| Anastasia | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Don Bluth Gary Goldman |
| Produced by | Don Bluth Gary Goldman |
| Written by | Susan Gauthier Bruce Graham Bob Tzudiker Noni White Eric Tuchman |
| Starring | Meg Ryan John Cusack Kelsey Grammer Christopher Lloyd Hank Azaria Bernadette Peters Angela Lansbury |
| Music by | Score: David Newman Songs: Stephen Flaherty Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics) |
| Editing by | Bob Bender Fiona Trayler |
| Studio | Fox Animation Studios |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | November 14, 1997 (NY premiere) November 21, 1997 (US) |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $53,000,000 |
| Box office | $139,804,348 |
Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical adventure film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios.
The idea for the film originates from Fox's 1956 live-action film version of the same name.[1] The plot is loosely based on an urban legend which claimed that Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last monarch of Imperial Russia, in fact survived the execution of her family, and thus takes various liberties with historical fact.[2]
Contents |
In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II hosts a ball at the Catherine Palace to celebrate the Romanov tricentennial. At the ball, his mother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna (Angela Lansbury), gives the eight-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia (Kirsten Dunst/Lacey Chabert) a music box and a necklace reading “Together in Paris” to ease her favorite granddaughter’s loneliness while Marie is away in Paris. It plays their favorite lullaby. The ball is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Grigori Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd/Jim Cummings), a power-mad sorcerer who was banished from the court by the Tsar for treason. Rasputin reveals that he has sold his soul in exchange for a reliquary which has power to cast a curse on the Romanov family. Rasputin's curse sparks a catastrophic revolution, and the Romanovs are forced to flee from the palace. Only Marie and Anastasia are able to escape the siege alive, thanks to a young servant boy named Dimitri, who shows them a secret passageway in Anastasia's room. Rasputin's bat minion, Bartok (Hank Azaria), immediately alerts him of Anastasia's escape, and Rasputin confronts Marie and Anastasia on their way to the train station, only to fall through the ice and drown. At the train station, however, Anastasia becomes separated from Marie when she fails to board the moving train. She falls in the attempt and hits her head on the platform, losing almost all of her memories.
Ten years later, Russia is under communist rule. Marie, now living in Paris, is offering a monetary reward for the safe return of her granddaughter. Dimitri (John Cusack/Jonathan Dokuchitz), now a con man, and his friend and partner Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer) are searching for an Anastasia lookalike to present to Marie so that they can collect the reward and end their financial troubles. Elsewhere, Anastasia (Meg Ryan/Liz Callaway), now under the name "Anya," leaves the rural orphanage where she grew up. She turns down a job at a fish factory in favor of going to St. Petersburg after her necklace inspires her to seek out her family in Paris, accompanied by a stray puppy named Pooka. In St. Petersburg she encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who are impressed by her resemblance to the Grand Duchess and trick her into believing that she may be the real Anastasia. In actuality, they just want to use her as the Anastasia lookalike for their scheme without having to share the reward money with her.
Bartok realizes that the two con men’s “fake” Anastasia is, in fact, the real Anastasia when Rasputin's previously dormant reliquary is revived. The reliquary transports Bartok to limbo, where Rasputin has existed as a animate corpse for the past ten years, unable to truly die as long as his soul, the reliquary, is still intact. Enraged to hear that Anastasia escaped the curse, Rasputin sends demonic spirits from the reliquary to kill her.
After two narrow escapes from Rasputin's demonic spirits during their travels, Anya, Dimitri, and Vladimir arrive in Paris to present Anya as Anastasia to Marie. But first, Anya is quizzed by Marie's first cousin, Sophie, on Anastasia's life, in order to insure that she is not simply a lookalike. Dimitri and Vladimir have taught Anya all the answers, but when Anya independently, though dimly, recalls Dimitri opening the secret passageway, he realizes that she is the real Grand Duchess. Sophie, convinced that Anya is the real Anastasia, then arranges for Anya to meet Marie after a Russian ballet, but Marie refuses to see her, having been tricked so many times before by lookalikes. Anya is horrified to find out that Dimitri wanted to trick Marie and has used her, and breaks contact with him. Dimitri, having fallen in love with Anya, manages to change Marie's mind by presenting her with Anastasia's music box, which he found abandoned in the palace after the siege. Marie remains guarded upon meeting Anya, but when Anya uses her necklace to wind the music box and sings the lullaby, the two women realize the truth and are reunited at long last.
Marie offers Dimitri the reward of ten million rubles. However, Dimitri, ashamed that he had planned to trick both Marie and Anya, refuses the money. Convinced that Anya's anger and his own lowly social class will keep them apart, Dimitri plans to return to Russia. Later, at a celebration being held in Anya’s honor, Marie informs Anya that Dimitri did not take the money, and promises her granddaughter that she is will always be happy, even if Anastasia chooses a life with Dimitri. Unsure and disoriented, Anya wanders through a garden and onto the Pont Alexandre III, where she is trapped by Rasputin. Rasputin attacks her with the help of his reliquary. Dimitri returns to save her, but is injured and knocked unconscious. In the end, Anya manages to destroy Rasputin's reliquary by crushing it under her foot. His soul destroyed, Rasputin promptly turns to dust.
Afterwards, Dimitri and Anya reconcile, and Anya decides to choose a life with Dimitri over one as a grand duchess. They send a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising that one day, they will all be together in Paris again. Anya and Dimitri share a kiss as they sail out of Paris with Pooka and a reformed Bartok.
| Voice Actor | Singing Voice | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Meg Ryan | Liz Callaway | Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova |
| Kirsten Dunst | Lacey Chabert | Young Anastasia |
| John Cusack | Jonathan Dokuchitz | Dimitri |
| Kelsey Grammer | Vladimir Vanya Voinitsky Vasilovich | |
| Angela Lansbury | Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna | |
| Bernadette Peters | Sophie Stanislovskievna Somorkov-Smirnoff | |
| Christopher Lloyd | Jim Cummings | Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin |
| Hank Azaria | Bartok |
The musical score for the film was composed, co-orchestrated, and conducted by David Newman, and the songs were written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.[3] The film's soundtrack was released in CD and audio cassette format on October 28, 1997.[4]
A limited release of Anastasia in New York City on the weekend of November 14, 1997 grossed $120,541. The following week, the wide release of Anastasia in the United States made $14,242,807, which placed it as the second highest-grossing film between November 21-23, 1997. By the end of its theatrical run, Anastasia had grossed $58,406,347 in the domestic box office and $81,398,001 worldwide.[5] The worldwide gross totaled $139,804,348, making it Don Bluth's highest-grossing film to date.[6]
Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars describing it as "...entertaining and sometimes exciting".[7] The movie also currently stands with a 85% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[8] Carol Buckland of CNN Interactive praised John Cusack for bringing "an interesting edge to Dimitri, making him more appealing than the usual animated hero" and stated that Angela Lansbury gave the film "vocal class", but described the film as "OK entertainment" and that "it never reaches a level of emotional magic."[9] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that the film "has the Disney house style down cold", but that the film feels "a touch depersonalized".[10]
Anastasia was a hit in Russia, despite the fact that the film took great artistic licenses with Russian history. Gemini Films, the Russian distributor of Anastasia, stressed the fact that the story was "not history", but rather "a fairy tale set against the background of real Russian events" in the film's Russian marketing campaign so that its Russian audience would not view Anastasia "as a historical film".[11] As a result, many Russians praised the film for its art and storytelling and saw it as "not so much a piece of history but another Western import to be consumed and enjoyed".[11] A number of Russian Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, found Anastasia to be an offensive depiction of the Grand Duchess, who was canonized as a passion bearer in 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church.[12] Some of Anastasia's contemporary relatives also felt that the film was distasteful, but most Romanovs have come to accept the "repeated exploitation of Anastasia's romantic tale ... with equanimity."[2]
Anastasia was harshly criticized by many historians because it presents a "sanitized, sugar-coated reworking of the story of the [Tsar's] youngest daughter."[13] While the filmmakers acknowledged the fact that "Anastasia uses history only as a starting point", others complained that the film would provide its audience with misleading facts about Russian history, which, according to the author and historian Suzanne Massie, "has been falsified for so many years."[2] Similarly, the amateur historian Bob Atchison said that Anastasia was akin to someone making a film in which "Anne Frank moves to Orlando and opens a crocodile farm with a guy named Mort."[2] At the same time, however, Atchison recognized the possible benefits of Anastasia, noting that "if 900,000 kids go to 'Anastasia' and of that, 10,000 kids become really interested in Russian history and go on and find the truth and pursue it, it's worth it."[2]
Anastasia won 8 awards and was nominated for 16 others, including two Academy Awards in the categories of "Best Original Musical or Comedy Score" and "Best Original Song" for "Journey to the Past".[14] The R&B singer Aaliyah performed her pop single version of "Journey to the Past" at the 70th Academy Awards.[15]
| Award | Year | Category | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award | 1997 | Best Original Musical or Comedy Score | Stephen Flaherty (music), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), David Newman (score) |
| Academy Award | 1997 | Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") | Stephen Flahery (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature | Fox Animation Studios |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Don Bluth and Gary Goldman |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation | Peter Matheson |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production | Stephen Flaherty (songs), Lynn Ahrens (songs), and David Newman |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Producing in an Animated Feature Production | Don Bluth and Gary Goldman |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production ("Marie") | Angela Lansbury |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production ("Anastasia") | Meg Ryan |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production | Eric Tuchman (animation adaption), Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White |
| Golden Globe | 1998 | Best Original Song - Motion Picture ("Once Upon a December") | Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) |
| Golden Globe | 1998 | Best Original Song - Motion Picture ("Journey to the Past") | Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) |
| Golden Satellite Award | 1998 | Best Motion Picture - Animated or Mixed Media | Don Bluth and Gary Goldman |
| Golden Satellite Award | 1998 | Outstanding Original Score | David Newman |
| Golden Satellite Award | 1998 | Outstanding Original Song ("Journey to the Past") | Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) |
| Golden Satellite Award | 1998 | Outstanding Original Song ("Once Upon a December") | Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) |
| Award | Year | Category | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASCAP Award | 1998 | Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures ("At the Beginning") | Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty |
| Annie Award | 1998 | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production ("Bartok") | Hank Azaria |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Award | 1998 | Favorite Animated Family Movie | |
| Critics Choice Award | 1998 | Best Family Film | |
| Artios | 1998 | Best Casting for Animated Voiceover | Brian Chavanne |
| KCFCC Award | 1998 | Best Animated Film | |
| Golden Reel Award | 1998 | Best Sound Editing - Music Animation | Brent Brooks (music editor) and Tom Villano (scoring editor) |
| Special Award | 1998 | Best Family Feature Film - Animation |
Due to Anastasia's success, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment created a direct-to-video spin-off called Bartok the Magnificent (1999), featuring Rasputin's albino bat crony.[16] A video game based on the film, titled Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok, was released for the PC by Fox Interactive in 1997.[17]
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||