Anastasia (Animation): Difference between revisions

[[File:anastasiagu4.jpg|frame| The answer? [[Reality Subtext|Anastasia and her family were all killed in real life.]] Kind of a [[Downer Ending]], huh?]]

 

 

 

 

Ten years later (1926), Anya, an eighteen-year-old orphan making her way in the world for the first time, decides to head for Paris. She hopes to find her family there, guided by the message "Together in Paris" inscribed on the [[Orphan's Plot Trinket|necklace she was found with]] in an [[Easy Amnesia|amnesiac state]] as a child.

The rest of the film deals with Anya learning to become more ladylike while Rasputin calls upon the powers of hell to try and kill her. The ending, like most animated movies, is a happy one; however, it is enlightening in a few ways. It's better if you see it.

 

 

 

* [[All Animation Is Disney]]: Falls victim to this quite often. One of its more [[Disneyesque]] home video covers even provides the page image.

* [[Almost Kiss]]: Anya and Dimitri do this at least twice. {{spoiler|They finally get to kiss for real at the end.}}

** Given she was all of, what, eight? She gets knocked out, and what child would ''want'' to remember that? It's possible she repressed it.

* [[Everyone Can See It]]: Well, Vlad definitely can, and Sophie appears to share his suspicions, and the Dowager Empress figures it out pretty quickly.

* [[Evil Plan]]: Everything is kicked off by Rasptutinian's desire to kill the Romanov family. He continues with this plan after the time skip.

* [[Evil Sorcerer]]: Rasputin.

** Most likely back to Rags, as girls from orphanages and reformed conmen who refuse reward money aren't known to be rolling in it. Unless {{spoiler|in addition to writing a hurried goodbye note, they stopped by her grandmother's office to take the reward money, but probably not. Though it is possible Grandma could be sending them something to live on. The ending more or less implies that Anya and Grandma will remain close.}}

* [[Rasputinian Death]]: Well, they got ''this'' part right.

*** Though he was made pretty much unkillable due to his [[Deal with the Devil]], so that could explain things...

* [[Red Headed Heroine]]: Anya/Anastasia.

* [[Road Trip Romance]]

* [[The Roaring Twenties]]

* [[Runaway Train]]: Complete with a graphically-explosive crash to top it all off, and Dimitri commenting afterward "I HATE trains, remind me to never get on a train again."

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The usage of CinemaScope ''really'' shows off some great views of St. Petersburg, Paris, and the interiors of palaces.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: Despite the historical liberties taken (some for the sake of the medium and length, some to spare children the grisly truth about the Russian Revolution, and some for simple poetic license) and myths bought into (aside from the urban legend about Anastasia herself, nods are given to Rasputin's [[Rasputinian Death|alleged exaggerated death]]), [[Word of God|a great deal of work was done to otherwise display geographical and biographical accuracy]]. Photography, including aerial shots, enabled startlingly true-to-life likenesses of St. Petersburg and Paris and the inside of the Winter Palace; period costumes and trains were duplicated, as well as historical figures living in Paris at the time; and [[Reality Subtext|actual relics of the Romanovs]] were scanned into the computers and inserted within the movie, including photographs of the family shown on Marie's wall and the drawing Anastasia made when she was eight years old, [[Tear Jerker|which was drawn by the real Anastasia]]. All of the bathing suits worn by Anastasia, her father, and her sisters during the dream sequence, and the sailor suit worn by her little brother, are also reproductions of the actual suits worn on their frequent family vacations. Even the notion of Rasputin cursing the Romanovs is based off of an anecdotal account that, on one of the few occasions Nicholas and other nobles became worried about the influence he had over Alexandra and foreign policy, Rasputin threatened the family with a pox if he were dismissed from court.

* [[Show Within a Show]]: Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad are treated to the Parisian ballet by Marie's assistant ([[Beta Couple|and Vlad's "cream puff"]]), and the ballet in question is ''[[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]]'' - [[Faux Symbolism|what do you mean, there's no parallelism?]]

* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Quintessential example, starting as soon as they get on a train together. Vlad knows exactly what's really going on, even when they don't.

{{quote|''(Anastasia has left the train cabin after an argument with Dmitri.)''

* [[That Reminds Me of a Song]]: The aforementioned "Paris Holds The Key" song. It is essentially there to say they had a Benadette Peters number in the film.

* [[That Russian Squat Dance]]

* [[Tsundere]]: Anastasia, to Dimitri.

* [[Unlimited Wardrobe]]: Anya/Anastasia, counting the clothing she wears as a child, has 13 different outfits during the course of the movie. Blue court dress, nightgown, overcoat, peasant outfit, yellow [[Disney Acid Sequence]] ballgown, blue short-sleeved dress, pajamas, sailor bathing suit thing, 2 flapper dresses during a musical number, blue evening dress, pink pajamas, court dress (make it 14 if you count the [[Clothing Damage]] incurred on the last court dress as a costume change). To compare, Ariel in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' had 7 (her purple [[Seashell Bra]], a ship's sail wrapped around her, a pink dinner dress, a pink nightgown, a turquoise dress, a blue sparkly dress and a wedding dress).

** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] when you consider that the plot is essentially the same as the 1956 movie with Ingrid Bergmann and Yul Brenner.

*** We should mention [[wikipedia:Anna Anderson|"Anna Anderson"]], the real life inspiration for the Bergman/Brynner film who went to her grave pretending to be Anastasia and managed to convince a surprising number of credulous supporters despite ample evidence to the contrary. Her claim was disproven via DNA evidence after her death.

* [[Villain Song]]: "In The Dark of The Night".

* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]: Anya & Dimitri, even though they just think she's impersonating a princess at first.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Animated Films]]

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Romantic Comedy]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]