The Snow Queen (Readers Digest)

This will be the first of two Snow Queen adaptations that I will review, though the second will take a little while to get to. I will start off though by first saying that the Snow Queen is probably one of my favorite stories from Hans Christian Andersen. This Readers Digest version is surprisingly faithful to the original story where it includes the talking flowers, the married ravens and of course the talking reindeer. The story of course is likely well known, an evil sprite one day creates a mirror that reflects the ugliness of the world, twisting and distorting things. One day the mirror shatters and two splinters enter the heart and eye of our main character, Kay. Kay soon is taken away by the Snow Queen who wants him to solve for her an impossible puzzle. Kay however has a good childhood friend named Gerda and she is quite set upon finding her friend even if it means travelling far and wide through the seasons to find the Snow Queens palace to rescue him. The movie falls just short of the hour mark and in a way I think this hampers it a bit since things can feel slightly rushed. The animation is fairly sub par, though it is still better than some of the old shorts I have been viewing as of late. The story itself is well told and I believe only deviates slightly from the story by excluding two lesser characters who help Gerda along her way as well as a small verse being dropped that the two children sing. The rest of it however seems fairly on track from what I can remember. Is it as good as the second version? Probably not, and most people under the target age range might not find a lot of entertainment in it.

Gremlins

Gremlins, a wildly fun roller-coaster ride as one minute your hair will stand on end and, the next you'll be laughing at the havoc these gentle looking Mogwai create when all the rules are broken.

This movie starts us off in a small Chinatown shop and if there is one thing we've learnt about these places it is that entering them throws the rules out the window and magic enters the picture. The first half of the film in general is a pretty good one, we are introduced to our characters and get to spend a lot of time with the adorable Gizmo and his companions once he gets wet and multiplies. From the second half onward we get more of a horror aspect to the film as the Mogwai lead by their leader, Stripe, engage in causing as much chaos as possible upon turning into their Gremlin form.

Easily the best thing about this movie is the Gremlins themselves. First you have Gizmo, and the Mogwai form, which is cute, cuddly and has impossibly large eyes. Then you have the Gremlin form which just looks pretty cool with an almost Alien vibe to it. The Gremlins themselves are just plain awesome as they run amok and at one point all sit and watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs while singing along to "Heigh-Ho". That's not to say of course that the human cast isn't lacking, Billy and Kate are an alright pair of protagonists. However, I have to give the mother a lot of credit given how she takes out three Gremlins herself of the original five that Gizmo spawned until Billy comes to her rescue from the fourth. The father isn't all that bad as the quirky inventor though his scenes did feel a bit slower to me than the other characters. His opening scene in the Chinatown shop is probably the only place where this isn't a downside since the movie is just getting started up.

Gremlins. If you haven't seen it yet you should probably check it out. This is definitely a film not to be missed and is fun to watch any time of the year and not just around the holiday season.