The Little Match Girl (1937) User Reviews

The odds are against her!

[Gblakelii · 8/10 · 5 December 2005]

Unfortunately it is the exception rather than the rule when a screenwriter leaves the original story as it is. In this case, the steps of the original were followed, but the details were changed. It is almost as if the film script of this Columbia "color rhapsody" toon was written with only one reading of the source-story, and it never was consulted again. The mood does remain the same, however, and the world may seem even a bit harsher in this particular adaption. The New Year's Eve crowd is quite antagonistic to the poor little match seller. In Andersen's 3 page story it is the weather and her father which are the main adversaries, here it is the uncaring revelers which dominate.

Since the main essence of the story is left intact, and the treatment is grandiose, what remains is an excellent cartoon on any level. The combination of plot line and Brahm's Waltz in A-flat is a match made in heaven! It is obvious much time and care went into the animation, and the choice of colors were superb. Since images were used to convey meaning rather than dialogue(only the words, "Happy New Year" are heard)it seems that the important character of the grandmother had to be dropped in place of an angel. If you haven't read the short story in a long while, you may be willing to overlook this.

So Very Sad

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 8 March 2019]

She has, for years, been the epitome of the downtrodden, the hopeless. The little girl who only has a box of matches to sell, desperately burns them for a little warmth. This is Hans Christian Andersen's tale which chokes you up. It is colorful and exhausting, to say the least. The problem is that at no point does she have a chance--all hope has been pulled from her.

Not bad, but could have been better

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 7 November 2015]

This is "The Little Match Girl", an Oscar-nominated 8-minute cartoon from over 75 years ago by Charles Mintz, Sid Marcus and Arthur Davis, a trio of really prolific cartoon filmmakers from back in the day. And even if their work here lost to the Disney entry at the Oscars, it is far from forgotten. in the 21st century. And let us not forget about Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote the tale that this version and many others are based on. I personally thought this was good watch in terms of story, music and animation. Well done from everybody involved. Still I must say that this is such an emotional tale with the little girl's longing and suffering and this was missing a bit here. I totally adore the 2006 animated short film about the same character for its emotional impact, but this 1937 version does not come close to that. that is why, overall, I recommend it, but not really with enthusiasm.

Beautiful Oscar-nominated cartoon treasure

[jaybee-3 · 9/10 · 2 January 2002]

Animated classic with a tremendous emotional impact. I saw this film in a theatre way back in the 1970s and many people were crying at the end. Very touching film from the Columbia cartoon folks. Hopefully, it will be available some day on tape or DVD.

Hasn't aged a day; still works stunningly well!

[pmsusana · 20 February 2001]

I was fortunate enough to get hold of a Super-8mm sound copy of this animated masterpiece. Every time I watch it I promise myself I won't choke up, but it gets to me every time (and I'm not emotional as a rule). That any film, regardless of subject matter or style, can still grip the emotions so strongly after sixty-odd years says something about the talents that combined to make it. It excels on so many levels: One could watch it once for its gorgeous use of color, once for its visual concepts, once for its story - suffice it to say that it's a film I've never stopped discovering. And since it tells its story with no dialog, its appeal is truly universal. Why this hasn't been reissued on video by Columbia/RCA is anybody's guess.

Beautifully crafted short all the more remarkable for the studio that did such exceptional work here.

[llltdesq · 10/10 · 14 December 2002]

Charles Mintz saw gold in them there cartoons and thus jettisoned Walt Disney and the contractual relationship they had to start in-house production and make (he thought) even more for himself. But Mintz had a gourmand's palate without the imagination or financial willingness to feed such tastes. Columbia was rarely to come even within shouting distance of Disney, MGM and Warner Brothers where animated shorts were concerned. They just didn't much take the time or effort to go beyond nice, enjoyable fluff to fulfill contractual obligations.

That makes The Little Match Girl all the more incredible, because it's an emerald awash in a sea of shiny marbles. Much of the credit can go to Al Davis and Sid Marcus, both exceptionally talented. This is probably the crown jewel in Davis's career, a compliment, to say the least. They manage to make this endearing and heart-wrenching without it becoming maudlin or cloying. It's a remarkable piece of work and, had it been more properly promoted at the time, might have won the Academy Award (and probably should have). I don't usually go into detail about the contents of a film, preferring to let the film speak for itself, but one point I need to make: the decision to make the child smaller than normal in perspective to the world around he was brilliant-to a child, the "grownup" world is huge and more than a bit scary. It works wonderfully. That this isn't in print and available is a shame, as it should be. Well worth hunting up. Most highly recommended.

