Anna (Frozen) Disney considered collaborating with Samuel Goldwyn to produce a biography film of Hans Christian Andersen. However, the story and particularly the Snow Queen character proved to be too problematic to Disney and his animators. Namely one of the troubles they encountered was that the original story lacked necessary interaction between the main protagonist, Gerda (who later served as an inspiration for Anna), and the Snow Queen. Most obviously, Andersen's version did not feature any confrontation between them: when brave little Gerda enters the Snow Queen's ice castle and sheds her tears on Kay, the Snow Queen is nowhere to be
The World of Hans Christian Andersen to distribute this edit, which opened in theaters on March 1. In his "Family Guide to Movies on Video", Henry Herx wrote that "the animation is colorful and creative, though stylistically comparable to Saturday morning TV shows. It provides a wonderful world of fantasy to absorb the small fry at a matinee." The writers of Jerry Beck's "Animated Movie Guide" gave it three stars out of four; as contributor Fred Patten commented, the film "is pleasant children's fare; a stereotypical and clichéd 'fun for the whole family' animated feature." The World of Hans Christian Andersen A young Hans Christian Andersen,