heart, charm, adventure and many more. When the film became a success, with an unprecedented box office performance, it was credited for being an emotional story that captured its viewers' emotions. The film was playing in 3,111+ theaters on it’s opening release, and then one or two months afterwards it expanded to 3,418+ theaters at it’s widest, making it the first animated film with over 3,000+ theater count. On it’s second weekend after Thanksgiving Weekend, the film made $51 million, thanks to the immensely strong word of mouth from all the moviegoers who watched it. Due to that, it ended with an insanely leggy run throughout more than half a year of it’s theatrical run to above $720 million domestically.

Also, *The Snow Queen* was credited to be the Disney film that managed to capture the spirit of the previous Disney Renaissance films and early Disney features such as *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, One Hundred and One Dalmatians* and *The Jungle Book.* Furthermore, many critics, (including Roger Ebert) noted that *The Snow Queen* was a "revisionist" film that didn't have the “title character” as the villain. Instead the “snow queen” (named Sigrid in the Disney film) was a character who was comparable to “Beast” from *Beauty and the Beast*, as both characters had a troubled past in their films, but would eventually experience character growth & development as time goes on when spending with kind characters they meet.

*Tv Tropes*:

*2D Visuals, 3D Effects*: Some sequences in the movie (like the avalanche & the wagon sequence & some of the rooms inside Sigrid’s castle) are computer-generated. However, the scenes with that CG-use, still impresses to this day, with the way the traditionally-animated characters maintain a precise perspective with the CG background. Compared to other mixed CGI-in-hand-drawn-animation examples, this one still holds up pretty well after all these years.

*Actor Allusion*:

*Adaptation Displacement*: This Disney film has become *the* defining version of ”*The Snow Queen*” fairy tale, even more so than the 1957 Soviet animated film, that it took some of its cues from. Disney's version is heavily ingrained in the mind whenever someone thinks about the story - from the action taking place in Scandinavia (specifically in Sweden).

*Adaptation Expansion*: Given the much longer running time (at over 180 minutes), this Disney movie adaptation, spends time just fleshing out Gerda, Kai, their families and the many side characters that Gerda meets on her way, and it also shows what their hometown and the rest of Sweden, are like. It also takes its time showing Gerda actually preparing for her journey to find Kai.

*Adapted Out*:

* Gerda’s grandmother is adapted out and nowhere to be seen in the movie whatsoever. Instead, taking the place are a pair of regular parents. Enter Birgit (mother) & Hjalmar (father).
* The Finn woman is adapted out in favor of giving Lappland a lot more Sami inhabitants than just the Lapp woman. Inhabitants like a young Sami boy, his younger sisters, the reindeer-caretakers and many more.
* The Robber Woman was adapted out in this Disney film in a favor of Katrine (the Robber Girl) the sole female robber amongst all others. Luckily, a Disney variant of her would appear in the sequel (and more appearances afterwards), where she is Katrine’s long lost mother named Nora.

*Age Lift*: Both the prince & princess in the original tale are young adults, old enough to marry each other. Whereas in the Disney movie version, they’re both siblings who are around the same age as Kai & Gerda.

*Alien Sky*: If there’s an aurora borealis in the sky, chances are the Snow Queen is there.

*All Myths Are True*: The story of the Snow Queen is very real, as Kai first discovers when he gets saved by Sigrid.

*All Star Cast*: There is a lot of them, and yet they fit their characters perfectly. Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Naomi Watts, Alan Rickman, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Christina Ricci, George Clooney, Jodie Foster, Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Dom Deluise, just a name of few.

*Amusing Injuries*: This type of injury is mostly relegated to animal characters or some minor human characters (extras) for the sake of humor.

*Animated Musical*: Given the fact that it’s a Disney film from the Disney Renaissance, it is to be expected. And there’s nine songs (ten in the extended edition, with one new song) in the movie, which is the biggest number for a Disney animated musical. Most of them are sung by Gerda who either sings her own solo songs or singing a song with a group of characters/duet with one another character.

*Awesome Music*:

* Musical numbers by Alan Menken, are always a treat.
* James Horner's music score orchestration sets the tone of the film (and it’s sequels) quite nicely. In some places, it's hard to believe it was written for an animated film.
* Also, the pop versions of some of the songs are also so great to listen to during the end credits and in a music video, especially since one of them is sung by Celine Dion. She also helped write some of the songs.

*Big "NO!"*:

* Hedvig screams it as her son Kai falls down the cliff in a well-done and dramatic way.
* Gerda when

Bilingual Bonus: There’s some Scandinavian languages in this like Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and more.

*Cash Cow Franchise*: The most successful traditionally animated film of the 90’s; spawned a hit Broadway show, which runs to this day, two theatrical-released sequels and some theatrical midquel/prequel spin-off films involving Katrine, Viktor & Ingrid (in each their own adventures) & a theatrical movie trilogy of prequels about Birgit (Gerda’s mom) during her younger years about her adventures called “Birgit’s Story”. It also got a reasonably popular and successful TV series.

