Don Bluth (seated) and Gary Goldman. © Twentieth Century Fox.

The Battle
Even before it opens, the film has taken on an importance seemingly all out of proportion to reality. To judge by most commentators in the business and trade press, the very future of non-Disney animated features hangs in the balance, as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., with The Quest for Camelot, and DreamWorks SKG, with The Prince of Egypt, prepare for a veritable Armageddon against the forces of Disney.

Disney, it is clear, is pulling out all the stops to derail Anastasia and protect its valuable animation franchise. First, Disney is reissuing The Little Mermaid followed by Flubber, a remake of The Absent-Minded Professor starring Robin Williams. They are probably also annoyed that people are coming into their local Disney Stores asking for Anastasia merchandise, a perception that Fox does not seem in any hurry to correct. However, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman have made a successful effort to break away from the by-now creaky Disney formula, and it is considerably better than anything the Mouse House has done of late. While I can't tell for sure how the battle of the animated titans is going to turn, I can unequivocally recommend Anastasia.

Ah, what would an animated musical be without love?

*It turns out, according to Edvard Radzinsky's book, The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II, that Rasputin actually did threaten to put a curse on the Romanovs. If one of the tsar's family killed him, Rasputin predicted that the imperial family would be killed within two years by "the Russian people." It was this revelation and Radzinksy's conclusion that the Revolution thus started with Rasputin's death that was crucial in the development of the character in the film.

Ah, what would an animated musical be without love? © Twentieth Century Fox. Harvey Deneroff is editor and publisher of The Animation Report, an industry newsletter, author of The Art of Anastasia (HarperCollins) and the former editor of Animation World Magazine.