The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice – Snezhnaya koroleva 3. Ogon i led (2016)

Directed by: Aleksey Tsitsilin | 80 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Vita Coenen, Christian Nieuwenhuizen, Valentijn Banga, Daan van Rijssel, Vera van der Horst, Frans Limburg, Pip Pellens

Hans Christiaan Andersen already wrote the fairy tale ‘The Snow Queen’ in 1844 and now there is part 3 in a series of animation films based on this fairy tale. Here too, the story revolves around Gerda and Kai. After defeating the Snow Queen in the previous film, the two children travel across the country to earn money from their illustrious history. Yet Gerda has a greater goal and that is to find her parents. And here, too, they run into all sorts of trouble after finding an ancient magical artifact.

‘The Snow Queen’ series lives in the shadow of ‘Frozen’ (even though part 1 came out before the Disney classic), as it revolves around family, ice wizards and trolls. It seems as if the makers realize that too, because a lot is added in the story that should not resemble the world of Anna and Elsa. And therein lies the weakness. It’s a jumble of storylines, which don’t contribute very much to the main character’s goal. At about three quarters of the way through the film you can ask yourself: “what do they have to do to bring this to a good end?” The answer to that contributes little or nothing to finding the parents. And that’s what started the whole story. Does that also mean that the film is boring and unexciting? No that again. The challenges presented to the children are fairly exciting and the young viewers will experience that as well.

The story has enough pace to keep you interested. There happens in the hour and twenty minutes that ‘The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice’ takes enough to keep up with the lesson. Only that lesson, so to speak, lacks focus and that remains a minus, especially because the conclusion of the story feels a bit random.

On the other hand, the plus is the animation style. It’s dynamic, colorful and fluid and really contributes to the fact that the 80 minutes go by fairly quickly. The studio behind this (Wizart Animation) actually has few really well-known productions, other than parts 1 and 2 from the series of the same name, to their name. Yet they show themselves very adept here. Partly because of this, ‘The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice’ is a film that, despite lack of focus, can still captivate enough to survive.