*Casting Gag*: Certain cast members either have appeared before or would appear after this film.

*Character Development*: Most of the characters in this movie (if not all the goodhearted characters) experience great character development over the course of the film's narrative. Thank the long running time for this. The ones who goes through it the most are Gerda, Kai & Sigrid.

*Children Voicing Children*: Every kid character in the movie (Gerda, Kai, Katrine, Viktor, Ingrid, and more) were all voiced by actual children. It helps since Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon Levitt & Christina Ricci were young celebrities in the early 90’s at the time.

*Creator’s Favorite*:

* Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise really enjoyed every single character in the film, both protagonists & antagonists. Their favorite Disney character from the movie and one of the Disney characters from Disney animated films in general, is Gerda. Mostly because she was such an endearing character and the fact that Kirsten Dunst gave such an amazing performance as the lead heroine. Also, Kirsten Dunst was the duo’s favorite actress to work with in a Disney animated film.
* Speaking of which, Kirsten Dunst herself called Gerda as her favorite animated role and one of her favorite film roles in general, and was especially thrilled to have lots of songs written specifically for her, whether it be solo songs for Gerda or singing with other characters.
* Everyone of the casting loved the characters they were voicing to the point that most of them are among some of their favorite roles (See Kirsten Dunst’s favorite mention above).

*Disneyfication*: True since this was released during the Disney Renaissance and is a musical, though compared to the CGI-animated Disney film twenty years later “*Frozen*”, this hand-drawn animated take of “*The Snow Queen*” while not fully exactly like the original tale, is at least more faithful to the core story. Thankfully like most of the other Disney animated films, this film tells the story in it’s own unique and iconic way. Hence there are differences between the Disney film and the original fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen:

* First off, Kai’s first meeting with the Snow Queen in the Disney movie, is different than in the original tale. In the tale, Kai is struck by a shard of the mirror in the eye and heart. Because of that, Kai becomes cruel and aggressive even towards Gerda, to the point that he no longer cares about her, since everyone now appears bad and ugly to him. One day, Kai goes out with his sled to play in the snowy market square and hitches it to a sleigh driven by the Snow Queen herself, leading to her abducting Kai from the village square, carries him to her castle at the North Pole, and causes him to forget about his home and Gerda. The Disney film does it a lot more different. In the movie, Kai goes through a more tragic scenario. He gets separated (along with his puppy husky Blizzard) from his parents by a stormy winter snow, as they were on their way up to a trip, almost freezes to death,

*Dueling Movies*: Amblin’s We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story was in theaters at the same time, with *Dinosaur’s Story* even opening on the *same weekend* as *The Snow Queen.* Needless to say it wasn't much of a fight - all other movies (minus the Robin Williams comedy (counter-programming) *Mrs. Doubtfire*) were pretty much Curb-Stomped as audiences flocked to the one with a story that everyone could resonate with, with watershed animation and with Broadway-caliber songs, as well as the still-evolving idea that such important kid characters could be anything more other than the cute ones. In other words, *The Snow Queen* became like a huge meteorite against *We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story* and blasted it into smithereens.

*Easing into the Adventure*: It takes more than 20 minutes before Gerda (the main protagonist) sets out on her journey to find Kai.

*Epic Movie*: A quintessential example. With an All Star Cast and a masterful crew of animators and such. Since this was released in the Disney Renaissance and with a three hour-runtime, there’s no doubt this movie looks beautiful and grand. Also, the original fairytale is the longest story by Hans Christian Andersen, so this Disney film’s runtime is justified. Disney’s *The Snow Queen* is basically if you mix *Beauty and the Beast* (with the magic, wonder and imagination) & *The Lion King* (with the emotion, scale and grandness).

Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The landscape and setting of the movie is heavily based on Sweden & Scandinavia in general. Helsingborg is in Scania (the English saying of Skåne).

*Friendly Fandoms*: Fans of this movie are generally on good (if not great) terms with fans of Amblimation’s *We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story* by Universal/Steven Spielberg, which came on the exact same weekend. Coincidentally, both animated movies have heroic kid characters. Both films are very well-animated in their own rights. James Horner did the music score on both animated films & they have John Goodman voicing a character in their movies.

*Gigantic Moon*: During Gerda & Kai’s Duet Song, Gerda is watching the moon rise over the horizon, dwarfing the Swedish skyline.

*Grim Up North*: Gerda and her friends’s journey takes them farther and farther north, getting more and more dangerous and treacherous every step.

*Ice Palace*: The Snow Queen (Sigrid) lives in an enormous palace/castle of over a hundreds of rooms made of ice and snow.

*Loyal Animal Companion*: Josef, Klaus, Magnus, Alvin, Clapper (talking animals), Sven & Blizzard (non-talking animals).

*Magic Mirror*: Sigrid has one in her palace.

