Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Young orphan is set up by pranksters as the real Anastasia, who was missing when the revolution came to the palace.
Biased, pithy comments: Although the history is pretty much wrong, this is a story with heart, and characters who really seem to care. Unlike some of the other Bluth films produced, I found that this animated film kept me watching and hoping that good would come out of it all. Rasputin is kind of a boring bad guy (he was much more sinister in real life), and at times seems added on to the rest of this quite solid romance. Still, some good music (yes, I have the soundtrack and I like it, though the Richard Marx song could have been left off without pain) and at least one moment of animation that made my skin tingle---wow, that was neat; it was something you really only could do in animation and it was beautiful. As for this ``upstart'' (calling Fox an underdog is odd given the capital resources it has, but in the animated feature Disney is the big boy), the animation was fine and at times excellent, though there were a few moments when eyes or noses got loose from the rest of the face and looked odd. In all, good.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Meg Ryan, John Cusak, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadete Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Liz Callaway (singing for Ryan).
Directed by: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman