The Snow Queen, whose original Finnish name is Lumikuningatar, starts and ends with what's the best in this movie for children: the sight of Outi Vainionkulma as Greta, dancing and playing, together with the other protagonist of the story, Greta's dear friend Kaj (Sebastian Kaatrasalo).

The story is based on a fairytale book of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. This adaptation is as equally surreal as the original. Also, as is often the case with older fairytales, there are more dark and scary tones than you'll find in recent films for children. The dialogue is not only sparse, but also amusingly formal and awkward. Many of the scenes are dream-like or theatrical: children dancing, a sunset, the face of the Snow Queen, with a hard-to-understand connection to the story.

Greta has a very prominent role in the movie: the story is about her adventure of defeating the evil Snow Queen. During her journey she meets a lonely but evil witch who tries to bewitch her never to leave her company; bandits who threaten to eat her for dinner (and who carry real rifles!); a kind queen who gives her a band of escorts; a wise old woman from the Finnish Lapland. Outi's acting would be hard to praise unconditionally, but she does have an expressive and likeable face, and perhaps it's the overall lack of polish of the production that gives her more personality than many characters in more glossy kids' movies.

The Snow Queen won in the 1987 Finnish Jussi Awards for best music and best visual design, as well as some other Finnish awards. While in that day the aesthetic standards for films were lower than nowadays, the award for best visual design can only mean very few or no high budget movies were made in Finland at the time. However, this is a movie for children, so such shortcomings aren't a great problem.

The Snow Queen is a fine fantasy adventure for children, with a decidedly different look and feel compared to the mainstream. Or, if you like Outi as much as we did, the movie is easily worth watching for that reason alone.