The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice () is a 2016 Russian animated fantasy adventure film directed by Aleksey Tsitsilin. It is the sequel to The Snow Queen 2 (2014). In the film, Gerda and her friends embark on a new journey to reunite her family.
Simultaneous release and promotional activities were planned during the theatrical distribution period. After trailers aired in November 2016, the film debuted in Russia on 29 December 2016. Thereafter, it was released in various European countries, as well as throughout Latin America over the years up to 2018. The film set a foreign box office record for a Russian animation film.
A sequel, The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands, was released in 2018.
Plot The film is about the importance of family and helping. Gerda still has an unfinished dream to find her parents who were once taken away from them by the North Wind and finally reunite the family. The tireless pirate Alfida, laughable anteater-like troll Orm, and his furry companion, weasel Luta will help her achieve the dream. Several years have passed since the events of the films The Snow Queen and The Snow Queen 2: Magic of the Ice Mirror. Kai and Gerda are national heroes and regularly tell the story of how they defeated the Snow Queen. Kai and Gerda are tired of wandering and go to visit Orm. Together with Alfida they journey to the land of the trolls. Orm introduce them to a cheerful guy named Rollan. He is a Spaniard, who is a researcher on urban legends.
The pirates, who are commanded by the Pirate Boss Lady, have robbed the bank of a small seaside town. Only one man resisted them who was nicknamed Rollan the Legend. Disarming him, the Pirate Boss Lady gave him the book "Legends of Trolls." Rollan spins tales of great grandeur and Gerda tugs along with her own version. Gerda states how she defeated the Snow Queen accidentally. This caused Kai to be distressed because they already made a pact, that they will never again reveal that story and boast about their past. Rollan gapes with astonishment at the truth while Kai quarrels and sails away with Alfida. Rollan comes back to his wits as he tells a real legend. Rollan tells Gerda the story of the Wishing Stone - an artifact that, according to legends, can fulfill any desire, and it is located in the forbidden caves under Lake Gao.
Thereafter they seek the artifact. They go into the forbidden troll caves. The pair fall into an underground chamber protected by robots. They escape the attacks and find their path to the resting place of the Wishing Stone. Only after reaching their destination, do they learn that the stone is composed of two magic parts: the Stone of Fire and Ice. Upon touching it, Gerda and Rollan are possessed by the spirits of the Snow Queen and the Fire King, gaining ice and fire powers respectively. Pursued by troll king Arrog's soldiers, the two flee out of the village while their newfound powers begin to wreak havoc on the surrounding environment. A distance away, Kai and Alfida notice the chaos and head back to make sure Gerda is safe.
Gerda and Rollan meet up with Orm, who informs them of a library with knowledge of troll legends. Gerda creates an ice train and they return to the troll village and enter the library, where they learn that they have been afflicted by a curse whereupon they will receive the powers of the Snow Queen and Fire King; however, by sunset, they will be consumed by their spirits entirely. To revoke the curse, they must return to the Wishing Stone and free themselves of the spirits. The two are caught by the troll shaman, who attempts to kill them, but he is stopped by Arrog, who trusts Gerda and allows her and Rollan entry into the Wishing Stone's chamber. The two make it to the Wishing Stone and Gerda relinquishes herself of the Snow Queen's spirit, but Rollan betrays her, revealing he deliberately brought about the curse in order to have the Fire King's power for himself. He leaves Gerda for dead and returns to the troll village, whereupon he is fully consumed by the Fire King, who goes on a rampage.
Kai and Alfida arrive in the village during the chaos. Kai frees Gerda, and the two reconcile. Gerda formulates a plan to drive the Fire King into the lake by bombarding it with barrels of ice, but they run out of ammunition as it is at the edge. As the Fire King attempts to kill Kai, Gerda mans the ice train and rams into the Fire King, sending them both plunging into the lake. Everyone mourns Gerda's supposed death, but she emerges unscathed. The trolls celebrate, and Gerda and Kai are awarded with a pile of gold from Arrog.
While sailing off with Alfida, Gerda and Kai are led to a frozen mountain by a miniature snow fairy created by the Snow Queen's magic, where the frozen bodies of Gerda and Kai's parents are secretly encased. The snow fairy thaws them out, and Gerda and Kai happily reunite with their parents.
