BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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

Nicolas F. Costoglou I'm a big Fan of Don Bluth, and i just recently got to see Anastasia for the first time (well, completely at least) and hell yeah, like i expected from Bluth, this was an awesome ride...Don Bluth is famous for being rebellious and making movies which look like Disney at first sight, but are way more dark and not as naively fairy-tale-like, and Anastasia proofs that again.It seems at first to be like Cinderella (which is played in a theater in the movie...interesting ^^), or other Disney-Princess-movies, but oh man, it get's intensely dark and that fairly quick.But first the real important things: This movie looks beautiful, the animation of the characters is fluid, the interaction between them full of energy, the camera perspectives (and movements, something incredibly hard to do well in animation) are fantastic and the mix of 2D and 3D animation is perfect. My favourite animated film of all time is Bluths next project Titan A.E. which does all of this things as good (and some even better), but the scope and feel of this fairy tale is very different, from the (intense and awesome) space adventure.Also a trademark of Bluths films is the use of music to get the story going, and to make dramatic moments even more dramatic (sometimes kinda over-the-top even), and this film has great songs and a outstanding (Oscar nominated) score.I already talked briefly about the energetic interactions between the characters, but i have to point out how great the protagonists are, Anastasia is a strong (at first a bit naive, but then bad ass) character, Dimitri is also great, and the antagonist Rasputin is creepy and evil as fu**.The movie also has a great sense of comedy, i watched it alone and had to laugh out loud a few times actually (and "awwed" at the visuals a few time, also a rare reaction when i'm alone ^^ Even Rasputins little minion-bat is fairly funny and not as annoying as i, at first, anticipated)Not to mention that Bluth is very good in constructing intense action-sequences and they are few, but excellent. The scene with the train is surprisingly well "shot" and choreographed, and i love that Anastasia is the one defeating Rasputin in the end, his death is glorious...All in all, (and i'm surprised myself) my favourite "Princess-fairy- tale"-movie i've seen to date...

TheOneManBoxOffice In the late 1990s, we had two animated movies that were based on a certain event in a country's history. In 1995, Disney gave us an American "history lesson" (and I use that term loosely) with Pocahontas, but in 1997, 20th Century Fox did exactly what Disney did, except give us a look at a bit of Russian history (again, using the term "history" loosely) about the daughter of Czar Nicholas II, Anastasia Romanov, simply called...well...Anastasia. However, one thing to consider when going into this film is that this is a family picture ("kids movie" for short), so if you're looking for a true-to-life history lesson a la a PBS or History Channel documentary, you might as well throw that out the nearest airlock.In this film, Anastasia, voiced by Meg Ryan, is a princess that went missing for several years after the attack on the Romanov family during a party, which was led by the Romanov's former confidant Rasputin, voiced by Christopher Lloyd of Back to the Future fame, who is an undead, evil sorcerer in this movie. Anastasia, now with a case of amnesia and dubbed Anya, eventually joins two con men, Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vladimir (Fraiser's Kelsey Grammar), who are convinced that she really is the missing Romanov princess, and travel to Paris, France, where her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, resides, to hopefully reunite them, all while Rasputin is seeking her unfortunate demise.I won't judge this movie on historical accuracy, as all (or most) of us can tell that the general audience for this film is younger children, though adult audiences will also be entertained, since there was a lot of effort put into the creation of this film. That, and I wouldn't dismiss it as a "Disney knockoff" right away, because the directors of the film, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, were former Disney animators, so it's easy to confuse this for a Disney picture like Beauty and the Beast. As a family film alone, it is pretty damn good. The artwork and animation is great, the songs are enjoyable, and the voice acting is pretty decent.The film was such a success that it became co-director Don Bluth's comeback after a slew of mediocre to bad animated films he directed throughout most of the decade, and his highest grossing film to date. Not only that, but it warranted a direct-to-video follow up film starring the villain's sidekick, Bartok the Bat (voiced by The Simpsons' Hank Azaria in both films).Overall, the film serves as a great choice to have playing during a family movie night, unless you're extremely picky on historical accuracy, in which case, go do something else for 97 minutes.

ComedyFan2010 This is one of my favorite animation movies. It is beautiful and appealing to both children and adults.The story is not historically accurate, but I would think any adult, even the ones not familiar with Russian history at all would sense that there is no truth in Rasputin selling his soul to put a curse on Romanovs. Yet I am sure this beautiful movie would awake interest in people regardless of age to find out more about it. And it is also obvious why. Which kids would want to sit through the details that lead to Russian revolution, the main story of the movie isn't that anyways but the legend of Anastasia.The greatest strength of this movie is the animation. It is so beautifully mastered together with amazing colors and use of shadow. They also went a big way to be accurate in details when it comes to the settings, mainly the palaces. The story takes mainly place in St Petersburg and Paris and both places get a spirit about them I was especially in love with Russian scenery. So much magic and beauty about it. Not just in the palace but the beautiful snowy are out of the city as well.The cast to give voices to the characters is amazing. Angela Lansbury was a perfect choice for the Empress Marie. All the other main characters were also very impressive considering their star status.The music is another important element for the movie. The songs have a big variety and are beautifully sung. My personal favorite is Once Upon a December. They also did so well with collaboration the voices of the singers with those of the actors. Except for Kelsey Grammar who as I read mastered to sing Vladimir's songs on his own. I would love to go see it on stage as a musical.And as I sad it is a wonderful movie for both kids and adults. It follows a well known princess movie formula which children love. But even so the main princess is an exceptionally strong female character who does a lot of brave things in the movie and for the most wants to find herself and her roots. The evil scenes of the movie are also appealing to children, Rasputin's character was sure created to entertain them including the little bat that is his buddy. And adults enjoy more the artful animation and the music.