THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

[Quadraxis]

7 people has no heart

[Dachshund]

One of the best ever to come from the Charles Mintz (Screen Gems) studio.

[ImpromptuinC]

The Angel's choir is from a melody by Brahms: Waltz in A Flat, Op.39 No.15.

[MissWitchiepoo]

Thank you for posting. I have always loved this version of the Little Match girl. Only the real version of the little Danish match girl who sees her beloved Grandma looking more beautiful than she ever had in life, who picks her up and takes her up to God, is more sad than this:) So thanks again!!

[missmusik77]

@MissWitchiepoo - from when is the danish one... looking for that! help! : )

[MissWitchiepoo]

@missmusik77 The original one by Hans Christian Andersen, here in Denmark called H.C. Andersen came out in 1845 for the first time:) I hope that helps:)

[MsZathras]

Thank you so much for posting this.

I've never seen this before and I must admit it's very touching and beautiful. I'm glad I didn't see this as a kid - it would have bothered me to see how she's treated. Granted, the ending is wonderful but it still would have bothered me. Bambi was bad enough.

Cartoons today are nothing compared to this.

[Beautifulstar24]

That was my first time ever seeing this version. After reading about this cartoon for years, I finally got a chance to see it. Thank you for posting this. It's a beautiful cartoon and my heart truly goes out to that adorable little girl. This is definitely in need of a restoration.

[cheapcape]

This has to be the saddest Christmas story ever written.

[cscdigitalgraphics]

A classic!

[eStellepoland]

beautiful cartoon !! <3

[MaudeVaernaes1984]

Does anyone know what the name of the song, which is playing in heaven, is?

[Heine1955]

@MaudeVaernaes1984

Hi Maude. The melody is by Johannes Brahms, waltz, opus 39 no. 15.

[SparkyMK3]

Wonderful cartoon! I hope this gets on DVD one day--and with Jerry Beck arranging a DVD deal with Columbia (who has already restored their entire cartoon library) we may soon get this classic available at last, beautifully restored, for all to enjoy!

[InvaderPet]

Watch this cartoon with the 1911 option on! Makes a huge difference!

[LukeDuke908]

at least this version is unedited totally tooned in's version is edited on antenna tv and when it was on cartoon network wish the sound and picture quality was better thank you for keeping this up

[CanadianPolarBears]

4 people don't have a heart.

[RJRanke]

The poor little waif.

I will always remember when my mother said that as we saw this cartoon together over fifty years ago.

The little match-girl,ignored and homeless,finally ran out of mtches and had nothing tp sustain her but her dreams.Then reality returned with a vengeance as she lost her dream-presents and the candle burnt out-as did her life.Then she achieved true joy as she went to heaven right away.(I doubt a lot of those who ignored her that night would go to heaven right away.)

[210423]

wonderful! thank for this cartoon!

[WeAreFucked16]

What a fantastic animation. Gets the point across beautifully without words. A shame they don't make 'em like this anymore.

[Maliejandra]

This is a beautiful film. Thanks for posting it.

[SteveCarras]

Goood example of this type of material done by the also-ran Columbia staff. And in Color! Well! BTW The Color by Technicolor and A Columbia Favorite billins give it away as a reissue [no "Favorite" or "Color by" if an original 1937 release print, just "In Technicolor".

[richpunk77]

I had this cartoon burned into my memory ever since the Christmas I was 5. It taught me compassion for other children. Looking back at it nearly 30 years later brings tears to a grown man's eyes. So glad to finally rediscover it. True animation comes from the human soul, not some darn graphics card.

[genzoxkarl]

@richpunk77 agreed!

[MultiCARTOON]

Have you got Mother Hens Holiday cartoon 1937 in HQ NOW

[MultiCARTOON]

Have you got all the Color rhapasody like Mother hens holiday cartoon 1936 cartoon.

[sodakandy]

CREEPY

[lucangelouis]

beautiful- i remember watching it as a child and it upsetting me although i kept watching it! bit different to the crap my kids have to watch nowadays!!lol

[ty0052]

@lucangelouis  ...indeed....

[yohannbiimu]

6:28 - I thought this music sounded familiar--it's Carl Maria von Weber's Overture to "Oberon." I really like this cartoon, and I love this music (check it out here on youtube), but the two just don't go well together, especially in this climatic sequence.

