The Snow Queen (1937)
The Snow Queen (1937)
Before making his first animated feature, Walt Disney was primarily known for being the creator of Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphony series. By attempting to do a full-length feature, Disney hoped to grow both the prestige and revenue of his animation studio. Several stories were considered for being adapted into a film, these included Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Bambi. Ultimately, Walt would choose the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen as the basis for his first animated feature.
When this was announced in 1934, many in the film industry found the idea of a full-length animated film be preposterous. These critics would refer to The Snow Queen as Disney’s Folly during production. Originally planned to have a budget of $250,000, the film’s budget ended up at $ 1.35 million when production was finished. Not only did Disney montaged his house to help finance his film, he also attempted to get a $100,000 loan from the Bank of America to finish it and only got it after showing a demo of the film. While it wasn’t the first animated film to be made, The Snow Queen would be one of the first full-length cel animated features.
In a small Nordic village live two teenage children, the daughter of a nobleman named Gerda and a peasant boy named Kai. The two are at Kai’s grandmother’s house, where she’s telling them how the approach of the Snow Queen has caused the everlasting winter they are living in. Gerda and Kai then head outside to play in the snow, where they see the Snow Queen arrive on her sliver sled. The Queen forcibly abducts Kai, bringing him back to her palace at the North Pole where she plans to make him her heir, dubbing him the Snow Prince. It's at this point that Kai’s heart begins to turn into ice, which causes him to act more coldly around people.
Having lost her friend, Gerda sets out on a journey to both save Kai before his heart can become frozen and set the village free from it's eternal winter. Along the way, she encounters various animals and snow people who serve as both pantomime comedic relief and guides to the Ice Palace. After making it there, Gerda discovers that Kai is almost frozen. While the Snow Queen gloats about her failure, Gerda professes her love to Kai and kisses him. This action causes Kai to melt into his pure regular self, much to Gerda’s relief. Enraged by this turn of events, the Queen attempts to stab Kat with a icicle, only to trip and impale herself with it. The film ends with Gerda and Kai returning to the village, which is seeing the first signs of spring.
The Snow Queen premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angles on December 21, 1937. After the film ended, the audience gave Disney a massive round of applause, proving the naysayers wrong. In January 1938, it premiered at theaters in New York and Miami before being distributed nationwide on February 4. It earned $2.5 million at the domestic box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 1937. The Snow Queen was universally praised at the time, with particular praise for the animation of the human characters and the vocal performances of Adriana Caselotti as Gerda and Lucille LaVerne as the Snow Queen. Disney eventually received an Academy Award for The Snow Queen. “Disney’s Folly” would be remembered as one of the most important films in history.
