The Snow Queen: Yeah...it's a Frozen Knock-off

At this point in time, Disney's Frozen is close to making a billion dollars, and will be the first Disney animated film to do so. Of course, other animation studios want to get in on this and often make movies are known as "Mockbusters" which closely resemble a big release. This is hardly a new concept as one of the earliest examples was when Orca was released around the same time Jaws. More recent examples are Transmorphers and Atlantic Rim from Asylum Productions. It's even easier now to make a rip-off film since you can release your movie right onto store shelves while the major release is still in theaters.

            In this fashion, The Snow Queen tells the story of the cruel Snow Queen (voiced by Cindy Robinson) covering the land (its name never mentioned) in ice. The last threat standing in her way is a master mirror maker who can reveal her true form.  She kills him, leaving behind his descendants, a son named Kai (voiced by Marianne Miller) and a daughter named Gerda (voiced by Jessica Straus). Time passes and the Snow Queen sends her troll servant Orm (voiced by Doug Erholtz) to take the children. However, only Kai gets sent to the Queen while Orm, Gerda and her annoying ferret are left behind by accident. Gerda must now save her friend and learn something special about him.

            This film was originally presented in Russia where it appears to have received really good reviews. However, even without the horrible voice dubbing and the suspicious time of its American release, this film is still a mess. The Snow Queen's motivation seems to be all over the place. At first the she wants to get rid of the special mirrors but then it's revealed that she's been killing other artists. These artists may or may not be related to the protagonist's father in any way that makes sense.

            While the movie already has a problem keeping the motivation of the Snow Queen in check, it can't even keep itself straight. There's a point near the beginning where the trio come across a greenhouse ruled by a witch. A greenhouse in the middle of the ice wasteland is dumb enough, but where is the market for flowers in this land? The closest town is miles away and they can't even survive in the ice cold. If that wasn't bad enough, the movie is so bad at explaining itself, there's a moment where the main character can use magic but then it's revealed to be a mistake on the part of the story.

            If there was one interesting part of the movie, it would have to be in the aforementioned greenhouse. When the witch wants the trio to stay she unleashes a giant plant that actually has some imagination behind it. Otherwise this movie feels pretty paint-by-numbers as far as the characters go. This, however, doesn't cover up the truly awful lip dubbing; as it seems that the company didn't even try.

When bringing it to America, it seems the goal was to rush it out to release it in time with Frozen. I'm even surprised that it got any positive reviews in Russia, as there is really nothing special about the film.

            The film can be bought on DVD and is available on Netflix if you really need your Frozen fix and don't want to torrent. However, either just see Frozen again or wait until the DVD and you'll get a much better experience and movie. It's interesting to see what films come out in the wake of a popular release. As they say; "Good artists copy, Great artists steal", although that doesn't always apply.