Anastasia

Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical fantasy drama film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman from a screenplay by Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White. The film stars the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Angela Lansbury. Based on the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and in an alternate version of 1926, the film follows eighteen-year-old amnesiac orphan, Anya, who, hoping to find some trace of her origins, sides with two con men who wish to pass her off as the Grand Duchess to Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna amidst the rumors that the Grand Duchess had survived and escaped the killing of the royal family. The film shares its plot with the 1956 film of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1954 play of the same name by Marcelle Maurette. Unlike those treatments, this version adds a magically-empowered Grigori Rasputin as the antagonist. Anastasia was the first 20th Century Fox animated feature to be produced by its own animation division, 20th Century Fox Animation, through the animation studio Fox Animation Studios. The film premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on November 14, 1997, and was released in the United States on November 21. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation, voice performances, and soundtrack, though it attracted criticism from some historians for its fantastical retelling of the Grand Duchess. Anastasia grossed $140 million worldwide, making it the most profitable film from Bluth and Fox Animation Studios. It received nominations for several awards, including for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards. The success of Anastasia spawned various adaptations of the film into other media, including a direct-to-video spin-off film and a stage musical, which premiered in 2016. Plot In 1916, Petrograd, Russia, at a ball celebrating the Romanov tricentennial, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna bestows a music box as well as a necklace inscribed with the words "Together in Paris" as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, eight-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia.