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DonBluth's 1997 [[{{Disneyfication}} very loose adaption]] of a 1956 Ingrid Bergman film, which itself was already [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very, very loosely based]] on the 'life' of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. The story goes like this...
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* ArtShift: While most of the movie sets are drawn realistically, the background for Paris is done with very Impressionist-style art, most obvious in the "Paris Holds The Key" sequence.
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* VisualPun: During "Paris Holds the Key" we see [[FreudianSlip Sigmund Freud slipping on a banana peel]].
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* FandomNod: Look closely, and you'll see little visual shout-outs to other movies from Don Bluth's history. (The squirrels look like they've walked right off the set of ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', Bartok is sucked into Hell just like [[Film/AllDogsGoToHeaven Charlie]], there's a spooky thorn bush near the end that [[Film/TheSecretOfNIMH Brutus]] might be guarding, and so on).
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* FandomNod: Look closely, and you'll see little visual shout-outs to other movies from Don Bluth's history. (The squirrels look like they've walked right off the set of ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', Bartok is sucked into Hell just like [[Film/AllDogsGoToHeaven [[WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven Charlie]], there's a spooky thorn bush near the end that [[Film/TheSecretOfNIMH [[WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH Brutus]] might be guarding, and so on).
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*** Repress what? Her entire life up to that point? Including all the good memories?
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward oppression of ethnic minorities among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.[[hottip:*: (unless you were Asian, in which case even the Soviets couldn't match the brutality of three centuries of the Romanovs.)]]
** Let's not oversimplify nearly a century of complex political history. It's more accurate to say that a movie for Western audiences simply cannot afford to depict the enemy's ideology as anything other than villainous, regardless of the balance of good and bad consequences for the country and people involved.
*** Add to the Romanov legacy is treated quite different in the west then where they actually ruled, and for good reason: in the year the film is set, the country was trying to recover from the brutality of war with the White Army, another political movement that succeeded the Tsars (and ''claimed'' to be acting in their name). There's a reason why the [[RightfulKingReturns restoring the monarchy]] never caught on, even in the 90s.
** Let's not oversimplify nearly a century of complex political history. It's more accurate to say that a movie for Western audiences simply cannot afford to depict the enemy's ideology as anything other than villainous, regardless of the balance of good and bad consequences for the country and people involved.
*** Add to the Romanov legacy is treated quite different in the west then where they actually ruled, and for good reason: in the year the film is set, the country was trying to recover from the brutality of war with the White Army, another political movement that succeeded the Tsars (and ''claimed'' to be acting in their name). There's a reason why the [[RightfulKingReturns restoring the monarchy]] never caught on, even in the 90s.
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward oppression of ethnic minorities among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.[[hottip:*: (unless you were Asian, in which case even the Soviets couldn't match the brutality of three centuries of the Romanovs.)]]
** Let's not oversimplify nearly a century of complex political history. It's more accurate to say that a movie for Western audiences simply cannot afford to depict the enemy's ideology as anything other than villainous, regardless of the balance of good and bad consequences for the country and people involved.
*** Add to the Romanov legacy is treated quite different in the west then where they actually ruled, and for good reason: in the year the film is set, the country was trying to recover from the brutality of war with the White Army, another political movement that succeeded the Tsars (and ''claimed'' to be acting in their name). There's a reason why the [[RightfulKingReturns restoring the monarchy]] never caught on, even in the 90s.
** Let's not oversimplify nearly a century of complex political history. It's more accurate to say that a movie for Western audiences simply cannot afford to depict the enemy's ideology as anything other than villainous, regardless of the balance of good and bad consequences for the country and people involved.
*** Add to the Romanov legacy is treated quite different in the west then where they actually ruled, and for good reason: in the year the film is set, the country was trying to recover from the brutality of war with the White Army, another political movement that succeeded the Tsars (and ''claimed'' to be acting in their name). There's a reason why the [[RightfulKingReturns restoring the monarchy]] never caught on, even in the 90s.
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* StandardFemaleGrabArea: {{Inverted}}. [[spoiler:When Dmitri grabs her arm she takes one look at his hand, and then raises her other hand and slaps him.]]
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* StandardFemaleGrabArea: {{Inverted}}.{{Subverted}}. [[spoiler:When Dmitri grabs her arm she takes one look at his hand, and then raises her other hand and slaps him.]]
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Elaborating on \"Russia dying\" in Rule Of Symbolism
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* RuleOfSymbolism: By WordOfGod, the reason for the seeming BigLippedAlligatorMoment, "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart", is not merely to show off Bernadette Peters, nor 1920's Paris, but a reflection of both cultural progress at the time and Anastasia's CharacterDevelopment. On the one hand, Russia was dying while the rest of Europe was explosively alive, with much of this renaissance based in Paris; on the other hand, this ties into Anya leaving a dead world for one vibrant and alive, paralleling her leaving behind an empty, soulless existence for one where she could bloom, grow, and begin a new, happy life.
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* RuleOfSymbolism: By WordOfGod, the reason for the seeming BigLippedAlligatorMoment, "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart", is not merely to show off Bernadette Peters, nor 1920's Paris, but a reflection of both cultural progress at the time and Anastasia's CharacterDevelopment. On the one hand, Russia was dying while by the rest of '20s the Soviet republics were reeling from the White Army and foreign invasion, something Europe was explosively alive, did not contend with, with much of this renaissance based in Paris; on the other hand, this ties into Anya leaving a dead world for one vibrant and alive, paralleling her leaving behind an empty, soulless existence for one where she could bloom, grow, and begin a new, happy life.
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Observation of Historical Hero Upgrade
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward oppression of ethnic minorities among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward oppression of ethnic minorities among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.[[hottip:*: (unless you were Asian, in which case even the Soviets couldn't match the brutality of three centuries of the Romanovs.)]]
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*** Add to the Romanov legacy is treated quite different in the west then where they actually ruled, and for good reason: in the year the film is set, the country was trying to recover from the brutality of war with the White Army, another political movement that succeeded the Tsars (and ''claimed'' to be acting in their name). There's a reason why the [[RightfulKingReturns restoring the monarchy]] never caught on, even in the 90s.
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Anachronism Stew example
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* AnachronismStew: It might be more reasonable to identify what ''isn't'' anachronistic, but among obvious examples, Petrograd ''militsyia'' (police) on horseback are clearly modeled after Soviet cops...''from the Seventies'', complete with modern uniforms.
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Needed clarification.
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** Throughout most of the movie, it's fairly easy to tell that Anya is almost as tall as Dimitri is. Contrary to that, in the scene where Dimitri [[spoiler:rescues her from sleepwalking overboard]], when she presses close against him, she's very plainly almost a full head shorter than she's supposed to be. Her stance, and the way Dimitri is holding her close doesn't provide a valid excuse for her being that short, either.
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** Throughout most of the movie, it's fairly easy to tell that Anya is almost as tall as Dimitri is. Contrary to that, in the scene where Dimitri [[spoiler:rescues her from sleepwalking overboard]], when she presses close against him, she's very plainly almost a full head shorter than she's supposed to be. Her stance, and the way Dimitri is holding her close doesn't provide a valid excuse for her being that short, either.knees buckling could explain some of it, though.
