Movies From the Hat III – Anastasia (1997)

This is my 1,997th movie review

Thanks to Kim for recommending this film to me!

“[after Anastasia hands him a dynamite and it’s about to explode] What do they teach you in those orphanages?” – Dimitri

Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 Feb 2016)

Brief Synopsis – An animated musical about the possible discovery of the long lost heir to the Russian royal dynasty ten years after the October Revolution in 1917 and the attempt to bring her back to her family.

My Take on it – For some reason, all of Don Bluth’s animated movies have a very dark side to them and I usually prefer animated movies with a “happy” glow to them.

That being said, this movie does manage to give us some great songs (especially Once Upon a December and Journey to the Past)

watch (and hear) them here:

The best casting choice of this movie was Meg Ryan as the adult version of the main character.  She really was perfect here.

She is helped by the casting of the rest of the main characters voiced by Kelsey Grammer, John Cusack, Angela Landsbury and Christopher Lloyd (who is more than creepy here).

The Secret of Nimh (1982) is still my favorite of Bluth’s work, but this one is still done very well.

Bottom Line -As with most of Bluth’s animated films, this one is also on the dark side, but still manages to have some very memorable songs and scenes.  Meg Ryan is great as the voice of the lead character with some great support from Landsbury, Cusack and Grammer.  Lloyd plays his part too creepy. Overall it’s done nicely, but still isn’t Bluth’s best work. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When Meg Ryan was offered the role of Anya, she could not decide if she wanted to accept it or not. Upon hearing of Ryan’s indecision, Fox took an audio clip of Ryan talking in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and created a short animated sequence of Anya speaking the lines. They sent the clip to Ryan, and she was so impressed that she changed her mind and accepted the role. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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