Anastasia 1997 (BD) [Blu-ray]

The best of the “Disney Knockoff” movies. Great voice cast, catchy and some beautiful songs. And the animation is unparalleled for that time. Well done movie.

I love both of these movies so very much!!! They are heart-warming and feel good comfort movies for sure!!! I'm so very happy to own them on DVD now!!!

I remember this movie airing on TV a lot a few years after it came out, and having recently rewatched a lot of favorite disney movies, I decided to revisit something else from my childhood. I wasn't really expecting all that much out of it, but even as an adult, I think this is a pretty great movie. It takes its starting point from historical events, but turns into a very sweet fairy tale about family and finding yourself. Its obviously in the DIsney Princess tradition, and I enjoyed it as much as any of those films. The characters are a lot of fun, and its nice that we see Dimitri and Anya spending enough time together for a plausible romance to develop. While the villain, Rasputin, can be quite comical, there are also some genuinely scary scenes, such as when Anya almost jumps off the boat while in an enchanted dream about her forgotten family. The animation is quite beautiful, and I was specially moved by the sequence where Anya wanders through the old palace, seeing ghosts of her former life. The glitz and glamour of Paris are also well-depicted, and images such as a Chanel store and the Moulin Rouge remind us that this film is set in our own world, not too long ago. There's something about the way Anya uncovers her past, with the haunting song (Once Upon a December), the necklace and the music box, that gives the film a really beautiful magical quality. All in all, I would say that this film is a bit of a forgotten gem that I definitely recommend. Of course, there is the undeniable fact that this movie takes a troublesome time from history and gives it the fairy tale treatment, and it can definitely be perceived as trivializing the events of the Russian Revolution. In my own mind, I was able to disassociate the film from history fairly easily, and I treated it as a separate entity. If you're a person who doesn't like the idea of watching a movie that glosses over unhappy historical events and gives them the fantasy treatment, this movie probably isn't for you.

I originally owned this film in the late 90s, on VHS. While I was repurchasing Disney films, I came to a fork in the road. There was one film from my childhood that was not a Disney film that I still enjoyed as much as I did back when I was a kid, and that was Anastasia from Don Bluth.Don Bluth originally worked for Disney, but left to form his own studio. Many know him for "An American Tail," and "The Secret of NIMH," but over time Bluth decided to make a film that was almost on par with what Disney had made, and that was Anastasia. The story takes place in Russia, where the young Anastasia is separated from her family. Believed to be dead, Anastasia has amnesia and lives as an orphan up until she is a teenager (or what we can assume is a young adult), and then discovers that she may have a past that includes what she's always been searching for: her family.The story is not historically accurate, but is a "Disney-fied" version. I enjoy it, nonetheless, as a story that ages well over the years. I am 27 years old, and still enjoy it as much as I did as a child. I can't say that for every cartoon flick I watched as a kid, but mostly the ones that stand the test of time are Disney...with the exception to some films done by Don Bluth.I recommend this film for anyone that enjoys the story, and even is discovering the movie for the first time. Although it's not as strong as a Disney movie, it still emulates the same story that most Disney stories do, with catchy songs and a great story to tell.

Love the ending, which I'm not going to spoil. Parental supervision is advised for scary parts of the scene.

It’s a good one

Granddaughter loved it

Love this movie!