Anastasia (1997 film)

Anastasia is a 1997 American animated epic musical film produced by Fox Animation Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox, directed by former Disney animation directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Hank Azaria, Christopher Lloyd and Angela Lansbury. The film is an adaptation of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, which claims that she in fact escaped the execution of her family. Its basic plot that of an eighteenyearold amnesiac orphan named Anya who, in hopes of finding some trace of her family, sides with con men who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess is the same as the 1956 musical film by Fox, written by Guy Bolton and Arthur Laurents, which, in turn was based on the 1955 play by Marcelle Maurette.

In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II hosts a ball at the Catherine Palace to celebrate the Romanov tricentennial. His mother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, is visiting from Paris and gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words Together in Paris as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, eightyearold Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by the sorcerer Grigori Rasputin, the former royal advisor of the Romanovs until he was banished by Nicholas II for treason. Feeling betrayed and seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for an unholy reliquary, which he uses to place a curse on the Romanov family, sparking the Russian Revolution. Only Marie and Anastasia are able to escape the ensuing siege of the palace, thanks to a young servant boy named Dimitri who shows them a secret passageway in Anastasias room. Rasputin confronts the two royals outside on a frozen river, only to fall through the ice and freeze to death. The pair manage to reach a moving train, but only Marie climbs aboard while Anastasia falls, hitting her head on the platform and giving her amnesia.Ten years later, Russia is under communist rule and Marie has publicly offeredmillion rubles for the safe return of her granddaughter. Dimitri and his friendpartnerincrime Vladimir search for a lookalike to bring to Paris and pass off as Anastasia so as to collect the reward from Marie. Elsewhere, Anastasia, now using the name Anya, leaves the rural orphanage where she grew up, having lost her memory prior to arriving there. Accompanied by a stray puppy she names Pooka, she decides to head to Saint Petersburg, inspired by the passage on the necklace she still has. In the deserted palace she encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who are impressed by her resemblance to the real Anastasia and decide to take her with them to Paris. ........

Source: Wikipedia