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There’s a lot to like about the first animated feature produced by 20th Century Fox, even if the sum of the parts is a bit uneven. Anastasia draws upon Russian history and legend, centering around the youngest daughter or Nicolas II who went missing and was presumed dead after the Bolshevik revolution in 1918. All of this is conveyed in an exciting but kid-friendly opening sequence that sets the stage: Is Anastasia dead, or is she still alive and waiting to reclaim her royal title?
The film casts Meg Ryan as the voice of our heroine, now a young adult fresh out of the orphanage and suffering from amnesia about her royal heritage. She soon falls in with a con-man, Dimitri (John Cusack), and his pal Vladamir (Kelsey Grammer), who are looking to train a willing girl to play the part of Anastasia to win a cash award from the Dowager Empress (Angela Lansbury) for finding the missing girl and returning her to her family. On their journey from St. Petersburg to Paris, Dimitri and Vlad come to realize that ‘Anya’ really is the princess Anastasia, and of course, Dimitri falls in love with her. Hot on their heels and hellbent on revenge is the dastardly Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), the man who instigated the revolution and made a pact with the devil to gain immortality. He launches several supernatural attacks against Anya and her travelling companions and finally confronts her face to face in Paris for a climactic showdown.
Ryan and Cusack are solid leads here, very much capturing a feminist rom-com vibe. Their dialogue was reportedly punched up by the late Carrie Fisher, and it shows in their witty, antagonistic banter. There’s nothing in the script that will surprise adult audiences, but for an animated family movie, the human drama works pretty well, so much so that the Rasputin sublot and supernatural elements feel superfluous at times. In spite of this, Rasputin is the best-animated character in the film, voiced beautifully by Lloyd. His villainous musical number, “In the Dark of the Night”, is one of the highlights of the movie, and Hank Azaria is charming as Rasputin’s sidekick bat who’s always trying to calm the wizard’s frequent hysteria.
Directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time) can always be relied upon for solid aesthetic and character design, though the merging of CGI with traditional animation is a little clunky at times. The biggest standout is the music, featuring a rich, dramatic score by the constantly under-appreciated David Newman, and a handful of better-than-usual songs from Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. “Once Upon a December†is one of the strongest sequences, featuring ghostly dancers who emerge from dusty paintings in an abandoned palatial dance hall. Bernadette Peters, as the voice of Vlad’s Parisian girlfriend, leads another strong number titled “Paris Holds the Key (to Your Heart)”, in which the characters enjoy a night on the town with backdrops in the style of Van Gogh paintings.
Oscar Nominations: Best Score, Best Song (Journey to the Past)