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** As pointed out by the manager of the orphanage, Anya never stopped ''behaving'' like a princess.
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They weren\'t racists in the strict sense of the word.
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward racial oppression among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.
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* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward racial oppression of ethnic minorities among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.
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* BilingualBonus: Anya's pet dog is named Pooka (пука), which is Russian for "fart."
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* BilingualBonus: Anya's pet dog is named Pooka (пука), which is sounds similar to the Russian for "fart.""farting", "pukat' (пукать)"
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** Let's not oversimplify nearly a century of complex political history. It's more accurate to say that a movie for Western audiences simply cannot afford to depict the enemy's ideology as anything other than villainous, regardless of the balance of good and bad consequences for the country and people involved.
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* {{Elopement}}: Anastasia and Dimitri at the end.
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** A 'Pooka' (or Phouka) is also a mischievous fae-creature that often takes the form of a dog, though the dog is usually scary and black. Still, considering the mysterious origin of Anya's pet...
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**** FWIW, Anna's attitude was more along the lines of "It could have happened."
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* FollowTheLeader: See the quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick above.
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[[caption-width-right:350: The answer? [[RealitySubtext Anastasia and her family were all killed in real life.]] Kind of a DownerEnding, huh?]]
->"''All right, Disney, you win -- with your {{princess}}es, and your [[TheMusical musicals]], and your ComingOfAge stories with sweeping, snarky romances -- you win. If you can't beat them, join them. [[FollowTheLeader Copy the Disney formula and marketing strategy]], and you will make money.''"\\
-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''' on ''Anastasia''.
->"''All right, Disney, you win -- with your {{princess}}es, and your [[TheMusical musicals]], and your ComingOfAge stories with sweeping, snarky romances -- you win. If you can't beat them, join them. [[FollowTheLeader Copy the Disney formula and marketing strategy]], and you will make money.''"\\
-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''' on ''Anastasia''.
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->"''All right, Disney, you win -- with your {{princess}}es, and your [[TheMusical musicals]], and your ComingOfAge stories with sweeping, snarky romances -- you win. If you can't beat them, join them. [[FollowTheLeader Copy the Disney formula and marketing strategy]], and you will make money.''"\\
-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''' on ''Anastasia''.
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.* HistoricalDomainCharacter
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* BilingualBonus: Anya's pet dog is named Pooka (пука), which is Russian for "fart."
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Was he necessary? No. But he certainly wasn\'t harmless or ineffectual since he did succeed in killing most of the Romanovs. And nearly killed Anastasia 3 times.
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* HarmlessVillain: Well, more like ineffectual. You could cut Rasputin from the movie completely and the only part of the story that would really have been affected would be the train wreck (which could be easily justified by subpar Soviet construction) and the lack of a kick-ass VillainSong.
** Of course, lacking a kickass villain song is a HEINOUS crime for any even semi-musical.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter
** Of course, lacking a kickass villain song is a HEINOUS crime for any even semi-musical.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter
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** Of course, lacking a kickass villain song is a HEINOUS crime for any even semi-musical.
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its not a prequel.
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Got a DirectToVideo prequel in the form of ''BartokTheMagnificent'', [[hottip:*: (though all it has in common with the first movie is...Bartok. And that it's set in an even less historically accurate version of Russia.)]] which deals with the plucky little bat impressing people with his "[[BlatantLies special abilities]]". It's important to note that this is the only sequel that Bluth has ever been involved with.
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Got a DirectToVideo prequel spin-off in the form of ''BartokTheMagnificent'', [[hottip:*: (though all it has in common with the first movie is...Bartok. And that it's set in an even less historically accurate version of Russia.)]] which deals with the plucky little bat impressing people with his "[[BlatantLies special abilities]]". It's important to note that this is the only sequel that Bluth has ever been involved with.
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** Of course, lacking a kickass villain song is a HEINOUS crime for any even semi-musical.
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**** We should also mention how it's already been mentioned that it's not intended to be accurate...
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The two men put to Anya the idea that she may actually ''be'' Anastasia, but don't mention the reward. Vlad then forges the papers to travel out of the country so that they can all go to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress. In the meantime, Rasputin is in limbo until all the Romanovs are dead. His animal sidekick, a bat named Bartok, tells him about Anya and they realize she must actually be Anastasia.
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The two men put to Anya the idea that she may actually ''be'' Anastasia, but don't mention the reward. Vlad then forges the papers to travel out of the country so that they can all go to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress. In the meantime, Rasputin is in limbo until all the Romanovs are dead. His animal sidekick, a bat named Bartok, upon seeing Anya, is pulled into limbo by Rasputin's mystic relic, tells him Rasputin about Anya and they realize she must actually be Anastasia.
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* SicklyGreenGlow: Rasputin's reliquary oozes with this.
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*EvilPlan: Everything is kicked off by Rasptutinian's desire to kill the Romanov family. He continues with this plan after the time skip.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anastasiagu4.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: The answer? [[RealitySubtext Anastasia and her family were all killed in real life.]] Kind of a DownerEnding, huh?]]
->"''All right, Disney, you win -- with your {{princess}}es, and your [[TheMusical musicals]], and your ComingOfAge stories with sweeping, snarky romances -- you win. If you can't beat them, join them. [[FollowTheLeader Copy the Disney formula and marketing strategy]], and you will make money.''"\\
-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''' on ''Anastasia''.
DonBluth's 1997 [[{{Disneyfication}} very loose adaption]] of a 1956 Ingrid Bergman film, which itself was already [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very, very loosely based]] on the 'life' of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. The story goes like this...
In 1916, Nicholas II, Czar of Russia, and his family, the Romanovs, were very happy until they were cursed by the evil [[RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]] and their people revolted against them [[HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection for some mystical reason]], aided by demons. All of the Romanovs apparently died in the attack except the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna Romanova, the Czar's mother. A young kitchen boy helped Marie and one of the Czar's daughters, the eight-year-old Anastasia, escape. However, she and Marie got separated when Anastasia fell from a train and, presumably, died.
Ten years later (1926), Anya, an eighteen-year-old orphan making her way in the world for the first time, decides to head for Paris. She hopes to find her family there, guided by the message "Together in Paris" inscribed on the [[OrphansPlotTrinket necklace she was found with]] in an [[EasyAmnesia amnesiac state]] as a child.
She heads for St. Petersburg, hoping to get a train from there to Paris, but she does not have the appropriate travel papers. Following the advice of a stranger, she locates a young forger and conman called Dimitri in the old palace. For his part, Dimitri is planning on running a con. Rumor has it that Anastasia may have survived the attack, and the Dowager Empress has offered a huge reward to anyone who can reunite Anastasia with her. Dimitri and his friend Vladimir notice that this young woman who has come to them for travel papers looks ''strikingly'' like an older version of Anastasia.
