History WesternAnimation / TheLittleMatchgirl2006

This short was originally made for a proposed ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} 2006'' feature film, but when that project was cancelled "The Little Matchgirl" was released as a stand-alone short. Compare "WesternAnimation/{{The Little Match Girl|1937}}", a 1937 animated short adaptation from Creator/ColumbiaCartoons that is quite similar.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Although one might guess that the kindly old woman who greets the little matchgirl at the dacha is her grandmother, nothing identifies her as that in the short since there is no dialogue. (In the 1937 short the grandmother is AdaptedOut and it's an angel that takes the little girl to heaven.)

* {{DisneyFication}}: Mostly averted. The short follows the story pretty faithfully, including the little girl freezing to death, but it also omits the abusive father mentioned in the story and makes the girl homeless instead.

* HopeSpot: Twice. At one point, the little girl sees a man with a pipe, lighting it with his own match; she rushes to offer him one of her own but he turns her away. A bit later, after she climbs up beside a lamp post so that people can see her better and she can reach out to them with the matches, a policeman comes along and puts her back down on the ground again; he smiles at her a little and seems to be moved, but when she offers him a match, he too turns her down.

* StreetUrchin: A homeless little girl trying, and failing, to survive.

This short was originally made for a proposed ''Disney/{{Fantasia}} 2006'' feature film, but when that project was cancelled "The Little Matchgirl" was released as a stand-alone short. Compare "WesternAnimation/{{The Little Match Girl|1937}}", a 1937 animated short adaptation from Creator/ColumbiaCartoons that is quite similar.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Although one might guess that the kindly old woman who greets the little matchgirl at the dacha is her grandmother, nothing identifies her as that in the short since there is no dialogue. (In the 1937 short the grandmother is omitted and it's an angel that takes the little girl to heaven.)
** Similarly to the 1937 short, the abusive father mentioned in the story is also omitted.

* Disneyification: Mostly averted. The short follows the story pretty faithfully, including the little girl freezing to death, but it also omits the abusive father mentioned in the story and makes the girl homeless instead.

* PanUpToTheSkyEnding: The short ends with the camera following the souls of the little girl and her grandmother, as they ascend to heaven.

* SnowMeansDeath: Freezing to death in an alley in the snow.

* AloneInTheCrowd: The little girl trying to sell her matches on the busy St. Petersburg streets, and failing.

It is, as one might guess, an adaptation of Creator/HansChristianAndersen story "Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl". A little girl in UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia tries selling her matches on a cold winter day, but no one is buying. It turns out the girl is homeless. She goes back, defeated, to her "home" in a narrow alley. Sitting in the bitter cold and snow, she lights her matches for warmth. As the matches temporarily give her warmth, the little girl dreams of a warm hearth, and a lavish dinner, and finally of a carriage that takes her to a [[UsefulNotes/{{Dacha}} dacha]] in the country where she imagines visiting her grandmother.

This short was originally made for a proposed ''Disney/{{Fantasia}} 2006'' feature film, but when that project was cancelled "The Little Matchgirl" was released as a stand-alone short. Compare "WesternAnimation/{{The Little Match Girl|1937}}", a 1937 animated short adaptation from Creator/ColumbiaCartoons that is quite similar.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Although one might guess that the kindly old woman who greets the little matchgirl at the dacha is her grandmother, nothing identifies her as that in the short since there is no dialogue. (In the 1937 short the grandmother is omitted and it's an angel that takes the little girl to heaven.)