Misplaced Wildlife: While Scandinavia and Sweden certainly has lots of different local animals here and there in this film, the country has certain animals that are normally native to other places in the world:

* The most prominent animals characters out of their normal wildlife are Klaus and Clapper. While brown bears can be found in Sweden, Klaus is a polar bear whose species are found in the North Pole. Clapper is a penguin, whose his species are found in Antarctica (the South Pole). Though one could make an argument that these two types of animals either got transported from their natural homes to Sweden by boat or swimming all the way there. Doesn’t stop them from being great animal sidekicks to the heroes.
* Also the raccoons in the movie. While, yes…it’s not so unusual to see certain raccoons here and there in Europe (even Sweden), they are native to North America.

*Mood Whiplash*:

* A subtle one, but perhaps most notably after the moments when Kai getting lost from his parents during a snowstorm on their trip, a saddening grief from Nick and Hedvig home in Helsingborg after losing their son (including a grief from his best friend Gerda) and then Gerda saying an emotionally saddening yet positively heartwarming good-bye to her parents and Kai’s parents for her journey to find Kai, though through her travels alone, Gerda falls down due to unconsciousness. We go from all those heartwrenching scenes, to three talking animals ( a beaver, a polar bear and a hare) curb-stomping wolves and lynxes in their own comical fashion (the comic relief was badly needed for some after the past few minutes).

*Named by the Adaptation*: The Snow Queen of Hans Christian Andersen's tale became Sigrid, the prince and princess became Viktor & Ingrid respectively, while the Robber Girl became Katrine. Even both Kai’s parents & Gerda’s parents have names. It’s only Kai & Gerda who kept and retained their names from their book-counterparts.

*Nature Is Not Nice*: The snowstorm that seperate Kai and his parents through their journey up the landscape.

*Never Trust a Trailer*: Some s

*Non-Human Sidekick*: Josef, Klaus, Magnus, Alvin, Clapper, Sven & Blizzard fits the trope perfectly.

*Non-Standard Character Design*: The non-talking animals throughout the film here and there in the background, are all drawn realistically, despite the supporting talking animal cast and some non-talking animals (being pets to some of the characters) being far more cartoony. This is best shown by comparing the wild & realistic-looking reindeers (which look like something out of Bambi) throughout certain scenes of the movie to the far more cartoonish Sven (Katrine’s pet reindeer). Sven is supposed to be Gonk, so it's fairly justified.

*No One Could Survive That!*: Basically the reason why Hedvig & Nick didn’t even think about looking for Kai. Falling overboard into a stormy snow and falling down to the snowy ground, would most definitely mean certain death for anyone, especially a child like Kai. Fortunately, he survives but is very unconscious after the fall, leaving Sigrid (The Snow Queen herself) to save him from a cold death.

*Norse by Norsewest*: The movie takes place in Scandinavia. Specifically in Sweden.

*Oh, Crap!*: Happens numerous of times in the movie’s more intense scenes. One in particular where Kai sees Jorgen (as an Ax-Crazy man) ready to kill him and Gerda, yet the kids fortunately tries running away from him.

*Pop-Star Composer*: Celine Dion helped writing some of the songs alongside, song composer Alan Menken, score composer James Horner & songwriters Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. She is given credit for contributing and helping with the songs.

*Promoted to Love Interest*: While the relationship between Kai and Gerda remains platonic like in the original tale, this Disney adaptation also makes them a couple, either before or after Kai's disappearance.

*Related in the Adaptation*: The prince and princess are a couple in the original story, but here in the Disney version, both (named Viktor & Ingrid) are aged down to children and portrayed as siblings.

*Scenery Porn*: The whole movie is like this. With hand-drawn 2D-animation (including CGI effects) & visuals as beautiful & gorgeous as The Snow Queen herself. And the characters (humans & animals) that are so distinctly well-animated. It makes the Swedish & Scandinavian landscapes, towns & cities look artistically wonderful & a great sight for the eye to behold.

*Shoo Out The Clowns*: At the climax of the film, Sigrid and Jorgen have their fight alone, with Sigrid doing everything to protect the kids. The robbers are last seen fleeing the castle in defeat, especially after their robber leader dead during his stab and falling to a crushing death. The animal characters like Magnus, Clapper, Alvin, Josef and Klaus only reappear after Jorgen falls to his death off the ledge of the ice castle, dragged down by heavy rocks with ropes tied to his feet.

*Shout-Out*:

* One scene where
* A fish that looks nearly like Flounder from “*The Little Mermaid*”, makes a cameo appearance when Katrine catches a fish, while fishing with a rod.
* A rare Non-Disney appearance in any Disney film imaginable. When Viktor & Ingrid looks for toys to share with their new friends (Gerda), they pick up plush toys consisting of mice plush toys and dinosaur plush toys that look very familiar. And they’re none other than Fievel Mousekewitz and his family from Don Bluth’s/Universal’s “*An American Tail*” and Littlefoot & his friends from “*The Land Before Time*”! Pretty coincidenctal cameos since the music composer James Horner did the score on all three films”. There's even a snatch of "If We Hold On Together" (The Land Before Time theme music) & “Fievel’s Theme” (An American Tail theme music) included in the soundtrack.

