MOVIE REVIEW: ANASTASIA (1997)

When 20^th Century Fox wanted to compete with Disney’s choke hold on the animated film market, they formed an animation studio from scratch and brought in the one man who had experience challenging the House of Mouse- Don Bluth. This piece of historical fiction looks and feels very Bluthy- rich animation but with a darker edge than Disney rarely reached for. This film was released during the end stage of the Disney Renaissance but also at the time of Pixar’s ascendance. Now owned by Disney, it’s easy for people to forget that this film isn’t a Disney product, if they even remember it at all.

This is a fanciful retelling of the myth of Imperial Russia’s lost princess, Anastasia Romanov. Aligned with dark supernatural forces and out for revenge, Rasputin triggers the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty. While all of the Tsar’s family is presumed to be dead, his youngest daughter actually survived, but suffers from amnesia. After aging out of an orphanage at 18, Anya (as she goes by) is taken in by a duo of con men who think they can use her to trick the exiled Dowager Empress that Anya is her granddaughter. As the scheme plays out, Anya’s memories start coming back, blurring her act with the truth of who she really is.

It's a shame that this film got lost in the shuffle of 90s animation. It boasts some lovely music and has some very solid animation sequences in places. That’s a good foundation for any animated film, but Anastasia comes up short on story and plot. Maybe it’s because the rumors of Princess Anastasia’s surviving her family’s murder were still well-known in the 90s. Maybe it’s because this was Fox’s first attempt at an animated film. One evident flaw to point out is that the runtime is too short for the ambitious tale the filmmakers try to tell, so much of it feels rushed.

The supernatural take on Rasputin (who was dead before the revolution began) is both a blessing and a curse. It helps the filmmakers because magic and sorcery make the film feel more like a fairy tale- key to its target audience. It also helps prevent children from having to reconcile with the politics of revolution and the fact that the murder of the Romanovs was an act of free will. That’s more weight that the younger set is ready to handle. On the flip side, however, the dark magic does get pretty intense at times, despite the presence of a comedic sidekick for Rasputin in the form of a talking bat. They solved one problem by creating a subtler problem that throws off the balance of the film in the long run.

What Fox ended up with is a film that inspired the studio to hope for the best, kind of like the hope the rumors of the real Anastasia’s survival brought to many over the years. It’s a false hope, in the end, but it’s nice while you’re in the midst of it. Other films have told this tale without resorting to turning it into fairy-tale-esque fantasy. Maybe that makes for a better film overall, but it’s hard to see how that would work better in animated form. Perhaps the tale of Anastasia is too unique to translate into a mass-market animated feature, but what we got is still good enough for an hour and a half of escapism.

FINAL RATING: 3 out of 5