Little in match girl, big in emotion

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 7 May 2018]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. Still love animation whether it's film, television or cartoons, regardless of the studio or director (which there has never been a bias towards or against), and still watch it on a regular basis.

Arthur Davis and Sid Marcus both did solid and more work in their careers (as well as some not so good stuff later on). Have a lot of love for Hans Christian Andersen's stories, many of them having been adapted many times and for good reason, and as a story 'The Little Match Girl' always touches me. So 1937's 'The Little Match Girl' had me interested from the get go. Seeing it, it has shocked me at how long it took for me to see it.

It is some of the best work of both Davis and Marcus and as good as the beautiful Disney short, when it comes to cartoons seen recently it's easily one of the best too.

'The Little Match Girl' is gorgeously animated. It's fluidly and carefully drawn, rich in meticulous background detail and lavish and atmospheric in colour. The hauntingly beautiful music compliments them and the emotional impact brilliantly and even enhances the mood.

What is special about 'The Little Match Girl' is the emotional power of the storytelling. It is cute but not overly-so, truly endearing with charming characters without trying too hard and genuinely heart-tugging without being over-sentimental (so easy to do when the story is already as sad as it is).

Characters are charming and easily to relate to. 'The Little Match Girl' is a masterclass of how to stir such an emotional wallop so beautifully without any dialogue or saying a word.

Altogether, big in emotion and a cartoon deserving of more appreciation and exposure. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The Ugliest Cartoon I have ever seen

[dmoose-76734 · 1/10 · 8 January 2022]

The original story has a little girl who dies reunited with her beloved grandmother. This is a bittersweet story. A child dies, but is reunited with her grandmother, who was more kind to her than her own father. BUT the cartoon does NOT have her grandmother, nor her father. A little impoverished girl, get trampled and pushed around by adults, who then point at her and laugh at her as she looks longingly at pancakes being made. Then this starving child craws off, lights her matches, and falls asleep (obviously, she is freezing to death). She has a pleasant Nutcracker like dream. But as she dies, her dream becomes a nightmare, which only ends with her actual death. Then an angel picks her up and takes her to the sky where she becomes a star. So, in this cartoon, we have wealthy adults who trample an impoverished, starving child. They then ridicule her, right in front of her. None of these well to do adults takes any pity upon her or gives her any compassion. Instead, they drive her away where she dies alone. This is not only the ugliest cartoon I have ever seen, it is the most meanspirited one. And this was made in 1937, at the height of the Great Depression. Had I been around at this time, I most likely would have been very familiar with hunger. Had I been around at this time and managed to scrape enough money together to take my family, I would have been enraged that the theatre showed this cartoon. Had I been a child and been familiar with hunger and seen this cartoon, I would have had nightmares because of it. How could. Color Rhapsody and Columbia Pictures be so detached from the suffering of the bulk of the population that they would make and show this cartoon?

Beautiful re-telling of the Hans Chirstian Andersen fairy tale

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 3 September 2016]

This is my first "Color Rhapsody" cartoon from Columbia Pictures that I have seen. I thought it was a beautiful re-telling of the sad Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. But of course, the setting was changed to a modern American city, and Grandmother's angel was also omitted from the cartoon.

Here is something I just learned: this cartoon was nominated for Best Animated Short Subject. But sadly, it was lost to Walt Disney in "The Old Mill." So anyway, that is all I have to say about this beautifully animated cartoon as a fan of Hans Christian Andersen's tales. And this cartoon is also a favorite from the "Color Rhapsody" series.

Cartoon Pathos

[Cineanalyst · 23 November 2020]

Hans Christian Andersen's much-adapted short poem becomes an animated short film here, for perhaps the first time. Disney also made a computer-animated version in 2006. This "Little Match Girl" was part of Columbia's Color Rhapsody series, which were made in response to Disney's Silly Symphonies. The exaggerated cartoon qualities work to make what was already a depressing fairy tale into an even more maudlin affair. The little girl is unnaturally little, as she's trampled by New Year's Eve revelers, for whom she only rises to about the height of their shins. Plus, much of what size she is consists of huge eyeballs. As with Jean Renoir's live-action silent version of the 1920s, the matchstick hallucinations, which otherwise work well as cinematic metaphor, receive relative short shrift in favor of an extended dream sequence. The fanciful imagery here isn't too bad, and there's a bit of simulated, swinging camera movement in part, which goes well with the music, but it's nothing exceptional. I still prefer the earliest filmed version, James Williamson's 1902 one, along with Renoir's film, but this was a popular tale--earning this one an Oscar nomination.