The Russian “Snow Queen” Will Open This Friday

If you can’t wait until November to see Disney’s Frozen, there’s another CG film based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Snow Queen opening in the U.S. this Friday. It’s a Russian pic called, simply, The Snow Queen. This is the second time the fairytale has been made as an animated feature in Russia; the first time was Lev Atamanov’s 1957 feature of the same name.

This new CG version, which sticks more faithfully to Anderson’s original story than the upcoming Disney version, was produced by Voronzh, Russia-based Wizart Animation. It looks fairly cheap, but keep in mind its budget was $7 million (or somewhere in the ballpark of 1/25th the cost of Frozen). Directed by Vladlen Barbe and Maksim Sveshnikov, it has grossed over $10 million worldwide including $7.5M from Russia (where it was released in 2012), $1.5M from South Korea and $1M from Brazil.

Upstart indie distributor Vertical Entertainment will release the film theatrically in the U.S., and a DVD release is scheduled for the day before Disney’s theatrical release. The film’s official Tumblr has some details on the few theaters, so far, that will screen the film.