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Anastasia (1997 film)

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Anastasia
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDon Bluth
Gary Goldman
Written bySusan Gauthier
Bruce Graham
Bob Tzudiker
Noni White
Eric Tuchman
Produced byDon Bluth
Gary Goldman
StarringMeg Ryan
John Cusack
Angela Lansbury
Kelsey Grammer
Christopher Lloyd
Hank Azaria
Bernadette Peters
Edited byBob Bender
Fiona Trayler
Music byDavid Newman
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • November 14, 1997 (1997-11-14) (premiere)
  • November 21, 1997 (1997-11-21) (United States)
Running time
94 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$53 million
Box office$139,804,348[2]

Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical romantic adventure drama film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first musical feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios. The film features the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, and Angela Lansbury.

The idea for the film originated from 20th Century Fox's 1956 live-action film of the same name.[3] The plot is loosely based on an urban legend which claimed that the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II–the last Emperor of Russia–in fact survived the execution of her family, and thus takes various liberties with historical fact.[4]

Anastasia premiered on November 14, 1997 in New York City, and was released on November 21, 1997 in the United States and, despite the objections of some historians to its fantastical retelling of the life of the Grand Duchess, enjoyed a positive reception from many critics. From a $53 million budget, the film grossed $139,804,348 worldwide, making Anastasia a box office success. The film also received nominations for several awards, including two Oscars for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. It is the most profitable film from Don Bluth and Fox Animation Studios to date.

The success of Anastasia spawned various adaptations of the film into other media, including a direct-to-video spin-off film, a computer game[5], books, toys, and an upcoming stage adaptation.[6]

Plot

In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II hosts a ball at the Catherine Palace to celebrate the Romanov tricentennial. His mother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, is visiting from Paris and gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words “Together in Paris” as parting gifts to her eight-year-old granddaughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, a sorcerer who was banished by the Tsar for treason. Rasputin had then sold his soul in exchange for an unholy reliquary, which he uses to cast a curse on the Romanov family in revenge, sparking a revolution that forces them to flee the palace. Only Marie and Anastasia are able to escape, thanks to a young servant boy named Dimitri, who shows them a secret passageway in Anastasia's room. Rasputin confronts the two royals outside, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair manage to reach a moving train, but only Marie climbs aboard while Anastasia falls, hitting her head on the platform.

Ten years later, Russia is under communist rule, and Marie has publicly offered ten million rubles for the safe return of her granddaughter. Dimitri and his friend and partner Vladimir thus search for an Anastasia lookalike to present to Marie in Paris and collect the reward. Elsewhere, Anastasia, now under the name "Anya", leaves the rural orphanage where she grew up, having lost her memory prior to arriving there. Accompanied by a stray puppy she names "Pooka", she turns down a job at a fish factory in favor of going to St. Petersburg after her necklace inspires her to seek out her family in Paris. In the deserted palace she encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who — impressed by her resemblance to the "real" Anastasia — decide to take her with them.

Bartok, Rasputin's albino bat minion is nearby and notices his master's dormant reliquary suddenly revived by Anastasia's presence; it drags him to limbo, where Rasputin survives. Enraged to hear that Anastasia escaped the curse, Rasputin sends demonic spirits from the reliquary to kill her; despite two attempts, the trio manage to (unwittingly) foil him, forcing Rasputin and Bartok to travel back to the surface.

Anastasia, Dimitri, and Vlad eventually reach Paris and go to meet Marie, who refuses to see her, having been fooled numerously before by impostors. Despite this Sophie, Marie's cousin, quizzes Anastasia to confirm her identity. Dimitri and Vladimir had taught Anastasia all the answers, but when Anastasia independently (though dimly) recalls how Dimitri saved her ten years ago, the two men finally realize that she is the real Grand Duchess. Dimitri, however, insists that do not reveal this truth to Anastasia. Sophie, convinced as well, arranges for Anastasia to meet Marie after a Russian ballet. However, Marie wants nothing to do with Dimitri, having heard of him and his initial scheme to trick her. Horrified that Dimitri was using her, Anastasia storms out. Dimitri, having fallen in love with Anastasia, manages to change Marie's mind by presenting her with Anastasia's music box, which he had found after their escape. Anastasia's memory returns upon meeting Marie, and the two women are reunited at long last.

The next day, Marie offers Dimitri the reward money, but to her surprise he refuses it and leaves for Russia, convinced that he cannot be with Anastasia. That night, at Anastasia's return celebration, Marie informs her of Dimitri's gesture and leaves her to her thoughts. Anastasia then wanders through a garden and onto the Pont Alexandre III, where she is trapped and attacked by Rasputin. Dimitri returns to save her, but is injured and knocked unconscious. Anastasia manages to kill Rasputin by crushing the reliquary under her foot. With Rasputin's soul having been tied to the object, he promptly dies and turns to dust.

Afterwards, Dimitri and Anastasia reconcile; the two then elope and Anastasia sends a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising to return someday. The film ends with the couple sharing a kiss as they sail out of Paris with Pooka, while Bartok falls in love with a female bat who kisses him.

Cast

Production

Music

See also: Anastasia (soundtrack)

The film score was composed, co-orchestrated, and conducted by David Newman, whose father, Alfred Newman composed the score of the 1956 film of the same name.[7] The songs, of which "Journey to the Past" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, were written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.[8] The film's soundtrack was released in CD and audio cassette format on October 28, 1997.[9]

Reception

Critical response

The film received mostly positive reviews from film critics; Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars describing it as "...entertaining and sometimes exciting".[10] The film also currently stands with a 86% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[11] Carol Buckland of CNN Interactive praised John Cusack for bringing "an interesting edge to Dimitri, making him more appealing than the usual animated hero" and stated that Angela Lansbury gave the film "vocal class", but described the film as "OK entertainment" and that "it never reaches a level of emotional magic."[12] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that the film "has the Disney house style down cold", but that the film feels "a touch depersonalized".[13]

Critical reception in Russia was also, for the most part, positive despite the artistic liberties that the film took with Russian history. Gemini Films, the Russian distributor of Anastasia, stressed the fact that the story was "not history", but rather "a fairy tale set against the background of real Russian events" in the film's Russian marketing campaign so that its Russian audience would not view Anastasia "as a historical film".[14] As a result, many Russians praised the film for its art and storytelling and saw it as "not so much a piece of history but another Western import to be consumed and enjoyed".[14]

Certain Russian Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, found Anastasia to be an offensive depiction of the Grand Duchess, who was canonized as a passion bearer in 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church.[15] Many historians echoed their sentiments, criticizing the film as a "sanitized, sugar-coated reworking of the story of the [Tsar's] youngest daughter."[16] While the filmmakers acknowledged the fact that "Anastasia uses history only as a starting point", others complained that the film would provide its audience with misleading facts about Russian history, which, according to the author and historian Suzanne Massie, "has been falsified for so many years."[4] Similarly, the amateur historian Bob Atchison said that Anastasia was akin to someone making a film in which "Anne Frank moves to Orlando and opens a crocodile farm with a guy named Mort."[4]

Some of Anastasia's contemporary relatives also felt that the film was distasteful, but most Romanovs have come to accept the "repeated exploitation of Anastasia's romantic tale ... with equanimity."[4]

Box office

A limited release of Anastasia at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on the weekend of November 14, 1997 grossed $120,541.[17] The following week, the wide release of Anastasia in the United States made $14,104,933 (for an average of about $6,591 from 2,140 theaters), which placed it as the #2 film for the weekend of November 21–23, 1997. By the end of its theatrical run, Anastasia had grossed $58,406,347 in the North American box office and $81,398,001 internationally.[2] The worldwide gross totaled $139,804,348, making it Don Bluth's highest-grossing film to date.[18]

Accolades

Anastasia won 8 awards and was nominated for 16 others, including two Academy Awards in the categories of "Best Original Musical or Comedy Score" and "Best Original Song" for "Journey to the Past".[19] The R&B singer Aaliyah performed her pop single version of "Journey to the Past" at the 70th Academy Awards.[20]

References

  1. ^ "ANASTASIA (U)". British Board of Film Classification. December 5, 1997. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Anastasia (1997) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
  3. ^ Beck, Jerry. The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press, 2005, p. 20
  4. ^ a b c d Goldberg, Carey (November 9, 1997). "After the Revolution, Comes 'Anastasia' the Cartoon". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  5. ^ "IGN: Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok". IGN. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  6. ^ Chatter, Rialto (July 28, 2012). "Exclusive: Crawford, Barrett, Halston, Page Join Tveit, Lansbury, Lazar in ANASTASIA Reading!". Broadway World. Wisdom Digital Media. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  7. ^ "Newman". MTV. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  8. ^ "The Making of Anastasia: The Music of Anastasia". 20th Century Fox. Archived from the original on January 11, 1998. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  9. ^ "Anastasia (Atlantic) - Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  10. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 21, 1997). "Anastasia". SunTimes.com. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  11. ^ "Anastasia (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Buckland, Carol (1997). "'Anastasia': A not-so-imperial effort". CNN Interactive. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  13. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (November 14, 1997). "CZAR CHILD (1997): WITH ANASTASIA, THE ANIMATED TALE OF A RUSSIAN PRINCESS, FOX SINGS DISNEY'S 'TOON". Entertainment Weekly.com. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ a b Saffron, Ingra (March 19, 1998). "A Cartoon 'Anastasia' Charms a New Russia / Bolsheviks Get Written Out". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A01. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  15. ^ Mattingly, Terry (November 29, 1997). "Upset about Anastasia's movie portrayal". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  16. ^ Holden, Stephen (November 14, 1997). "FILM REVIEW; A Feeling We're Not in Russia Anymore". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Welkos, Robert W. (November 18, 1997). "Moviegoers Track 'The Jackal'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
  18. ^ "Don Bluth Movie Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  19. ^ "Anastasia (1997) - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  20. ^ "Remembering Aaliyah". BET.com. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
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