The two men put to Anya the idea that she may actually ''be'' Anastasia, but don't mention the reward. Vlad then forges the papers to travel out of the country so that they can all go to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress. In the meantime, Rasputin is in limbo until all the Romanovs are dead. His animal sidekick, a bat named Bartok, tells him about Anya and they realize she must actually be Anastasia.
The rest of the film deals with Anya learning to become more ladylike while Rasputin calls upon the powers of hell to try and kill her. The ending, like most animated movies, is a happy one; however, it is enlightening in a few ways. It's better if you see it.
Contrary to [[AllAnimationIsDisney popular belief]], '''this movie was ''not'' produced by Disney'''.
Got a DirectToVideo prequel in the form of ''BartokTheMagnificent'', [[hottip:*: (though all it has in common with the first movie is...Bartok. And that it's set in an even less historically accurate version of Russia.)]] which deals with the plucky little bat impressing people with his "[[BlatantLies special abilities]]". It's important to note that this is the only sequel that Bluth has ever been involved with.
----
!!This film proves examples of:
* AllAnimationIsDisney: Falls victim to this quite often. One of its more {{Disneyesque}} home video covers even provides the page image.
* AlmostKiss: Anya and Dimitri do this at least twice. [[spoiler:They finally get to kiss for real at the end.]]
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler:Anastasia]]'s [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]] [[spoiler:(to Rasputin as she kills him) ''"This is for Dimitri! This is for my family! And this... this is for you! [[GratuitousRussian Do svidaniya!]]"'']]
* AnimatedMusical
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Poor Dimitri finally decides to do the right thing when he gets found out and Anastasia reacts about as well as one might expect.
* AscendedExtra: The villain's NonHumanSidekick bat Bartok got a movie.
* AtTheOperaTonight: Well, at the ballet. Of "Literature/{{Cinderella}}".
* AtTheCrossroads: in the Journey To The Past sequence
* AwardBaitSong: "Journey to the Past", performed by Music/{{Aaliyah}} at the Academy Awards.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Sure, the communists have taken over Russia and Anya [[spoiler:runs off with Dimitri]] in the end, but she still gets a sparkly crown. She gives it back [[spoiler:before leaving with her boyfriend]], though.
* BetaCouple: Vlad and Sophie.
* BigBad: Rasputin.
* BigBeautifulWoman: Sophie is very fun and kind-hearted, as well as really big.
* CharacterTitle
* ClothingDamage: Happens to Anya during the battle with Rasputin.
* ComingOfAgeStory
* ConspicuousCG: Like whoa. This is the first movie where Don Bluth swapped out his almost-trademark "oh, let's just build a small model of this horrifically hard-to-draw-and-animate thing and rotoscope it" special effect for computer generated imagery. You can tell.
** The crashing chandelier looks like it comes from [[ThePhantomOfTheOpera a different movie entirely]].
** Ditto the boat and the music box.
** And Rasputin's reliquary.
** Don't forget the train.
** And the pegasus statue (minus the mane which is obviously 2D, creating an odd effect overall)
* CostumePorn: The movie is full of this. Most notable examples would have to be Anya's yellow silk DreamSequence dress, the svelte navy and sparkly Parisian Opera dress, her blue court dress at the beginning of the movie, and her yellow court dress at the end of the movie.
* CrowdSong: "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" and "Paris Hold the Key (to Your Heart)".
* DanceOfRomance: Anastasia and Dimitri, while Vladimir {{lampshade| hanging}}s this with a brief song.
* DarkIsEvil: Rasputin is the darkest-coloured character, says he obtained his powers by [[DealWithTheDevil selling his soul to]] "the Dark Forces", and [[VillainSong his musical number]] is called "In The Dark Of The Night".
** For some reason, his powers often manifest as green light, though.
* DealWithTheDevil: At the beginning, it is made clear that Rasputin has sold his soul in exchange for doom unto the Romanov line. This deal apparently also included being turned into an immortal undead corpse until his revenge is completed or his reliquary is destroyed.
** Some of the dubs, like the Russian dub, even outright say he gained his powers from {{Satan}}.
* DisneyAcidSequence: "Once Upon a December", where Anya half-remembers, half-imagines a ball in the Imperial Palace, complete with PimpedOutDress.
* DisneyDeath
* {{Disneyfication}}: Of the play ''and'' history itself. Bluth has admitted he never intended it to be accurate.
* DreamMelody: Once Upon a December
* EasyAmnesia: Or at least, it was easy for her to get it... The bump to her head caused no other damage, and as far as we can tell, only made her forget who she was.
** Given she was all of, what, eight? She gets knocked out, and what child would ''want'' to remember that? It's possible she repressed it.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Well, Vlad definitely can, and Sophie appears to share his suspicions, and the Dowager Empress figures it out pretty quickly.
* EvilSorcerer: Rasputin.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:Rasputin's.]]
** And a bit of a HistoricalInJoke compared [[RasputinianDeath with how he]] ''[[RasputinianDeath actually]]'' [[RasputinianDeath died...]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Rasputin, again.
* FandomNod: Look closely, and you'll see little visual shout-outs to other movies from Don Bluth's history. (The squirrels look like they've walked right off the set of ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', Bartok is sucked into Hell just like [[Film/AllDogsGoToHeaven Charlie]], there's a spooky thorn bush near the end that [[Film/TheSecretOfNIMH Brutus]] might be guarding, and so on).
* FieryRedhead: Anya/Anastasia.
* FingerlessGloves: Anya's purple gloves in snowy Russia.
* FollowTheLeader: See the quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick above.
* FootFocus: Pooka begins licking Anya's feet, making her laugh and distracting her from remembering that she once owned the music box. We get another closeup of her feet a few minutes later, when [[spoiler:Anya nearly sleepwalks off a ship.]]
* FormFittingWardrobe: Some of her dresses.
* GayParee
* GenkiGirl: Hi, Sophie!
* HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection: Very little is really mentioned in the way of politics. The closest we get is when Vlad complains when the colour of the ink for travel papers changes from blue to red, blowing his forged ones: "That's what I hate about this government, everything is in Red!" We do see Bolsheviks storm the palace, but it is said that this is due to Rasputin's curse causing people to hate the Romanovs, because why the heck not?
** Averted when Anya tries to get a ticket. The man at the ticket counter does in fact have a hammer and sickle on his hat.
** There is also a 'blink-and-you-will-miss-it' moment on the train when the camera momentarily looks over one of the character's shoulders at his tickets. For that brief moment, one can make out 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' with the attendant emblems.
*** Contrary to what the page description implies, the Bolsheviks didn't overthrow Tsar Nicholas II. The Tsar was overthrown in the Liberal(-ish) February Revolution in 1917 (and was forced to abdicate the throne in March), and it was this provisional government that was overthrown by Lenin and his gang. The Bolsheviks also significantly exaggerated how dramatic events were - the Winter Palace was nearly empty, and the few government officials there were forced to write their own arrest papers by the illiterate revolutionaries. The Romanovs were eventually executed on Lenin's orders, though.
* HappilyEverAfter: In the movie. In reality, however, [[DownerEnding it´s another story...]]
