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Anastasia (1997 film)

1997 film by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anastasia (1997 film)
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Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical historical fantasy film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman from a screenplay by the writing teams of Susan Gauthier and Bruce Graham, and Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, and based on a story adaptation by Eric Tuchman. It features songs written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and a musical score composed and conducted by David Newman. The film stars the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Angela Lansbury. Set in an alternate 1926, an amnesiac Anastasia Romanov goes on a journey to discover her past.

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Anastasia was the first 20th Century Fox animated feature to be produced by its own animation division, 20th Century Fox Animation, through its subsidiary Fox Animation Studios. The film premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on November 14, 1997, and was released in the United States on November 21. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation, voice performances, and soundtrack, though it attracted criticism from some historians for its fantastical retelling of the Grand Duchess. Anastasia grossed $140 million worldwide, making it the most profitable film from Bluth and Fox Animation Studios. It received nominations for several awards, including for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards.

The success of Anastasia spawned various adaptations of the film into other media, including a direct-to-video prequel in 1999 and a stage musical in 2016.

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Plot

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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, 8-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, the Romanovs’ former royal advisor. Despite being thought as a holy man, he was exposed as a fraud who wanted to take over Russia until he was exiled. Seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for the power to kill them, which manifested in the form of an unholy reliquary. His very existence depends on its safety. He uses it to curse the Romanovs and spark the Russian Revolution. As the palace is attacked, Marie and Anastasia escape through a secret passageway with the aid of 10-year-old servant boy Dimitri. Rasputin confronts the two royals on the frozen Little Nevka river, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair manage to reach a moving train, but as Marie climbs aboard, Anastasia falls and hits her head on the platform, giving her amnesia.

Ten years later, Russia is now part of the Soviet Union. Rumors of Anastasia's survival spread to the Soviet Union, and Marie publicly offers 10 million rubles for her safe return. A now 20-year-old Dimitri who is now a conman and his partner-in-crime, former nobleman Vladimir Valya "Vlad" Vonitsky Vasilovich, search for an Anastasia look-alike to bring to Paris so they can collect the reward. Elsewhere, a now 18-year-old Anastasia (now called "Anya") leaves the rural orphanage where she has been living since she got 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 finds 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 with them to Paris.

Rasputin's immortal albino bat minion, Bartok, is nearby and notices his master's dormant reliquary revived by Anya's presence; it drags him to limbo, where he finds Rasputin has survived. Enraged to hear that Anastasia escaped the curse, Rasputin sends his demonic minions from the reliquary to kill her, who sabotage the trio's train as they leave St. Petersburg, and later try to lure Anya into sleepwalking off their ship to France. The trio unwittingly foil both attempts, forcing Rasputin and Bartok to travel back to the surface to kill Anya in person. During their journey, as Dimitri and Vlad teach Anya court etiquette and her family's history, Dimitri and Anya begin to fall in love.

The trio eventually reach Paris and go to see Marie, who has given up the search after meeting numerous impostors. Despite this, Marie's cousin Sophie quizzes Anya to confirm her identity. Though Anya offers every answer taught to her, Dimitri finally realizes she is the real Anastasia when she (without being taught) vaguely recalls how he helped her escape the palace siege. Sophie, also convinced, arranges a meeting with Marie at the Palais Garnier. There, Dimitri tries to establish an introduction but Marie refuses, having heard of Dimitri's initial scheme to con her. Anya overhears the conversation and angrily leaves. Dimitri later abducts Marie in her car to force her to see Anya, finally convincing her when he presents the music box Anastasia dropped during their escape. As Marie and Anya converse, Anya regains her memories; the pair sing the lullaby the music box plays, and are joyfully reunited.

Marie offers Dimitri the reward money the next day, recognizing him as the servant boy who saved them, but he refuses it and leaves for St. Petersburg. At Anastasia's return celebration, Marie informs her of Dimitri's gesture, leaving Anastasia torn between staying or going with him. Anastasia is then lured to the Pont Alexandre III, where Rasputin traps and attacks her. Dimitri returns to save her, but is soon injured and knocked unconscious. In the struggle, Anastasia manages to get hold of Rasputin's reliquary and crushes it under her foot, avenging her family as Rasputin disintegrates and dies.

