Anastasia is what I consider to be Fox's take on the Disney movie formula and for the most part, being successful at it. Back in the ’90s, Disney was killing it with their new princess movies that were both fresh and entertaining. Other studios like 20th Century Fox and Warner Bro’s wanted a piece of that magic that made the Disney movies classics as they tried to put their mark on the princess movie formula. However, the Don Bluth and Gary Goldman directed feature simply called Anastasia is possibly the most successful in mimicking the Disney formula while at the same time adding a fresh new coat of paint to make it stand out from the others.
In the early 20th century in Russia lived the family of the Romanovs who are throwing a ball to celebrate the Romanovs 300th anniversary rule as the empress grandmother of a young girl named Anastasia gives her a necklace and a music box before the empress leaves to go to Paris France. Suddenly the ball is interrupted by a nasty villainous corpse known as Rasputin and when the empress rebuffs his affection, Rasputin places a curse on the Romanov family which would begin the Russian Revolution. The Grandmother and Anastasia are unfortunately separated as Anastasia falls and bumps her head giving her slight amnesia.
Ten years later, Anastasia is released from a foster home and starts to head into town to find out who she really is. It turns out that Anastasia is worth lots of money and many people have tried to imitate the princess to get the money but with no success. Two con men named Demitri and Vlad are also after getting the reward money to find a woman who can pose as the real Anastasia. As luck would have it the real Anastasia shows up and surprises the con men in how good she is with pretending to be the real deal even though she is. Anastasia and Demitri make a deal to go to Paris France and find out if she even is the real Anastasia, but things may get complicated as a romance starts to blossom and the corpse of Rasputin comes back to life to stop Anastasia from making it back home.
The story is charming uplifting and sometimes funny. I really do like the journey the characters go on and how they each learn something along the way. There are a bunch of funny line deliveries between Anastasia and Demitri as well as Rasputin and Bartok the bat. there are also plenty of creepy dark moments that can be rather freaky to look at but in a good way. Best of all, it’s great at giving characters a good amount of personality to make them relatable and fun to watch which is something I can’t really say for the other movie imitaters. Anastasia herself is a very good female protagonist. She is mentally strong and willing to go above and beyond to find out who she really is. Demitri is a sneaky con artist and overtime begins to have a change of heart after going through the long journey. There's also a cute dog sidekick named Pooka. He's great for lightening the mood in certain scenes. Christopher Lloyd really does a great job playing Rasputin and I can tell he's having a lot of fun in the role. Bartok is also funny and kinda cute. He's kinda like a mentor to Rasputin but he never listens. it's kinda funny to me in some weird fashion. However, I do wish Rasputin could have more time on screen because he's actually very interesting and practical steals the entire movie thanks to his amazing villainous attitude.
The animation is very good but there are certain scenes that were unbelievable to look at. The first one is when Anastasia is singing inside the old castle and all the sudden these ghostly like people from the past come down and she dances around them as it was like reliving a memory. The second scene is when Anastasia is sleepwalking and thinks she's in a magical wonderland while in reality Rasputin is trying to trick her into death and it's very freaky. Whenever there is a musical segment the timing and pacing of the visuals are on point with the mood of the song. The character designs follow the same path as the Disney character designs while adding subtle changes to make this movie different from the other Disney princess movies. The music score is also very good and the songs are either energetic or charmingly soft. The songs aren't too memorable, but the one song that is memorable and catchy is sung by Rasputin and it's called "In the Dark of the Night". This is a great villain song and I was just listening in awe of how amazingly evil this number was.
Anastasia might not be as popular or as well known as some of the Disney Princess fares. Heck, I don’t know if I can even say this is the best Don Bluth's movie as there are many other films he directed that left a bigger impact than this film is giving itself credit for. With all that said though, Anastasia is a solidly entertaining movie with likable characters, beautiful animation, and a nice and satisfying story that is sure to delight young and old. it deserves more credit as it’s the only Disney princess knock-off movie that actually took the formula and worked with everything it got.
(Final Grade B+)