DVDizzy Forum

I think to me, the really scary thing about Rasputin is that he existed. Just gives me chills thinking about. Had to turn on the light before I even finished the post.

Although, when I was younger and didn't know there was a real Rasputin (or at least hadn't seen a picture of him) I don't think the character freaked me out as much as it does now. Funny how I'm more scared of an animated character now than when I was little.

God, I'm such a baby.

^ Hopefully the real Rasputin had better control of his body parts...

And thanks, Mooky! for you!

Yes, the real Rasputin was one of THE most chilling characters you'll ever encounter. Those who are interested in the Anastasia mythology should also seek out the brilliant 1970's movie, "Nicholas and Alexandra", in which Tom "Dr. Who" Baker is the most scary-ass Rasputin...almost as freaky as the man himself.

Kids (and parents) should be relieved that Bluth decided not to be historically realistic with the Rasputin character...

I was watching this film in history class about anastastia and her family, and it mentioned that it was nearly impossible to kill rasputin. first the stabbed him which didn't work, then they captured hime and threw his body in the cold river and three days later he came back to life. Imagine if he was a killer, youd have to wait until he died of old age to be safe.

The picture of Rasputin's corpse laying on the ground with the bullet hole in his head (that is on his Wikipedia page), scares me more than any picture I've seen of him alive.

Seriously scary man.

Anastasia is good but I was, like others point out, disappointed with the way Rasputin acted and his musical number. He just doesn't feel like Rasputin if you knew who he really was. Hate that white bat too. Other than that, it was good.

Swan Princess is decently good. I love the main heroine. She maintain best combo of passive but also strong girl that doesn't "wait for her prince to come". I also like how the two grew up together which further enhance their relationship better as oppose to "love at first sight" ordeal. I agree the there were some annoyances. Bromley, Urbertha, chamberlain, etc were all annoying and help degrade the movie. I think Odette is only person who made the movie any serious. With exception of "For Longer Than Forever" all the song were forgettable and bland. So while the it had excellent female protagonist and would make a great Disney female character, the rest was mediocre.

Thumblina was......bland.

Mooky wrote:

blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Oh no! I bet you posted a great picture, but Angelfire doesn't want us to see it!

Try this: copy (don't click it!) the location of the image pinkrenata posted (it's below) and paste it into your browser's address bar and then press 'enter'.

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/anya782/ima ... mitri2.gif

Thanks, Mooky. I had a feeling that was going to happen.

I loved Anastasia when it came out. I remember my mom taking me to see it. I haven't seen the movie in quite a long time, though. I'd really like to watch it, but Youtube doesn't seem to have th entire movie uploaded.

The Swan Princess was cheesy as hell. It had a few humorous instances, but it was mostly just really cheesy. I really liked it as a child, though.

I haven't seen Thumbelina in years, so I couldn't give my review of it. I also liked it as a child, though.

Among the three movies that you have mentioned, i liked Swan Princess the most. It is a movie of 1994 and i liked it very much.

Anastasia is easily the best of these, even though it's still not a very good movie. The rotoscoping was just out of control.

The Swan Princess was just stupid and Thumbelina, despite having some nice bits of animation here and there was pretty terrible as well. I mean, those songs are all so freaking awful.

Of all the attempts to dethrone Disney back in the 90s, The Prince of Egypt was the only one with a serious shot. At the very least it was ambitious and sincere. Dreamworks' attitude didn't last very long though. And what a shame.

1) Anastasia

2) Swan Princess

3) Thumbelina

I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of any of them. I haven't seen The Swan Princess since I was around nine, so that's out of the question, and so that brings me to Don Bluth. I honestly don't find really many of his films are that good (though I haven't seen The Secret of NIMH), and his 90s stuff is a bit bland.

