Anastasia (DVD)

Based on the legend of the real-life daugher of the last Russian czar, ANASTASIA combines imaginative animation and lively songs to tell the story of a princess who escapes a horrible execution and mysteriously reappears after being thought dead. When a team of swindlers, Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer), recruit Anya (Meg Ryan), a spunky amnesiac orphan, in their plot to defraud the Dowager Empress (Angela Lansbury) with a faux Romanov heir, little do they know their carefully coached fake is the real thing. But the resurgence of the long-lost Anastasia also attracts the attention of the scary Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), who, with his hilarious sidekick, Bartok the bat (Hank Azaria), schemes to do in the last Romanov. Though much lighter (thankfully for children) than the 1956 Anatole Litvak-directed ANASTASIA adapted from Marcelle Maurette's play, this movie is still packed with thrills, chills, and romance. The first animated feature from 20th Century Fox, the film is directed by longtime collaborators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.