Anastasia (1997)

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Jake Lipson
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Anastasia (1997)

Post by Jake Lipson »

Picture this: I'm sitting here at my computer doing nothing in perticular, and thinking about what a horrible weekend this is for cinema and for literature, with the brilliant children's book The Cat in the Hat being released to the silver screen in a movie that looks to stink worse than a cow turd. Surely this time last year we got something better?

Then I remember that Anastasia came out around this time some years back. So, curious, I went to the IMDb and pulled up the release date: coincidence or not, Anastasia was released to theaters in the US on November 21, 1997 - six years ago today. So I thought I'd use the oppertunity to bring up this wonderful film.

Simply put, ANASTASIA is amazing. Though its major studio backing came from Fox, not Disney, Don Blueth and Gary Goldman made it everything that the period's Disney musicals were. It has a captivating, epic fairytale-sque story driven by witty, charming, fully realized characters. It features truly wonderful, breathtaking, wide 2.35:1 animation that's often stunning to look at. And the songs are top notch, tuneful, sweeping, riviting pieces of music. Reading this summary now I'm not suprised it took me a while to write and I don't think it does justice to the movie. Those of you who have seen it and loved it know what I mean, and the rest of you really should give it a rent. Exellent film on par with anything Disney has ever done. Highly reccomended.
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Post by Prince Adam »

I agree-it's one of my favourite movies. The song Once Upon a December is hauntingly beautiful.

However, the movie is terrible historically inaccurate, and the story of the real Anastasia Romanova is much more horrible (no happy endings for her).

The only connection between the two is that the song "Once Upon a December" seems to fit very well with the myth that Anastasia survived her family's assasination. It's almost 90 yrs ago that they were murdered...
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Post by Uncle Remus »

i remeber seeing that movie when it came out to theaters. i really didnt like it that well and i hated how many people thought Anastacia was made by Disney when it wasnt and i had to keep reminding them that it isnt Disney.
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Post by Jake Lipson »

Anastasia is probably mistaken for Disney work often because it is as good as Disney work. Disney admitted this without saying it when they rushed a limited two-week re-release of The Little Mermaid into theaters a week before Anastasia opened. This gave them that weekend, plus Anastasia's opening weekend, to play Mermaid on screens before opening their big new holiday movie, Flubber with Robin Williams. This allowed them to crush Anastasia with Mermaid but make sure that their own (worse) movie was not squashed in the process.

See what I mean? Disney got SCARED of Anastasia because THEY KNEW it was a quality film that would do well, so they rushed out Mermaid on screens for the purposes of squashing competition and then bowing out. Otherwise, the re-release of Mermaid probably would have skipped theaters and gone directly to video in the following spring (where that reissue ended up being placed two to three weeks prior to Anastasia, as well.)
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Post by Uncle Remus »

if the Academy Awards had the Best Animated Feature catagory back then do you think Anastacia would win or would Hercules win?
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Post by XxSuRgEoxX »

I really like this movie.. the only thing that bugs me (as with all Don Bluth films) is the overuse of rotoscoping. I read that the whole movie was rotoscoped actually.
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Post by Choco Bear »

i love this movie and its really scary cuz i was gonna paot a thread about anastasia like earlier today! and last week i had to writye an essay on the movie and comapre it to pygmallion, and i just bought the movie last week too! wow i love the music in this movie it has some of the beast in my opinion. i remeber seeing this movie whenb it was first released, i had to eiuther see this or the rerealses of ythe lkittle mermaid, but i decided to saee this. any ways this movie is great if you havenbt seen watch it or rent it :D
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Post by Choco Bear »

Uncle Remus wrote:if the Academy Awards had the Best Animated Feature catagory back then do you think Anastacia would win or would Hercules win?
sorry to double post but just read this and it would be really hard to decide but i think anastasia woukld win.
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Post by Jake Lipson »

If the Academy Awards had had the Best Animated Feature category since I was born, here's what I would have picked to win.

1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Oliver & Company nominated also)
1989 - The Little Mermaid
1990 - The Rescuers Down Under
1991 - Beauty and the Beast
1992 - Aladdin (FernGully: The Last Rainforest nominated also)
1993 - The Nightmare Before Christmas
1994 - The Lion King (The Swan Princess nominated also)
1995 - Balto (Toy Story and Pocahontas also nominated)
1996 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Space Jam also nominated)
1997 - Anastasia (Hercules also nominated)
1998 - A Bug's Life (Mulan, Quest For Camelot also nominated)
1999 - Toy Story 2 (Tarzan, Princess Monoke also nominated)
2000 - Fantasia 2000 (Emporer's New Groove also nominated)
2001 - Monsters, Inc. (Shrek and Atlantis nominated)
2002 - Spirited Away (Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, Spirit nominated) - for once I agree with the Academy!
2003 - Brother Bear (Finding Nemo, Sinbad also nominated)
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Post by michelle »

Prince Adam wrote:However, the movie is terrible historically inaccurate, and the story of the real Anastasia Romanova is much more horrible (no happy endings for her).
yeh I loved the movie so I read up on all this background info and a lot of things were 'bent' for the sake of the story...nevertheless it's still really really good!

people probably confused this movie for being Disney's because there weren't any other major 2D-animation or any other animation studios around (for that matter) and the movie itself was similar to what people associated with the 'Disney-style' ala breaking out into song, sidekicks, romances etc...

