Anastasia (Don Bluth)

## Plot Summary

As a music box with the figures of the monarch of Russia plays, a narration by the dowager empress tells of grand celebration being held in honor of the 300 years of the Romanov reign of Russia.

At the palace, the dowager quickly gains company from her youngest grand-daughter, Anastasia. The dowager presents a music box to Anastasia that plays their special lullaby. After giving Anastasia a necklace that is the key to the music box, the false monk Rasputin arrives at the party. He is quickly banished from the court by the tsar but Rasputin promises a curse will end the lives of the tsar and his family within a fortnight.

After selling his soul to dark forces for the power to bring down the royal family, revolution soon broke out over the land and the palace was soon under siege. As her family attempts to escape, Anastasia rushes back to her room to fetch her music box with her grandmother following her. With the armed forces closing in, a servant boy, Demitri, ushers the two to the servants quarters and allows them to escape while he distracts the soldiers. After making it out of the palace, Anastasia runs across a frozen pond trying to stay hidden with her grandmother. But, Rasputin desperately tries killing her himself when he jumps onto the thin ice and grabs ahold of her foot. Before he can cause any harm the ice breaks beneath him causing him to violently drown , thus allowing Anastasia and her grandmother to escape. They make their way to a train station and try to climb onto a moving train but Anastasia is unable to make it. She falls to the ground unconscious as the dowager's voice narrates how many people were lost that night and that she never saw her grand-daughter again.

In 1926, rumors are spreading about that the Dowager Empress Marie is still searching for her grand-daughter and is ready to pay 10 million rubles for anyone who is able to find her. Demitri and his partner, Vlad, plan to cash in on this by hiring a girl who resembles Anastasia and teach her everything she needs to know to pose as the missing duchess.

Leaving an orphanage, Anastasia, now Anya, is sent to work in a fish market by the orphanage caretaker. On her way, she questions if going to St. Petersburg would be the better choice as it may provide answers to why she is an orphan and has no recollection of her past. While waiting for a sign of what she should do, a small puppy appears and seemingly directs her to head to St. Petersburg. Believing this is the sign she was waiting for, Anya decides to head to St. Petersburg and travel to Paris. Because she does not have the proper travel papers, she is unable to get a train ticket but learns from an old woman that a man named Dimitri can help her get the papers and can be found at the abandoned royal palace.

Anya makes her way to the abandoned palace where she feels a sense of familiarity. She is soon discovered by Dimitri and Vlad and both notice how Anya looks exactly like the lost duchess Anastasia. When they learn that Anya wants to travel to Paris to find her possible missing family, Dimitri and Vlad decide that they will use Anya in their plot to get the reward from the dowager empress. When they tell Anya how she could possibly be the missing duchess whose only family is in Paris, Anya decides to join them to Paris.

The entire interaction is witnessed by Rasputin's accomplice, a white bat named Bartok. Bartok notices Rasputin's reliquary come to life when Dimitri proclaims Anya to be Anastasia and quickly surmises that Anya is the true Anastasia. The reliquary then transports Bartok to limbo where Rasputin is located and informs the false monk that Anastasia is still alive. With his full power restored, Rasputin attempts to sabotage the train that Anastasia, Dimitri, and Vlad are on but they are able to jump off and escape before it goes over a ruined bridge.

The group is then forced to make part of their journey on foot until they reach a ship that will take them to France, all the while teaching Anya about her family history and how to act like a duchess. That night on the ship, Rasputin causes Anastasia to have a nightmare involving her family. He nearly succeeds in getting her to jump off the ship but Dimitri is able to stop her in time.

In Paris, Dowager Marie reveals another girl pretending to be Anastasia and decides that she will no longer have an audience with anyone claiming to be her missing grand-daughter. The group soon make their way to where the dowager resides but meet with her cousin Sophie who warmly welcomes Vlad and his companions. Upon presenting Anya as Anastasia, Sophie begins a lengthy questionnaire to determine if she is the real Anastasia. Dimitri and Vlad begin to panic when Sophie questions how Anya escaped the siege of the palace when she was a child. Anya answers that she remembers a boy who opened a wall that allowed her to escape but laughs at the idea of such a thing. Dimitri silently comes to the realization that Anya is indeed the real Anastasia. When learning that the dowager has stopped seeing women claiming to be her grand-daughter, Sophie devices a plan for them all to meet at the Russian ballet.

At the ballet, Dimitri informs Vlad that Anya's story of the boy who opened a wall is true because he was the boy who helped her and the dowager empress escape during the siege. Vlad tells Dimitri that he must tell Anya the truth but they are escorted to the ballet before he can. After the performance, Dimitri attempts to introduce Anya to the empress but the dowager has heard of Dimitri and his plan to find a girl who looks like her grand-daughter in order to collect the reward money. Anya overhears this and confronts Dimitri about it before storming off in anger. Later, Dimitri spots the dowager getting in her car and is able to sneak in and drive away with her.

