The Little Matchgirl (2006)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I don't really know of the Hans Christen Anderson tale nor have I seen other versions. I wanted to see it because... I have nothing better to do. I watched this and in terms of getting across drama, for a 7 minute short with no dialogue I'd say they get it across pretty well.The story is about a pauper girl around the Christmas season in the 1800's. She tries to sell the only thing she has - a box of matches. People apparently aren't interested in buying them. So she sits in an alleyway lighting up the matches she has, which lets her fantasize of keeping warm, eating food and having nice people take care of her under the Christmas Tree.I'm not really going to spoil the ending but I wouldn't mind seeing what could have been done if this was longer or if it had voice actors... It might be just me. This does get across the situation this poor kid is going through really well by only visual representation which I can imagine is not an easy thing to do. The animation is also good, but then again it is no better than an average Disney film.If there is anything I can complain about with this short. They'd be nitpicks. I guess the best one is that I wouldn't have minded if it was a little bit longer to evaluate on the character of the little match girl a little bit more. Again, I'm nitpicking.I'd say go see it. If you don't like this movie then it won't take up much of your time. But in my opinion there is quite a bit to enjoy about this short. It is a good watch and it's making me interested in seeing other versions.

It took Roger Allers over 10 years after "The Lion King" to come up with his next animated masterpiece. "The Little Matchgirl", however, was very much worth the wait and delivers emotion from start to finish in its short seven minutes running time. You all know the Hans Christian Andersen story of course. It's as relevant as ever, so pointless to say a lot more about it other than in its center is a little girl who tries to sell matches to make some money in order have a warm Christmas. Will she succeed? In her very own way, she does. I won't go any further into detail as you should experience the heart(break) put in this one as well.This is a definite contender for my favorite short film of the 21st century so far. The animation is excellent. The girl looks as convincing as the snowy environment she's in and all the people she meets until the hearty lady who finally leads her to salvation. The ending (and also everything before including the freezing, the little girl's longing for happiness and beloved ones) never fails to make my eyes wet. It's a wonderful piece of art and one of the main reasons why I love animation that much. Everybody should see it and the Academy has rarely been more wrong in refusing Allers and the film their well-deserved Oscar, but that shouldn't keep you from watching "The Little Matchgirl"

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been deeply moved by Hans Christian Andersen's story. It is so beautiful, so touching and so poignant, yet I don't consider it depressing in any way. From the very start, I had immediate sympathy for the Little MatchGirl of the title, and I was hoping this Disney short would do this amazing story justice. And it does.The Little MatchGirl in my opinion is a small Disney masterpiece, it is very short, but it is beautiful in every meaning of the word. I am a huge fan of Disney, not only of their films(Beauty and the Beast especially) but also of their Silly Symphonies like The Old Mill and Flowers and Trees. The Little MatchGirl is yet another favourite of mine from them.The short has no dialogue or voices, all through visuals and music, and this worked. The animation is simply stunning, the backgrounds, character features, the architecture of those beautiful Russian buildings and colours are consistently amazing. And I have to say the music is outstanding, this was a piece of music- Borrodin's String Quartet no. 2, Nocturno- that I really underestimated, it is a truly beautiful work that is put to perfect use and beautifully performed. The story is still poignant and touching in tone, the title character I related to immediately and the pacing is just right.Overall, a superb short, like I said with The Old Mill, I forgot I was watching a cartoon and thought I was watching a work of art. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This short only gives another good example of what to be thankful for and a blessing to count on that holiday. That's exactly what I love about this: The lesson/message/moral there is in the end. Which is some of us should consider ourselves fortunate enough not to be in that situation and go through what the little Russian girl had to go through and struggle to survive on the streets daily and/or nightly. With her having to try to get by, selling matches to the passersby. This is definitely one that goes out to the homeless.A poor, little, Russian girl is a match vendor and she goes about her routine attempting to sell matches on a wintry night. Hoping to use the money she could've received possibly to buy some food I imagine. Sadly for her, there are no takers. Afterwards, she heads into the alley and settles under a makeshift tent. She then uses up her matches and every time she lights one, she imagines other things that she could've been doing at that moment, such as having a nice dinner. The visualizations are her only means of escape, if solely temporarily. Another vision she has is that she either returns home or visits the house of her grandmother. A third involves her in a sleigh ride. Youtube was once again the first source of where I saw this months ago and one commentator said that the girl was dumb for wasting all of the matches that she had and that the commentator was glad for the girl's eventual misfortune, and demise. To that commentator, I'd say/type:" I don't think it would've really made much of a difference. Even if the girl hadn't used up all or any of her matches, she still wouldn't have been able to withstand the weather/climate that night. But since she did use up all of the matches, the fires she made with them simply burned themselves out after a while and she still didn't endure the winter anyway. It was inevitable and bound to happen either way, a no-win situation. Other than you saying 'it was her own fault', I wonder if you were in her situation but you saved all of your matches, would you be able to bear the cold? And how would you feel if somebody said the same that you said about her fate? Making a dense comment like that and failing to think ahead and logically before commenting? "We have no idea for sure accurately how nor why the girl ended up being so poor and getting on the streets, but how can nobody continuously feel for her after the aforementioned case that I mentioned above? Anyway, I recommend this because it's wonderfully told with actions instead of dialogue, plus since like probably the late '50s or early '60s, we've been getting one new Disney 2D animated short per year. So, it's a real treat that even after Home On The Range in 2004, we still got the Disney 2D featurettes, if not full-length feature films, in a time in which animation is dominated by the 3D/CGI style. I wish there were more than one Disney 2D cartoon short per year though, even if that's better than none at all, but still. It's a real tearjerker that will tug at your heartstrings. I never got teary, but I'm also sad for her and wish the conclusion of this would've been on a happier note, like somebody or some people in the animation crew suggested and would've liked (as the other Disney films had traditionally or usually avoided somber endings) . Each time anyone watches this, it's important they bear in mind that the point of this is to be grateful for what they have and not take everyday things for granted. Not having to strive the hardships and shortcomings like she did and literally weather the (snow) storm or at least try to do so.