In the aftermath, Anastasia and Dimitri reconcile; they elope, and Anastasia sends a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising to return one day. Bartok shares a kiss with a female bat before bidding the audience farewell.

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Voice cast

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Victoria Clark, Billy Porter, Patrick Quinn, J. K. Simmons, and Lillias White were among the ensemble and character voices.[9][10][11]

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Production

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Creating Anastasia meant looking at adapting familiar stories, finding an all star cast, and producing a musical soundtrack in order to create competition with Walt Disney Studios.

Development

In May 1994, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman had signed a long-term deal to produce animated features with 20th Century Fox, with the studio channeling more than $100 million in constructing a new animation studio.[12] They selected Phoenix, Arizona, for the location of Fox Animation Studios because the state offered the company about $1 million in job training funds and low-interest loans for the state-of-the-art digital animation equipment.[3] It was staffed with 300 artists and technicians, a third of whom worked with Bluth and Goldman in Dublin, Ireland, for Sullivan Bluth Studios.[13] For their first project, the studio insisted they select one out of a dozen existing properties which they owned where Bluth and Goldman suggested adapting The King and I and My Fair Lady,[14] though Bluth and Goldman said it would be impossible to improve on Audrey Hepburn's performance and Lerner and Loewe's score. Following several story suggestions, the idea to adapt Anastasia (1956) originated from Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Bill Mechanic. They later adapted story elements from Pygmalion with the peasant Anya being molded into a regal woman.[15]

Early into production, Bluth and Goldman began researching the actual events through enlisting former CIA agents stationed in Moscow and St. Petersburg.[16] Around this same time, screenwriter Eric Tuchman had written a script. Eventually, Bluth and Goldman decided the history of Anastasia and the Romanov dynasty was too dark for their film.[15] In 1995, Bruce Graham and Susan Gauthier reworked Tuchman's script into a light-hearted romantic comedy. When Graham and Gauthier moved onto other projects, the husband-and-wife screenwriting team Bob Tzudiker and Noni White were hired for additional rewrites.[17] Actress Carrie Fisher also made uncredited rewrites of the film, particularly the scene in which Anya leaves the orphanage for Paris.[18]

For the villains, Bluth also did not take into consideration depicting Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and initially toyed with the idea of a police chief with a vendetta against Anastasia (an idea which the musical adaptation revived in the form of Gleb Vaganov). Instead, they decided to have Grigori Rasputin as the villain with Goldman explaining it was because of "all the different things they did to try to destroy Rasputin and what a horrible man he really was, the more it seemed appetizing to make him the villain".[16] In reality, Rasputin was already dead when the Romanovs were assassinated. In addition to this, Bluth created the idea for Bartok, the albino bat, as a sidekick for Rasputin: "I just thought the villain had to have a comic sidekick, just to let everyone know that it was all right to laugh. A bat seemed a natural friend for Rasputin. Making him a white bat came later – just to make him different".[19] Composers Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens recalled being at the Au Bon Pain in New York City where Rasputin and Bartok were pitched. They were dismayed at the decision to go down a historically inaccurate route; they made their stage musical adaption "more sophisticated, more far-reaching, more political" to encompass their original vision.[20]

Creating competition

Leading up to the late 90s, Walt Disney Studios was the leader of animation. 20th Century Fox invested $53 million into creating an animated adaptation of Anastasia. The protagonist was similar to those who were popular with young audiences during this time. They adapted several familiar stories, including the 1956 film Anastasia. The challenge was now taking these stories and adapting them for a younger audience. [21] Anastasia grossed over $140 million, making it one of the studios most successful projects.[22]

Casting

Bluth stated that Meg Ryan was his first and only choice for the title character, but Ryan was indecisive about accepting the role due to its dark historical events.[23] To persuade her, the animation team took an audio clip of Annie Reed from Sleepless in Seattle and created an animation reel based on it which was screened for her following an invitation to the studio. Ryan later accepted the role; in her words "I was blown away that they did that".[24] Before Ryan was cast, Broadway singer and actress Liz Callaway was brought in to record several demos of the songs hoping to land a job in background vocals, but the demos were liked well enough by the songwriters that they were ultimately used in the final film.[25]

