Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical historical fantasy film directed and produced by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman from a screenplay by the writing teams of Susan Gauthier and Bruce Graham, and Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, and based on a story adaptation by Eric Tuchman. It features songs written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (in their film songwriting debut), and a musical score composed and conducted by David Newman. The film stars the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Angela Lansbury. Set in an alternate 1926, it follows an amnesiac Anastasia Romanov who embarks on a journey to discover her past.
Anastasia was the first 20th Century Fox animated feature to be produced by its own animation division, 20th Century Fox Animation, through its subsidiary Fox Animation Studios. The film premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on November 14, 1997, and was released in the United States on November 21. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation, voice performances, and soundtrack, though it attracted criticism from some historians for its fantastical retelling of the Grand Duchess. Anastasia grossed $140 million worldwide, making it the most profitable film from Bluth and Fox Animation Studios. It received nominations for several awards, including for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards.
The success of Anastasia spawned a franchise, including a direct-to-video spin-off in 1999 and a stage musical adaptation in 2016.
Plot In 1916, at a ball in Saint Petersburg, Russia, celebrating the Romanov tricentennial, Dowager Empress Marie gives a music box and a necklace inscribed with the words "Together in Paris" as parting gifts to her youngest granddaughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia. The ball is suddenly interrupted by Grigori Rasputin, the Romanovs' former royal advisor who was exiled for treason. Seeking revenge, Rasputin sold his soul in exchange for the power to kill the Romanovs, which manifests in an unholy reliquary that he uses to start the Russian Revolution. As the palace is attacked, Marie and Anastasia flee through a hidden door opened by a servant boy. However, Anastasia drops her music box in the process. Rasputin confronts the two royals on the frozen Little Nevka river, only to fall through the ice and drown. The pair reaches a moving train; Marie climbs aboard, but Anastasia falls and hits her head while also trying to board, giving her amnesia.
Ten years later, rumors of Anastasia's survival spreads throughout Russia, and Marie offers 10 million rubles for her safe return. A conman named Dimitri and his partner-in-crime, former nobleman Vladimir "Vlad" Vasilovich search for an Anastasia look-alike so they can collect the reward. Elsewhere, a now grown-up Anastasia (now called "Anya") leaves the rural orphanage where she has been living since her amnesia. Accompanied by a stray puppy she names Pooka, she decides to head to Paris to uncover her past, inspired by the inscription on her necklace, but learns she needs an exit visa. An old woman advises her to see Dimitri at the abandoned palace; there, Dimitri and Vlad are impressed by Anya's resemblance to the "real" Anastasia and decide to take her to Paris.
Rasputin's immortal albino bat sidekick, Bartok, is nearby and notices the reliquary revived by Anya's presence; it drags him to limbo, where he finds Rasputin has survived. Enraged to hear that Anastasia is still alive, Rasputin sends his demonic minions from the reliquary to kill her. They sabotage the trio's train as it leaves St. Petersburg by overheating the train engine, but they survive. The trio transfer to a boat, where the demons try to lure Anya into sleepwalking off the ship, which also fails. Rasputin and Bartok are forced to travel back to the surface to kill Anya themselves. Meanwhile, as Dimitri and Vlad teach Anya court etiquette and the Romanov family's history, Dimitri and Anya begin to fall in love.
The trio eventually reaches Paris and visits Marie, who had decided to give up on finding Anastasia after meeting numerous impostors. Despite this, Marie's cousin Sophie quizzes Anya to confirm her identity. Though Anya gives every answer taught to her, Dimitri finally realizes she is the real Anastasia when she vaguely recalls him helping her escape the palace siege. Sophie, also convinced, arranges a meeting with Marie at the Palais Garnier where they watch the Russian ballet version of Cinderella. There, Dimitri tries to establish an introduction but Marie refuses, having heard of his initial scheme to find an Anastasia lookalike. Anya overhears their conversation, confronts Dimitri and leaves. Dimitri abducts Marie in her car to force her to see Anya, finally convincing her when he presents the music box which he has been keeping as a memento. As Marie and Anya converse, Anya regains her memories; the pair sings the lullaby the music box plays, and are joyfully reunited.
Marie offers Dimitri the reward, recognizing him as the servant boy who saved them, but he declines. Intending to return to St. Petersburg, he bids Vlad farewell. At Anastasia's return celebration, Marie informs her of Dimitri's gesture, leaving Anastasia torn between staying in Paris and returning to St. Petersburg with Dimitri. Anastasia is then lured to the Pont Alexandre III, where Rasputin and his minions attack her, though Bartok refuses to help. Dimitri returns to save her but is injured and knocked unconscious. In the struggle, with Pooka's help, Anastasia takes Rasputin's reliquary and crushes it, avenging her family as Rasputin disintegrates and dies. In the aftermath, Anastasia and Dimitri reconcile; they elope, and Anastasia sends a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie, promising to return.
