Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen has been adapted to film several times before, although none of these are particularly well-known with the exception of Hallmark Entertainment’s tv mini-series production Snow Queen (2002). Martin Gates’ version is actually very faithful to the original Hans Christian Andersen story – certainly a good deal more so than the Hallmark version, which bumped the ages of the children up to their late teens and distorted the various adventure episodes considerably. About the only additions that come here is Ellie’s talking sparrow companion and the Snow Queen’s bumbling troll servants.

However, it is this latter element that shows up the main problem with the film – namely a tiresome overemphasis on slapstick. The trolls in particular take pratfalls every time they turn up on screen – falling down stairs, idiocy with the airship and mirror – as well scenes with the witch’s cat flying around demolishing things as it tries to catch Peeps and various inanities with the Robber King’s daughter as Ellie makes her escape. This slapstick comes to dominate the film at the exclusion of almost all else. The overemphasis placed on this is eventually tiresome. The quality of the animation throughout is limited.

Martin Gates later made a sequel The Snow Queen’s Revenge (1996).