*Sleeper Hit*: Jeffrey Katzenberg considered *The Snow Queen* & *The Lion King* (the latter Disney film after the former) to be nothing more than fillers on the way to the real hit, *Pocahontas*. Though other executives at Disney at first hoped *The Snow Queen* would do as well as *Aladdin*, which looked like a $19-20M opening weekend. Instead, *Pocahontas* underperformed commercially (relative to expectations) and critically and *The Snow Queen* overperformed above and beyond expectations & became a critically acclaimed animated film, beloved by everyone & a massively phenomenal box office success, opening at a record-breaking $40M (for an animated film), being the first animated film to gross over more than $700+ million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide. It went on to become not only the highest grossing traditionally animated film at the time but also the highest grossing film of 1993, outgrossing even Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.

*Speaks Fluent Animal*: Gerda, Kai, Viktor, Ingrid, Katrine, Sigrid, both Kai’s family & Gerda’s family & the Sami people, speak to talking animal characters in the movie.

*Talking Animal*: Well..almost all animal characters. You have ones who do talk (Josef, Magnus, Klaus, Clapper, Alvin, etc), and those who don’t (Sven, Blizzard, etc).

*The Big Damn Kiss*: Near the end of the movie, both Gerda & Kai gives an emotional and romantic kiss to each other when they and their families and friends finally reunited. What makes it so special that this Disney Couple are kids and it was so new and interesting for kid characters to kiss each other in a Disney movie.

*What Could Have Been*:

* Originally,
* A

Tropes regarding Gerda:

*All-Loving Heroine*: She can make friends with anyone; children, adults, animals, flowers, ghosts, you name it. Foes or bad people though, are exceptions.

*Beware the Nice Ones*: Doesn’t like seeing bullies, brutes or enemies picking on kids & those younger than them and elderly people weaker than them.

*Break the Cutie*: In the first film, the first time Gerda becomes emotionally sad is after the scene where she hears that Kai was lost during a trip with his parents. Another moment is at the near end of the movie, where she believes that Kai was dead after a fatal injury, the poor child has all of her hopes shattered. Luckily, things do get better when Kai wakes up alive.

*Childhood Friend Romance*: With Kai. They both do share an innocently romantic relationship with each other.

*Childhood Friends*: With Kai. They have been best friends since they were babies.

*Children Are Innocent*: Basically one of Gerda’s personalities.

*Distant Duet*: Both she and Kai sing an emotionally heartwarming & tearjerking duet song together, despite not being in the same place. They sing about their hopes of finding each other someday (considering they’re far off from where they are).

*Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold*: This trope fits the young, sweet and innocent girl. Gerda is of course a really kind-hearted person.

*I Will Find You*: Gerda sets out to find Kai, and oh boy does it take a while.

*Like Parent, Like Child*: Gerda has traits from both of her parents Birgit & Hjalmar:

* Gerda inherited a bit of her mother’s sense of adventure and bravery. Also, she likes traveling and meeting new friends & companions (like her mother once did during her youth).
* In terms of her father Hjalmar, Gerda inherited her father’s lighter hair color and heroic trait, which makes it very helpful for her long journey.

*Light Is Good*: Gerda is dressed in yellow, has blonde hair, and is shown to be a kind & heroic girl.

*Long Hair Is Feminine*: Gerda has long, flowing hair which adds to her cuteness & sweetness. Helps that she’s one of the cutest Disney animated girls in general.

*Man Bites Man*: Or rather ”child/little girl bites man”. Gerda bites Jorgen on the arm, to get out of his grip and run away.

*Nice Girl*: Generally one of the nicest characters in the franchise.

*Official Couple*: With Kai.

*Plucky Girl*: An adventurous example for Gerda.

*Snooping Little Kid*: On Jorgen, when she finds out that he is indeed a ruthless man, exposing his villainy, becoming the second person in her family to see Jorgen’s true colors, with Hjalmar being the first one. Gets her into lots of trouble.

*Strong Family Resemblance*: She takes after her mother and yet has the lighter hair color of her father.

*The Power of Love*: Her love for Kai is what saves him in the end.

Walking the Earth: Walk from your hometown in the south of Sweden to the cold, cold north.

*You Have to Believe Me!*: "She's very kind, heartwarming, gentle, and would never in her life, do anything to hurt me, Kai or my family" Gerda’s parents and Kai’s parents believe her, but Jorgen doesn’t.

Tropes regarding Kai:

*Adaptational Heroism*: Since he’s treated as the other main protagonist of the film, Kai is given a lot more heroic moments than he did in the original tale. It’s the sign of being an “Adaptational Nice Guy” in the Disney version (see below).

