Plot

Tom (Damian Hunt) and his sister Ellie (Ellie Beaven) live in an ordinary town leading ordinary lives but not for long. Far away, in her vast ice palace, the Snow Queen (Dame Helen Mirren) plots to rule the world. A fast-moving, funny, and beautifully animated musical adventure based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale.

NOTE: I have tried to make this synopsis as detailed as possible, but some scenes may be in the wrong order due to my memory, which is the only tool I am relying on. Apart from that, everything is accurate.

In the far north there lay the Snow Queen, ruler of winter. We see her at the start of the movie planning to use a magic mirror to freeze the world and rule it herself. Her three trolls, Eric, Baggy and Wardrobe make a flying machine to take the mirror to the top of the highest mountain where the magic can work, but Baggy's clumsiness causes the mirror to smash into a million pieces.

Meanwhile, further south, two young children Ellie and Tom live in a small garrett with their younger sister Polly and their grandma. Their grandma is reading a story to Polly about the Snow Queen, but when she asks Tom about the Snow Queen, he assures her that it is all a story and no harm will come to her.

Polly goes to bed and Tom carries on teaching Ellie the best way to make the jigsaw they are doing. But when he goes outside to get some firewood, two pieces of the mirror hit him - one in his eye and one in his heart. Suddenly he becomes horrible to everyone, especially his poor sister Ellie. He stomps off to bed, leaving Ellie baffled.

As this is happening, the Snow Queen orders her bats to retrieve all the pieces to her. When they finish, she realises that they have not picked up two pieces. However she looks into her crystal ball and sees Tom with the mirror inside him. So she decides to get them herself.

The next morning, Ellie and Tom head outside with the sledges and hitch up to a large white sledge, driven by someone wearing a large fur cloak. However, Ellie starts to feel uneasy when the sledge gets faster, but Tom enjoys it more. Suddenly they are whisked into the air, and the driver cuts the rope to Ellie's sledge, sending her tumbling to the ground! Tom climbs up to sit with the driver who reveals herself to be the Snow Queen! She flies off with Tom into the clouds, laughing. As Ellie gains consciousness again, a bird complains how he was almost killed when she fell out of the sky. He is called Peeps and Ellie explains what happened. Peeps tells her that it was the Snow Queen who did it, and he tells her all about her. She makes up her mind to go north to find Tom, and Peeps accompanies her on her travels.

Tom and the Snow Queen arrive at her palace and she shows him the mirror. He immediately agrees to put it back together again, and the Snow Queen tells him how grateful she is while stroking her slender knife... Ellie after a while complains how tired she is and how it is getting dark. Peeps notices a light, which they follow. They reach a house with a beautiful garden, with thousands of vibrant flowers planted there, even though it is winter. They are greeted by an old woman and her cat, Cuddles. She accepts Ellie and Peeps with open arms and gives Ellie some supper. However, Peeps is not so keen when Cuddles attacks him. Ellie though is not concerned when the woman assures her how harmless Cuddles is. Peeps goes to sleep and Ellie finishes her supper.

As the Snow Queen surveys Tom mending the mirror, the trolls become interested in his presence and Baggy goes down to talk to him. However it results to all three of them falling down the stairs and into the wall. Tom complains at them and Eric tries to stand up to him as the "Chief Troll", but results instead getting frozen by the Snow Queen who sends the trolls on their way, with Eric when he thaws out a few seconds later.

As the old woman advises, Ellie goes to bed, but as she closes the door a wicked smile spreads across the old womans face. After a while, Peeps wakes up, but overhears her plans for Ellie. She is making a concoction allowing her to be immortal, but she needs a young girl's heart for the final ingredient. Peeps heads down to the basement where the woman is making her potion to find out more, but Cuddles catches him. This wakes Ellie up and the woman puts Peeps under a beaker, promising Cuddles that he can have him for breakfast. Ellie heads downstairs and into the basement. She sees Peeps but treads on Cuddle's tail. The old woman takes Ellie's wrist and leads her away, saying that she should be in bed. Ellie explains what happened and as the woman is making up another story to cover everything up, she throws Ellie into a cell! However, Cuddles greedily tries to eat Peeps, but he bites the cat allowing him to escape. Cuddles tries to catch him but crashes into everything, temporarily ruining the potion. As the woman gives Cuddles a hard lecture, Peeps manages to find the key to the cell, freeing Ellie. They both escape and head out into the night.

Tom is seen again, holding his hand up to his eye. The trolls are arguing amongst themselves about cooperation, so Tom throws a piece of mirror at them, striking them. He catches it and puts it into place. Eric then tells Tom what the Snow Queen has got planned for him, and he becomes frightened.