* HarmlessVillain: Well, more like ineffectual. You could cut Rasputin from the movie completely and the only part of the story that would really have been affected would be the train wreck (which could be easily justified by subpar Soviet construction) and the lack of a kick-ass VillainSong.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter
* HistoricalFantasy: All the complaints about the movie's historical inaccuracies seem a little weird when you stop and think that it also includes an ''undead wizard'' and a ''talking bat''.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward racial oppression among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The real Rasputin was an enigma but undoubtedly an ''ally'' of the Romanovs.
** The important ones, anyway. Several relatives kinda hated him and plotted his death. *cough* Grand Duke Felix Yussopov *cough*.
** Also note, the real Rasputin wasn't an evil undead warlock who [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to the devil for revenge on the Romanovs]]. However, [[RasputinianDeath he was notoriously hard to kill]]; the movie just took that UpToEleven and made him somewhat immortal.
* InhumanHuman: Rasputin CameBackWrong, and is rather narked about it.
* IronicEcho
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:Dimitri, shown most clearly when he refuses the reward money for reuniting Anastasia and her grandmother.]]
* IWantSong: "Journey to the Past", sung by Anya as she dares to travel to Paris, to find a real family. And "Once Upon A December".
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dimitri, and quite proud of the 'jerk' aspect.
* LargeHam: [[EvilIsHammy Rasputin]], Bartok, Vladimir, and Sophie all qualify.
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Bartok.
* MrFanservice: Dimitri. When they originally animated him, they actually thought he was too "obviously cute" - so they added the bump on his nose to tone it down. It backfired.
* TheMusical: Most of the songs are pretty good, actually.
* NonHumanSidekick: Bartok the bat for Rasputin. Pooka the dog for Anya. Bartok {{talk|ing animal}}s, Pooka doesn't ([[TastesLikeDiabetes thankfully avoiding too much cuteness]]).
* NostalgicMusicbox: Literally.
* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Anastasia says this to Rasputin at the end.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Realistically speaking, every character in this movie should have had ''some'' kind of European accent. But in the main cast, the only ones who made any attempt were Kelsey Grammer, who honestly does a pretty good job making Vlad sound Russian, and AngelaLansbury, who uses her natural British accent as the Dowager Empress. (The real Marie Feodorovna was actually born Princess Dagmar of Denmark.)
* NotMyDriver: [[spoiler:Dimitri hijacks the Dowager Empress's car in order to force her to see Anastasia and be convinced that she's the real deal.]]
* NotUsingTheZWord: Rasputin gets progressively more gruesome throughout the film.
* OffModel: Anastasia looked uglier on the [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8GC40J9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg "Family Fun" DVD case]] than she usually does in the movie. Fortunately, [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NEEa5vDSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg corrected]] versions are available.
** Throughout most of the movie, it's fairly easy to tell that Anya is almost as tall as Dimitri is. Contrary to that, in the scene where Dimitri [[spoiler:rescues her from sleepwalking overboard]], when she presses close against him, she's very plainly almost a full head shorter than she's supposed to be. Her stance, and the way Dimitri is holding her close doesn't provide a valid excuse for her being that short, either.
** The dress Dimitri buys for Anya when they get on the ship, the one she wears when learning to waltz, changes from the scene in which he gives it to her to when she's first seen wearing it. When he gives it to her, it has distinct white ruffles on the collar and sleeves. When she emerges on deck actually wearing it, it's a plain blue dress.
*** That could have been due to Anya changing it though, as she expressed a dislike for its original appearance.
* OhGodWithTheVerbing: "Enough with the glowing and the smoke people!." Well said, Bartok.
* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Russian Chanting]]: During the prologue's recapitulation of the coup set off by the curse; this troper [[BilingualBonus would very much like to know what the chorus was singing]]. It happens again in the finale during Rasputin's death scene.
* OrphansPlotTrinket: The "Together in Paris" necklace, which the viewer knows from the start of the movie is a key to a music box the Dowager Empress had commissioned for Anastasia as a child. Additionally, Dimitri and the music box that goes together with the necklace.
* OurLichesAreDifferent: Rasputin.
* ParentalAbandonment: Like clockwork, this element is always in Bluth films. ''But'' this time, we do get to know a little more about her family, and Anya's lack of family identity isn't incidental to her character. It's the driving force behind her journey throughout the film, which is a nice change of pace for a trope that in animation is often just tacked on for the sake of it.
* PigLatin: Dimitri tells a terribly lovestruck Vlad this: "Ix-nay on the Ophie-say!"
* PimpedOutDress: ''Three!'' Though only two figured prominently in the marketing - the yellow silk Dream Sequence dress and the svelte navy and sparkly Parisian Opera dress.
** And while Anastasia Barbie had the opera house program, it had no sparkly dress, just the orphan outfit.
*** They did make an Anastasia Barbie with the blue sparkly dress, as well as the DisneyAcidSequence dress, AND a line of dresses that didn't appear the movie at all, but were 'inspired by' it and made to fit the Anastasia doll.
* PrettyInMink: A few, like the fur-trimmed coat she wears to the opera, and her grandmother's fur wrap.
* QuestForIdentity
* RagsToRoyalty: Or Royalty to Rags back to Royalty [[spoiler:to presumably fairly comfortable but not royalty.]]
** Most likely back to Rags, as girls from orphanages and reformed conmen who refuse reward money aren't known to be rolling in it. Unless [[spoiler:in addition to writing a hurried goodbye note, they stopped by her grandmother's office to take the reward money, but probably not. Though it is possible Grandma could be sending them something to live on. The ending more or less implies that Anya and Grandma will remain close.]]
* RasputinianDeath: Well, they got ''this'' part right.
** Not really. He [[spoiler:falls through some ice]] and [[spoiler:Anastasia smashes his [[SoulJar phylactery]].]] That's missing several important steps -- and adding one puzzling one due to the HistoricalVillainUpgrade, of course.
*** Though he was made pretty much unkillable due to his DealWithTheDevil, so that could explain things...
* RedHeadedHeroine: Anya/Anastasia.
* TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation
* RoadTripRomance
* TheRoaringTwenties
* RuleOfSymbolism: By WordOfGod, the reason for the seeming BigLippedAlligatorMoment, "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart", is not merely to show off Bernadette Peters, nor 1920's Paris, but a reflection of both cultural progress at the time and Anastasia's CharacterDevelopment. On the one hand, Russia was dying while the rest of Europe was explosively alive, with much of this renaissance based in Paris; on the other hand, this ties into Anya leaving a dead world for one vibrant and alive, paralleling her leaving behind an empty, soulless existence for one where she could bloom, grow, and begin a new, happy life.
* RunawayTrain: Complete with a graphically-explosive crash to top it all off, and Dimitri commenting afterward "I HATE trains, remind me to never get on a train again."
* SceneryPorn: The usage of [=CinemaScope=] ''really'' shows off some great views of St. Petersburg, Paris, and the interiors of palaces.
