credit: www.amazon.com
Directors:
Don Bluth & Gary Goldman
Cast:
Meg Ryan …. Anya/Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov
John Cusack …. Dimitri
Kelsey Grammer …. Vladimir
Christopher Lloyd …. Rasputin
Hank Azaria …. Bartok the Bat
Bernadette Peters …. Sophie
Kirsten Dunst …. Young Anastasia
Angela Lansbury …. Dowager Empress Marie Fyodorovna
The Movie:
Before I begin discussing the movie, a little history lesson. Rasputin was a self proclaimed Holy Man who claimed to have healing and prophetical powers. He had much influence over the Tzar, but was not loved by all and in 1916 was assassinated. First poisoned, then shot, then shot several more times then beaten and finally thrown in a frozen lake where he drowned. Anastasia was daughter to the Tzar and was believed assassinated with the rest of her family by the Bolshevik secret police in 1918. Rumors of her survival began to surface years later. Apparently the family had sewn their jewels into her dress and when she was shot the jewels saved her from the bullets. And that’s where our story begins.
Anastasia poses the question: what if it was Rasputin who caused the downfall of the Tzar’s rule? What if Anastasia did indeed survive but lost her memory and was raised as an orphan?
Interestingly enough while attempting to kill Anastasia Rasputin falls in a frozen lake and drowns (nice use of history there). Anastasia loses her memory when falling from a train while her family made their escape.
Cut to ten years later. Dimitri and Vladimir are two men trying to pull the biggest scam of their lives. The Dowager Empress is offering $10,000 to anyone who will bring her the real Anastasia. Luckily for them the real Anastasia (with no memory) lands in their lap. Not knowing she’s the real thing they convince her she might be and take her to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress hoping to get the reward.
However, the return of Anastasia reawakens the dead Rasputin and he is determined to finish what he started, with the help of goofy sidekick Bartok, a little bat that sees to be from Fargo for some reason.
It’s a beautifully animated film (using both hand drawn and computer), with an interesting story and good actors bringing the characters to life. If only there weren’t so many terrible songs. Just as you’re getting into the story they break into song, taking you completely out of it. The relationship between Dimitri and Anastasia is believable. However, Rasputin is a dismal villain. He’s too goofy, what with his body parts falling off all the time, and while he adds to the humor of the film he adds nothing as far as tension. And while Bartok is supposed to be the cute funny sidekick, he’s not that funny.
I commend the filmmakers for using a blend of animation styles; however, it doesn’t always work. In moments when the hand drawn characters are holding computer animated objects it looks like bad blue screen from old movies. The technique of blending these styles has definitely improved since the making of this movie.
STORY: 7/10
ACTING: 8/10
LOOK/FEEL: 8/10
ORIGINALITY: 7/10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 7/10
TOTALE SCORE: 37/50
FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10
The Video:
The film looks fantastic. All the color is rich and wonderful in this Widescreen 2:35.1 presentation.
The Audio:
Presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround the film sounds great and you can hear all the mediocre songs with amazing clarity.
Special Features:
Like most cartoon special editions these days, this dvd is LOADED with 2 discs worth of extra goodness.
Disc One:
Learn To Draw: Animator Don Bluth teaches anyone who wants to learn how to draw Anastasia, Dimitri, Rasputin & Bartok. This is very well done and would be very helpful to any aspiring artist. It’s interesting to watch these characters come to life on the page.
Anastasia’s Music Box Favorites: Several sing-a-longs for the kiddies including songs from: Anastasia; Ferngully; a couple Shirley Temple movies; and Young Frankenstein, among others.
Sing-A-Longs: More sing-a-longs, although just from Anastasia.
Commentary by Directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Disc Two:
“Explore The Palace” 3-D Walk-Through: When you pop this disc in it takes you inside the Romanov Castle where you have to navigate your way around to find the special features. Kind of annoying. However you can click on a scroll in the corner, which takes you to a straightforward menu. The unique thing about the Walk-Through is that there are several Russian items you can click on to learn a little bit about Russian history and culture.
“The Making Of Anastasia”: An in-depth look at the making of the film, including the adaptation of the story and research for the film done in Russia. Includes interviews with the actors and the filmmakers. This is a well-done “Making Of” that talks about what, how, and why they did what they did and doesn’t waste any time talking about how great they all are.
Bartok The Magnificent: The straight to video sequel starring the sidekick who had all of 10 minutes screen time in the original. Featuring the voice talents of Hank Azaria, Kelsey Grammer, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Tim Curry, Diedrich Bader & Jennifer Tilly. Not the best way to spend an hour.
“Journey To The Past” Music Video: Aaliyah’s music video for the song. There is also a making of for the video.
Games: There are a few games here for the kiddies.
Learn To Sing In different Languages: Learn to sing two songs from the film in 12 languages.
SCORE: 8.5