After he was cast, John Cusack openly admitted that he couldn't sing;[26] his singing duties were performed by Jonathan Dokuchitz.[27] Goldman had commented that originally, as with the rest of the cast, they were going to have Ryan record her lines separately from the others, with Bluth reading the lines of the other characters to her. However, after Ryan and the directors were finding the method to be too challenging when her character was paired with Dimitri, she and Cusack recorded the dialogue of their characters together, with Goldman noting that "it made a huge difference".[16]

Peter O'Toole was considered for the role of Rasputin, but Christopher Lloyd was hired because of his popularity from the Back to the Future trilogy. Bartok was initially written for Woody Allen, but the studio was reluctant to hire him following revelations of his relationship with his ex-partner Mia Farrow's adoptive daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Martin Short was also considered, but Hank Azaria won the role ten minutes into his audition.[16][17]

Musical score and soundtrack album

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.[28] 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.[29] The first song they wrote for the project was "Once Upon a December"; it was written during a heatwave "so [they were] sweating and writing winter imagery".[20] The film's soundtrack was released in CD and audio cassette format on October 28, 1997.[30]

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The pop culture history of Anastasia

Filmmakers took a historical approach to creating the film by adapting the legend and 1956 film "Anastasia". The changes they made to the story were designed to capture a younger audience and current political climate.

The legend of Anastasia

The legend of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov had survived became a permanent part of pop culture. This is due to the story continuing to be told on stage and film as well as Anna Anderson, the most well believed impersonator. Many other girls did come forward but none as notable as Anderson. Anna Anderson, whose true identity was Franziska Schanzkowska, claimed to be Anastasia in 1922 .[31] Some surviving members of the family met with Anderson and the family was divided on the truth of her identity.[31] In 1991, Anastasia Nikolaevna's remains were discovered, and through DNA testing, Anna Anderson's true identity verified. [31] Franziska Schanzkowska was the true identity of the woman. She was a Polish factory worker who had spent time in mental institutions.[32]

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Creating an adaptation

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Filmmakers had to adapt the truthful history, the legend, and previous productions that told this story for a new, younger audience.

Adapting history

Marcelle Maurette wrote a play titled Anastasia in 1950 based on the idea that she had survived. An English translation was created by Guy Bolton.[33] Having had success with the 1956 film adaptation of Anastasia, 20th Century Fox knew that audiences would be familiar with the legend of Anastasia Romanov. The continual adaptation of the legend of Anastasia allows for conflicting narratives across multiple platforms, from stage production to film.[34] This is because it was the continued myth of her surviving gained audience attention rather than the truth.[35] This allowed filmmakers, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, the ability to take the legend and create a fairytale from it. Rather than a drama, they set out to create a fantasy, princess like story that would appeal to families. This required some changes. The character of General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine was adapted into Dmitri and his sidekick Vlad. Grigori Rasputin became the film's antagonist. It allowed for a more neutral approach to the Russian politics. [36] Rasputin was already dead years prior to the murders of the Romanov family. This helped ease audience tension with Russian communism.[36] However, no matter what adaptation of this story you watch, they will share the same three story elements which are an imposter, greed of searching for the reward money, and the Dowager's process to finding the real Anastasia.[36]

A new audience

Bluth and Goldman set out with the goal of making a film for families. Taking into account their inspirations and the legend of Anastasia, there were changes that needed to be made in order to make the story attractive to younger audiences. The first notable change is that Anya is not a damsel in distress. She is a woman that is able to create her own way which was different than audiences may have expected. [37] The shift of traditional gender norms brought in audiences interested in this new age of female protagonist. Anya would need to be younger than previous adaptations. Historically, she would have been 17 at the time of her execution. She is aged down to be 12 during the events making her a similar age to the Disney Princess as she goes on her journey which would be about 17. These changes provided young audiences a new role model that was different than would be found in a traditional princess story.[37] Anya is on a search for her true identity. The cast of characters were diverse and from different economic backgrounds. This adaptation prioritized the romanization of the legend. This meant including more fantasy elements and the romantic connection between Anya and Dimitri. Anya's goal was family and belonging instead of greed or corruption.[38] It was due to these changes that Bluth and Goldman could create a family friendly production.

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Release

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Thumb
A bus advertised the film in England.

