snperera
omgg!! This movie is so great!!!! The songs, the animation, the voice work, it's all so magical and it takes you on an amazing adventure. You really want Anastasia to know who she really is and you want her to know where she came from. I love that all of the characters have such great chemistry and they all are a great team. I love the romance in the movie as well.
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.
Davis P
Anastasia (1997) is honestly one of the greatest animated films of all time! Meg Ryan and John cusack voice their characters wonderfully, their voices really fit the animated characters well. The script and screenplay is awesome, very well constructed. This movie is of course very family friendly, and it's also very smart and clever, it really shows the writer's talent. I adore the visual effects too, the animation is very state of the art, and the effects are cool looking and a pleasure to see. Rasputin is a great character too! He is the films villain, and he is written very well! He is funny when he needs to be, menacing when he needs to be. His cute little bat assistant is hilarious! I absolutely loved his character, he brought lots of cute amusing anecdotes and lines to the movie. The chemistry between Anastasia and Dimitri is electric! I love the great romantic chemistry between them. Angela Lansbury was cast perfectly to voice Anastasia's grandmother, and her character was written beautifully as well, when they sing once upon a December together, oh my gosh, chills!! The musical numbers are fantastic too! I really love the songs, they just click and work well with the scenes they are in. 10/10 for Anastasia! Will always hold a special place in my heart!