Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical fantasy comedy drama film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman from a screenplay by Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. The film stars the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Angela Lansbury. Based on the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia, the film follows an eighteen-year-old amnesiac Anastasia "Anya" Romanov who, hoping to find some trace of her deceased family, sides with two con men who wish to pass her off as the Grand Duchess to dowager empress Maria Feodorovna; thus the film shares its plot with Fox's 1956 film, which, in turn, was based on the 1954 play of the same name by Marcelle Maurette. Unlike those treatments, this version adds a magically empowered Grigori Rasputin as the antagonist.

Plot

In 1916 Petrograd, Russia, at a ball celebrating the Romanov tricentennial, Dowager Empress Maria bestows a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words "Together in Paris" as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, eight-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, a sorcerer and former royal advisor exiled for treason, who vows to Tsar Nicholas that his family will be banished with a curse. Consumed by his hatred for the Romanovs, Rasputin sells his soul in exchange for an unholy reliquary, which he uses to spark the Russian Revolution. As revolutionaries besiege the palace, Marie and Anastasia escape through a secret passageway, aided by 10-year-old servant boy Dimitri. Rasputin confronts the two royals outside on the frozen Little Nevka River, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair reach a moving train, but as Marie climbs aboard, Anastasia falls and hits her head on the platform, subsequently suffering amnesia.

Awards