Review of Anastasia (1997) by Uncannygarlic — 02 Feb 2009

Anastasia is an excellent film with a great story and probably the most general audience appeal of traditionally animated film outside of Disney. The underlying themes of the plot are very familiar to Disney fans, being a self discovery journey of a spunky princess, but it's well executed and has good interactions between characters.

The voice acting is surprisingly good for most characters, with most actors getting into character very well and voicing their character in a manner which makes them unrecognizable. Hank Azaria does an amazing job with the comic bat, giving the character the perfect voice and delivery, probably being the unexpected standout.

Christopher Loyd surprised me by doing a good job changing his voice to be that of Rasputin, with his signature yelling being the only thing giving him away, though it's not disrupting. Meg Ryan, on the other hand, plays Anastasia in the classic Meg Ryan way, making no changes in how she speaks for the character.

This makes her performance a bit disrupting, though fans of Meg Ryan will likely disagree, but all of the animation fits the voices, including Ryan's, perfectly. Animation in the film is crisp, fluid, and beautiful with wonderfully illustrated backgrounds.

The one flaw of the film is it's use of computer generated (CG) images which, like in most traditionally animated films, stick out. It's not to say that the CG doesn't look good but merely that it doesn't seamlessly mesh with the traditional animation.

The movement in the film feels wonderfully natural, with more quirky minor movements made by characters than seems to be in most films. It's musicals are generally good, with a few greats and some misses.

"Once Upon a December" really stands out as the height of the movies musical scenes and scores while "A Rumor in St. Petersburg", the first musical scene in the film, was mediocre.

The "In the Dark of the Night" scene causes me to laugh every time I watch the film because of how out of place the music seems, despite how the good music was. All in all, this is arguably Don Bluth's best animated film with "The Secret of NIMH" being the competition.

The film brushes or even matches the lower edge of the Disney renaissance, being more enjoyable than "The Little Mermaid" for me, despite having more technical problems. If you're looking for a fun and enjoyable animated film for the whole family, I'd fully recommend this film.