Anastasia is cringe-making as it basically takes true facts and turns it into little more than a fluffy little fairy tale. One could argue the same with something like Pocahontas, another film based on a legend deriving from historical events, but that took place so long ago that any liberties are easily forgiveable, and it didn't really resort to heavy doses of the fantastic (aside from a talking tree and weird spiritualism involving leaves). Anastasia, as much as it is supposed to be an adaptation of a legend, deals with historical issues from less than a century ago and that would have more directly affected current society (European communism only fell in the late 80s and early 90s), making it something one shouldn't really take that many liberties with. The opening that claimed everything was wonderful in Russia under the tsar was overthrown annoyed me (as awful as Stalin and co were, Imperial Russia was far from pleasant for most people), and using a curse from Rasputin as the catalyst for the revolution is just lame (again, with or without Rasputin around, those happy subjects were actually poor, starving and losing to the Germans in WWI). In short, the film basically whitewashes history to anybody with at least a tiny bit of intelligence or knowledge of modern history, and I find that rather offensive.

Thumbelina is reasonably charming in places, but most certainly below average. I can imagine Don Bluth said "right, so Disney beat our talking dog movie at the box office with a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a girl who finds Prince Charming against all odds, let's take our shot at similar material to threaten them!", not really thinking things through. The film feels so lethargic in the same way that a number of Disney's late-70s/early-80s product does, as though everyone got really lazy not too far into the film's production and couldn't care less with certain parts. The film certainly had potential, but it ends up just resorting to cutesy numbers, and squeaky-voiced characters as though it's supposed to be a parody of a Disney film; honestly, it felt like the opening of Enchanted without any of the irony and without much of the wit (did I mention that the script has thousands of plot holes, as though it were written by a grade-school kid?). The animation could have been better, and the character design in particular is lacking; I'm with Amy in disliking the animals' designs and honestly don't think many of them look like the animals they're supposed to (don't get me started on how the farm animals all wear hats, including chicks just popping out of their eggs). Some of the songs are bad/annoying (especially the ones the frogs and the insects sing), but one or two stand out as nice enough ("Let Me Be Your Wings" has a nice enough melody, and I thought that "Marry the Mole" was harmless).

I have to say that, with a lot of the non-Disney animated films of the 90s, there seems to have been a conscientious effort made by executives to try and emulate the Disney formula, at least in the latter half of the decade, with films that ultimately seem overly micro-managed and messy. The best non-Disney traditionally animated film of the 90s I've seen were probably The Iron Giant and The Prince of Egypt. The former was a film that took some risks and ended up working pretty well (good old Brad Bird ), and the latter was tasteful and entertaining despite following the Disney pattern.

The Swan Princess cause of Jean-Bob! But if he didn't exist, I'd say Anastasia. Though I like Swan Princess 2 better than the first.

I own all three on DVD, including Princess and the Goblin, so I'm attached to them and that makes it hard to decide which one is best. Anastasia is the clear frontrunner in terms of its quality, but the thing is I didn't see much of it when I was a kid. I remember watching the other two a lot, though, and I usually "enjoy" them more.

Wonderlicious wrote: In short, the film basically whitewashes history to anybody with at least a tiny bit of intelligence or knowledge of modern history, and I find that rather offensive.

I find that you are overlooking Dimitri in your criticism of the film that used to rival my obsession with Titanic.

I had <b>AWESOME</b> taste in ninth grade. And I still do.

^ Dimitri is a handsome animated man...

pinkrenata wrote:I find that you are overlooking Dimitri in your criticism of the film that used to rival my obsession with Titanic.

I had <b>AWESOME</b> taste in ninth grade. And I still do.

Dmitri does nowt for me, as I'm just not gay enough! In fairness, Anastasia is better than Thumbelina, especially in terms of animation and art direction, and I like one or two of the songs ("In the Dark of the Night" mainly, despite its backing singers being cockroaches and Rasputin sounding like Tigger). It's just that I can be nitpicky about historical and factual accuracy.

What, no Ferngully?

