character Ole Lukøje was first based on the seven dwarfs in the film Snow White. However, Shvartsman later drew the character as a caricature of director Lev Atamanov. According to the animator, the most exciting concept about character animation is how the pencil leads the hand to different rough drafts that eventually shape into a new character. , children's literature critic of Japan, stated the "gradations of the various blues are exquisite and beautiful" featured in the episode at the snow palace. Also Kanzaki pointed out the "movements of the people are calculated very well, especially since it is coming from a country known for classical ballet!" The animators explained the finale, when the characters Gerda and Kai set off back to their homeland on a reindeer and greet all the people is a homage by the animators to the Russian people. Takuya Mori for the Eiga Hyouron (Film Criticism) stated The Snow Queen is similar to the films of Disney. However, the animation rebounds to new levels compared to Disney's precedent Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Both films employed the use of painterly backgrounds and flat planes. One way Soyuzmultfilm's The Snow Queen differs from Disney productions is through their depiction of death or elements of suffering. The insertions give The Snow Queen juxtapositions of the grotesque and the charm of an original fairy tale story. The depictions aren't intended to be disturbing. In order to emphasize the innocent nature of the film, all the antagonists including the Snow Queen are depicted as people who never become malevolent. The animation of Lev Atamanov Lev Atamanov, the animation director for The Snow Queen created a new form of animation that emphasized the fairy tale qualities () and artistry of animation (). Rather than completely fill the frames with photo realistic representations of the world by using the rotoscoping technique known as éclair widely used by Disney, Atamanov and the Soviet animators presented the world through the lens of artistic creativity and the subtle qualities that differentiate the magical qualities of animation from the real world. The film used minimal rotoscoping only used for the Snow Queen and a few other characters. Instead the animation style emphasized creativity. Atamanov states for a fairy tale film like The Snow Queen, it is imperative to retain skazochnost''': "Animation is characterized by wide generalization, careful selection and, most importantly, grotesque exaggeration. Therein lies