The last surviving child of the Russian Royal Family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.
The sailor of legend is framed by the goddess Eris for the theft of the Book of Peace, and must travel to her realm at the end of the world to retrieve it and save the life of his childhood friend Prince Proteus.
Directors:
Patrick Gilmore,
Tim Johnson
Stars:
Brad Pitt,
Catherine Zeta-Jones,
Joseph Fiennes
A Disney animated version of "Treasure Island". The only difference is that this movie is set in outer space with alien worlds and other galactic wonders.
Directors:
Ron Clements,
John Musker
Stars:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Emma Thompson,
Martin Short
A wild stallion is captured by humans and slowly loses the will to resist training, yet, throughout his struggles for freedom, the stallion refuses to let go of the hope of one day returning home to his herd.
When a young Inuit hunter needlessly kills a bear, he is magically changed into a bear himself as punishment with a talkative cub being his only guide to changing back.
Directors:
Aaron Blaise,
Robert Walker
Stars:
Joaquin Phoenix,
Jeremy Suarez,
Rick Moranis
A waitress, desperate to fulfill her dreams as a restaurant owner, is set on a journey to turn a frog prince back into a human being, but she has to face the same problem after she kisses him.
Directors:
Ron Clements,
John Musker
Stars:
Anika Noni Rose,
Keith David,
Oprah Winfrey
The daughter of the last Russian Czar, Nicolas II (Rick Jones), Anastasia (Meg Ryan) is found by two Russian con men, Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer), who seek the reward that her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna (Dame Angela Lansbury), promised to the ones who'll find her. But the evil mystic of the Czar family, Grigori Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), still wants the Romanov family to be destroyed forever.
When Don Bluth and Gary Goldman began researching the actual events, they discovered the history of Anastasia and the Romanov dynasty was too dark for their movie, and decided to use the basic facts of the Romanovs' demise and the Russian Revolution as a starting point and ask, "What if this girl escaped, and what would have happened to her?" opting to "tell a myth or a fairy tale". Bluth also did not take into consideration depicting Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks as the villains, and instead, incorporated Grigori Rasputin, explaining "We wanted to stay out of politics." In reality, Rasputin was already dead when the Romanovs were assassinated. In addition to this, Bluth created the idea for Bartok, the albino bat, as a sidekick for Rasputin. "I just thought the villain had to have a comic sidekick, just to let everyone know that it was all right to laugh. A bat seemed a natural friend for Rasputin. Making him a white bat came later, just to make him different." See more »
Goofs
At the beginning of the movie, after "Once Upon a December" when Anya meets Dimitri and Vlad for the first time, we see the Tsar and Tsarina appear in one of the paintings with their son, Alexei, who has brown hair. In the painting it is clearly a platinum blonde. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Dowager Empress Marie:
There was a time, not very long ago, where we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parties. The year was 1916, and my son, Nicholas, was the czar of Imperial Russia.
See more »
Crazy Credits
The first part of the initial set of the credits shows clips of the film. See more »
Alternate Versions
The version shown on HBO and related channels contains extra credits for the Spanish-language version of the film. The song over those credits, a Spanish version of "Journey to the Past," was on the film's soundtrack album. See more »
This is my personal favourite of the Don Bluth movies. I also recommend American Tail, Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Anastasia is just beautiful, and was one of the most requested films when we had our family cinemas. A couple of years ago, I got it on video, and all those memories came back. I love this movie so much. The animation is gorgeous. The characters are well drawn, and the backgrounds and colours are stunning. There is a lot of wit between the characters. Not to mention a truly sweet romance between Anastasia and Dimitri. Whoever hated this movie, must be told, that this is so much more watchable than Richard Rich's King and I. Anastasia herself is so beautiful. The highlights were Anastasia's dream and the scene on the train. The songs are what make this movie. My favourite is "Once Upon a December" as it is so nostalgic, haunting and poignant. All the other songs are well done and move the story forward. Even "Dark of the Night". As for the story, yes it is historically inaccurate, but so is Pocahontas, and this is marginally better. It was so well told. In some Don Bluth movies, they lose the essence right from minute one, but not here. As for the voice talents, they were all impeccable. Meg Ryan was suitably feisty as Anastasia, and Liz Callaway did her singing voice beautifully. John Cusack put an immense amount of charm into his voice-over, although Dimitri was for me was the weakest character in the movie. Kelsey Grammar has great fun as Vladmir, and also check him out as Zozi in Bartok the Magnificent. Christopher Lloyd voices villain Rasputin with over the top menace, and the villain loses his body parts here. We have all had days like that. Hank Azaria is also great as Bartok.Underrated Broadway actress Bernadette Peters has a great french accent, and I had so much fun with her singing "Paris hold the key to your heart." For me, Angela Lansbury provides a completely human and poignant character in the Dowager Empress. Her prologue was so well paced, and there was a side to the great character actress that I never knew she had. In conclusion, a sweet and beautiful animation that is essential to all animation lovers. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox
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This is my personal favourite of the Don Bluth movies. I also recommend American Tail, Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Anastasia is just beautiful, and was one of the most requested films when we had our family cinemas. A couple of years ago, I got it on video, and all those memories came back. I love this movie so much. The animation is gorgeous. The characters are well drawn, and the backgrounds and colours are stunning. There is a lot of wit between the characters. Not to mention a truly sweet romance between Anastasia and Dimitri. Whoever hated this movie, must be told, that this is so much more watchable than Richard Rich's King and I. Anastasia herself is so beautiful. The highlights were Anastasia's dream and the scene on the train. The songs are what make this movie. My favourite is "Once Upon a December" as it is so nostalgic, haunting and poignant. All the other songs are well done and move the story forward. Even "Dark of the Night". As for the story, yes it is historically inaccurate, but so is Pocahontas, and this is marginally better. It was so well told. In some Don Bluth movies, they lose the essence right from minute one, but not here. As for the voice talents, they were all impeccable. Meg Ryan was suitably feisty as Anastasia, and Liz Callaway did her singing voice beautifully. John Cusack put an immense amount of charm into his voice-over, although Dimitri was for me was the weakest character in the movie. Kelsey Grammar has great fun as Vladmir, and also check him out as Zozi in Bartok the Magnificent. Christopher Lloyd voices villain Rasputin with over the top menace, and the villain loses his body parts here. We have all had days like that. Hank Azaria is also great as Bartok.Underrated Broadway actress Bernadette Peters has a great french accent, and I had so much fun with her singing "Paris hold the key to your heart." For me, Angela Lansbury provides a completely human and poignant character in the Dowager Empress. Her prologue was so well paced, and there was a side to the great character actress that I never knew she had. In conclusion, a sweet and beautiful animation that is essential to all animation lovers. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox