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Anastasia
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Inaccuracies to the story aside, I can't help but love what animator Don Bluth did with this 1997 tale, which unfortunately, came and went quickly from the box office. Meg Ryan is the voice of the title character and she does a wonderful job, with a performance that is spirited and lively. Anastasia spends a majority of her life as an orphan; when free of that life, she soon runs into two con men(played by John Cusack and Kelsey Grammer) who happen to be looking for a girl that can be an imposter, but actually, they've found the real thing.
The film also does go the route of most animated films in adding little sidekicks, but thankfully, this film has some of the best in quite some time. Most impressive is Bartok, a little bat voiced by Hank Azaria that has some of the film's very best lines. The film also has a fine villian in Rasputin(Christopher Lloyd), although he may be a little too scary for smaller children. I remember the early screening I saw of this film in 1997, where a majority of the kids really enjoyed the film, but it freaked out some of the smaller kids who were scared off by the film's action. Speaking of action, the film has a couple of impressive sequences, including a ship in the middle of a storm on the sea and a "Fugitive"-like train crash. If anything, the film is never dull- 97 minutes fly by like a strong breeze.
The voice work, especially from Ryan, Grammer and John Cusack, is fantastic in a movie that enjoyably mixes romance, action and drama in a movie that's thrilling and although it goes off on it's own version of the story, it's certainly a very enjoyable viewpoint of the tale.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although this transfer has an occasional instance of slight problems, the 2.35:1 letterboxed transfer on this disc still looks more impressive than either "Hercules" or "Mulan", the two new movies that Disney has just released to DVD (Yes, I will keep complaining about Disney's animated DVDs. I didn't care for how they presented any of them, yet.) Focusing back on this film, I found the colors to be mighty impressive, looking incredibly rich and deep throughout the picture. The image is consistently clear and crisp, although not quite razor sharp.
The only flaw I saw was occasional slight traces of pixelization in some of the darker scenes, but not to a level that I found distracting to viewing. The great majority of the presentation looks quite excellent, with no shimmering and a picture that looks clear and smooth. Not perfect but still very pleasing. There is also a pan/scan version included, but I REALLY recommend the letterboxed version, which reveals the whole story; the 2.35:1 frame is really put to good use on this film. Either way of viewing can be chosen through the menu.
SOUND: This is one heck of a sound mix, alternately going between loud action scenes to softer, quiet sections to beautiful songs, capturing the details wonderfully throughout. The action scenes are wonderfully enveloping, from a train flying off the tracks and down a mountain to a ship in the middle of a storm. The surrounds are used plenty, especially during these action scenes, to great effect. The great majority of the film sounds enveloping and fantastic; the songs are wonderfully clear and pure sounding. The supervising sound editor on this picture was Richard L. Anderson, who also worked on "Daylight", "Dante's Peak", "Antz", "Lethal Weapon 4", "Dragonheart" and "Virus".
MENUS:: When I turned the menus on, the first thing I said was "awww...that's cute", which is something I don't often say. The menus really are cute and nicely done on this disc, though: the opening menus include a picture of Anastasia with animated snow falling, and music in the background. Although the sub-menus aren't animated, when you make a selection on the main menu, there is some animation.
EXTRAS: This Fox release actually contains some nice extra features:
Anastasia: A Magical Journey: A promotional documentary that probably aired on television at one time. Although I found it interesting, it follows the usual format for these kind of documentaries; interviews with the cast and animators are followed by many scenes from the movie. This particular documentary is hosted by singer Aaliyah, who also appears on the soundtrack. We hear from all of the main cast; Grammer, Cusack, Azaria and Ryan. Where the first half of the documentary seems to be mainly devoted to the feelings of the actors and talk about the story, the second half is thankfully an in-depth discussion and behind-the-scenes look at how the animation was created. Definitely good stuff and better than the average documentary. Certainly not too short, either: it lasts about 20 minutes or so.
Sing-A-Long: 2 Songs- Once Upon A December, Learn To Do It
Featurette: This is a slightly shorter look at the film, but this featurette does look more at the animation techniques that were involved in the making of this film.
Interactive Puzzle: At first it was a little awkward, but once I got how it worked, this became quite an interesting little extra feature. Users are given puzzle pieces and have to put them together to form a puzzle picture. Definitely fun stuff- there are 3 puzzles in all.