20th Century Fox scheduled for Anastasia to be released on November 21, 1997, notably a week after the re-release of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Disney claimed it had long-planned for the re-release to coincide with a consumer products campaign leading into Christmas and the film's home video release in March 1998, as well continue the tradition of re-releasing their animated films within a seven-to-eight year interval.[39] In addition to this, Disney would release several competing family films including Flubber on the following weekend, as well as a double feature of George of the Jungle and Hercules.[39] To avoid branding confusion, Disney banned television advertisements for Anastasia from being aired on the ABC program The Wonderful World of Disney.[40]

Commenting on the studios' fierce competition, Disney spokesman John Dreyer brushed off allegations of studio rivalry, claiming: "We always re-release our movies around holiday periods". However, Fox executives refused to believe Dreyer's statement with Bill Mechanic responding that "it's a deliberate attempt to be a bully, to kick sand in our face. They can't be trying to maximize their own business; the amount they're spending on advertising is ridiculous... It's a concentrated effort to keep our film from fulfilling its potential".[41]

Nonetheless, the film has been confused to have been made by Walt Disney Animation Studios due to similar style. This is not helped by the fact that 20th Century Fox, the film's primary distributor, was eventually purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2019, thus adding the film to the studio's library and increasing confusion even more.[42][43][44]

Marketing

Anastasia was accompanied by a marketing campaign of more than $50 million with promotional sponsors from Burger King, Dole Food Company, Hershey, Chesebrough-Ponds, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Shell Oil, and the 1997 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Overall, the marketing costs exceeded that of Independence Day by more than 35 percent.[45] For merchandising, Fox selected Galoob to license dolls based on Anastasia.[41] Many storybooks adapted from the film were released by Little Golden Books. In August 1997, the SeaWorld theme parks in San Diego and Orlando featured a 40-foot-long, 20-foot-high inflatable playground for children called "Anastasia's Kingdom".[46]

After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, in December 2022 Disney released its first merchandise based on the film in the form of a mug to honor its 25th anniversary.[47]

Home media

On April 28, 1998, April 6, 1999 and November 16, 1999, Anastasia was released on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD respectively and sold eight million units.[48] The film was first rereleased on February 19, 2002 as part of the Fox Family Features lineup alongside Thumbelina and FernGully: The Last Rainforest. The film was again rereleased on a two-disc "Family Fun Edition" DVD with the film in its original theatrical 2.35:1 widescreen format on March 28, 2006. The first disc featured an optional audio commentary from directors/writers Bluth and Goldman, and additional bonus material. The second included a making-of documentary, music video and making-of featurette of Aaliyah's "Journey to the Past", and additional bonus content.[49] The film was released on Blu-ray on March 22, 2011; this included Bartok the Magnificent in the special features.[50]

Streaming

Following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox on March 20, 2019, Anastasia became available on Disney+.[51][52][53] In the U.S., it was removed from Disney+ on March 1, 2022, and transferred to Starz on March 18; contrary to popular belief, the film's disappearance bears no connection to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine (Disney had suspended theatrical releases in Russia such as the then-upcoming Turning Red, which led to confusion that Anastasia's withdrawal was related).[54] Anastasia eventually returned to Disney+ on June 2, 2023.

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Reception

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Anastasia received mostly positive reviews from critics.[55][56] Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 83% based on 58 reviews and an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Beautiful animation, an affable take on Russian history, and strong voice performances make Anastasia a winning first film from Fox Animation Studios".[57] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 61 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[58] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[59]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, praising "the quality of the story" and writing the result as entertaining and sometimes exciting.[60] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave Anastasia three stars, calling the lead character "pretty and charming" but criticized the film for a lack of historical accuracy.[61] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Though originality is not one of its accomplishments, Anastasia is generally pleasant, serviceable and eager to please. And any film that echoes the landscape of Doctor Zhivago is hard to dislike for too long".[62] Todd McCarthy of Variety noted the film was "dazzlingly colorful", but that "all the ingredients thrown into the pot don't congeal entirely congenially, and the artistic touch applied doesn't allow the whole to become more than the sum of its various, but invariably familiar, elements".[63] Margaret McGurk, reviewing for The Cincinnati Enquirer, described the film as "charming" and "entertaining", and calling Anastasia as a tasty tale about a fairy-tale princess.[64] Lisa Osbourne of Boxoffice called the film "pure family entertainment".[65] Awarding the film three out of five stars, Empire's Philip Thomas wrote that it has historical inaccuracies, but is charming.[66]