*Adaptational Nice Guy*: While still one of the endearing characters in the original tale, Book Kai became rather cold & mean after getting one mirror shard in the eye and another in the heart, possessing him. This Disney incarnation of Kai, is pretty much a nice boy with no bad heart. And him meeting the Snow Queen herself (Sigrid) and being brought to her palace up north, is more because of an accidental cause after a raging & windy snowstorm seperated Kai from his parents and left him unconscious, rather than intentionally coming along with her like in the tale. Kai even returns the saving favor to Sigrid after she saved him from an attack of beastly animals.

*Big Damn Reunion*: Probably one of the most famous examples in animated films. Kai finally seeing his friends (Gerda) & family (his parents) again, feels like an absolute feel-good moment in the movie.

*Brainy Brunette*: Male example. Kai is shown to be a very smart & intelligent boy for someone his age. He’s also very clever with riddles & puzzles.

*Childhood Friend Romance*: With Gerda. They both do share an innocently romantic relationship with each other.

*Childhood Friends*: With Gerda. They have been best friends since they were babies.

*Disney Death*: Gerda believed it at first when she tried waking Kai up, which led her to be heartbroken with her belief that her friend was gone. Fortunately though, Kai does wake up alive in the end, and both he and Gerda finally reunite with their families.

*Distant Duet*: Both he and Gerda sing an emotionally heartwarming & tearjerking duet song together, despite not being in the same place. They sing about their hopes of finding each other someday (considering they’re far off from where they are).

*Fearless Fool*: Kai enters Sigrid’s big room, even though the Snow Queen explicitly tells him "It's forbidden!" and Clapper (the penguin) & Alvin (the arctic fox) try to talk him out of going into the Snow Queen’s room. Kai is aware that his actions would incur Sigrid’s emotions, but he proceeds anyway. Sure enough, when he tries to build the mirror (with some shards like some puzzle pieces, and he did put some pieces together), Sigrid suddenly gets angered and freezes/ice beams much of her chambers in the room, while screaming at Kai to get out. This rage terrifies Kai to the point where he runs away from the castle.

*Good Is Not Soft*: Kai is pretty much compassion and kindness personified, but he has no problem standing up against Sigrid's anger and pointing out when she is the wrong, especially after he saved her from bleeding injuries.

*Hidden Depths*: It is shown that Kai is very good at making puzzles.

*Morality Chain*: Kai’s presence causes Sigrid to undergo an enormous amount of Character Development.

*Nice Guy*: Kai is generally one of the kindest characters in the movie and the Snow Queen franchise.

*Official Couple*: With Gerda.

Tropes regarding Katrine:

*Action Girl*: She is the most combative of the girl characters.

*Beware The Nice Ones*: Katrine might be a young & friendly little girl, but don’t let her age or gender fool you. She carries her knife to defend herself and is a survivor orphan, and if her best friends are in danger….boy, will this not end well for the villains.

*Brainy Brunette*: For an orphan kid, Katrine is a pretty smart girl.

*Knife Nut*: She has her own knife as a weapon for defense.

*Little Miss Snarker*: When she needs to be. Katrine is of course, the girl who is a lone survivor.

*Official Couple*: With Viktor. Explored in the TV-series.

*Parental Abandonment*: Katrine is the only animated kid character, who is an orphan and homeless (though she does get an own home in Gerda & Kai’s hometown, after the long journey with them). We do meet her mom in the sequel.

*Tomboy and Girly Girl*: Katrine is the knife-wielding girl which makes her feel a bit like a tough girl, compared to Gerda & Ingrid’s Girly Girl. She’s the only young girl character in the movie, not to wear a skirt.

*Tomboy with a Girly Streak*: Despite Katrine being a brave & orphaned robber girl wielding a weapon and has no skirt, she does have several girly treats as well. She has long hair, can be friendly to other kids and is a genuinely good kid.

Tropes regarding Viktor:

*100% Adoration Rating*: Both he and Ingrid are beloved by everyone in their kingdom (including royal subjects), even the ones outside towns & cities.

*Big Brother Instinct*: Is this towards his younger sister, Ingrid.

*Blue Is Heroic*: Prince Viktor wears a light-blue prince outfit.

*Cheerful Child*: One of Disney's most honest examples.

*Disappeared Dad*: While Viktor & Ingrid’s mother is present in the movie’s story, their father was nowhere to be seen. He is mentioned though.

*Official Couple*: With Katrine. Explored in the TV-series.

*Warrior Prince*: Viktor really knows how to use a weapon and defend himself, his sister and his friends.

Tropes regarding Ingrid:

*100% Adoration Rating*: Both she and Viktor are beloved by everyone in their kingdom (including royal subjects), even the ones outside towns & cities.

*Breaking Old Trends*: Ingrid is the first Disney Princess to be a child throughout the entire movie. Also, it started a trend for more future young Disney princesses to come after her.

*Cheerful Child*: One of Disney's most honest examples.

*Disappeared Dad*: While Ingrid & Viktor’s mother is present in the movie’s story, their father was nowhere to be seen. He is mentioned though.

*Pink Means Feminine*: Ingrid wears a pink princess dress. Justified, since she is royal-born.

