The Little Match Girl

There’s something distinctly Dickensian about this short animation. It’s all about a young girl who makes her living selling matches on the wintry streets of New York on New Year’s Eve. Ignored by the revellers, she retreats to take what shelter she can beside a grand house where she lights some of her matches to try and keep warm. Each match offers a little light and heat and soon she drifts off into dreams of a roaring fire, a comfortable bed and some fun. This is quite a beautifully drawn adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s 19th century tale of poverty and neglect, but I didn’t love the angelic scenes that seemed to me to suggest that there was some sort of heavenly purpose to her suffering, nor of the actual conclusion which rather robs the original story of the family sentiment that contributed so much to the poignancy of this tale. Still, it is a delicate feature well worth watching.