I've seen all three (I just saw Anastasia last night, actually). When I was very young, my favourite movie was Thumbelina. I watch it every now and then, just for nostalgia's sake, but, honestly, it is really sappy. The plot is standard. The songs are all right. I was surprised to find out the last time I watched it that Barry Manilow wrote the songs. Weird. The characters are paper thin. It's impossible for me to like Thumbelina. She's an airhead. Cornelius is mostly absent. The frogs and beetle are annoying. Mrs. Fieldmouse is kind of fun, though. I always used to like her house.

I suppose Anastasia is the best, if only for its relative originality in an animated film. Its plot is the most sophisticated, and its songs are passable (I woke up this morning with "Once Upon a December" stuck in my head). I didn't really like the animation, though. Only in a couple scenes, like the one showing the old palace, did I really think it was good. The interactions between the characters were pretty good, although the characters themselves weren't the best. Anya/Anastasia irritated me, even though I wanted to like her. Dmitri was okay. I fast-forwarded all the scenes with Rasputin, so I can't comment on him. His scenes looked really ugly, though. I didn't understand the ending of the movie. Why does Anastasia just leave her grandmama a letter instead of actually saying goodbye? That was rude and ungrateful of her.

I haven't seen The Swan Princess in a while, but I used to watch it all the time. I think it has the best songs of the three. I like the opening song (can't remember its name). It's quite effective in setting up the characters, and it's catchy. The plot is standard. The characters, however, are bad. I was just talking with my sister yesterday about what a jerk Prince Derrick (sp?) is. He never comes up with a decent reply to Odette regarding why he loves her. Idiot. And he ignored her all their growing up years! Odette is all right. She's kind of like Aurora (in looks, too), but a little better in that she does something. Rothbart is annoying; so is his song.

So I think my order is:

1. Anastasia (for the plot)
2. The Swan Princess (for the songs)
3. Thumbelina (for nostalgia)

Linden wrote:I've seen all three (I just saw Anastasia last night, actually). When I was very young, my favourite movie was Thumbelina. I watch it every now and then, just for nostalgia's sake, but, honestly, it is really sappy. The plot is standard. The songs are all right. I was surprised to find out the last time I watched it that Barry Manilow wrote the songs. Weird. The characters are paper thin. It's impossible for me to like Thumbelina. She's an airhead. Cornelius is mostly absent. The frogs and beetle are annoying. Mrs. Fieldmouse is kind of fun, though. I always used to like her house.

I suppose Anastasia is the best, if only for its relative originality in an animated film. Its plot is the most sophisticated, and its songs are passable (I woke up this morning with "Once Upon a December" stuck in my head). I didn't really like the animation, though. Only in a couple scenes, like the one showing the old palace, did I really think it was good. The interactions between the characters were pretty good, although the characters themselves weren't the best. Anya/Anastasia irritated me, even though I wanted to like her. Dmitri was okay. I fast-forwarded all the scenes with Rasputin, so I can't comment on him. His scenes looked really ugly, though. I didn't understand the ending of the movie. Why does Anastasia just leave her grandmama a letter instead of actually saying goodbye? That was rude and ungrateful of her.

I haven't seen The Swan Princess in a while, but I used to watch it all the time. I think it has the best songs of the three. I like the opening song (can't remember its name). It's quite effective in setting up the characters, and it's catchy. The plot is standard. The characters, however, are bad. I was just talking with my sister yesterday about what a jerk Prince Derrick (sp?) is. He never comes up with a decent reply to Odette regarding why he loves her. Idiot. And he ignored her all their growing up years! Odette is all right. She's kind of like Aurora (in looks, too), but a little better in that she does something. Rothbart is annoying; so is his song.

So I think my order is:

1. Anastasia (for the plot)
2. The Swan Princess (for the songs)
3. Thumbelina (for nostalgia)

In the original "Anastasia" play by Guy Bolton and Marcelle Maurette (on which the animated movie is partly based), the Anastasia character also makes a very swift exit with no formal goodbye to her grandmother. I find this quite unsatisfying, but it adds to the tone of the piece, I suppose.