Lee Eisenberg
OK, you're going to tell me that a cartoon doesn't have to be historically accurate. Even so, Don Bluth's "Anastasia" contains what has to be one of the most ridiculous excuses for a story ever. At the very least, the movie could've looked at the reasons why Russia had a revolution in the first place (the monarchy and aristocracy owned everything while the people owned nothing). At least it showed the people carrying out the revolution rather than giving the Bolsheviks credit; after all, the latter merely used the revolution to seize power. As Noam Chomsky noted, Lenin killed anyone who held authentically socialist views.Most importantly, I can't figure out what went wrong with Don Bluth. In the '80s he made two of the greatest animated features ever: "The Secret of NIMH" and "An American Tail". Then in the late '80s and '90s, he turned to movies that tried to be fluffy and scary at the same time. Seriously, the depiction of Rasputin - with his name not even pronounced the Russian way - seems like its purpose is to give the tykes nightmares. Basically, every character is a cardboard cutout from Disney: the beautiful woman, the handsome man, the power-hungry villain, and his bumbling sidekick. I should say that Bartok is the only interesting character in the movie. As for the song that received an Academy Award nomination, let's just say that there's a reason why it didn't win (Elliott Smith's song from "Good Will Hunting" should've won).As for the cast. Let's see, we've got America's alleged sweetheart (Meg Ryan), a political activist (John Cusack), Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), several Simpsons voices (Hank Azaria), the woman who wrote murder (Angela Lansbury), a Broadway star (Bernadette Peters), Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin), Mr. Dawes (Arthur Malet) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). As it turns out, another Spiderman cast member (J.K. Simmons) also provides a voice."I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain"Sympathy for the Devil
snperera
omgg!! This movie is so great!!!! The songs, the animation, the voice work, it's all so magical and it takes you on an amazing adventure. You really want Anastasia to know who she really is and you want her to know where she came from. I love that all of the characters have such great chemistry and they all are a great team. I love the romance in the movie as well.
Anssi Vartiainen
Considered by many to be the only good Don Bluth film not made in the 80s. And yeah, there's some truth to that. The 90s were not kind to this master of his craft. I could be wrong, but from what I've gathered, it seemed that he struggled with financiers and producers, who all wanted the films made their way instead of trusting his vision. Which caused the movies to suffer big time.And I'm not even so sure that that doesn't apply here as well, but at least in this case the meddlers knew what they were doing. Because let's face it. Anastasia is one big colossal Disney rip-off. It's clearly trying to cash in on the Disney Renaissance and the huge bloom in animated musical popularity it caused. And who better to help in this cashing in than Don Bluth, who used to work for Disney and during the 90s was pretty much the only Western animator alive who could even theoretically compete with the Mouse.Yet the thing is, it's a damn good rip-off. I don't mind them utilizing the Disney formula at all if it's done this well. This is an excellent film, from top to bottom. The story about a Russian princess lost during the rebellions of the 1910s and then found years later, is a good one. Sure it's based on real events only in the loosest terms possible, but that's the formula. The music is also fantastic. Bluth's films have always suffered from lackluster scores, but this has some really good music numbers. In the Dark of the Night might very well be one of my all-time favourite villain songs.And it looks fantastic! This is Don Bluth competing on the level of Disney and in some brief instances even eclipsing the studio that gave him his beginning. The backgrounds especially are gorgeous beyond belief and you find yourself lost in them, staring at the amount of detail and artwork.Now, the only real nitpick I have is the ending. It falls short. There's really no other way to say it. Rasputin, the villain of the movie, has been built up big time, but when he finally meets Anastasia... It's really disappointing. I can't spoil anything here, but come on.But, aside from that, it's a great film. Definitely worth a watch for all those that grew up with the Disney Renaissance and love the art form.
Charles Herold (cherold)
This movie by Don Bluth is very similar in style to Disney films of the period. It is a very fanciful take on the Russian Revolution, which happened not because of discontented people and bad rulers but because swell rulers were magically undone by a villain who without explanation hates them passionately. This magic follows the amnesiac Anastasia as she teams up with a couple of likable grifters.At times the movie is quite enjoyable, although I always felt like it was falling a little short. The comparisons with Disney are hard to avoid, and while it does some things a bit better than Disney did in this period, Disney still tends to do more things better. One strength of Anastasia is its princess, who has more personality than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. In her spunky determination she is more akin to the princesses Disney has pumped out in more recent years, making her ahead of her time. But while she has some personality, I would say she has a lot. The love interest is also likable but fails to be memorable.Still, the likability of the leads makes the plight of the protagonists more affecting than many Disney films of that period, and there are moments when the movie is downright touching.On the other hand, Bluth is not nearly as good at villains. Rasputin is evil, and his first appearance beyond the grave is amusingly perverse, but he's not remotely scary, never come close to someone like Malificent.The animation is quite good, and there are moments when it is really quite lovely, but again, it lacks the memorable scenes that distinguish Disney's better (and sometimes even lesser) films. There is something off about the basic structure of the film. Rasputin's pet bat seems shoe-horned into the film just because they wanted him, and he's never essential nor particularly amusing.
AD
