Anastasia
Short description
Anastasia is an animated adventure set in a Russia shaken by revolution. The youngest daughter of the imperial family survives the fall of the Romanovs as a child but loses her memory in the chaos. Ten years later she lives as an orphan named Anya, with only faint recollections of a past she cannot place. Determined to find the grandmother she believes is still alive, she travels toward Paris. Two con men, Dimitri and Vladimir, take her under their wing and plan to pass her off as the missing Grand Duchess in exchange for a reward, though Dimitri has his own history with the girl he once helped save. Pursuing them is the sorcerer Rasputin, aided by his bat companion Bartok, who is bent on making sure the lost princess never reaches her destination.
The film was released in 1997 and directed by Gary Goldman and Don Bluth, who had previously worked together on Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park and The Pebble and the Penguin, and who would go on to make Bartok the Magnificent and Titan A.E. Its screenplay is credited to Susan Gauthier, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, with Goldman and Bluth producing alongside Laura Jo Wentworth. Meg Ryan voices Anya, with John Cusack as Dimitri, Kelsey Grammer as Vladimir, Christopher Lloyd as Rasputin, Hank Azaria as Bartok and Bernadette Peters as Sophie.
The production carried a budget of 53 million dollars and returned 140 million worldwide, a strong result for an animated feature of its period. Audiences rate it 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb across 146,000 votes and 7.6 out of 10 on TMDB, while its critics' rating stands at 7.4 out of 10 from 58 reviews, indicating broad approval from both reviewers and the public.
What's left behind the scenes
- The bridge in Paris where the final battle takes place is the Alexander III Bridge – the grandfather of the real Anastasia. The bridge was laid to commemorate the Franco-Russian Alliance by Emperor Nicholas II in October 1896 and built over four years. It was named in honor of his father, Emperor Alexander III. It opened on the eve of the 1900 World's Fair.
- The cartoon begins with a masquerade ball (combined with the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty) which, according to the plot, takes place in 1916. In reality, this ball actually took place thirteen years earlier – in 1903, and no such balls were held after that, while the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated in 1913.
- Throughout all the scenes, it is not the Winter Palace that is shown, but the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, its outbuildings and interiors – the Golden Gates, circumferences, the light gallery where the ball took place – in which, in particular, even the parquet pattern is authentically depicted.
- Anastasia was not 8 years old in 1916, but 15. And she was 16 years old in the year of the revolution.
- Maria Feodorovna did not emigrate to Paris, but to Copenhagen.
- The drawing that young Anastasia shows her grandmother at the beginning is also real, but Anastasia drew it in 1914 and gave it not to her grandmother, but to her father.
- The musical box existed in reality as well, but Maria Feodorovna gave it to Anastasia for her thirteenth birthday. Also, instead of dancing figures of Nicholas and Alexandra, the real box had simply a silver ballerina.
- According to the plot, Rasputin hated the Romanov family and wished for their death, which is why Nicholas II expelled him. In reality, Rasputin never wished death upon Nicholas and his family, and the emperor did not conflict with him.
- In the plot, Rasputin drowns in the river in the year of the revolution – 1917. In fact, he was murdered at the end of 1916.
- The strange cathedral-skyscraper shown at the beginning of the panoramic flyover of St. Petersburg ten years after the start of the action is partly copied from the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. However, the latter is much smaller and has 9 domes.
- In the cartoon, the city on the Neva is called St. Petersburg both in 1917 and 1927. In reality, in 1917 it was called Petrograd, and in 1927 – Leningrad.
- Vladimir is often called Vlad. As a rule, Vlad is a short form of the name Vladislav.
- When the portrait of the royal family is shown, the princesses have red hair, although in reality they are brunettes (closer to dark-haired).
- On the large portrait of Nicholas II, Alexandra, and their children that hangs in the ballroom, a dog is depicted to the left of Anastasia. This is a real spaniel named Joy, who belonged to Alexei and was found alive in the Ipatiev House. Anastasia’s dog, Jimmy, did not survive.
- After his death, Rasputin was in purgatory, which corresponds to Catholic, not Orthodox, doctrine.
- Soviet passports in 1927 were not red, but dark green, and were used only for foreign travel (a passport system in the USSR was introduced only in 1932).
- In the scene where Anastasia and Dmitry dance on the ship, Anastasia's hair becomes alternately longer and shorter when she turns her back.
- When Meg Ryan was offered the role of Anastasia, she initially hesitated about whether to participate in the project or decline. Hearing of her indecision, employees of 20th Century Fox took Ryan's lines from Nora Ephron's melodrama "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) and dubbed them onto a short animated excerpt featuring Anastasia speaking. This clip was sent to the actress, and she immediately agreed to participate in the project.
- When directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman researched real events in Russia in the early 20th century, they found that the true story of Anastasia and the Romanov dynasty did not quite fit the project, which was primarily intended for a young audience. They decided to take as a starting point only the tragic end of the Romanovs and the revolution that led to the overthrow of the monarchical system, and to consider what would have happened if Anastasia had managed to escape death. In other words, Bluth and Goldman preferred to create a "myth" or "fairy tale" rather than a dry account of facts.
- During the song 'A Whole New World,' in one frame in the background, a shop with the name 'Pavel Bure' can be seen.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
