Review - Anastasia (1997)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Back during 2023's Disney Renaissance Month, I mentioned that one of the more successful animated films to cash in on Disney's success at the time was 1997's Anastasia, directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Lloyd, and Angela Lansbury. Well, today, I would like to give you guys my thoughts on this '90s animated gem. 

           So, to get this out of the way, what is Anastasia? Well, the best way to sum up this movie is that it's a musical fairytale inspired by a Russian historical urban legend surrounding the Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicolas II, and part of the Romanov dynasty. The legend goes that, on the night the Bolsheviks invaded the palace, one daughter was rumored to be missing, and many women had made false claims to being the lost princess to claim what remained of the royal fortune. However, as time has gone on, the urban legend surrounding Anastasia has been debunked. But, this movie decided to take a mix of the urban legend and historical events, and combined them with a fantasy element. So, let's see how the movie made that work, eh?

         Okay, so Anastasia opens in the year 1916, where we see the Romanovs celebrating their Tricentennial with a royal ball. It's here where the Dowager Empress Marie shows her youngest granddaughter, Anastasia, a music box that plays their lullaby. The way to make the song plays is a key that is on a necklace, and the key reads a promise between the two: Together in Paris. However, an uninvited guest crashes the party: Grigori Rasputin. Now, according to the history books, the real Rasputin was executed well before the Tricentennial, and it was due to many in the royal court having their misgivings about the mystic, despite being well liked by the royal family. But, in this film, he was cast out from the royal court by the Tsar himself, and is a villain akin to Jafar from Aladdin. 

         Anyway, Rasputin sells his soul to the dark forces, and has vowed that he will never rest until the Tsar and his family are gone. This comes to fruition, as the Russian Revolution takes place, and the Romanovs are overthrown. Anastasia and Marie are almost taken, but a servant boy named Dimitri shows them a way to safety. Rasputin almost takes Anastasia, but he is dragged into the icy water to his apparent death, leaving behind his cursed reliquary, as well as a talking baat named Bartok. Marie boards a train bound for Paris, but Anastasia isn't able to make it and falls, hitting her head hard. 

         Ten years pass, and Imperial Russia is no more. In its place is the Soviet Union, where the people are technically equal, but their lives are still bleak. But, a rumor persists around the city of St. Petersburg (which, historically, was known as Leningrad at the time, but just go with it) about how Anastasia may have survived the ordeal that befell the Romanovs. And, it's here where a grown up Dimitri, along with his associate Vladimir, make a plan to pull the ultimate con: hire a woman to pose as Anastasia, take her to Paris, and collect the reward money from the Dowager Empress for Anastasia's safe return. 

          Meanwhile, we see a grown up Anastasia, who has had a case of amnesia for ten years and has gone by the name Anya, being sent from an orphanage to live her life. But, at a crossroads, she meets a dog she named Pooka, who leads her to St. Petersburg, where she fails to get a train ticket to Paris due to a lack of an exit visa. But, a woman to the train station tells Anya that Dimitri can get her an exit visa, and she can find him at the abandoned palace. It's in the palace that memories from the past come bubbling up for Anya, in what is easily one of the most iconic scenes of the film. Seeing spectral dancers burst from the glass windows of the ballroom, floating to the floor and dancing, all while Anya dances around them, imagining being reunited with the Tsar and the rest of the royal family, all to the tune of the song "Once Upon a December" is absolutely stunning, and truly a showcase of masterful animation. And, even the song "Once Upon a December" is fantastic, and is among the more famous songs from this movie. 

        Anyway, Dimitri and Vlad spot Anya, and immediately notice a striking resemblance between her and a portrait of Anastasia as a child. Without letting her in on the actual plan, Dimitri and Vlad agree to get Anya to Paris, provided she can pass herself off as the lost princess Anastasia. In the rafters of the ballroom, Rasputin's reliquary awakens, much to the shock of Bartok,.and both are dragged to the underworld, where Rasputin has been for ten years. And, with the news that Anastasia is alive, he renews his vows to finish off the Romanov dynasty forever. And, it's here where we get yet another iconic song sequence with "In The Dark of the Night." First, the hard rock instrumentation is awesome, especially when combined with the vocals of Jim Cummings as the singing voice of Rasputin. Second, the dark and insane visuals add a real sense of dread to the movie. If this movie was made by Disney and not 20th Century Fox, this would be one of the best Disney villain songs ever made. But, it's definitely a fantastic villain song nonetheless. 

