|
|
|
November 14, 1997
'Anastasia': We're Not in Russia Anymore
Related Articles
Film Reviews from The New York Times Forum
Join a Discussion on Movies
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
ardly a moment passes in "Anastasia," 20th Century Fox's splashy foray into the Disney-ruled sweepstakes of the animated musical, when you don't have the queasy feeling that a nervous corporate committee was breathing down the neck of this unfortunate movie, forcing it to be all things to all people no matter what had to be sacrificed in elementary common sense.
All things means, in this case, a hybrid of "Cinderella" and "The Wizard of Oz," done up in the glossy look of a Disney film. It means surrounding the main characters with lots of chirpy critters wherever they go.
It also means throwing in some animated action-adventure sequences, of which the most spectacular is an exploding train wreck, and sweetening the story with some generic pop songs by Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music) that don't quite measure up to Celine Dion's Disney hits.
But most of all, it means adapting Russian characters from a 1956 movie that starred Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner into bland all-American types who look and talk like San Fernando Valley teen-agers. Judging from their voices, about as close to Europe as most of these characters have ever gotten is probably Fresno.
"Anastasia" stops just short of making its title character a blonde. (She, like many of the other characters has auburn hair.) Otherwise, she has the slender curving body and peachy complexion of a small-town Miss America contestant dreaming of conquest in Atlantic City. Meg Ryan's voice gives her the slightly combative tone of a snippy, know-it-all cheerleader. In a beauty contest, she would definitely be docked points for lack of charm.
The plot is a sanitized, sugar-coated reworking of the story of the czar's youngest daughter, who miraculously escapes execution during the Russian Revolution, is raised in an orphanage and grows up with only the dimmest memories of her royal childhood. Is she or isn't she a princess? Teaming up with an unscrupulous hustler named Dimitri (John Cusack), Anya, as she is called, is groomed to impersonate the Russian princess and be presented to her grandmother, the dowager empress (Angela Lansbury), who lives in exile in Paris, in the hope of collecting the family's $10 million estate. Through the timely help of recovered memory, she proves to be the genuine article.
Since the Russian Revolution is obviously a heavy subject for an animated musical, the movie dispenses with it in less than five minutes. One moment the royal palace is a gilded dream world of extravagantly dressed revelers dancing wildly around, the next everyone is moping about in drab workers' clothing. The only reference to communism is a weak joke about the popularity of the color red.
Well, if the communists didn't spur the Russian Revolution, what did? "Anastasia" has its own fairy tale explanation. It was that evil magician Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd). The Revolution was a curse that he brought upon the ruling Romanov family in one of his hissy fits.
Even after he's been consigned to limbo, Rasputin continues to pursue his vendetta against the family, sending evil green spirits to try to trick Anya into killing herself.
The pointy-headed, snaggle-toothed Rasputin with his long snaky beard and feral glare bears a suspicious resemblance to that most scary of screen villains, the Wicked Witch of the West. Like the Wicked Witch, who monitors Dorothy on the road to Oz through a crystal ball, Rasputin tracks Anya's progress from St. Petersburg to Paris through magic.
Anya, like Dorothy, is trailed wherever she goes by an adorable little dog (named Pooka). Dimitri's eventual metamorphosis from con man into this movie's answer to Prince Charming is one of the more unconvincing transformations to be found in an animated fairy tale.
"Anastasia" may be a deeply silly movie, but it is sumptuous to look at, and it never stands still. Its creators, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, have given the story a lilting rhythm and glittering surface of the most extravagant jewel-encrusted fairy tale. If the central characters are bland, unmemorable ciphers, the world whirling around them offers enough enchantment to distract you from their essential fatuity.
PRODUCTION NOTES:
Produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman; written by Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White; lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty, original score by David Newman; production designer, Mike Peraza; released by 20th Century Fox.
Running time: 90 minutes.
Rating: This film is rated G.
WITH THE VOICES OF: Meg Ryan (Anastasia), John Cusack (Dimitri), Christopher Lloyd (Rasputin), Kirsten Dunst (Young Anastasia), Angela Lansbury (Dowager Empress Marie), Liz Callaway (singing voice of Anastasia), Lacey Chabert (singing voice of Young Anastasia), Jim Cummings (singing voice of Rasputin) and Jonathan Dokuchitz (singing voice of Dimitri).
|