Anastasia: Don Bluth & Gary Goldman

My film this week was Anastasia, the 1997 film about the urban legend, claiming that one of Tsar Nicholas' daughters, Anastasia, survived the execution of her family. Historically and politically, this is an interesting film to look at because of the way that the American production company - Fox Animation Studios - portray communist Russia compared to Imperial Russia. Obviously the USA are very anti-communist, and this is shown clearly in the film in the portrayal of Rasputin as a distinctly evil character, despite the doubts about his level of influence on the Romanovs and his level of involvement with the overthrowing of the monarchy (although he was definitely somewhat involved).

In this version of events, Anastasia failed to get onto the train that her grandmother escaped on, and ever since her grandmother, who moved to Paris, has been offering a great reward for the safe return of her daughter. However, Anastasia slipped and hit her head that day, and so she lost her memory, and has grown up in an orphanage. The only clue that she has to her heritage is a necklace, that we see she was given at the start by her grandmother, that is also a key to the music box that her grandmother gave her. Anastasia sets out from the orphanage to find her family, and encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who aim to train a young girl to act so much like Anastasia that they fool her grandmother and take the reward money for themselves.

One of the very interesting aspects of the film was the use of lighting. The film begins with a ballroom in which the Romanovs are holding a dance. It is full of golden, warm and light colours, to represent the positive view of the characters in it and the situation. Then Rasputin enters, and his skin is grey, his hair is long, straggly and black, he is wearing dark brown monk's robes, has very bony fingers and talons in the place of fingernails. This all shows him to be a evil character, immediately setting him up as the antagonist as soon as he walks in. Any magic he performs (as he is a sorcerer in this film) is a green colour, which is used excessively within cartoons to demonstrate evil-doing.

Some examples of green representing evil in cartoons, L to R: The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid

Rasputin in Anastasia

Another interesting aspect I noticed was when Anastasia first sees St Petersburg. She's very excited to be there, having just reached the end of a song about going on a Journey to the Past to discover her history and hit a very long note as the brass builds in the background, but her excitement contrasts greatly to what we see. Anastasia, or Anja as we know her at the moment, (presumably the name she was given at the orphanage, it's never actually explained) reaches the top of the hill, and there's a wide shot showing the skyline of St Petersburg. The only impressive thing is the tower of the now derelict palace, and other than that all we see are industrial buildings, all with large chimneys belching out a dirty yellow fog that takes over the sky. This again reflects the American view of the new communist Russia compared to the Russia of the Imperial Rule.

Anja's view of the beautiful St Petersburg - the tower of the old palace is central and the tallest thing in the shot, showing it's power and importance.

For my focus scene I chose the scene in which Anastasia first goes back into the palace, and sings Once Upon a December (watch here). The palace to begin with is gloomy, dusty and generally looks uncared for. Anastasia picks up a plate and polishes it, and it immediately returns to pristine condition, showing that she is the saviour for this situation, and can restore the prestige and grandeur to the palace. It also reflects her being able to become and Imperial Princess again, as she is currently dressed in an oversized coat, flat cap and fingerless gloves - not exactly the attire of choice of many members of any royal court. As she sings, the room lightens, until dream-like figures, similar to the ones shown at the beginning of the film, burst out of the painting in couples, a golden aura around each of them, and dance on the ballroom floor, interacting with Anastasia as she dances between them. As the song builds to the instrumental, the Tsar and the members of his family that died due to the revolution walk through the couples as they part, and Anastasia's clothes change to a dress with it's own golden aura, and a tiara (SPOILER ALERT: very similar to her attire at the end of the film when her grandmother holds a party for her, that then gets ripped and destroyed, representing her new dream of being with Dimitri) representing her subconscious dream of finding her family. She dances with the Tsar as she did as a young girl at the start, mirroring the words of this all being a memory that she cannot access, and as the song fades out instrument by instrument, until only her voice is left, the couples and her family gradually fade out too, to be interrupted by Dimitri running in and asking her what she is doing there, ending her dreaming and thus my focus scene.