© Twentieth Century Fox.

Last spring, when I saw the first half hour of Anastasia as a work-in-progress, I really did not know what to expect. Like many others, I wasn't really sure how Marcelle Maurette's play was going to be turned into an animated musical. The film's prologue initially didn't seem to help matters much, given its seemingly reckless disregard for some of the niceties of Russian history; thus, the 300th anniversary celebration of the Romanov Dynasty, the Russian Revolution, the slaying of the imperial family, and the death of Rasputin all occur on one winter's night in 1916! Whatever happened to World War I? The date and method of Rasputin's final demise is sort of right, but what's with him putting a curse on the Romanovs and bringing on the Revolution?* Yet, Anastasia turns out to be an utterly delightful film, much of which was totally unexpected, as in some ways it is completely unlike anything Don Bluth has ever done before.

The part that really convinced me that something special was happening was the wacky but inspired sequence in limbo, where Rasputin (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) has been moldering for the 10 years since his death. His old aide-de-camp, Bartok, an albino bat (Hank Azaria), "drops in" and informs him that Anastasia is still alive. In his excitement, Rasputin starts to fall literally apart, a fact to which he seems oblivious. Then, recovering his dark powers, he sends his minions off to kill Anastasia, singing "In the Dark of the Night," a wonderful mixture of rock and traditional Russian choral music, with a gaggle of wormettes providing backup.

The effectiveness of this and other scenes is heightened by the overall realism of the character design and the live-action styled mise-en-scène and editing. Blessedly, there is nothing like the gargoyles in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame to dumb down the film and ruin its narrative flow.

Rasputin, Anastasia's character of necessary evil, with his adorable side-kick, Bartok. © Twentieth Century Fox.

The Tale
The story has an 8-year-old Anastasia (yes, she lost a few years in the script) escaping from the Revolution with her grandmother, the Grand Duchess Marie (Angela Lansbury), and inadvertently causing Rasputin's demise. The two get separated, Anastasia is knocked unconscious and gets left behind. The action picks up 10 years later, when Anastasia, known only as Anya (Meg Ryan) is trying to track down her past, whose only clue is a locket saying, "Together in Paris." In doing so, she falls in with two amiable con men, Dimitri (John Cusack), a former kitchen boy in the imperial palace, and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammar), a down-and-out aristocrat. The pair trick Anya into posing as Anastasia with the hopes of getting a 10 million ruble reward from the Dowager Empress, who now lives in Paris. With Rasputin in pursuit, the trio's journey to Paris provides opportunities for a spectacular train wreck sequence and a turbulent storm at sea. Through all this, Anya's memories start to return, although she turns out to be the last one to realize who she really is.