Anastasia

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Right from the get-go, this was one of those movies that got a bit controversial due to its fantastical retelling of a true story, altering details in numerous ways. I can understand history buffs having a tough time with this, but personally, I find certain aspects of this are just too fantastical to take seriously. On top of that, they provide an interesting "what if" story here in place of the real events that would have had her die before the title card. 

The film opens with Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) crashing a party, celebrating the Romanov tricentennial. He hexes the Romanov family, and while the palace is being overrun, Anastasia (Kirsten Dunst/Meg Ryan) escapes and flees. Several years later, having lost a lot of her memory, "Anya" (Anastasia) comes back with her rusty memory, looking for her home. In the meantime, the Grand Duchess (Angela Lansbury) offers a reward for the return of her missing daughter, which triggers a couple of scammers, Dimitri and Vladimir (John Cusack and Kelsey Grammar, respectively) to hold auditions for an Anastasia look-alike who they can use to get paid.

It's not long before Anastasia crosses paths with Dimitri and Vladimir, who fully intend on collecting their reward with someone who could very well be the real Anastasia, despite the fact that she remembers so little before the age she went missing. In the meantime, Rasputin learns Anastasia is alive, and with the help of his sidekick, Bartok (Hank Azaria) he makes plans to track her and kill her, as he missed the first time with his curse. So the big change here is that they have Anastasia survive an attack, playing on many rumors that she may have survived. It further plays with the idea of imposter Anastasias, which was also a reality. So my take is that the filmmakers wanted to have fun with something historical, and being 1997, you can't tell me this is a first.

The thing about 'Anastasia' for me is, however, she's kind of uninteresting. Throughout the whole film, I was far less impressed with the blossoming apparent romance going on between Anastasia and Dimitri (it's fairly obvious from the get-go) and more impressed with... well, just about everything else. Character-wise, Rasputin and Bartok are actually a lot of fun to watch - a lot like a belated Don Bluth answer to Jafar and Iago. Rasputin has this sort of zombie curse going on, and his body parts keep falling off, making things grotesquely humorous. Bartok on the other hand is easily the comedy relief throughout the film, and although he's at times corny, he succeeds - just the right amount of cute, not at all annoying, and able to get a giggle or two.

On top of some of the voice talent and characters, one thing I appreciated about this film that a lot of other Bluth films don't have as strong is the music. Make no mistake, this movie is loaded with music, so if you don't want a musical, stay clear. Having said that, however, the music in this is a lot more like a Broadway production than the regular "sing-song" music Bluth usually has in his films. There's a certain "epicness" to the songs and score here, both earning Oscar nominations that year, losing two awards to 'The Fully Monty' and 'Titanic'. I further enjoy the atmosphere all throughout this movie, with the animation being... well, mostly pretty amazing. This is another part CG, part old school animation adventures, so at times the CG can stick out like a sore thumb - but also, at times, it still holds up completely. 

Although it's not a title I could recommend to just anyone, I would still argue that it's one of Bluth's best works, alongside Gary Goldman, who hasn't really been mentioned yet, but he also deserves credit for co-directing 'All Dogs Go to Heaven', 'The Pebble and the Penguin', 'Titan AE', and honestly a whole slew of titles. Often going uncredited, he does give Bluth a big hand in his work. The latest - a movie based on the classic arcade game, 'Dragon Slayer', which would be cool, but this retro snowball really does just keep rolling, doesn't it? Back to the movie at hand, I think if you're at all curious you should check it out. A lot of it is pretty sappy, I admit, but a lot of it is pretty fun - especially in the darker areas of the film. Just bear in mind that it's pretty heavy with the music - but at least it's well done music.

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