Trailers: Trailers for "Anastasia" and "Bartok: The Magnificent".
Final Thoughts: A highly enjoyable disc and a movie that's perfect for most kids as well as adults.
The film also does go the route of most animated films in adding little sidekicks, but thankfully, this film has some of the best in quite some time. Most impressive is Bartok, a little bat voiced by Hank Azaria that has some of the film's very best lines. The film also has a fine villian in Rasputin(Christopher Lloyd), although he may be a little too scary for smaller children. I remember the early screening I saw of this film in 1997, where a majority of the kids really enjoyed the film, but it freaked out some of the smaller kids who were scared off by the film's action. Speaking of action, the film has a couple of impressive sequences, including a ship in the middle of a storm on the sea and a "Fugitive"-like train crash. If anything, the film is never dull- 97 minutes fly by like a strong breeze.
The voice work, especially from Ryan, Grammer and John Cusack, is fantastic in a movie that enjoyably mixes romance, action and drama in a movie that's thrilling and although it goes off on it's own version of the story, it's certainly a very enjoyable viewpoint of the tale.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although this transfer has an occasional instance of slight problems, the 2.35:1 letterboxed transfer on this disc still looks more impressive than either "Hercules" or "Mulan", the two new movies that Disney has just released to DVD (Yes, I will keep complaining about Disney's animated DVDs. I didn't care for how they presented any of them, yet.) Focusing back on this film, I found the colors to be mighty impressive, looking incredibly rich and deep throughout the picture. The image is consistently clear and crisp, although not quite razor sharp.
The only flaw I saw was occasional slight traces of pixelization in some of the darker scenes, but not to a level that I found distracting to viewing. The great majority of the presentation looks quite excellent, with no shimmering and a picture that looks clear and smooth. Not perfect but still very pleasing. There is also a pan/scan version included, but I REALLY recommend the letterboxed version, which reveals the whole story; the 2.35:1 frame is really put to good use on this film. Either way of viewing can be chosen through the menu.
SOUND: This is one heck of a sound mix, alternately going between loud action scenes to softer, quiet sections to beautiful songs, capturing the details wonderfully throughout. The action scenes are wonderfully enveloping, from a train flying off the tracks and down a mountain to a ship in the middle of a storm. The surrounds are used plenty, especially during these action scenes, to great effect. The great majority of the film sounds enveloping and fantastic; the songs are wonderfully clear and pure sounding. The supervising sound editor on this picture was Richard L. Anderson, who also worked on "Daylight", "Dante's Peak", "Antz", "Lethal Weapon 4", "Dragonheart" and "Virus".
MENUS:: When I turned the menus on, the first thing I said was "awww...that's cute", which is something I don't often say. The menus really are cute and nicely done on this disc, though: the opening menus include a picture of Anastasia with animated snow falling, and music in the background. Although the sub-menus aren't animated, when you make a selection on the main menu, there is some animation.
EXTRAS: This Fox release actually contains some nice extra features:
Anastasia: A Magical Journey: A promotional documentary that probably aired on television at one time. Although I found it interesting, it follows the usual format for these kind of documentaries; interviews with the cast and animators are followed by many scenes from the movie. This particular documentary is hosted by singer Aaliyah, who also appears on the soundtrack. We hear from all of the main cast; Grammer, Cusack, Azaria and Ryan. Where the first half of the documentary seems to be mainly devoted to the feelings of the actors and talk about the story, the second half is thankfully an in-depth discussion and behind-the-scenes look at how the animation was created. Definitely good stuff and better than the average documentary. Certainly not too short, either: it lasts about 20 minutes or so.
Sing-A-Long: 2 Songs- Once Upon A December, Learn To Do It
Featurette: This is a slightly shorter look at the film, but this featurette does look more at the animation techniques that were involved in the making of this film.
Interactive Puzzle: At first it was a little awkward, but once I got how it worked, this became quite an interesting little extra feature. Users are given puzzle pieces and have to put them together to form a puzzle picture. Definitely fun stuff- there are 3 puzzles in all.
Trailers: Trailers for "Anastasia" and "Bartok: The Magnificent".
Final Thoughts: A highly enjoyable disc and a movie that's perfect for most kids as well as adults.
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