        So, Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad board a train to get to Paris, but there's a problem: the ink on their exit visas was blue, not red as is required. Oops. But, it doesn't matter, as Rasputin's forces derail and destroy the train anyway, but luckily the passengers are unharmed, and Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad Jim off to safety. Yikes. So, how do they get to Paris? Well, we see a training montage of Dimitri and Vlad showing Anya the ropes of being Anastasia, and they eventually reach a ship in Germany, and they board the ship to Paris. On the ship, Anya has a dream, which almost ends in her going overboard and drowning, but she's saved by Dimitri. Finally fed up, Rasputin decides to leave the underworld and kill Anya himself. 

       In Paris, Anya is taken to meet Sophie, the lady-in-waiting and cousin to the Dowager Empress Marie. However, Marie is no longer seeing anyone claiming to be Anastasia, as the heartbreak is too much. But, it's when Anya tells Sophie the story of her survival of the attack on the Romanovs that Dimitri realizes that Anya IS Anastasia. How? Well, Anya mentions a servant boy that helped her and Marie escape that night, and Dimitri was that boy. Anyway, after a montage showing off Paris, Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad are invited to see a performance at the Palais Garnier, where Marie will be in attendance. However, Marie refuses to listen to Dimitri, knowing about his con. Anya, overhearing the conversation, get angry with Dimitri and leaves. Undeterred, Dimitri abducts Marie in her car, and takes her to meet Anya anyway, showing her the music box from Anastasia's childhood. So, we finally see Anya and Marie meet, and Anya begins recalling memories of her past, and after recognizing both the music box and the lullaby, Marie realizes that Anya is, indeed, Anastasia. 

         Grateful, Marie gives the reward money to Dimitri, but he's had a change of heart and refuses to take the money. Marie recognizes Dimitri, who plans to return to the Soviet Union, as the boy that helped her and Anastasia all those years before. At a grand party thrown in honor of her return, Anastasia learns from her grandmother that Dimitri turned down the money, leaving her torn between staying with her family or rejoining Dimitri. But, it's when she sees Pooka run off that she follows him, which leads to a showdown on the Ponte Alexandre III between Anastasia and Rasputin, with Dimitri returning to help. Anastasia destroys the reliquary, ending Rasputin for good, and she reunites with Dimitri. Anastasia sends a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising to return, and she goes on to live a happy life with Dimitri. 

       So, obviously as I mentioned, the movie Anastasia isn't reflective of actual history. But, it's not meant to. It's a musical fairytale based around a historical urban legend. Obviously, there was no dark magic involved with the ACTUAL Russian Revolution of 1917. Rasputin was dead WELL before the Romanovs were overthrown. And, it's since been proven that Anastasia did, indeed, die alongside her family. So, if you're looking at this movie tombe faithfully reflective of real history, you're barking up the wrong damn tree, my friends. 

        But, for what the movie is, Anastasia is really good. The animation is outstanding, with the biggest highlights being the "Once Upon a December" and the "In The Dark of the Night" segments of the movie. And, aside from those two songs, the rest of the songs by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ehrens were all fantastic, with my other two favorites being the songs "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" and the iconic "Journey to the Past." The singing voice talents of Liz Callaway as Anastasia, Jim Cummings as Rasputin, and Jonathan Dokuchitz as Dimitri were all fantastic. Now, I mention these three specifically as they were the singing voices for those three characters. Other characters like Dowager Empress Marie, Vlad, and Sophie all had their speaking AND singing voices done by their respective voice actors of Angela Lansbury, Kelsey Grammer, and Bernadette Peters. And, they were all three excellent. As for the speaking voices for Anastasia, Dimitri, and Rasputin, I think that Meg Ryan, John Cusack, and Christopher Lloyd were all really good, with Christopher Lloyd's Rasputin being a truly bizarre and threatening villain. 

       Overall, in a decade where he thoroughly struggled at the box office, Don Bluth genuinely struck gold with Anastasia. This is, easily, one of my favorites from Don Bluth, and is definitely worth a watch. I'm giving Anastasia a rating of 4.95/5. Now, something worth mentioning is that a Broadway musical adaptation of Anastasia was produced in 2017, and is really good. However, the musical eschews the more mystical elements of the animated film in favor of something slightly more faithful to history, but it remains a number of characters and a majority of the songs from the animated original. The Anastasia musical is also really good, and is worth checking out. I'm pretty sure there are clips from it available to watch on YouTube, if you're at all curious. 

        Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time for the start of 12 Reviews of Christmas.