* ScienceMarchesOn: The whole plot of this movie was based on the urban legend that the real Grand Duchess Anastasia somehow escaped the massacre of the Romanov family and survived. This was fueled by the fact that the remains of the Czar and his wife and children were not found for a very long time - until 1991, when all but two of their bodies were discovered, namely Anastasia and her younger brother. Also helped by the imposter known as Anna Anderson who did convince several relatives of the Romanov family that she was the real deal. In the 90's Anderson's DNA was tested and discovered to be of no relation to the Romanov family. Also, in 2007, more than a decade after this movie was made, the bodies of the younger brother and the last of his sisters (assumed to be Anastasia) was found, which at last proved without any doubt that all of the urban legends and reports of survival were false and that Anastasia was killed with the rest of her family in 1918.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Yes, Dimitri, that ''is'' the "skinny little brat" you're ogling at the ballet. Now close your mouth, honey, you're gonna catch flies.
* ShipperOnDeck: Vlad catches on pretty quickly that Anya and Dimitri have a SlapSlapKiss thing going. He also gets the two to dance and sings a song about this... on the ship to Paris. It's also fun watching his face in the background as the two interact.
* ShooOutTheClowns: Bartok leaves his master just before the final confrontation.
* ShoppingMontage: When Anya and co. get to Paris, Dowager Empress Marie's cousin Sophie takes them shopping while "Paris Holds The Key (To Your Heart)" is sung. They also go sightseeing during the song.
* ShownTheirWork: Despite the historical liberties taken (some for the sake of the medium and length, some to spare children the grisly truth about the Russian Revolution, and some for simple poetic license) and myths bought into (aside from the urban legend about Anastasia herself, nods are given to Rasputin's [[RasputinianDeath alleged exaggerated death]]), [[WordOfGod a great deal of work was done to otherwise display geographical and biographical accuracy]]. Photography, including aerial shots, enabled startlingly true-to-life likenesses of St. Petersburg and Paris and the inside of the Winter Palace; period costumes and trains were duplicated, as well as historical figures living in Paris at the time; and [[RealitySubtext actual relics of the Romanovs]] were scanned into the computers and inserted within the movie, including photographs of the family shown on Marie's wall and the drawing Anastasia made when she was eight years old, [[TearJerker which was drawn by the real Anastasia]]. All of the bathing suits worn by Anastasia, her father, and her sisters during the dream sequence, and the sailor suit worn by her little brother, are also reproductions of the actual suits worn on their frequent family vacations. Even the notion of Rasputin cursing the Romanovs is based off of an anecdotal account that, on one of the few occasions Nicholas and other nobles became worried about the influence he had over Alexandra and foreign policy, Rasputin threatened the family with a pox if he were dismissed from court.
* ShowWithinAShow: Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad are treated to the Parisian ballet by Marie's assistant ([[BetaCouple and Vlad's "cream puff"]]), and the ballet in question is ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' - [[FauxSymbolism what do you mean, there's no parallelism?]]
* SlapSlapKiss: Quintessential example, starting as soon as they get on a train together. Vlad knows exactly what's really going on, even when they don't.
-->''(Anastasia has left the train cabin after an argument with Dmitri.)''\\
'''Vlad:''' ''(gleefully to Pooka, Anastasia's dog)'' Oh no! An unspoken attraction?\\
'''Dmitri:''' ATTRACTION?? To that skinny little brat? Have you lost your mind?
** ''Literally'' [[spoiler:at the end, where Anya accidentally smacks him in the face, and then cradles his face in her hands for an AlmostKiss.]]
* SoulJar: Rasputin's reliquary.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Sadly, the main character Anastasia, because the real one most likely died along with her family, this being an adaptation of RealLife.
* StandardFemaleGrabArea: {{Inverted}}. [[spoiler:When Dmitri grabs her arm she takes one look at his hand, and then raises her other hand and slaps him.]]
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: The aforementioned "Paris Holds The Key" song. It is essentially there to say they had a Benadette Peters number in the film.
* ThatRussianSquatDance
* TookALevelInBadass: For more information, see AndThisIsFor.
* {{Tsundere}}: Anastasia, to Dimitri.
* UnlimitedWardrobe: Anya/Anastasia, counting the clothing she wears as a child, has 13 different outfits during the course of the movie. Blue court dress, nightgown, overcoat, peasant outfit, yellow DisneyAcidSequence ballgown, blue short-sleeved dress, pajamas, sailor bathing suit thing, 2 flapper dresses during a musical number, blue evening dress, pink pajamas, court dress (make it 14 if you count the ClothingDamage incurred on the last court dress as a costume change). To compare, Ariel in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' had 7 (her purple SeashellBra, a ship's sail wrapped around her, a pink dinner dress, a pink nightgown, a turquoise dress, a blue sparkly dress and a wedding dress).
** Although two of the above are completely hallucinatory.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: And ''how''.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: To levels rivaling the recent ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}''. The real Anastasia was just shot alongside her family in July 1918 at the age of 17. After this movie was made, the actual Romanovs were dug up and DNA typed. All the Romanov children were in the graves, including Anastasia. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_romanov#False_reports_of_survival_and_identification_of_Romanov_remains The Other Wiki has the details.]] Also, Rasputin was an ally of the Romanovs, and was murdered before them.
** Two of the children were discovered in a grave near Ekaterinburg, apart from the original discovery site in early 2008: Alexei and one of his other sisters, either Marie or Anastasia.
** Also, Rasputin was (probably) neither a lich nor powered by demons. And bats can't talk.
** A very, ''very'' small one: In the Rasputin-created dream sequence where Anya sees her family swimming, her father greets her by calling her "Sunshine." In the actual Romanov family, this was the nickname of Anastasia's little brother.
** Taken UpToEleven when you consider that the plot is essentially the same as the 1956 movie with Ingrid Bergmann and Yul Brenner.
*** We should mention [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson "Anna Anderson"]], the real life inspiration for the Bergman/Brynner film who went to her grave pretending to be Anastasia and managed to convince a surprising number of credulous supporters despite ample evidence to the contrary. Her claim was disproven via DNA evidence after her death.
* VillainSong: "In The Dark of The Night".
* WellExcuseMePrincess: Anya & Dimitri, even though they just think she's impersonating a princess at first.
----
[[caption-width-right:350: The answer? [[RealitySubtext Anastasia and her family were all killed in real life.]] Kind of a DownerEnding, huh?]]
->"''All right, Disney, you win -- with your {{princess}}es, and your [[TheMusical musicals]], and your ComingOfAge stories with sweeping, snarky romances -- you win. If you can't beat them, join them. [[FollowTheLeader Copy the Disney formula and marketing strategy]], and you will make money.''"\\
-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''' on ''Anastasia''.
DonBluth's 1997 [[{{Disneyfication}} very loose adaption]] of a 1956 Ingrid Bergman film, which itself was already [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very, very loosely based]] on the 'life' of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. The story goes like this...
In 1916, Nicholas II, Czar of Russia, and his family, the Romanovs, were very happy until they were cursed by the evil [[RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]] and their people revolted against them [[HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection for some mystical reason]], aided by demons. All of the Romanovs apparently died in the attack except the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna Romanova, the Czar's mother. A young kitchen boy helped Marie and one of the Czar's daughters, the eight-year-old Anastasia, escape. However, she and Marie got separated when Anastasia fell from a train and, presumably, died.
