With major studio titles dominating the kids feature landscape, Studio 100 Films is betting on the evergreen popularity of Scandinavian storytelling to help it break through at the box office.

The German company has picked up a CG-animated holiday movie called North from Norway’s PictoryLand, and will distribute it worldwide outside of the Scandinavian region. With a running time of 85 minutes, the pic is in pre-production now, aiming for a Q4 2024 release. Studio 100 will debut a teaser and movie art at film market Marche du Film, which takes place from May 16 to 24 as part of the Cannes Film Festival.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”, North sees a young girl set off on an epic adventure to find her missing friend, making friends with animals along the way and eventually confronting an evil queen in her ice palace. The story has been adapted for the big screen numerous times, including a 2012 feature film from Russian studio Wizart Animation that went on to spawn three sequels. And notably, Disney’s animated blockbuster Frozen was also inspired by the story.

Former Pixar VP of animation Ralph Guggenheim (Toy Story) is a consulting producer on this latest iteration.