The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King

Plot

A year after the Snow Queen was defeated by Gerda, Orm the troll has thawed out the rest of his kind and now lives with his grandmother and Gerda's pet ferret Luta, working in the troll village as a miner. Upon being fired from his job after insulting the knight Arrog, Orm is manipulated by his living reflection into donning armor and taking part in a competition to decide who will marry Princess Maribel. In order to impress the Princess and her uncle, the King, Orm lies about defeating the Snow Queen. However, Gerda, who had arrived at the village with her brother Kai and friend Alfida, overhear Orm's lies, leading to an argument between the two that culminates in Gerda leaving.

Some time afterwards, as Orm and his grandmother are moving into the King's palace, the North Wind abducts Princess Maribel, causing the King to decree that whoever rescues her will marry her. Orm, joined by Arrog and the other warriors, set off to rescue the Princess, but Orm abandons the others and arrives at Gerda's village, only to discover that her mirror has been stolen. Orm then sends Gerda a message asking her to meet him at the Black Cliffs. En route, Gerda, Kai and Alfida meet the trolls, who reveal that Orm had abandoned the troop. Gerda, disillusioned with Orm, sails off with the other trolls, abandoning Orm at the cliffs.

A distraught Orm is manipulated by his reflection into pulling him into the real world, upon which he freezes the ocean, trapping Gerda and the others. Orm's reflection, referring to himself as the 'Snow King', reveals that the more he grows in power, the more Orm weakens and becomes invisible. The Snow King then unleashes his army to overwhelm Orm's friends, encasing them in ice while trapping Orm in the mirror realm. Orm, while trapped, realizes that the Snow King was born from his lies, and manages to free himself by confessing to his lies, thawing out Gerda and the Snow King's other victims, while at the same time reverting the Snow King back to his reflection.

In the end, Orm is hailed a hero at the troll village for his actions. Orm's grandmother marries the King, and Orm rekindles his relationship with Gerda.

Production

"The Snow Queen" was originally conceived as an international project with the appropriate high level of animation and the more satisfying is the high demand, which we celebrate at the largest film markets around the world. Like the original fairy tale by Andersen which served as the starting point for our film, its story is universal and is understandable to audiences all around the globe.

After the worldwide success of animated film The Snow Queen at the box office producers and the creative team of Wizart Animation decided to continue the story. The director's chair in the new project was taken by Aleksey Tsitsilin who worked as the director of photography in the first installment.

Director Aleksey Tsitsilin, executive producer Vladimir Nikolayev and art director Aleksey Zamyslov, with participation of Timur Bekmambetov and Roman Nepomnyashchiy wrote the script of sequel.

Work on the second feature progressed at an international level. For the English version international stars took part in the dubbing including Sean Bean, Sharlto Copley, Bella Thorne, Isabelle Fuhrman. Thorn also sings an original song "Diamond" for the film. In the South Korean dubbing the song is sung by Soyou from the girl group Sistar.

The music score was written by the British Emmy Award winning composer Mark Willott, who continued his cooperation with the studio after the first part of the film.

Box office

The film grossed US$4.5 million in Russia. It was released in China on 31 December 2016 and grossed CN¥35.3 million in the country.

Critical reception

The Guardian concluded on the film and its predecessor that "both films, rather obviously, are rather in the shadow cast by Frozen, but this is cheerful enough, with a wacky troll, a sinister ice queen, and feisty girl-hero named Gerda. There’s a frenetic, eye-popping quality to the visuals that forestalls the kind of emotional engagement Disney can offer, but there is some entertainment to be had here."

Accolades

The Snow Queen 2 won the award for "Best Animated Film" at the Prague Independent Film Festival in August 2016.

The film was in the shortlist for the 2015 Golden Globes.

Sequels

A third installment, titled The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice, was released on 29 December 2016. The picture, made in collaboration with Beijing's Flame Node Entertainment, will be the first Chinese-Russian co-production in film history.

Episodic roles

Links