The Snow Queen, they also released the 1976 film The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Lev Milchin. Ghibli Museum stated, "It is not an exaggeration to say that the starting point of Hayao Miyazaki is here (The Snow Queen)." In a 2007 interview, Miyazaki stated the film's animation, story, and language greatly influenced his training and work. The symbolism and metaphors of the film particularly stood out to the animator. Miyazaki noted that the scene when Gerda goes to the barren lands to help Kai while barefoot represents the purity of Gerda's soul. Miyazaki particularly liked how the creators mixed myths and fairy tales in the film. According to Miyazaki, the story of the barefoot heroine giving up her shoes to the river is the embodiment of an ideal hero or heroine who sacrifices for other's sake. Furthermore, the animator asserts animation is animism. As a testament to this theory, Miyazaki recounts the scene in the film when the boat magically unties and floats back when Gerda gave her shoes to the river. Miyazaki concluded the interview by stating, he is working on an animated film whose character Ponyo is similar to Gerda who will be featured in the film of the same name. In a 2021 interview Hayao Miyazaki cited The Snow Queen as an influence. Similarities between Soyuzmultfilm's The Snow Queen and Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke Characters The 1997 Japanese award-winning film Princess Mononoke stands out as Miyazaki's version of The Snow Queen. According to research in the anthology Introducing Studio Ghibli's Monster Princess: From Mononokehime to Princess Mononoke by film historian Julia Alekseyeva, many familiar patterns are apparent between the two films. Both films try to exhibit "emotional and affective realism." Affective realism was an innovative take on animation in the twentieth century that emphasize the exhibition of emotions. Many of the characters in Princess Mononoke have an uncanny and spectral uniformity to the characters in The Snow Queen. Princess Mononoke can be seen as a tribute by Miyazaki to the Soviet Union film.Princess Mononoke, the Muromachi period epic film of young Emishi prince Ashitaka is similar to The Snow Queen by the depiction of its characters. Out of all the similarities, the eponymous character San, of Princess Mononoke stands out as the direct link to The Snow Queen. San who is depicted as a young woman who was raised by the wolves and is isolated from humans,