Several critics have positively compared Anastasia and the Disney films released during the Disney Renaissance, with similar styles of story and animation. Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle awarded the film three out of five stars. Baumgarten wrote that Anastasia "may not beat Disney at its own game, but it sure won't be for lack of trying. ... [t]his sumptuous-looking film clearly spared no expense in its visual rendering; its optical flourishes and attention to detail aim for the Disney gold standard and, for the most part, come pretty darn close".[67] The Phoenix's Jeffrey Gantz jokingly stated: "[I]f imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then the folks at Disney should feel royally complimented by Twentieth Century Fox's new animated feature about Tsar Nicholas II's youngest daughter".[68] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Fox has a beautifully animated musical that can challenge Disney's peer, but also said that Anastasia has inferior animation style compared to Disney's and lacks its magic.[69]

Russian critical response

Critical reception in Russia was also mostly positive aside from artistic liberties 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 it as a historical film.[70] As a result, many Russians praised the film for its art and storytelling and saw it as not a piece of history but another Western import to be enjoyed.[70]

Some Russian Orthodox Christians found Anastasia to be an offensive depiction of the Grand Duchess, who was canonized as a new martyr in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.[71] Many historians echoed their sentiments, criticizing the film as a sanitized, sugar-coated reworking of the story of the Czar's youngest daughter.[72] Its filmmakers acknowledged the fact that "Anastasia uses history only as a starting point", but others complained that the film would provide its audience with misleading ideas about Russian history, which, according to the author and historian Suzanne Massie, has been falsified for so many years. 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".[73]

Some of Anastasia's contemporary relatives also said that the film was distasteful, but most Romanovs have come to accept the "repeated exploitation of Anastasia's romantic tale... with equanimity".[73]

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.[74] The following weekend, the wide release of Anastasia in the United States earned $14.1 million, ranking second behind Mortal Kombat Annihilation.[75][76] By the end of its theatrical run, Anastasia had grossed $58.4 million in the United States and Canada and $81.4 million internationally.[7] The worldwide gross totaled up to about $139.8 million, making it Don Bluth's highest-grossing film to date and beating out his next highest-grossing film, An American Tail, by about $55 million.[77] This was Don Bluth's first financially successful film since All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Accolades

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score and Best Original Song (for "Journey to the Past").[78][79] The R&B singer Aaliyah performed the pop version at the ceremony.[80]

More information List of awards and nominations, Award ...
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Adaptations and other media

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Ice Follies

Anastasia on Ice is a licensed adaptation produced by Feld Entertainment's Ice Follies that ran from at least 1998 to 1999.[92][93]

Spin-off film

In 1999, a direct-to-video standalone spin-off titled Bartok the Magnificent was released which focuses on the character of Bartok.[94]

Stage musical adaptation

Main article: Anastasia (musical)

Hartford Stage developed a stage production of Anastasia, with the book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty and directed by Darko Tresnjak.[95] The production ran from May 13 through June 19, 2016.[96]

It is an original musical combining both the 1956 Arthur Laurents film and the 1997 animated film. The musical features six songs from the animated film and 16 new songs. Additionally, there have been some newly rewritten characters including Checkist secret police officer Gleb Vaganov (in the place of Rasputin), and Lily, who has been renamed in the place of Sophie.[97] McNally said: "This is a stage version for a modern theatre audience... The libretto's 'a blend' of old and new... There are characters in the musical that appear in neither the cartoon nor the Ingrid Bergman version".[98]

The Hartford production featured Christy Altomare as Anastasia / Anya, Derek Klena as Dimitri, Mary Beth Peil as The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Manoel Felciano as Gleb Vaganov, John Bolton as Vladimir, Caroline O'Connor as Lily, and Nicole Scimeca as Young Anastasia.[99] The musical transferred to Broadway with much of the original Hartford cast, opening on April 24, 2017, at the Broadhurst Theater[100] to mixed reviews.

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