THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL is a short film made by Disney. It was originally intended as part of a new Fantasia-style film but the project was canceled--leaving the studio with a completed short film based on the Hans Christian Andersen story. Although I think the original story was set in Denmark (since Andersen lived there), this one is set in Russia and is very faithful to the original story otherwise. A poor and hungry little girl sells matches on the street and ultimately dies due to exposure and malnutrition since it's the middle of winter. While Disney did "clean up" the story just a bit (making the child look reasonably well-fed and clean), the story doesn't pull punches and has the original depressing ending. All the action is set to lovely music and the quality of the animation is as good as you can get with Disney. It's a lovely little film though its gritty subject matter make it tough watching.
This film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short for 2007 but lost to THE DANISH POET.
This film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short for 2007 but lost to THE DANISH POET.