[yohannbiimu]

Believe it or not, Walt Disney's first MIckey Mouses and Silly Symphonies were distributed by Harry Cohn and Columbia Pictures. As Frank Capra put it, Cohn was a very abrasive individual, and he pushed people with sensitive personalities to their limits. People who pushed back (like Capra) survived. Disney didn't, and soon left for United Artists, and later RKO. What a studio Columbia would have been had they kept Disney AND Capra.

[yohannbiimu]

I had never heard of this cartoon prior to reading about it in Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic," and I must say that just reading about it put tears in my eyes, so I had to see if it was posted. Charles Mintz's obviously wasn't a big-time operation, but this cartoon certainly deserves some big-time kudos.

[IFStravinsky]

My God. It just breaks your heart.

[flimflam742]

This is one of the better cartoons to come out of the Screen Gems Studio at Columbia Pictures. Currently Sony owns the theatical and video rights to the cartoon library (as well as the UPA cartoons which were distributed by Columbia in the 1950's); but have been slow to release these films on DVD. This film in particular really needs o be restored to its former splendor.

[585michael]

Thanks for posting this cartoon classic!

[InvaderPet]

1:50 amazing how that guy walks past her, takes a look at her and then continues on like, "Meh, whatever."

[bhickman3]

If this the female Casper? This is sad. If my mom had told me this story when I was a kid I would have probably cried myself dead.

[HomeoftheGoodGuys]

Never seen this cartoon before, this cartoon was made in 1937 and it was the only cartoon to received an Oscar nomination. "The Old Mill" was the first to win for Disney and "The Little Match Girl" doesn't.

Despite the quality of this cartoon, the sound was not all that great and the film quality was poor. I would love to see a better copy of this rare 1937 cartoon pretty soon. This cartoon is not on one of the cheap $1 DVD's, but if there is hope, we shall see.

[wario6010]

Oh!

[wario6010]

Is she barefoot?

[FFCyjaraX]

yes,she is

[adoptshoppe]

I haven't seen this short in about 45 years but I've always remembered it. I thought then, and now, how no one took notice of a small child in the dark, with no shoes.

[shaeredimages]

One of the Colour Raphsody series. This was released on Nov 5th 1937 Possibly animated by Ube Iwerks . This and "Peaceful neighbours" are among my favourites from This series.

[InvaderPet]

Emery Hawkings animated this.

[nnwahler]

Great short! Everything I'd anticipated it to be from the reviews I read over the past three decades....Now if only the Columbia people would get off their lazy duffs & take a bit more pride in their cartoon legacy (fat chance in THIS economy, of course). This cartoon's fully worthy of the Oscar nomination it got, and yet another feather in director Art Davis' hat!

[PitRocks8]

The little match girl looks like a 3 year old? Weird... But still a great cartoon. What year did it came out?

[InvaderPet]

@PitRocks8 1937

[LonesomeRob]

One more comment; the only alternative to this sad tale, is they take the girl to a roach-infested charity hospital, release her back to her drunken father. He'll beat her and now will either throw on the street or sell her into ...never mind. The little match girl lived at a time when many slum children were probably better off dead. That's probably what Hans C. anderson had in mind, when he wrote this tearjerker. Most more people had no futures then.

[LonesomeRob]

This is one heck of a cartoon. It leaves us both amazed and saddened. The technique can rival Disney.

[baracine]

I'm surprised they kept so much of the original tory. It must have packed a solid punch. But in HCA's original, the girl dreams of her gandmother and it is her who comes down to take her to heaven. In that respect, the Disney version is more faithful.

[thehibtones]

oh man what I'd give to have this on super 8! lucky.

[SolidMike84]

My little sister used to watch this over and over all the time when she was younger and cry her eyes out. Nowadays as well and she´s 22. I remember I cried as well and today is no xeption ´` Cartoons nowadays don´t have heart like this one anymore...

[asderso]

My girlfriend is now here next to me and she keeps crying watching this cartoon... You are right, cartoons nowadays are all changed, no heart anymore.

[SolidMike84]

Sold out like everyone else

[September271988]

Very sad story indeed; shame on those people who laughed at this poor, homeless, innocent girl! It might be better if the film is more realistic rather than pixar.

[FilmTraum2]

Beautiful and sad!

[astig600]

if i where have a time machine.. i will treat her to mcdo! uhuhuhuh T_T

[coffeecub]

there's one in every crowd

[RatSawGod]

Wow. Mesmerizing. I'm stunned and saddened.

