Anastasia Back to Index

Imdb Rating: 6.4
Genre: Animation
Directed: Susan Gauthier &, Bruce Graham
Country: USA
Year: 1997
Duration: 94 min

Media: Hot stuff

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Actors: Meg Ryan (as Anya/Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov (voice)), John Cusack (as Dimitri (voice)), Kelsey Grammer (as Vladimir (voice)), Christopher Lloyd (as Rasputin (voice)), Hank Azaria (as Bartok the Bat (voice)), Bernadette Peters (as Sophie (voice)), Kirsten Dunst (as Young Anastasia (voice)), Angela Lansbury (as Dowager Empress Marie Fyodorovna (voice)), Rick Jones (as Czar Nicholas Romanov II/Servant/Revolutionary Soldier/Ticket Agent (voice)), Andrea Martin (as Comrade Phlegmenkoff/Old Woman (voice)), Glenn Walker Harris Jr. (as Young Dimitri (voice)), Debra Mooney (as Actress (voice)), Arthur Malet (as Travelling Man/Major Domo (voice)), Charity James (as Anastasia Impostor (voice)), Liz Callaway (as Anastasia (singing voice))

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Description: "Discover the Adventure Behind the Greatest Mystery of Our Time"

The only surviving child of the Russian Royal Family hooks up with two con men while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.

Comment: Anastatsia is without doubt one of the best animated movies ever made, for several reasons. It's an amazing story, filled with adventure, romance, smart dialog and wonderful music. The story is set in Russia and other parts of Europe, both in the wonderful palaces of the Czar family and the french countryside. It tells the story of the lost princess Anastasia, and uses the rumors that she as the only one of the Romanov family survived the massacre during the Russian revolution. Anya, a girl with no memory of her past, meets with two men of questionable professions that promise to take her to Paris, if she's willing to try to convince the Dowager Emperess that she might be Anastasia... Unfortunately, the evil sorcerer Rasputin (the man who killed the Romanov family) also knows that Anya is alive, and swears to kill her, whatever the cost... So Anya is taken on a magical adventurous ride through Europe, to find her family.

One of the best things about the movie is the characters. They seem so real, like real persons, not platonic, "a beautiful damsel in distress", "a handsome hero" end of story... The music is wonderful, better than in many Disney movies, and the story very good.

The only things I don't like about the film, is the things that's dangerous about making movies about real historical events. The Romanov Family weren't the innocents victims they're painted out to be, and the fact that the story is based on that... But I've only started to think about this now when I'm older, so... Anyone who likes a good movie, rent or buy Anastasia. It's worth it.

I should recommend the Swedish version, if someone here was to see it. Helen Sjöholm is the singer of Anya's role, and she is one of the best singers in Sweden...

IMDB TRIVIA FOR ANASTASIA (1997):
- As is the case with many 20th Century Fox Films, the film cans for the advance screening prints and show prints had a code name. Anastasia was "The Train".
- When Meg Ryan was offered the role of Anya, she could not decide if she wanted to accept it or not. Upon hearing of Ryan's indecision, Fox took an audio clip of Ryan talking in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and created a short animated sequence of Anya speaking the lines. They sent the clip to Ryan, and she was so impressed that she changed her mind and accepted the role.
- Composer David Newman's father Alfred Newman wrote the score for 1956's Anastasia.
- The Parisian bridge on which the confrontation between Rasputin and Dimitri and Anastasia occurs is the Alexander III bridge, named after the real Anastasia Romanov's grandfather on the occasion of his state visit to France in the 1870s.
- The drawing the Empress holds when she and Anya are reminiscing (the same one we see little Anastasia give her at the beginning of the movie) is a picture the real Anastasia had drawn for her father in 1914.
- The portrait in the ballroom of the whole family includes a dog. The dog existed. This spaniel named Joy belonged to Anastasia's brother, Alexei, and was found alive at the house where the family was killed. Anastasia's own dog, Jimmy, did not survive.
- The real Anastasia once wore a dress almost exactly like the one Anya wears in the last scenes of the movie. This same dress was seen in Anastasia (1956).
- When Anya returns to the palace in St. Petersburg and is in the ballroom you can see the painting of the coronation of Alexandra and Nicholas on the left hand side being the first picture, which is a real painting.
- The musical number "Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart)" includes cameos by various historical characters from the time, including Maurice Chevalier, Sigmund Freud, Charles Lindbergh, Josephine Baker, Claude Monet, Isadora Duncan, Auguste Rodin, and Gertude Stein.
- The Russian Ballet that the characters go to see is "Cinderella".
- Liz Callaway was called at the last minute by Flaherty and Ahrens to substitute for a singer who couldn't make the recording session of the temp tracks for Fox. Her tracks of the songs were liked so much they led to her subsequent casting as the singing voice of Anastacia.

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