thought, "will be the starting point for Miyazaki anime." The reviewer found the episode where Gerda encounters the bandits was an episode that clearly delineated Andersen's thought process as he wrote the fairy tale. Singer songwriter says the film delves into philosophical narratives that is surprising for a fifty-year old Soviet film. Taniyama also stated based on animation the use of green and red colors were astounding and the animation was flowing "like waves." Influence Critical response in Japan Shortly after the release of Snezhnaya Koroleva in Russia, the film received warm response from the Japanese audience. Released as Yuki no Joou in 1960, the film screened in Japan via film distributors tied with the Soviet Union and screened in television. An elite Japanese film journal Eiga Hyouron (Film Criticism) devoted a record fourteen pages for the film critique. For many years the film aired on TV on New Year's holidays in Japan. Animator Hayao Miyazaki saw the film while he was at the union at Toei Animation. Hayao Miyazaki stated that this film is one of his inspirations. When he started his career, Miyazaki had a rough start and was thinking of leaving animation. When he saw The Snow Queen, it inspired him to continue working in animation. The Soviet film is said to be Miyazaki's true inspiration for animation as Miyazaki himself claimed, "The Snow Queen is my destiny and my favorite film." According to Miyazaki, Japanese animation was starting to develop at that time period. Therefore, Miyazaki was moved by the animation techniques of The Snow Queen such as the snow swirling in the distance or waves crashing at the ice palace. Miyazaki's inspiration quotation states, "I started working as a new animator for Toei Animation in 1963, but I frankly didn't enjoy my job at all. I felt ill at ease every day – I couldn't understand the works we were producing, or even the proposals we were working on . . . Had I not one day seen Snedronningen (The Snow Queen) during a film screening hosted by the company labor union, I honestly doubt that I would have continued working as an animator." In September 2007, it was announced that Studio Ghibli will be distributing The Snow Queen through their Ghibli Museum Library label and it was released in December 2007 (in the original Russian audio with Japanese subtitles). The same time Ghibli released