Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 tale The Little Match Seller, The Little Match Girl is a 2006 Academy Award®-nominated animated short film, sans dialogue, that features a young girl who tries in earnest to sell matches on the snowy streets of Russia. After a day without success, the young girl curls up in a corner with her box of matches in her lap and tries to keep warm. To do so, she removes one match from her box, lights it, and begins imagining that the small flame is instead a large stove by which she can warm her frozen fingers. It isn’t long, however, until the match goes out and she’s transported back to frozen solitude. Again, she removes a match and lights it, only this time she envisions a candle sitting atop a food-filled table. Just as she reaches out to claim a tasty morsel, the flame is extinguished. Directed by Roger Allers and produced by Don Hahn, The Little Match Girl debuted at the Annecy Film Festival in France and was later released as an extra on The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD.