*Princess Classic*: Ingrid is this. Born a princess, she's sweetness and light personified, but she has plenty of backbone. She has kindness, etc. Good thing also that her older brother is a prince.

Tropes regarding both Viktor & Ingrid:

*Big Damn Heroes*: They both help Gerda & Kai fighting off Jorgen and his men in the climax. And they’re good at it too.

*Pink Girl, Blue Boy*: In terms of the colors of their clothes, Ingrid wears pink, while Viktor wears blue.

*Royals Who Actually Do Something*: They welcome Gerda and her friends inside their castle and make them feel welcome.

*Sibling Team*: Both are usually together as the royal siblings.

Tropes regarding Sigrid:

*Adaptational Badass*: She fights Jorgen to protect the kids.

*Adaptational Heroism*: In *The Snow Queen*, (the book) the Snow Queen is rather morally ambiguous. It's implied that she casts a magic spell on Kai to get him to stay with her, in turn leading to an implication that she is kidnapping him for unknown reasons. Here in the Disney version, Sigrid is a heroic figure who befriends Kai, and later Gerda & her friends. She doesn’t kidnap Kai but rather saves him from the cold when he was unconsciously lying in the snow after the tragic incident with the snowstorm. She takes him to her own kingdom and protects him. She even fights against the true big bad of the movie during the climax. (Jorgen).

*After-Action Patch-Up*: After she saves Kai from the vicious animals, he patches her up; her saving his is the first sign of her inner goodness and the patchup scene is the start of their friendship.

*An Ice Person*: Sigrid is that. She’s not made of ice of course, but she definitely has ice powers.

*Dark and Troubled Past*: Apparently, she lives alone in her palace with only her non-human serveants like some few live animals and some supernatural ice creatures, like a golem & an ice eagle. The solitude makes her so stoic & cold at first. That’s only until she saves & meets Kai, where she would later warm up to others.

*Defrosting Ice Queen*: Or..the “Snow” Queen in this term. Sigrid starts out as more of a stoic loner who’s been ruling in a palace alone without much company aside from her serveants. It took Kai’s kindness and a good heart to warm Sigrid’s heart, making her more content and see a lighter side to herself. Basically, Sigrid's *Character Development* is moving from cold individual to a caring & loving person to others.

*Florence Nightingale Effect*: After Kai had his life saved by Sigrid and nurses the wounds she sustained from the animal attack, she is genuinely touched by his act of kindness and wants to do things to make him happy. This is the catalyst for her Character Development and the improvement of their relationship. Not just her relationship with Kai, but also others as well, hence why she kindly later becomes friends with Gerda and the other characters from her journey as well.

*Heel–Face Turn*: An anti-villain (or a misunderstood person) in the first half but no more in the second half. That’s the sign of Character Development.

*Lady of War*: She has her own Ice sword.

*Ms. Fanservice*: Sigrid is drawn to be a lot more beautiful & protagonistic young woman (around her high 20’s), like the usual Disney heroine, sharing a similar attractiveness as Belle.

*OOC Is Serious Business*: Most of the time in the movie, before her *Character Development*, Sigrid was seen as cold, yet calm queen with a dignified and queenly demeanor, not showing so much emotion. But when Kai enters the room that she told him not to enter, she becomes angered and that’s the start of her emotions putting effect. Fortunately, she does let out some positive & happy ones after when she saves Kai’s life from the wild animals (see Character Development).

Protagonist Title: In a way, yes. While Sigrid is the "Snow Queen" part in the title, she is the deuteragonist or third protagonist. One Key element of the movie, centers on her growing relationship with Kai.

*Rage-Breaking Point*:

* She does a really good job at keeping her calm, stoic and level-headed emotions in check due to her queenly demeanor throughout parts of the movie... until Kai enters her room (when she specifically told him not to do so), causes her to lash out her anger on the boy and snap, firing her powers, scaring off Kai which leads him to run away from the kingdom all by himself.

*Summon Magic*: She is able to summon her horses and the white carriage when she intends to travel and even a giant Ice eagle & Ice golem as her combat companions. And of course, she is the bringer of snowflakes and ice each year.

Title Character: Sigrid is the "The Snow Queen" part in the title.

*Took a Level in Cheerfulness*: Kai's presence (and his friends) not only makes her nicer, but also happier.

*Took a Level in Kindness*: Kai's presence (and his friends) not only makes her happier, but also nicer.

Tropes regarding Jorgen:

*Ax-Crazy*: Downplayed until the climax, where he goes into a Villainous Breakdown. Also during the final showdown with Sigrid & Kai, he's lost all composure to homicidal rage. That character trait makes him more ruthless than the previous Disney villains.

*Badass Baritone*: He's voiced by the late, great Alan Rickman, This is also present in the Swedish dub where he is given the booming voice of another voice who sounds extremely similar, ”Rikard Wolff” whom the latter then afterwards did the Swedish voice of the next Disney Villain, Scar (The Lion King)

*Beard of Evil*: Has a beard in the movie and is the villain.