I actually heard somewhere that the people behind Anastasia went to Disney first but were rejected? Not sure...
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Post by Swiss »

Prince Adam wrote:I agree-it's one of my favourite movies.
Same here. Although I wish they would release the forever rumored, 2-Disc Ultimate Edition. I am very curious to hear the deleted song sequence with Bernadette Peters, and the video David Newman did for the movie, that never aired.

Speaking of animated features in need of the red carpet DVD treatment, Thumbelina, Fern Gully, The Land Before Time...
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Post by Uncle Remus »

i believe that the idea of the movie went to Disney first but Disney rejected it. So it went over to Fox. this thing also happened with The Secret of NIMH. Don Bluth who was working at Disney that time asked Disney to make a movie based on the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Disney told Bluth that it wasnt worth making into a movie. so Don Bluth and a couple of animators from Disney left to make the movie leaving The Fox and the Hound undone. also in the Fox and the Hound, the scene when Cheif is hit by the train was animated by Don Bluth. originaly, the scene ended with Chief dead from be hit by the train. but Disney decided that was too harsh and did the scene over to look like Chief was just knocked out from being hit. Don Bluth was angry that Disney didnt approve of the scene that he told Disney not to put his name in the credits since he left when the movie was almost done.
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Post by Swiss »

Uncle Remus wrote:i believe that the idea of the movie went to Disney first but Disney rejected it.
Samething happened with "Ice Age" and Disney rejected the project. Given the blockbuster status of the film, I am sure Disney wished they had accepted the epic adventure "Ice Age". :P
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Post by karlsen »

but you must remember that if Disney had accepted the Anastasia and Ice Age movies they would not have ended up like they are today.

I find it realy interesting that people always remembers who got the offer first like all the actors that has turned down roles.

Like the good old classic movie "Dirty Harry". Imagine it with Frank Sinatra instead (it was written for him but he could not make it because of an accident).

It was also offered to John Wayne, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.

None of those should be sorry that they did not take it because the movie would not have been like this if not Clint Eastwood took it.

I myself has turned down jobs (not acting though) that later turned out to make the people doing them realy popular. But I can not think about that because I would have done it in other ways, and therefor would maybee do a less god job as those who did it in the end.
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Post by Choco Bear »

Nedakh wrote:
Uncle Remus wrote:i believe that the idea of the movie went to Disney first but Disney rejected it.
Samething happened with "Ice Age" and Disney rejected the project. Given the blockbuster status of the film, I am sure Disney wished they had accepted the epic adventure "Ice Age". :P
\

maybe they didnt excepot the feature beacuse it was a similar style to brother bear which is also set in/after the ice age. i personally glad they didnt except it bacuse well it wasnt theat great :)
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Post by Grunches »

I like Anastasia. There were a couple of strange parts in it. At first I thought Disney came out with it. When I saw it I said" This can't be a Disney movie" and it wasn't. The music is wonderful. Happy Birthday Anastasia! :)
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Post by Swiss »

Very true, and likely that Disney may have made changes to the film. I am also glad these films turned out as is, Disney or not. In the case of "Ice Age", I believe Fox approached Disney with the film, which was subsequently 50% completed (or something like that), so perhaps leaving little room for major changes. According to Jim Hill, Disney execs were unhappy the film was rejected
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Post by quasi72 »

Well, I am sorry to disagree with many of you here.
I deeply belive that Anastasia is a terrible animated film. It is not innovative at all. The only element that I enjoyed in part was the music. I have always called this film ANESTHESIA, because it did almost put me to sleep when I went to see it at the movie theatre.
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Post by DDMAN26 »

Jake Lipson wrote:

<<If the Academy Awards had had the Best Animated Feature category since I was born, here's what I would have picked to win.

1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Oliver & Company nominated also)
Agreed
1989 - The Little Mermaid
Agreed
1990 - The Rescuers Down Under
Not a favorite but what else was there
1991 - Beauty and the Beast
Should have won Best Picture period
1992 - Aladdin (FernGully: The Last Rainforest nominated also)
Yes
1993 - The Nightmare Before Christmas
Yes again
1994 - The Lion King (The Swan Princess nominated also)
Ditto
1995 - Balto (Toy Story and Pocahontas also nominated)
No way Toy Story would have won hands down.
1996 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Space Jam also nominated)
Agreed
1997 - Anastasia (Hercules also nominated)
I think Cats Don't Dance was the best animated film that year.
1998 - A Bug's Life (Mulan, Quest For Camelot also nominated)
I love A Bug's Life, but I would have given it to Mulan
1999 - Toy Story 2 (Tarzan, Princess Monoke also nominated)
TS2 would have been worthy, but The Iron Giant and South Park would have made this the strongest category in years.
2000 - Fantasia 2000 (Emporer's New Groove also nominated)
I'd pick Groove
2001 - Monsters, Inc. (Shrek and Atlantis nominated)
Yep
2002 - Spirited Away (Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, Spirit nominated) - for once I agree with the Academy!
Yeah I agree slightly.

2003 - Brother Bear (Finding Nemo, Sinbad also nominated)
I've only seen Nemo, so I can't fairly comment.
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Post by Paka »

quasi72 wrote:Well, I am sorry to disagree with many of you here.
I deeply belive that Anastasia is a terrible animated film. It is not innovative at all. The only element that I enjoyed in part was the music. I have always called this film ANESTHESIA, because it did almost put me to sleep when I went to see it at the movie theatre.
Hehe - yeah, the film was kinda unremarkable to me, too. I haven't added it to my dvd collection yet, and it may stay that way for a while... ;)

Plus, when you know that in reality, the whole Romanov family - including Anastasia - were lined up in a basement and shot point blank, it kinda takes all the fun out of the movie... :P
Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late."

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