When he arrives where Anya is staying, Dimitri shows the empress the music box she gave to Anastasia and convinces her to speak with Anya. Dowager Marie speaks with Anya and is quick to write her off as another girl trying to pretend to be Anastasia until Anya remembers an incident involving peppermint oil. Marie sees Anya's necklace and then shows the music box. The two sing their lullaby and Marie realizes Anya is Anastasia.

With his plans to destroy Anastasia having failed, Rasputin decides that he must do away with her in person. With her memories restored, Anastasia and her grand-mother happily remember better times with their family. The next day, Marie tries to bestow the 10 million ruble reward to Dimitri but Dimitri only accepts the empress's gratitude before attempting to leave. Before he can, Marie correctly assumes that Dimitri is the servant boy who help the dowager and Anastasia escape the night of the siege and questions his sudden change of mind. Dimitri simply says that he's had a change of heart before finally leaving. Ready to return to St. Petersburg, Dimitri bids farewell to Vlad who tells Dimitri that he's making the wrong choice.

At the party being held in celebration of Anastasia being found, the empress tells Anastasia that Dimitri is not at the party and did not accept the reward money. Anastasia is lured away from the party when she has to find her dog, Pooka, who ran into the gardens. When she does, Rasputin takes the chance to attack. Anastasia remembers Rasputin and what he did to her family. When she claims that she is not afraid of him, Rasputin attempts to knock Anastasia off the bridge but Dimitri appears and tries to save her. Rasputin brings a statue alive to distract Dimitri while he tries to toss Anastasia into the frozen river.

Anastasia is able to pull herself to safety and, with the help of Pooka, is able to get Rasputin's reliquary. She breaks it in the name of revenge for what Rasputin has done to her loved ones and Rasputin is turned to dust. Anastasia and Dimitri reunite.

Marie finds a note left by Anastasia revealing that she and Dimitri have eloped and will return to Paris one day. As the movie ends, Bartok finds romance with a female bat.

## Historical Accuracy

The true Anastasia was executed along with her family on July 17, 1918. Several women did surface claiming to be the duchess after having successfully escaped the attempt on her life but all were proven to not be the duchess. The most well known imposter, Anna Anderson, went so far as to claim to have amnesia to explain why she had no memories of her youth. Four bodies of the Romanov family were discovered in 1991 while one of the duchesses and Alexei were discovered in a separate location in 2007. All of their bodies were laid to rest in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

## Awards and Accolades

* **Academy Awards**:
	+ Best Original Song, for "Journey to the Past" (Nominated)
	+ Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score (Nominated)
* **Annie Awards**:
	+ Best Animated Feature Film (Nominated)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation (Nominated)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production (Nominated)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production (Nominated)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Producing in an Animated Feature Production (Nominated)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production (Nominated), for Meg Ryans (Anastasia) and Angela Ransbury (Dowager Empress Marie)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production, for Hank Azaria (Bartok)
	+ Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production (Nominated)
* **Blockbuster Entertainment Awards**: Favorite Animated Family Movie
* **Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards**: Best Family Film
* **Golden Globe Awards**: Best Original Song (Nominated), for "Journey to the Past" and "Once Upon a December"
* **Kansas City Film Critics Circle**: Best Animated Film

## Gallery

At least the poster isn't trying to resemble Disney too muchHey parents, this is totally Disney. Buy it or your kid will hate you. (Spoilers: It is now, because Disney recently bought 21st Century Fox)Why wouldn't it have gotten a Little Golden Book?Of course they made a toy......or two......or ten...Well this in no way resembles how Disney packages their figuresAnd this in no way resembles the packaging on Disney dolls in the late '90sAnd *this* looks nothing like how Disney collectible figures are packagedThey're even given away with Whoppers!Oh look, a horrible licensed game... sorry if that sounded redundantWe found out Disney had ice shows, so we got one too!
## Trivia

* This is to date the only Disney rip-off that succeeds in being "Disney-in-all-but-name", since everything up to the *packaging on the merchandise* resembles something Disney would put out. Pretty much the only thing that gives it away, aside from the 20th Century Fox logo, is how well-animated it is, even though 20th Century Fox was bought out by Disney recently.
* This is to date the only Disney rip-off with not one, not two, but *three* rip-offs of its own.
	+ Including a Dingo Pictures version. Dingo Pictures, the rip-off company that exclusively steals from Disney. That's how convincing this rip-off is.
* Due to Disney buying 20th Century Fox and its subsidiaries in 2019, People now consider Anastasia to be a true Disney Princess now. This has been made even more apparent when her movie was added to Disney+ on December 4, 2020.
* Some of the people who were actually there at the Russian revolution were still alive when this movie was made. Also, the living relatives of the Romanovs were not particularly fond of the movie, to put it mildly, when it was first released. Turns out you don't have to be an animated Titanic movie to be incredibly insulting to history.