Ten years later (1926), Anya, an eighteen-year-old orphan making her way in the world for the first time, decides to head for Paris. She hopes to find her family there, guided by the message "Together in Paris" inscribed on the [[OrphansPlotTrinket necklace she was found with]] in an [[EasyAmnesia amnesiac state]] as a child.
She heads for St. Petersburg, hoping to get a train from there to Paris, but she does not have the appropriate travel papers. Following the advice of a stranger, she locates a young forger and conman called Dimitri in the old palace. For his part, Dimitri is planning on running a con. Rumor has it that Anastasia may have survived the attack, and the Dowager Empress has offered a huge reward to anyone who can reunite Anastasia with her. Dimitri and his friend Vladimir notice that this young woman who has come to them for travel papers looks ''strikingly'' like an older version of Anastasia.
The two men put to Anya the idea that she may actually ''be'' Anastasia, but don't mention the reward. Vlad then forges the papers to travel out of the country so that they can all go to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress. In the meantime, Rasputin is in limbo until all the Romanovs are dead. His animal sidekick, a bat named Bartok, tells him about Anya and they realize she must actually be Anastasia.
The rest of the film deals with Anya learning to become more ladylike while Rasputin calls upon the powers of hell to try and kill her. The ending, like most animated movies, is a happy one; however, it is enlightening in a few ways. It's better if you see it.
Contrary to [[AllAnimationIsDisney popular belief]], '''this movie was ''not'' produced by Disney'''.
Got a DirectToVideo prequel in the form of ''BartokTheMagnificent'', [[hottip:*: (though all it has in common with the first movie is...Bartok. And that it's set in an even less historically accurate version of Russia.)]] which deals with the plucky little bat impressing people with his "[[BlatantLies special abilities]]". It's important to note that this is the only sequel that Bluth has ever been involved with.
----
!!This film proves examples of:
* AllAnimationIsDisney: Falls victim to this quite often. One of its more {{Disneyesque}} home video covers even provides the page image.
* AlmostKiss: Anya and Dimitri do this at least twice. [[spoiler:They finally get to kiss for real at the end.]]
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler:Anastasia]]'s [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]] [[spoiler:(to Rasputin as she kills him) ''"This is for Dimitri! This is for my family! And this... this is for you! [[GratuitousRussian Do svidaniya!]]"'']]
* AnimatedMusical
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Poor Dimitri finally decides to do the right thing when he gets found out and Anastasia reacts about as well as one might expect.
* AscendedExtra: The villain's NonHumanSidekick bat Bartok got a movie.
* AtTheOperaTonight: Well, at the ballet. Of "Literature/{{Cinderella}}".
* AtTheCrossroads: in the Journey To The Past sequence
* AwardBaitSong: "Journey to the Past", performed by Music/{{Aaliyah}} at the Academy Awards.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Sure, the communists have taken over Russia and Anya [[spoiler:runs off with Dimitri]] in the end, but she still gets a sparkly crown. She gives it back [[spoiler:before leaving with her boyfriend]], though.
* BetaCouple: Vlad and Sophie.
* BigBad: Rasputin.
* BigBeautifulWoman: Sophie is very fun and kind-hearted, as well as really big.
* CharacterTitle
* ClothingDamage: Happens to Anya during the battle with Rasputin.
* ComingOfAgeStory
* ConspicuousCG: Like whoa. This is the first movie where Don Bluth swapped out his almost-trademark "oh, let's just build a small model of this horrifically hard-to-draw-and-animate thing and rotoscope it" special effect for computer generated imagery. You can tell.
** The crashing chandelier looks like it comes from [[ThePhantomOfTheOpera a different movie entirely]].
** Ditto the boat and the music box.
** And Rasputin's reliquary.
** Don't forget the train.
** And the pegasus statue (minus the mane which is obviously 2D, creating an odd effect overall)
* CostumePorn: The movie is full of this. Most notable examples would have to be Anya's yellow silk DreamSequence dress, the svelte navy and sparkly Parisian Opera dress, her blue court dress at the beginning of the movie, and her yellow court dress at the end of the movie.
* CrowdSong: "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" and "Paris Hold the Key (to Your Heart)".
* DanceOfRomance: Anastasia and Dimitri, while Vladimir {{lampshade| hanging}}s this with a brief song.
* DarkIsEvil: Rasputin is the darkest-coloured character, says he obtained his powers by [[DealWithTheDevil selling his soul to]] "the Dark Forces", and [[VillainSong his musical number]] is called "In The Dark Of The Night".
** For some reason, his powers often manifest as green light, though.
* DealWithTheDevil: At the beginning, it is made clear that Rasputin has sold his soul in exchange for doom unto the Romanov line. This deal apparently also included being turned into an immortal undead corpse until his revenge is completed or his reliquary is destroyed.
** Some of the dubs, like the Russian dub, even outright say he gained his powers from {{Satan}}.
* DisneyAcidSequence: "Once Upon a December", where Anya half-remembers, half-imagines a ball in the Imperial Palace, complete with PimpedOutDress.
* DisneyDeath
* {{Disneyfication}}: Of the play ''and'' history itself. Bluth has admitted he never intended it to be accurate.
* DreamMelody: Once Upon a December
* EasyAmnesia: Or at least, it was easy for her to get it... The bump to her head caused no other damage, and as far as we can tell, only made her forget who she was.
** Given she was all of, what, eight? She gets knocked out, and what child would ''want'' to remember that? It's possible she repressed it.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Well, Vlad definitely can, and Sophie appears to share his suspicions, and the Dowager Empress figures it out pretty quickly.
* EvilSorcerer: Rasputin.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:Rasputin's.]]
** And a bit of a HistoricalInJoke compared [[RasputinianDeath with how he]] ''[[RasputinianDeath actually]]'' [[RasputinianDeath died...]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Rasputin, again.
* FandomNod: Look closely, and you'll see little visual shout-outs to other movies from Don Bluth's history. (The squirrels look like they've walked right off the set of ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', Bartok is sucked into Hell just like [[Film/AllDogsGoToHeaven Charlie]], there's a spooky thorn bush near the end that [[Film/TheSecretOfNIMH Brutus]] might be guarding, and so on).
* FieryRedhead: Anya/Anastasia.
* FingerlessGloves: Anya's purple gloves in snowy Russia.
* FollowTheLeader: See the quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick above.
* FootFocus: Pooka begins licking Anya's feet, making her laugh and distracting her from remembering that she once owned the music box. We get another closeup of her feet a few minutes later, when [[spoiler:Anya nearly sleepwalks off a ship.]]
* FormFittingWardrobe: Some of her dresses.
* GayParee
* GenkiGirl: Hi, Sophie!
* HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection: Very little is really mentioned in the way of politics. The closest we get is when Vlad complains when the colour of the ink for travel papers changes from blue to red, blowing his forged ones: "That's what I hate about this government, everything is in Red!" We do see Bolsheviks storm the palace, but it is said that this is due to Rasputin's curse causing people to hate the Romanovs, because why the heck not?
