Review of Bartok the Magnificent (1999) by Warren S — 04 Nov 2010

Question: Which character from Don Bluth's "Anastasia" was interesting enough to deserve a feature-length prequel?

Answer: Freaking ANYONE but Bartok.

I mean, really? Rasputin's useless little albino bat sidekick who spontaneously decided not to participate in the magical battle at "Anastasia"'s climax and thus was gifted by providence with some kind of deformed pink bat groupie?

The movie's tagline puzzles me. "The Lovable Hero from 'Anastasiaï¿ 1/2' is Back!"? He was not lovable, he was annoying and inconsistent. He was not a hero, he was a spy for Rasputin whose loyal services nearly got Anastasia and Marya Fyodorovna murdered within the first five minutes of the first movie. Since this is a prequel, rather than a sequel, I am not sure in what sense he is "back", and while they assert that he is "from 'Anastasia'" I even call *that* into question, because the two films hardly seem to take place in the same universe. 'Anastasia' took place in a quasi-realistic reimagining of Europe post-Bolshevik Revolution; 'Bartok the Magnificent' takes place in a high fantasy version of Russia populated by fictional rather than historical Tsars, where talking bats and bears and witches are taken at face value and legendary figures like Baba Yaga make regular appearances.

All of that said, I had a soft spot for this film. It was funny and clever and entertaining, and watching Don Bluth give life to the folklore of Baba Yaga was a delight. Bartok was decidedly less annoying here than he was in "Anastasia" and he actually earned his happy ending--although the film does not even attempt to address the question of how this "heroic" character ended up in the employ of Rasputin at all, and by the end of "Bartok" I was fairly convinced that they were in fact two completely different talking Russian albino bats who happened to have the same name and voice. I've already pointed out that the tagline is deceptive.