The Little Matchgirl (2006 film)

Plot

The Nocturne from Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 provides the musical backdrop. In pre-revolutionary Saint Petersburg, Russia, during the Christmas season, a destitute young girl attempts to sell matches on the street, but no one will buy from her. As night falls, she crouches in a snow-filled alley, desperate for warmth. Deciding to use her remaining matches, she lights one.

In its flame, she sees visions of warming her hands and feet, but when the match dies, she is back in the freezing alley. A second match shows her a meal, and a third reveals her beloved grandmother beneath a Christmas tree. The next morning, the girl lies motionless in the alley, buried in snow. Her grandmother suddenly appears and lifts her into an embrace.

The music swells to a seemingly happy climax, but the grandmother is revealed to be a spirit as they pass straight through a wall. Their ethereal light fades, and the girl’s dead body is seen still in the snow, a smile on her face. A comet streaks across the sky, symbolizing her departure from the earthly world.

Production

This animated short was created by Roger Allers and Don Hahn, who had previously worked on Disney features like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. In keeping with the Fantasia tradition, it is a wordless, dialogue-free visual piece set to classical music. Allers initially chose Debussy’s Clair de Lune, but later replaced it with the third movement (Nocturne) from Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 in D Major. The music reminded him of Russia, prompting the decision to set the story in Czarist Russia. Borodin himself was from Saint Petersburg, a fitting coincidence. The Emerson String Quartet performed the piece, as noted in the closing credits.