Cast CharacterOriginalEnglishGerdaNataliya BystrovaLaurie HymesKaiNikolay BystrovJason GriffithRollanFilipp LebedevGraham HalsteadOrmDiomid VinogradovBilly Bob ThompsonAlfidaOlga ZubkovaDevin Bailey GriffinArrogVsevolod KuznetsovScott RayowMaribelIrina DeriyenkovaLori GardnerShamanAleksandr GruzdevMarc ThompsonGrandmaOlga ShorokhovaVanessa JohanssonRahatOleg NovikovTom WaylandLocumFill SavenkovMarc ThompsonHippieMikhail TikhonovPirate Boss LadyOlga ZubkovaSamara NayemiTroll KidsOlga ZubkovaOlga ShorokhovaLori GardnerEileen StevensAlyson Leigh RosenfeldSnow QueenKaterina AfrikantovaEileen StevensLutaDee Bradley Baker
Production
Development With the impetus to sustain The Snow Queen series, Wizart Animation undertook a third installation. Production started with the first official poster premiering at 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The picture became one of the first Russian-Chinese co-production in film history as Beijing's Flame Node Entertainment became one of the producers of the film. The scriptwriters were Aleksey Tsitsilin, Vladimir Nikolaev, Alexey Zamyslov, and Andrey Korenkov. Robert Lence, an animator and story writer, who has previously served as one of the Beauty and the Beast, A Bug’s Life and Home on the Range writers for studios Walt Disney Studio, Pixar, and DreamWorks consulted with the script writing team. From initial snippets to the final version, about 53 variants of the plot development were written. The screenplay started to be written two years ago before the announcement of the film and after going through over fifty changes, it was completed only in 183 days. The most difficult part of the script writing experience was the episode where Gerda receives the Wishing Stone.
Director Aleksey Tsitsilin remarked Robert Lence's expertise in adapting the screenplay for the international audience. Robert Lence gave a positive feedback to the film. Lence says, "I’m really charmed with wonderful world of the Trolls that the authors have created. It brings a unique story to the animated film. 'Snow Queen''' is a good message for kids – importance of families and friends combined with humor and fun. The characters realize how they really need each other, the true value of being a family."
The writers used the theme of adventure as a focal point of the plot. The artifact Wishing Stone will be the motif that drives the plot. The ancient artifact is depicted as a wish fulfillment object despite its side effects of unprecedented environmental change. When the characters wrest the Wishing Stone from its pedestal, climatic fire effects occur. This episode parallels media references to the many adventure suspense films of the 1900s such as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film is added into the historical fantasy category when the characters investigate the motif object's history in catacombs and libraries. The protagonists become fairy tale archaeologists. The writers also developed the message of kinship and family values.
The Russian voice cast included Nataliya Bystrova (ru) as Gerda. Diomid Vinogradov voiced Orm, Nikolay Bystrov voiced Kai, Filipp Lebedev voiced Rollan, and Olga Zubkova (ru) voiced Alfida. The English cast included Laurie Hymes as Gerda, Billy Bob Thompson as Orm, Jason Griffith as Kai, and Graham Halstead as Rollan.
During the American Film Market in November 2015, Wizart presented new materials for Fire and Ice. At the exhibition a new character Rollan was introduced, who is described as a collector of legends. At the AFM, Polish company Kino Świat (pl) committed for a wide release in Poland.
Animation The animators continued their artistry in CGI animation for The Snow Queen: Fire and Ice. Artists went to Spain for inspiration. Over three hundred sketches of streets, buildings and the coast were made. However, the Scandinavian landscape from the original series was still present in the film. For visualization, a 3D model was made in the center of the animation studio. Designs of the panorama in the City of Trolls was inspired by a specific place on the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Ringedalsvatnet. There the iconic Norwegian rock formation Troll Tongue rock (Trolltunga) was chosen as a template for the film sets. A Gérardmer review stated, "the Trolls are a beautiful invention, a chimera between Rabbits and Moomins." The animation required eighteen hours of 2D animation. For 3D, the animators rendered about 55,000 images, far more than five thousand images required for The Snow Queen 2. The animation in terms of numbers included the depiction of around 1,342 original trees and 350 variations of the wardrobe of the three main human characters.
Animators introduced a new villain - the Fire King, a spider volcano which required the most effort in design. Other sophisticated designs included the underground lava chamber in Lake Gao. Before animation, the cues from the voice actor's expression served as a guide for later production. During the preparation of the animated film, five hours of acting were recorded. The emotions of the performers were based on the principles pioneered by social psychologist Paul Ekman. The juxtaposition of fire and ice was developed as a theme for the film. To design animated lava, specialists drew inspiration from over 23 hours of lava video.
A typical frame of the cartoon consists of forty to fifty working layers on which the light is exposed. The backgrounds and characters are correctly highlighted so that the color of the picture is transmitted to the viewer with maximum saturation. The setting Lake Gao in comparison required over 250 layers. Ice special effects such as the avalanche episode required in-depth memory. One second of the working video of an avalanche, after gluing all the frames and "collecting" all layers with light, required ten gigabytes. The pirates of Alfida were bought back from the sequel. The entire team of pirates characters were used to full capacity. The character Snow Queen would be developed with humor and the character weasel Luta would resume the animated gags.
Soundtrack