Anastasia, the Russian legend on screen

 

 Anastasia is a 1997 cartoon directed by Don Blush and Gary Goldman.

First of all: ANASTASIA IS NOT A DISNEY PRINCESS, yes it is on Disney+ but she ain't a Disney princess (yet).

In 1917 the Russian Revolution happens and princess Anastasia and her grand-mother run away from the castle to avoid being killed by the bolsheviks. Unluckily Anastasia fell while trying to get on the train and lost her memories.

A few years later, when she turns 18, Anya (she was called like that after her memory loss) leaves the orphanage because she was too old to stay. Anya goes to Saint-Petersburg to start her life.

Once there she meets Dimitri who hires her to play the long lost princess Anastasia Romanova (it's Romanov for the males and Romanova for the female, it's the norm in Russia that the last name change of ending in function of the gender of the person) in front of the grand-mother of the princess who desperately searched her granddaughter for years.

Dimitri and his friend teach Anya how to act properly as a princess and also facts about the Czar and his family to make it more realistic during their trip to Paris where the grandmother is.

Meanwhile Raspoutin, the person who cursed the Romanov family, tries to kill Anya because he cannot really die if his curse doesn't take a real end.

When the trio finally meets Anastasia's grandmother she isn't convinced but Anya was able to tell facts that only the princess would have known and her grandmother is surprised to see that her grandchild is still alive and with her again.

After that Anastasia is about to be introduced to the public but at the last moment, and with the authorization of her grandmother, she runs away to be with Dimitri but meets Rasputin in the meanwhile.

This cartoon is historically inaccurate because Anastasia didn't run away with her grandmother and she died with her parents and siblings. If you want to learn more about what really happened I recommend you to watch the last Czar on Netflix which is really interesting.

Despite the inaccuracies it is an excellent cartoon.

4.9/5 Due to the historical inaccuracies I cannot give a 5/5 because it makes everyone believe that she really did survive and give hope for those who believe that she survived.

 

See you next week for the next article. We can even share a raclette together.