[dattore]

I wonder at Mintz's audacity in presenting this very disturbing Hans Christian Anderson story, virtually unaltered. It is still, in my estimation, the finest cartoon ever produced, despite the obvious technical flaws. I still can't bear to watch it too often.

[bexlovesashley]

I read this in a book when i was young and cried...

[InvaderPet]

1:39 those people must feel so proud, laughing at a poor homeless girl like that.

[ayesha36]

@InvaderPet She's not homeless, though. She has an unloving father, so she has to sell matches.

At least that's the story as I know it. But those people are jerks.

[coffeecub]

i'm glad youtube can't monitor the viewer's reaction. i'm a grown man who cried at this.  whatever happened to this style of animation. i'm so sick of pixar.

[Vioven]

lmao

[SteveCarras]

@coffeecub

WELL, i like Pixar myself, as well as classic hand drawn anaimaiton [saw Toy Story for the third or so timke today and teared uyp like here] but nothing beats the oldies [meaning otherwise I'm in agreement. And criminal that this studio was overlooked.

[genzoxkarl]

@coffeecub Me too - Pixar has no soul

[deathmelon6789]

@coffeecub Pixar, Dreamworks and other 3D animation companies for that matter. Sure, 3D animation is all right every once in a while, but because of its constant bombardment in cinema nowadays we have lost a great art that it 2D animation done with real ink.

[Macoriver]

Fuck Bambi's mom...this is the saddest thing i have ever seen!

[Giovan95]

to macoriver: lol what you said

[jimmyzhanneutron]

they are both very sad...but i agree this is sadder.

[projectionman]

one thing is obvius,pixar imitate ALL is almost the same shots ,I prefer this version,Glory to the originals!!

[benitoparra]

This is so sad T_T

[whitedane]

Hans Christain Anderson wrote the best childrens storys. not dumbing them down, but chosing tales children could relate too. This has been my favourite story since i was 5, I still cry:)

[Ninski]

What's the song playing at the middle and end of the cartoon?

[milanstefanovic1994]

"Youre wishing that the hands of doom

Could take your mind away

And you dont care if you dont see again

The light of day...

...Sabbath bloody sabbath

Nothing more to do

Living just for dying

Dying just for you" - Ozzy Osbourne & Tommy Iommy

[samucito30]

this tale is too ruthless for children, even for me

[Grouchy2day]

This was a Charles Mintz produced short for Columbia Pictures in 1937. It was the only Mintz cartoon nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Looks like the original opening title was replaced in this print. Would love to see this re-issued in a restored print on DVD one day.

[MantisSage]

I absolutely LOVE Pixar's version of this movie. I just saw it and I'm still crying!!

So unbelievably beautiful!

[Opossum23]

shes so cute ... I must cry.

lost everything but is still so happy in her dreams.

[jwallbanger]

in the real story they find her frozen stiff in the morning, then the garbage truck picks her up and hauls her little dead corpse off to the dump so it won't irritate the christmas shoppers.

[HolyOnna]

My goodness, I wanted to adopt her the minute I saw her.

[white1ninja]

this was so sad...

[MrsCorzo]

i wont ever forget this story when my dad read it to me when i was little. i cried by the end it was so sad. this is the best vid of the story i've seen. so much emotion, thank you for posting it

[kimelopre]

yeah,me too,i started reading the storysince 3rd grade,i've wept tears cus of it..

[metalalien79]

awesome..

[Jal8919536]

This was nominated an Oscar for Best Animated Short.

[drivinmomma]

I watched this cartoon as a young child. It left quite an impression. I tried to find it at one time, but no luck. What a rush of emotion to see it here! Now, after years of trying to explain it to my children, I can let them see it for themselves. THANK YOU!

[SteveCarras]

I agree with "dattor", having first really been accquainted with it through Leonard Maltin's 1980 book "Of Mice & Magic" and

this is the first time I've seen it IIRC.

The last few minutes seem to be occupied by a Paramount logo.

[Ninski]

I got a copy of this short from Jerry Beck. This is definetly the best short that came out by Columbia. At least during the 40s. The Fox & Crow shorts were pretty good.

[MissWitchiepoo]

No doubt about it... The best cartoon ever and written by the master of storytelling Hans Christian Andersen. I have been hoping that someone would share this... so I thank you!!

Greetings from Denmark

[Rosy7531]

very touching...

and the story....

it's just heartbreaking...

[dattor]

Perhaps the best cartoon ever made. I saw this first when I was ten years of age, in the midst of the depression. I never forgot it. Thank you for posting it.