The next morning Ellie and Peeps wake up to hear someone singing quite abysmally. They watch her from the bushes, but a huge crow creeps up on Ellie, and the other singing crow notices her. The crows are called Les and Ivy and Ellie tells them her tale. Ivy explains of how Tom was betrothed recently to the princess nearby, so they take her to the castle. Les sets Ellie up as a kitchen maid who takes the princess lunch, but when she tries to talk to the prince, she realises that it is not her brother and she bursts into tears.

So the prince and princess take Ellie to the stables where they reveal the Royal Runnaround to help her across the snowy terrain. She drives off with Peeps, but after a while they get into territory belonging to giant rats. The Robber King is complaining that there is no one to kill or rob from since there is no one there. He then gets angry at a band of rats playing terribly and they pay the price for it. However, a look-out rat spies Ellie in her Royal Runnaround and soon a whole band of rats are sent out by the Robber King to capture her! In her haste, Ellie crashes into a bank, leaving her helpless against the robbers. She is taken back to the hideout where the Robber King's spoilt daughter, Angora, spies her. She takes her herself as a servant and locks her in a hut, before heading off to the celebrations for the capture of Ellie and the Royal Runnaround in the robbers' possession.

Tom tells the Snow Queen about what the trolls said, which she says is a load of stories. She then kisses Tom, causing his face to go white with ice. Eric comments how weak he will become after the kiss.

Peeps regains consciousness near to where the crash was, and is distraught when there is no sign of Ellie. Back at the hideout, as the robbers are drinking and celebrating, Ellie discovers a deer in the same hut called Dimley. He admits that he can fly and Ellie formulates an escape plan. Outside, the Robber King has changed his mind about Ellie, which Angora is annoyed about, but he insists that she is the main course for the robbers' dinner! Peeps overhears this and goes to find her. As Dimley is trying to untie Ellie and the Robber King tries to find Angora after she has stomped off, Peeps finds Ellie and unties her. Ellie goes to free Dimley but Angora storms in. As Dimley backs up, a scythe chops some rope suspending a bale of hay, which bounces off a seesaw, sending a barrel flying and trapping Angora! Dimley flies off with Ellie and Peeps, but not without the knowledge of the robbers. The Robber King grabs the rope attached to Dimley, but flies into the roof of a hut and lands on Angora.

When Ellie discovers that Dimley does not know the way to the Snow Queen's palace, he takes her to the Lap Woman, Freeda, who is head of the reindeer flying school. Freeda gets her potions ready and they all set off to the palace.

The mirror is nearly finished and Tom is working much faster than before. Baggy wants to help him, but Eric knows that the trolls cannot do anything to help.

The heroes fly through the sky and land outside the palace. Ellie manages to persuade the trolls to let them in, and as they head through the palace, Tom puts in the last available piece, with two spaces left. He tries to hastily find them, but Ellie rushes up to him. He pushes her away, and Freeda explains about the mirror. She makes a potion and the trolls try to think of a plan to help Ellie. Freeda gives the potion to Ellie, who tells Tom to drink it, but as Tom takes the potion, the Snow Queen sees what is happening and strikes the potion, sending it flying and trapping it in a stalactite. Tom is lying on the floor unconscious, but Ellie gets up. Then the Snow Queen heads towards Ellie with her trident, with the aim to kill in her eyes. Eric tries to stop her but she freezes him. Freeda tries to counter-attack the Snow Queen with some flowers, but she is frozen too. Wardrobe and Baggy try to take her trident, but that in turn freezes them. The other half of the trident flows into the Snow Queen and she looks towards Ellie, now powerless. As she is about to strike, though, Dimley runs in and slips on the smooth icy floor, crashing into the Snow Queen. This causes the stalactite to break, and the potion smashes in the centre of the mirror. Suddenly a whirlwind ensues from the potion and heads towards the Snow Queen. She flees and jumps onto her sledge, but as she leaves the palace, the whirlwind catches up with her, freezing her solid. But her eyes glow icy white in anger, which shows that she is not fully defeated.

Back in the palace, Ellie mourns for Toms death, but the mirror inside him dissolves, and he wakes up, his normal self once again. Freeda and the trolls thaw out, and Tom explains that he does not remember anything that has happened. So Ellie explains, but Freeda interrupts, saying that the Snow Queen will eventually retuen. She then insists that they leave, and Dimley takes Ellie, Tom and Peeps home. When they land, Peeps asks if their grandma has finished reading the story to Polly, and they all go inside, apart from Dimley, who heads back to take Freeda and the trolls home.

Back at the palace, only the Snow Queen now remains as her frozen form, but snowflakes flutter wildly in her eyes. This zooms into an abyss of winter, and a big THE END appears across the screen.