With it being an integral part of the Non/Disney editing community, often being one of the few "nons" involved in the videos, I decided to give Anastasia a chance. Going into it, I wasn't thinking "Yah this is gonna be great!" nor "Daaang, I'm not gonna like this". I just...didn't really know. I kinda wanted to wait and see. Perhaps, I was leaning a bit to the negative side, just in fear that it wouldn't capture my interest. A lot of the reason for that was because I was learning about the Romanovs in my history class at the moment. Some may say "oh! then that puts it in context and you'll be more interested!" Ohhhhhhhhh no, I HATE history with a flaming passion, so I didn't just want a rehash of what I'd been learning in school. But I'm happy to say I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the fact that I had some background information did make it a little more interesting.
Pros:
The animation. By GOD the animation! Don Bluth's animation has always been wonderful, but this took a step up from the sketchy 80's style of All Dogs Go To Heaven and The Secret Of NIMH. I like that style, but how bright and colorful this was was just incredible. With 90s traditionally animated films mostly being made by Disney, I was impressed by how up to par the animation was with Disney. The humans were very realistic, but the villain and the sidekicks were cute and cartoony. The atmosphere was great too.
The songs. Oh...by God the songs!! From a Disney megafanatic, I'm gonna be honest, this stuff is Alan Menken material. The songs got me so hooked. While some were not fantastic, Journey To The Past, Once Upon A December, and In The Dark Of The Night were all incredible. The scenes to go with them were great too!
The sidekicks. I absolutely adore Bartok. I guess I have a thing for Hank Azaria's animated personas (yah, I'm lookin at you Sven and Carlos). And, of course, I have a thing for animal side characters. Seeing a clip of Bartok on YouTube was what first gave me an idea to watch the movie. It made it seem more fun and less serious than I expected, so it showed me that I might've been jumping to conclusions too fast. I also love Pooka. He's adorable, in appearance and actions, and I'm a sucker for animated dogs.
The story. At first, I wasn't into it. But then, I decided to give it a bit more of a chance, and I realized that it was pretty clever, something we don't normally see in a princess movie. I guess the closest we've ever gotten was Rapunzel, but she only had ideas that she could be a princess near the end of the movie. It was interesting and I really liked it.
The voice acting. I dunno, this isn't something that usually interests me, but, somehow the voice acting here stood out to me. I really liked the voices for the characters, and some of them had pretty big names behind them. Of course, the ones I enjoyed (and recognized) the most were Hank Azaria and Angela Lansbury, but all of them were very good.
Cons:
The animation. Yes, it's both a pro and a con. It is much more of a pro, but the only thing I didn't like about it was the realism of the people. Yah I know I said that as a positive, but only in the sense that it was neat that non-Disney animators could pull that off at the time. I'm not a big fan of when animation, usually humans, is too realistic, and the main characters definitely were.
The villain. I don't hate him like a lot of people do, I actually like his design and am aware that his motivation is (somewhat) historically real. The only thing I didn't like was how he played around with his dead body parts. I had just gotten over a serious stomach flu so seeing his head fall into his rib cage wasn't exactly ideal for me. Aside from my sensitive stomach (at the time and overall), it just bothered me because this guy was actually real. It made it all the more creepy, and not in a good way. It's fine when Jack Skellington does it, but this was pushing it a bit. It may have been funny if he wasn't based off of a real person (who, as a side note, was violently killed).
The liar reveal. Much like the Nostalgia Critic, I really hate this in movies. When Dimitri went into to talk to the Grand Duchess, I was all "ohhhh no, here we go!" What bugs me about it is just that Dimitri DID genuinely care for her, but she's not willing to realize that. Of course, it's all okay in the end, but still.
The romance. I have my ups and downs about it. It just seemed far too predictable and cliche. But, on the other hand, if a boy who seemingly had a crush on her as a child was helping her out, it would almost kind of be awkward for them not to get together. So I dunno.
So overall, I greatly enjoyed this movie and may see it again in the future. It was a pleasant surprise.
Side Notes:
I act like I watched it forever ago, but in reality, it was last week. The first day of a school break before I was off to California, it was snowing outside for the first time in six years, so I bundled up in a blanket, watched the movie, occasionally peeked out at the snow, went back out to eat pizza by the fire, and finished a Lion King video. It was a nice night :)
You'd assume that since I love Bartok, I'd feel the need to watch his spin-off film. I did have that need and I did fulfill it. I watched it the next day on the plane actually. It was a whole lot of fun, somehow perfect for a plane ride. Nice, simple, short, and fun. Maybe I'll do a full review on that later.
Gonna try and get reviews for Rise Of The Guardians and Escape From Planet Earth going. I think I'll wait on Brave and Frankenweenie until I watch them again, because it's been so long since I saw them, and I plan on rewatching them soon.