*Big Bad*: The main antagonist of the first movie. He is the one who rallies lots of robbers (excluding Katrine and the other male kid robbers, since the former left with Gerda and the latter group went their own way) to hunt the kids down and eventually attempt to kill Sigrid.

*Breakout Villain*: Became one of the most popular Disney villains in the 90’s, leading to appear in as many Disney appearances imaginable.

*Canon Foreigner*: Jorgen is not in the original fairy tale. The main antagonist in other adaptations of the tale (depending on which film or cartoon you see) is either the Snow Queen herself or the Devil.

*Cold Ham*: Is one of the more subtle Disney villains of the Disney Canon, especially the Disney Renaissance, but is not without his hammy moments.

*Color Motifs*: Black.

*Cruel and Unusual Death*: His demise is *incredibly* drawn out and grotesque, even by Disney standards.

*Dark Is Evil*: Has a black beard and dressed mostly in black.

*Disney Villain Death*: He falls down off the top of the ice palace, after a Backstab Backfire and down into the ravine below. The hard ice-boulder drags his body and he lands on sharp Ice spikes (due to being quickly dragged down), which ends up killing him once and for all. And that gives him one of the more gruesome Disney animated villain deaths in Disney’s history.

*Elemental Motifs*: Fire.

*Evil Brit*: Obviously he’s actually Swedish, but sounds British since he’s voiced by Alan Rickman. He is one of the very few characters with the British accent, but the only villainous Brit.

*Evil Counterpart*:

* To Hjalmar. Both are/were soldiers and once foughts in fights against supernatural things. They even knew each other very well. But while Hjalmar is a very goodhearted man and father to one of the main protagonists, Jorgen eventually betrays Hjalmar and his family when the latter finds out the former’s true motives.
* To Sigrid. Both are leaders to their subjects. But while Sigrid is cold-suited on the outside, Jorgen is coldhearted on the inside. Sigrid is a more compassionate & caring Queen with redeeming qualities once she befriends the kid characters, while Jorgen despite being a high-ranking leader to the robbers he rallies, is cruel and merciless to his enemies. Also…while Sigrid was born with her ice-powers, Jorgen’s fire-powers comes from a book that he’s learned to master a long time ago.

*Evil Is Bigger*: Definately true when putting him close to the kid characters like Gerda, Kai, Katrine, Viktor & Ingrid and smaller animal characters like Josef (beaver) & Magnus (hare) since he easily towers them.

*Evil Is Burning Hot*: Fire is a prominent motif of his. He uses it against others even physically with gunfire and literal firepower.

*Evil Makes You Monstrous*: Downplayed. While Jorgen being a villain, stays human through the movie. And at the climax when he's ready to strike Sigrid, he gives out a frightening and ax-crazy look on his face towards the heroes.

*Evil Old Folks*: Jorgen is around his mid to late 50’s age. And as demonstrated in the climax, he's no slouch in a fight despite his age.

*Evil Sounds Deep*: Thanks to the subtle and calm baritone of Alan Rickman. He can range from Cold Ham to Large Ham when he needs to.

*Family-Unfriendly Death*: After losing a fight with Sigrid, he begs for mercy. Sigrid finally lets him go.…only for Jorgen to later stab Kai in the back with sharp weapon. And before attempting to make a final kill shot, Jorgen suddenly gets dragged down by ropes bound on his legs, with ice boulders weighing down to a ravine. When he lands on the sharp icy spikes after a high & quick fall, it ends up killing him instantly.

*Karmic Death*: Just when Sigrid spares him his life, Jorgen stabs Kai in the back after when the boy comes to Gerda. Jorgen, of course, pays with his life when the rope attached to his legs is being dragged down by an ice boulder giving him a vicious loss of balance and falls off the roof to his death.

*Reckless Gun Usage*: Besides literal firepower, he even uses shotgun rifles.

*Villainous Breakdown*: When it's clear that Gerda & Kai would not fall for Jorgen’s treachery, he publicly shows his true nature to them and their families. Also, later in a scene while Gerda & Kai share an emotional moment, Jorgen soon goes “Ax-Crazy”, grabs his sword and tries to kill them both.

*Would Hurt A Child*: Jorgen would not hesitate trying to hurt/injure the kid characters, including Kai & Gerda. It’s proven when he grabs Gerda with one hand, only to be bit by the girl (who gets away safely).

*"You!" Exclamation*: Jorgen says this when he notices Gerda spying on him.

*You Monster*!: Gerda calls out Jorgen this.

* **Jorgen** : Gerda, if I did not know any better, I'd say you all care so much for this coldhearted cruel woman of a witch. **Gerda** : She's not a coldhearted person in any means, Jorgen. But you are!

Tropes regarding Josef the Beaver:

*Busy Beaver*: Josef might not be an overly active beaver, but he easily knows how to be a hard worker when building things like a dam or something he likes doing for his friends. He has handy hands and fingers for a beaver.