** Averted when Anya tries to get a ticket. The man at the ticket counter does in fact have a hammer and sickle on his hat.
** There is also a 'blink-and-you-will-miss-it' moment on the train when the camera momentarily looks over one of the character's shoulders at his tickets. For that brief moment, one can make out 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' with the attendant emblems.
*** Contrary to what the page description implies, the Bolsheviks didn't overthrow Tsar Nicholas II. The Tsar was overthrown in the Liberal(-ish) February Revolution in 1917 (and was forced to abdicate the throne in March), and it was this provisional government that was overthrown by Lenin and his gang. The Bolsheviks also significantly exaggerated how dramatic events were - the Winter Palace was nearly empty, and the few government officials there were forced to write their own arrest papers by the illiterate revolutionaries. The Romanovs were eventually executed on Lenin's orders, though.
* HappilyEverAfter: In the movie. In reality, however, [[DownerEnding it´s another story...]]
* HarmlessVillain: Well, more like ineffectual. You could cut Rasputin from the movie completely and the only part of the story that would really have been affected would be the train wreck (which could be easily justified by subpar Soviet construction) and the lack of a kick-ass VillainSong.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter
* HistoricalFantasy: All the complaints about the movie's historical inaccuracies seem a little weird when you stop and think that it also includes an ''undead wizard'' and a ''talking bat''.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Romanovs were not exactly ideal rulers, leaning toward racial oppression among other things. They've historically gotten a pass simply because the Soviets were so much worse.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The real Rasputin was an enigma but undoubtedly an ''ally'' of the Romanovs.
** The important ones, anyway. Several relatives kinda hated him and plotted his death. *cough* Grand Duke Felix Yussopov *cough*.
** Also note, the real Rasputin wasn't an evil undead warlock who [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to the devil for revenge on the Romanovs]]. However, [[RasputinianDeath he was notoriously hard to kill]]; the movie just took that UpToEleven and made him somewhat immortal.
* InhumanHuman: Rasputin CameBackWrong, and is rather narked about it.
* IronicEcho
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:Dimitri, shown most clearly when he refuses the reward money for reuniting Anastasia and her grandmother.]]
* IWantSong: "Journey to the Past", sung by Anya as she dares to travel to Paris, to find a real family. And "Once Upon A December".
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dimitri, and quite proud of the 'jerk' aspect.
* LargeHam: [[EvilIsHammy Rasputin]], Bartok, Vladimir, and Sophie all qualify.
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Bartok.
* MrFanservice: Dimitri. When they originally animated him, they actually thought he was too "obviously cute" - so they added the bump on his nose to tone it down. It backfired.
* TheMusical: Most of the songs are pretty good, actually.
* NonHumanSidekick: Bartok the bat for Rasputin. Pooka the dog for Anya. Bartok {{talk|ing animal}}s, Pooka doesn't ([[TastesLikeDiabetes thankfully avoiding too much cuteness]]).
* NostalgicMusicbox: Literally.
* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Anastasia says this to Rasputin at the end.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Realistically speaking, every character in this movie should have had ''some'' kind of European accent. But in the main cast, the only ones who made any attempt were Kelsey Grammer, who honestly does a pretty good job making Vlad sound Russian, and AngelaLansbury, who uses her natural British accent as the Dowager Empress. (The real Marie Feodorovna was actually born Princess Dagmar of Denmark.)
* NotMyDriver: [[spoiler:Dimitri hijacks the Dowager Empress's car in order to force her to see Anastasia and be convinced that she's the real deal.]]
* NotUsingTheZWord: Rasputin gets progressively more gruesome throughout the film.
* OffModel: Anastasia looked uglier on the [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8GC40J9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg "Family Fun" DVD case]] than she usually does in the movie. Fortunately, [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NEEa5vDSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg corrected]] versions are available.
** Throughout most of the movie, it's fairly easy to tell that Anya is almost as tall as Dimitri is. Contrary to that, in the scene where Dimitri [[spoiler:rescues her from sleepwalking overboard]], when she presses close against him, she's very plainly almost a full head shorter than she's supposed to be. Her stance, and the way Dimitri is holding her close doesn't provide a valid excuse for her being that short, either.
** The dress Dimitri buys for Anya when they get on the ship, the one she wears when learning to waltz, changes from the scene in which he gives it to her to when she's first seen wearing it. When he gives it to her, it has distinct white ruffles on the collar and sleeves. When she emerges on deck actually wearing it, it's a plain blue dress.
*** That could have been due to Anya changing it though, as she expressed a dislike for its original appearance.
* OhGodWithTheVerbing: "Enough with the glowing and the smoke people!." Well said, Bartok.
* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Russian Chanting]]: During the prologue's recapitulation of the coup set off by the curse; this troper [[BilingualBonus would very much like to know what the chorus was singing]]. It happens again in the finale during Rasputin's death scene.
* OrphansPlotTrinket: The "Together in Paris" necklace, which the viewer knows from the start of the movie is a key to a music box the Dowager Empress had commissioned for Anastasia as a child. Additionally, Dimitri and the music box that goes together with the necklace.
* OurLichesAreDifferent: Rasputin.
* ParentalAbandonment: Like clockwork, this element is always in Bluth films. ''But'' this time, we do get to know a little more about her family, and Anya's lack of family identity isn't incidental to her character. It's the driving force behind her journey throughout the film, which is a nice change of pace for a trope that in animation is often just tacked on for the sake of it.
* PigLatin: Dimitri tells a terribly lovestruck Vlad this: "Ix-nay on the Ophie-say!"
* PimpedOutDress: ''Three!'' Though only two figured prominently in the marketing - the yellow silk Dream Sequence dress and the svelte navy and sparkly Parisian Opera dress.
** And while Anastasia Barbie had the opera house program, it had no sparkly dress, just the orphan outfit.
*** They did make an Anastasia Barbie with the blue sparkly dress, as well as the DisneyAcidSequence dress, AND a line of dresses that didn't appear the movie at all, but were 'inspired by' it and made to fit the Anastasia doll.
* PrettyInMink: A few, like the fur-trimmed coat she wears to the opera, and her grandmother's fur wrap.
* QuestForIdentity
* RagsToRoyalty: Or Royalty to Rags back to Royalty [[spoiler:to presumably fairly comfortable but not royalty.]]
** Most likely back to Rags, as girls from orphanages and reformed conmen who refuse reward money aren't known to be rolling in it. Unless [[spoiler:in addition to writing a hurried goodbye note, they stopped by her grandmother's office to take the reward money, but probably not. Though it is possible Grandma could be sending them something to live on. The ending more or less implies that Anya and Grandma will remain close.]]
* RasputinianDeath: Well, they got ''this'' part right.
** Not really. He [[spoiler:falls through some ice]] and [[spoiler:Anastasia smashes his [[SoulJar phylactery]].]] That's missing several important steps -- and adding one puzzling one due to the HistoricalVillainUpgrade, of course.
*** Though he was made pretty much unkillable due to his DealWithTheDevil, so that could explain things...
* RedHeadedHeroine: Anya/Anastasia.
* TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation
* RoadTripRomance
* TheRoaringTwenties
* RuleOfSymbolism: By WordOfGod, the reason for the seeming BigLippedAlligatorMoment, "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart", is not merely to show off Bernadette Peters, nor 1920's Paris, but a reflection of both cultural progress at the time and Anastasia's CharacterDevelopment. On the one hand, Russia was dying while the rest of Europe was explosively alive, with much of this renaissance based in Paris; on the other hand, this ties into Anya leaving a dead world for one vibrant and alive, paralleling her leaving behind an empty, soulless existence for one where she could bloom, grow, and begin a new, happy life.
* RunawayTrain: Complete with a graphically-explosive crash to top it all off, and Dimitri commenting afterward "I HATE trains, remind me to never get on a train again."
* SceneryPorn: The usage of [=CinemaScope=] ''really'' shows off some great views of St. Petersburg, Paris, and the interiors of palaces.
* ScienceMarchesOn: The whole plot of this movie was based on the urban legend that the real Grand Duchess Anastasia somehow escaped the massacre of the Romanov family and survived. This was fueled by the fact that the remains of the Czar and his wife and children were not found for a very long time - until 1991, when all but two of their bodies were discovered, namely Anastasia and her younger brother. Also helped by the imposter known as Anna Anderson who did convince several relatives of the Romanov family that she was the real deal. In the 90's Anderson's DNA was tested and discovered to be of no relation to the Romanov family. Also, in 2007, more than a decade after this movie was made, the bodies of the younger brother and the last of his sisters (assumed to be Anastasia) was found, which at last proved without any doubt that all of the urban legends and reports of survival were false and that Anastasia was killed with the rest of her family in 1918.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Yes, Dimitri, that ''is'' the "skinny little brat" you're ogling at the ballet. Now close your mouth, honey, you're gonna catch flies.
* ShipperOnDeck: Vlad catches on pretty quickly that Anya and Dimitri have a SlapSlapKiss thing going. He also gets the two to dance and sings a song about this... on the ship to Paris. It's also fun watching his face in the background as the two interact.
* ShooOutTheClowns: Bartok leaves his master just before the final confrontation.
* ShoppingMontage: When Anya and co. get to Paris, Dowager Empress Marie's cousin Sophie takes them shopping while "Paris Holds The Key (To Your Heart)" is sung. They also go sightseeing during the song.
* ShownTheirWork: Despite the historical liberties taken (some for the sake of the medium and length, some to spare children the grisly truth about the Russian Revolution, and some for simple poetic license) and myths bought into (aside from the urban legend about Anastasia herself, nods are given to Rasputin's [[RasputinianDeath alleged exaggerated death]]), [[WordOfGod a great deal of work was done to otherwise display geographical and biographical accuracy]]. Photography, including aerial shots, enabled startlingly true-to-life likenesses of St. Petersburg and Paris and the inside of the Winter Palace; period costumes and trains were duplicated, as well as historical figures living in Paris at the time; and [[RealitySubtext actual relics of the Romanovs]] were scanned into the computers and inserted within the movie, including photographs of the family shown on Marie's wall and the drawing Anastasia made when she was eight years old, [[TearJerker which was drawn by the real Anastasia]]. All of the bathing suits worn by Anastasia, her father, and her sisters during the dream sequence, and the sailor suit worn by her little brother, are also reproductions of the actual suits worn on their frequent family vacations. Even the notion of Rasputin cursing the Romanovs is based off of an anecdotal account that, on one of the few occasions Nicholas and other nobles became worried about the influence he had over Alexandra and foreign policy, Rasputin threatened the family with a pox if he were dismissed from court.
* ShowWithinAShow: Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad are treated to the Parisian ballet by Marie's assistant ([[BetaCouple and Vlad's "cream puff"]]), and the ballet in question is ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' - [[FauxSymbolism what do you mean, there's no parallelism?]]
* SlapSlapKiss: Quintessential example, starting as soon as they get on a train together. Vlad knows exactly what's really going on, even when they don't.
-->''(Anastasia has left the train cabin after an argument with Dmitri.)''\\
'''Vlad:''' ''(gleefully to Pooka, Anastasia's dog)'' Oh no! An unspoken attraction?\\
'''Dmitri:''' ATTRACTION?? To that skinny little brat? Have you lost your mind?
** ''Literally'' [[spoiler:at the end, where Anya accidentally smacks him in the face, and then cradles his face in her hands for an AlmostKiss.]]
* SoulJar: Rasputin's reliquary.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Sadly, the main character Anastasia, because the real one most likely died along with her family, this being an adaptation of RealLife.
* StandardFemaleGrabArea: {{Inverted}}. [[spoiler:When Dmitri grabs her arm she takes one look at his hand, and then raises her other hand and slaps him.]]
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: The aforementioned "Paris Holds The Key" song. It is essentially there to say they had a Benadette Peters number in the film.
* ThatRussianSquatDance
* TookALevelInBadass: For more information, see AndThisIsFor.
* {{Tsundere}}: Anastasia, to Dimitri.
* UnlimitedWardrobe: Anya/Anastasia, counting the clothing she wears as a child, has 13 different outfits during the course of the movie. Blue court dress, nightgown, overcoat, peasant outfit, yellow DisneyAcidSequence ballgown, blue short-sleeved dress, pajamas, sailor bathing suit thing, 2 flapper dresses during a musical number, blue evening dress, pink pajamas, court dress (make it 14 if you count the ClothingDamage incurred on the last court dress as a costume change). To compare, Ariel in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' had 7 (her purple SeashellBra, a ship's sail wrapped around her, a pink dinner dress, a pink nightgown, a turquoise dress, a blue sparkly dress and a wedding dress).
** Although two of the above are completely hallucinatory.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: And ''how''.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: To levels rivaling the recent ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}''. The real Anastasia was just shot alongside her family in July 1918 at the age of 17. After this movie was made, the actual Romanovs were dug up and DNA typed. All the Romanov children were in the graves, including Anastasia. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_romanov#False_reports_of_survival_and_identification_of_Romanov_remains The Other Wiki has the details.]] Also, Rasputin was an ally of the Romanovs, and was murdered before them.
** Two of the children were discovered in a grave near Ekaterinburg, apart from the original discovery site in early 2008: Alexei and one of his other sisters, either Marie or Anastasia.
** Also, Rasputin was (probably) neither a lich nor powered by demons. And bats can't talk.
** A very, ''very'' small one: In the Rasputin-created dream sequence where Anya sees her family swimming, her father greets her by calling her "Sunshine." In the actual Romanov family, this was the nickname of Anastasia's little brother.
** Taken UpToEleven when you consider that the plot is essentially the same as the 1956 movie with Ingrid Bergmann and Yul Brenner.
*** We should mention [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson "Anna Anderson"]], the real life inspiration for the Bergman/Brynner film who went to her grave pretending to be Anastasia and managed to convince a surprising number of credulous supporters despite ample evidence to the contrary. Her claim was disproven via DNA evidence after her death.
* VillainSong: "In The Dark of The Night".
* WellExcuseMePrincess: Anya & Dimitri, even though they just think she's impersonating a princess at first.
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