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Anastasia
Ten years after she was separated from her family, an eighteen-year-old orphan with vague memories of the past sets out to Paris in hopes of reuniting with her grandmother. She is accompanied by two con men, who intend to pass her off as the Grand Duchess Anastasia to the Dowager Empress for a reward.
1997 · Directed by Don Bluth · 94 min · Animation · Family · Fantasy · Adventure · Screenplay in the scene database · 14 frames
Tagline
Discover the adventure behind the greatest mystery of our time.
Plot
In 1916, at a ball in Saint Petersburg, Russia, celebrating the Romanov tricentennial, Dowager Empress Marie gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words "Together in Paris" as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, the Romanovs' former royal advisor who was exiled for treason. Seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for the power to kill the Romanovs, which manifests in an unholy reliquary that he uses to start the Russian Revolution. As the palace is attacked, Marie and Anastasia flee through a hidden door opened by a servant boy. However, Anastasia drops her music box in the process. Rasputin confronts the two royals on the frozen Little Nevka river, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair reaches a moving train; Marie climbs aboard, but Anastasia falls and hits her head while also trying to board, giving her amnesia.
Ten years later, rumors of Anastasia's survival spreads throughout Russia, and Marie offers 10 million rubles for her safe return. A conman named Dimitri and his partner-in-crime, former nobleman Vladimir "Vlad" Vasilovich search for an Anastasia look-alike so they can collect the reward. Elsewhere, a now grown-up Anastasia (now called "Anya") leaves the rural orphanage where she has been living since her amnesia. Accompanied by a stray puppy she names Pooka, she decides to head to Paris to uncover her past, inspired by the inscription on her necklace, but learns she needs an exit visa. An old woman advises her to see Dimitri at the abandoned palace; there, Dimitri and Vlad are impressed by Anya's resemblance to the "real" Anastasia and decide to take her to Paris.
Rasputin's immortal albino bat sidekick, Bartok, is nearby and notices the reliquary revived by Anya's presence; it drags him to limbo, where he finds Rasputin has survived. Enraged to hear that Anastasia is still alive, Rasputin sends his demonic minions from the reliquary to kill her. They sabotage the trio's train as it leaves St. Petersburg by overheating the train engine, but they survive. The trio transfer to a boat, where the demons try to lure Anya into sleepwalking off the ship, which also fails. Rasputin and Bartok are forced to travel back to the surface to kill Anya themselves. Meanwhile, as Dimitri and Vlad teach Anya court etiquette and the Romanov family's history, Dimitri and Anya begin to fall in love.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Noni White, Susan Gauthier, Bob Tzudiker, Bruce Graham
- Edited by: Bob Bender, Fiona Trayler
- Music: David Newman
- Production design: Michael Peraza Jr.
- Produced by: Gary Goldman, Don Bluth, Laura Jo 'L.J.' Wentworth
Cast
- Meg Ryan as Anastasia (voice)
- John Cusack as Dimitri (voice)
- Kelsey Grammer as Vladimir (voice)
- Christopher Lloyd as Rasputin (voice)
- Hank Azaria as Bartok (voice)
- Bernadette Peters as Sophie (voice)
- Kirsten Dunst as Young Anastasia (voice)
- Angela Lansbury as Dowager Empress Marie (voice)
- Rick Jones as Czar Nicholas / Servant / Revolutionary Soldier / Ticket Agent (voice)
- Andrea Martin as Phlegmenkoff / Old Woman (voice)
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, Russian, French
- Studios: Fox Animation Studios, 20th Century Fox
- Budget: $53,000,000
- Box office: $139,804,348
- Themes: nightmare, villain, czar / tsar / tzar, musical, based on true story, sorcerer, period drama, catholic, russian revolution (1917), train explosion
More by Don Bluth
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