Voice cast Meg Ryan as Anya / Anastasia, an amnesiac Russian grand duchess, youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and granddaughter of Maria Feodorovna, who sets out on a journey to re-discover her past. Liz Callaway provides the singing voice for Anya / Anastasia. Kirsten Dunst provides the speaking voice for young Anastasia. Lacey Chabert provides the singing voice for young Anastasia. John Cusack as Dimitri, a conman, former servant of the Romanovs, and Anya's love interest. Jonathan Dokuchitz provides the singing voice for Dimitri. Glenn Walker Harris Jr. provides the voice for young Dimitri. Kelsey Grammer as Vladimir Vanya "Vlad" Vonitsky Vasilovich, a former nobleman-turned-con artist and friend of Dimitri. Christopher Lloyd as Grigori Rasputin, a megalomaniac lich sorcerer and the former advisor of the Romanovs, who casts a curse upon the family when they exile him for treason. Jim Cummings provides the singing voice of Rasputin. Hank Azaria as Bartok, Rasputin's mild-mannered, talking, immortal albino bat sidekick, who serves as the film's comic relief. Angela Lansbury as Maria Feodorovna, the Dowager Empress, mother of Nicholas II, and Anya's paternal grandmother. Bernadette Peters as Sophie Stanislovskievna Somorkov-Smirnoff, Maria's first cousin and lady-in-waiting. Andrea Martin as: "Comrade" Phlegmenkoff, the orphanage's inconsiderate owner. An old woman at the train station who directs Anya where to find Dimitri for a passage to Paris. Rick Jones as: Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Imperial Russia and Anastasia's father. A revolutionary soldier A servant A ticket agent Charity James as an Anastasia imposter Debra Mooney as an Actress Arthur Malet as: Traveling Man The Romanovs' Majordomo Frank Welker as: Pooka, Anastasia's pet dog The Black Pegasus
Victoria Clark, Billy Porter, Patrick Quinn, J. K. Simmons, and Lillias White were among the ensemble and character voices. Eric Bogosian voiced Lazingo, Rasputin's pet raven, in deleted scenes.
Background
In the years since the Russian Imperial Romanov family's death in July 1918, the phenomenon of Anastasia impostors began to appear. The most well-known imposter was Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia in 1922. A few surviving members of the Romanovs met with Anderson and the family were divided on the truth of her identity. In 1991, Anastasia Nikolaevna's remains were discovered, and through DNA testing, Anderson's true identity was verified. Franziska Schanzkowska was the true identity of the woman. She was a Polish factory worker who had spent time in mental institutions.
In 1952, Marcelle Maurette wrote a play titled Anastasia based on the idea of her survival. An English-language play was translated by Guy Bolton and was staged at the Theatre Royal, Windsor in 1953. A year later, a televised version was produced for BBC. It was staged on Broadway in 1955 and was toured through the United States. Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) negotiated for the screen rights to the play, but Twentieth Century-Fox obtained the rights for £20,000 (equivalent to US$925–930,000 in 2026). Their filmed version, also titled Anastasia (1956), starred Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes.
Production Development In May 1994, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman had signed a long-term deal to produce animated features with 20th Century Fox, with the studio channeling more than $100 million in constructing a new animation studio. They selected Phoenix, Arizona, for the location of Fox Animation Studios because the state offered the company about $1 million in job training funds and low-interest loans for the state-of-the-art digital animation equipment. It was staffed with 300 artists and technicians, a third of whom worked with Bluth and Goldman in Dublin, Ireland, for Sullivan Bluth Studios.
For their first project, 20th Century Fox insisted they select one out of a dozen existing properties which they owned where Bluth and Goldman suggested adapting The King and I and My Fair Lady, though Bluth and Goldman said it would be impossible to improve on Audrey Hepburn's performance and Lerner and Loewe's score. Following several story suggestions, the idea to adapt Anastasia (1956) originated from Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Bill Mechanic. They later adapted story elements from Pygmalion with the peasant Anya being molded into a regal woman.
Early into production, Bluth and Goldman began researching the actual events through enlisting former CIA agents stationed in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Around this same time, screenwriter Eric Tuchman had written a script. Eventually, Bluth and Goldman decided the history of Anastasia and the Romanov dynasty was too dark for their film. In 1995, Bruce Graham and Susan Gauthier reworked Tuchman's script into a light-hearted romantic comedy. When Graham and Gauthier moved onto other projects, the husband-and-wife screenwriting team Bob Tzudiker and Noni White were hired for additional rewrites. Actress Carrie Fisher also made uncredited rewrites of the film, particularly the scene in which Anya leaves the orphanage for Paris.