BEFORE: The obvious follow-up to last night's film, and the start of a new topic - kings and queens. I avoided this film when it first came out, but I'm not sure why. Was it the Don Bluth thing, or did I not feel that the Russian aristocracy made a good subject for an animated film? I can't recall. Anyway, this project is all about identifying just this sort of past movie transgressions, and rectifying them.
Hank Azaria, Kelsey Grammer and Andrea Martin all carry over from "Bartok the Magnificent", though two of them are voicing different characters.
THE PLOT: The only surviving child of the Russian Royal Family hooks up with two con men while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.
AFTER: I'm going to take the opportunity this week to look up the REAL facts behind the subjects depicted - so that means a look at the real mystery of Anastasia. Just a sec...
And, we're back. Read up on Anastasia, the youngest of four daughters born to Tsar Nicholas II, and her mother had a close association with Rasputin. But there was some scandal when it was discovered that Rasputin often visited the four daughters in their nursery, and was accused of raping one of their governesses. Rasputin died well before the abdication of Nicholas II, at which time the whole royal family was placed under house arrest, then moved to Siberia as the Bolsheviks took over the country. Finally the family was executed in 1918 - I'll spare you the gory details, but you can look them up.
However, at least 10 women came forward over the years, claiming to be Anastasia, having survived the execution somehow. All of these claims were disputed, and finally forensic evidence in 1998 and 2007 supported the original belief that all of the Romanovs died in 1918.
So, that's the jumping-off point for this film, depicting a pair of con artists looking for someone they can pass off as the lost tsarina, to get money from her aunt, the Grand Duchess, in Paris. The film diverges from reality, however, when it suggests that the impostor they choose, who has vague memories of the Imperial Palace, might actually be the real lost Anastasia.
Further liberties are taken with the character of Rasputin, who rises from Limbo to take his revenge on the Romanovs. I mean, yeah, it's an animated film and they can do that, provided the plot calls for it. I'm not going to nitpick about what's possible - if we get into wondering how bats can talk (but strangely, not dogs) in this animated reality, we'll be here all night.
But the real story of Rasputin is worth a look-see also - he may have been assassinated after it was felt that he had too much influence over the Russian royal family. By various accounts he was poisoned, shot four times, beaten and drowned. Which may explain why this film depicts him as undead/immortal, and still able to return for revenge on the royals.
But I'm keeping it real, and I have to judge the film before me, despite its historical inaccuracies, and its attempts to shoehorn the story of Anastasia into the Disney mold, complete with cute animal sidekicks, songs and the like.
Also starring the voices of John Cusack (last heard in "Igor"), Meg Ryan (last seen in "Joe Versus the Volcano"), Christopher Lloyd (last seen in "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"), Angela Lansbury (last seen in "Fantasia 2000"), Bernadette Peters, and Kirsten Dunst (last seen in "Jumanji").
RATING: 6 out of 10 Faberge eggs
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