OK, you're going to tell me that a cartoon doesn't have to be historically accurate. Even so, Don Bluth's "Anastasia" contains what has to be one of the most ridiculous excuses for a story ever. At the very least, the movie could've looked at the reasons why Russia had a revolution in the first place (the monarchy and aristocracy owned everything while the people owned nothing). At least it showed the people carrying out the revolution rather than giving the Bolsheviks credit; after all, the latter merely used the revolution to seize power. As Noam Chomsky noted, Lenin killed anyone who held authentically socialist views.Most importantly, I can't figure out what went wrong with Don Bluth. In the '80s he made two of the greatest animated features ever: "The Secret of NIMH" and "An American Tail". Then in the late '80s and '90s, he turned to movies that tried to be fluffy and scary at the same time. Seriously, the depiction of Rasputin - with his name not even pronounced the Russian way - seems like its purpose is to give the tykes nightmares. Basically, every character is a cardboard cutout from Disney: the beautiful woman, the handsome man, the power-hungry villain, and his bumbling sidekick. I should say that Bartok is the only interesting character in the movie. As for the song that received an Academy Award nomination, let's just say that there's a reason why it didn't win (Elliott Smith's song from "Good Will Hunting" should've won).As for the cast. Let's see, we've got America's alleged sweetheart (Meg Ryan), a political activist (John Cusack), Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), several Simpsons voices (Hank Azaria), the woman who wrote murder (Angela Lansbury), a Broadway star (Bernadette Peters), Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin), Mr. Dawes (Arthur Malet) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). As it turns out, another Spiderman cast member (J.K. Simmons) also provides a voice."I stuck around St. Petersburg When I saw it was a time for a change Killed the czar and his ministers Anastasia screamed in vain"Sympathy for the Devil

The last surviving child of the Russian Royal Family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.When Disney chose Pocahontas as a historical figure to turn into a happy cartoon, they opened a can of worms. I mean, the movie is alright, but has no connection to the reality that Pocahontas went through and how traumatic it must have been."Anastasia" is sort of along the same lines. The story takes place in a much more recent time, but is still very much about real people. Yet, it feels more like Don Bluth got it right. Some things are wildly inaccurate (like Rasputin being a zombie), but it comes across more like a fanciful what-if story than any attempt to whitewash history. I suppose one might say they conveniently ignored almost all of the Russian Revolution, but this is a story for kids after all.

Anastasia (1997) is honestly one of the greatest animated films of all time! Meg Ryan and John cusack voice their characters wonderfully, their voices really fit the animated characters well. The script and screenplay is awesome, very well constructed. This movie is of course very family friendly, and it's also very smart and clever, it really shows the writer's talent. I adore the visual effects too, the animation is very state of the art, and the effects are cool looking and a pleasure to see. Rasputin is a great character too! He is the films villain, and he is written very well! He is funny when he needs to be, menacing when he needs to be. His cute little bat assistant is hilarious! I absolutely loved his character, he brought lots of cute amusing anecdotes and lines to the movie. The chemistry between Anastasia and Dimitri is electric! I love the great romantic chemistry between them. Angela Lansbury was cast perfectly to voice Anastasia's grandmother, and her character was written beautifully as well, when they sing once upon a December together, oh my gosh, chills!! The musical numbers are fantastic too! I really love the songs, they just click and work well with the scenes they are in. 10/10 for Anastasia! Will always hold a special place in my heart!

I've seen this movie, very literally, dozens of times. It is one of my favourite and most watched (and most listened to) musicals! Anastasia must journey from St. Petersburg to Paris to discover whether or not she is the missing princess but more importantly, she must sing songs along the way. Aided by con-men she takes a journey to the past to help her find her future. This movie has beautiful animation and a brilliant soundtrack! One time my brothers girlfriend borrowed this DVD without telling me and I spent weeks trying to find it. I made a post about it on Facebook, she saw it and felt bad that she had taken it. Luckily I own more than one copy of this DVD and I was still able to watch it.