*Large Ham*: In terms of Disney animated characters, Josef is basically Tom Hanks as a talking beaver, and boy...does the actor have absolutely fun with his character.

Tropes regarding Klaus the Polar Bear:

*Bears are Bad News*: Subverted when it comes to being with friends/allies, but played straight when it comes to foes/villains. Klaus’s size and strength justifies the trope, when defending the heroes from the bad guys.

*Beware the Nice Ones*: Is a nice enough guy, but he's still a large polar bear, Anyone who threatens him or his friends (human or animal), is in trouble.

*Gentle Giant*: Klaus is the biggest of the talking animals and a really nice bear guy to both human friends and animal friends.

*One-Man Army*: Never underestimate the power of large polar bears. Klaus can wipe out any does without breaking a sweat.

*The Big Guy*: Klaus is the muscle of the trio.

Tropes regarding Magnus the Hare:

*Righteous Rabbit*: He is definitely a honorable bunny through thick & thin.

*Super Speed*: While not really the fastest thing ever existed or such, Magnus is still very quick & agile for a hare. This puts his ability in very good use when it comes to running from predators or foes that comes after him.

Tropes regarding the entire Animal Trio:

*Animal Companion*: They become this to Gerda when they decide they want to travel with her on the long journey.

*Anthropomorphic Shift*: While they were already partially civilized animals in their debut, their TV series and several other related media

*Big, Thin, Short Trio*: Klaus is the Big (a polar bear bigger than both his herbivore buddies) Magnus is the Thin (a hare who is the one that is very agile) and Josef is the Short (a beaver who's right in the middle when it comes to size difference, far smaller than Klaus but slightly a similar size as Magnus, if not bigger.

*Canon Foreigners*: The animal trio were nowhere to be seen at all in the original H.C Andersen story, nor was there any beaver, rabbit/hare or polar bear sidekick.

*Comic Trio*: Their primary roles are to provide comedy and otherwise playing off each other for laughs. They even help Gerda on her big journey as permanent company by accompanying her as supportive animal sidekicks.

Plucky Comic Relief: All of them can really kick ass when they want to.

Tropes regarding Sven:

Action Pet: His biology has made him this; capable of leaping a wide ravine, surviving frigid waters, tearing through blizzards at breakneck speed, keeping ahead of wolves and lynxes.

*Adaptation Name Change*: In the original tale, his name was Bae. Here, it's Sven.

*All Animals Are Dogs*: Has the mannerisms of a dog more than a reindeer, and his official character description even describes him as "a reindeer with the heart of a Labrador." This is Played for Laughs and inspired by how the reindeer the research team met reminded them of dogs with their panting and scratching mannerisms.

*Cute Mute*: This reindeer is silly, snarky and lovable, and yet he does not say a single word the entire movie.

*Plucky Comic Relief*: Like Josef, Klaus, Magnus, Alvin & Clapper, he provides levity in a number of places; however he's not a talking animal. He proves his pluckiness by running through a windy snow and coming out relatively none the worse for wear.

*Sidekick*: To Katrine.

*The Speechless*: He doesn't have any lines in the film, just reindeer grunts and groans.

*Undying Loyalty*: To Katrine and later Gerda, Kai, Viktor, Ingrid, and so on.

Tropes regarding both Birgit & Hjalmar:

*Canon Foreigner*: Kinda. It’s true that there are some few adaptations of “*The Snow Queen*” that includes the regular parents, though not so very often. Hence it gave Disney the great opportunity to create two biological parental characters for Gerda, thus Birgit & Hjalmar were introduced in the Disney version. Also, in the Disney-film, they both are in place of taking care of Gerda, replacing the grandmother from the original tale. Ditto for Kai’s parents as well.

*Good Parents*: They are this to Gerda.

Tropes regarding both Hedvig & Nick:

*Good Parents*: They are this to Kai.

Just Nick:

*Polka Dork*: Nick himself is a very good & talented accordion player and proud of it.

*The Storyteller*: He’s the one telling the tale of the Snow Queen herself, to the kids in the beginning of the movie.

Just Hedvig:

*Cry into Chest*: In the scene after both she and Nick loses their son during a winter storm, they come home very heartbroken due to the loss of Kai. Hedvig especially, gets so heartbroken that she breaks in tears on her husband’s chest, with him trying to comfort her, while feeling sad as well.

*Tears of Joy*: When she (along with Nick) finally reunites with her son Kai, after a very long journey to the Snow Queen’s palace in Lapland.

Just Birgit:

*Action Mom*: Not seen as much, but she doesn't back away from a fight, as evidenced in the climax.

*Big Good*: Birgit is exactly one of the factors why her daughter Gerda is such a very kind-hearted person. With such great parenting skills, she always encourages Gerda to be brave & compassionate, even when the latter goes on her journey to find Kai.

Just Hjalmar:

*Chick Magnet*:

**Differences between the original fairytale and the Disney Film:**

* The tale