While Disney was bringing out “Hercules” in 1997, Fox released a historical princess cartoon that’s only flaw would be ‘90s kids would mistake it for a Disney movie even 15 years later.
“Anastasia” is set during the Russian Bolshevik revolution in the 19th century. The Bolsheviks murdered Tzar Nikolas’ family in order to overcome the feudal system. Legends about members of the Romanov family surviving were very real until DNA testing proved otherwise, right around the time the movie was released.
Fox’s take on what might have happened if Anastasia survived resulted in a gem of a movie, complete with Broadway style music numbers, effective voice casting and lovely animation. (Think the ballroom scene from “Beauty and the Beast,” but for most of the film.)
If you weren’t around for the release or don’t remember it, “Anastasia” is a good cartoon to revisit. The animators thought to choreograph the characters while singing and it’s funny to see them throw their hands up when a song ends.
Meg Ryan voices Anya -- aka Anastasia after suffering amnesia during the revolution -- and her sassiness translates even as a long-legged Russian princess. Anya finds her way to Paris with two con men from St. Petersburg, Dimitri (John Cusak) and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammar).
Dimitri is a smooth-talking, charming, young jackass, while his partner, Vlad, is more like a fat, lovable teddy bear. As a kid, I never predicted Anastasia and Dimitri together because they banter from the time they meet until they arrive in Paris.
Watching it now, I think Dimitri ruined my expectations of men. I never wanted a Prince Charming. I wanted a Dimitri. Someone sarcastic and suave, but with the capacity to be a gentleman deep down. I’m still looking for one of those.
It’s also nice to see Dimitri as a dynamic character when he refuses his reward money for reuniting Anastasia with his grandmother. He’s incredibly flawed but it is clear how much he cares about Anya after helping her out of several near-death experiences at the expense of the villain, Rasputin.
Voiced by Christopher Lloyd, Rasputin is based upon the spooky priest hired by queen Alexandria in real life as a spiritual healer for Anastasia’s brother, Alexi. He was a hemophilic in a time where there were no drugs or treatments for the genetic disorder.
Fox played off the appearance of the mystic and turned him into a haggard, bloodthirsty villain with dark allegiances to something super natural. We assume he has bonds with Satan himself as the prologue tells us he “sold his soul” for the lives of the family.
According to about.com, it was actually Russian parliament that wanted Rasputin dead. He was originally a peasant and his presence alone was enough to enrage noble Russians. But he had poor reputation. Rasputin was seen as a drunk and a man whore, especially due to rumors about him having the eye of the Tzar’s wife.
Considering the historical context of Grigory Rasputin, the writers toned him down to appear in a kid’s movie. They also gave him an albino bat for a sidekick, which allows for some comic relief as Rasputin sings of killing off Anastasia while climbing staircases made of skeletons.
As for the animation, there is such a nostalgia in 2-D animation because most cartoons are 3-D. Fox put in authentic, period patterns for carpeting and flooring while capturing facial expressions to a T, like Dimitri’s reaction to seeing Anastasia dolled up for the first time.
Although historians could write a whole thesis and more on the historical inaccuracies of “Anastasia,” the casting and work (not research) that went into the film are enjoyable for kids and big kids both.
