Anastasia (1997) - Nostalgia Critic

this episode brought to you by Mint mobile the first company to sell Wireless services online only check us out at Grand Rapids Comic-Con November 11th to the 13th hope to see you there [Music] ah mr26 come right in party Mr Anakin Skywalker Welcome Back Sir back to name no longer has any meaning for me oh um Annie that's better better better better better better better better better better stupid AI voice this deal is getting worse all the time [Applause] name Anastasia sorry you're not on the list I'll check it again darling Anastasia with four A's sorry ma'am this club is exclusively for Disney characters only exactly I am a Disney princess not according to the list you're not listen buddy do you know how much money I put down to get into this club I paid Millions to convince people I'm an authentic Disney princess well it ain't fooling me impossible I sing I dance I insult the original Source material I even got former Disney animators to work on me sorry Thumbelina but if you're not on the list you're not on the list don't embarrass me in front of my fans they all think I'll think I'm giving you two seconds to roaming the hell off yes yes have you tried throwing money at it that always works okay Mr chappie great to see you again sir oh Bob Bob you're you have to actually remember you princess Fox right well we bought Fox so technically you are a part of Disney get to go into your Club foreign since I am a part of Disney [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] critic I remember so you don't have to well Fox you tried so hard to be Disney you can't like you didn't get your wish 1997 another attempt by a major Studio to cash in on the Disney animated formula and do their credit it wasn't a cheap attempt they got legendary animators down blues and Gary Goldman to helmet who gave Disney a run for their money in the past celebrity voices top songwriters some of Disney's past musical talents and one hell of an advertising budget I remember being 15 and being like yeah I don't like kids cartoons anymore but I got pretty hyped seeing their first look with pencil sketches and music on the big screen similar to you guessed it like Disney used to the biggest Con in history I also kind of liked it because it looked like they blew up the dog in the movie again why I'm a cat person to this day I still hear a ton of people call this a Disney movie film did well the biggest profit booth made for a movie but not quite the Disney numbers they were looking for part of the reason being Disney 2 was concerned folks would confuse this for their work so they re-released The Little Mermaid on the big screen what's up coincidentally the same month for a limited amount of time coming to theaters Friday November 14th for 17 days only a company is a monster so I'll admit when I first saw this I didn't like it I didn't hate it but the advertising works so well I really was expecting something on the same level as the great Disney masterpieces or Hell the great Bluth masterpieces looking back it is better than I remember possibly because I am missing hand-drawn animation with every passing year I think this is a very good film for kids but kind of a messy one for grown-ups that's not to say adults can't enjoy a ton of it but there are a lot of tiny missteps that add up to a shaky staircase it's not Death By A Thousand Cuts it's more by a hundred cuts no way it'll be cool to see these masters of Animation again bring to life one of their most expensive and lavish looking Productions ever this is foxes not Disney's at the time Anastasia the film opens in cinemascope the first one since In Like Flint to be shot that way yes that is worth a comparison stop where we get a narration from Blue's favorite actress to work with the late Angela Lansbury how do I know I asked him years ago who are your favorite actors that you've ever worked with without a blush I can tell you that would be Angela Lansbury this is a woman that you know her Persona on screen and on stage you would never suspect she's a very very humble lady and and eager to please and to help whatever she can and this is the part that was the Clincher for me she didn't go out and buy fancy lunches every day she brought her own little brown bag lunch and I thought oh that is so appealing when I went out it worked elegant policies fresh off the backs of Russian peasantry on the Wind cross the sea Lansbury plays Dowager Empress Marie who's in the middle of a big celebration with her family including her granddaughter Anastasia played here by Kirsten duns yeah she was to the 90s what debate Chase was to the 2000s if you just need a girl she was the go-to it plays our lullaby read what it says it says you're doomed to be shot oh no they're Confidant Rasputin played by Christopher Lloyd is upset he wasn't invited to the baby shower I mean celebration so he curses them to die via Spinning Wheel I mean vague off screen stuff [ __ ] my words you and your family will die within a fortnight on 20th Century Fox will exploit this historical bloodbath as a cuddly fairy tale I guess I should talk about that a lot of people at the time hated the historical inaccuracies of this but if you're dumb enough to fall for it you weren't gonna look up the truth anyway did anyone really believe this movie with a talking bat or Pocahontas with a talking tree really happened it's historical fiction or I guess the historical fairy tale any even on that note there are surprisingly a lot of historical Easter eggs this drawing of Anastasia says Olga made me so mad she said it looked like a pig riding a donkey she really did draw that and that really is what was said about it there really was a music box Anastasia did love practical jokes Vlad is Loosely based on count Vladimir Fredericks the court Minister even Dimitri has a slight connection to a European prince who swore he found the grown-up Anastasia based on his one time meeting her in childhood give the movie credit that's the most research I've ever done on the Romanov so it's doing something right it looks like a revolution starts and the royal family is under attack oh um there's Bartok the bad kind of random introduction okay later Rasputin attacks but gets caught in the icy River wow the anime raspoon was surprisingly easier to kill than the real Rasputin hire us Pros the stage is accidentally knocked out and left behind and nothing bad ever happened in Russian politics again ten years pass in Notre Dame I mean what's Hunchback your Hunchback as St Petersburg is buzzing about a rumor that while the romanovs are dead Anastasia may still be alive it probably goes without saying the songs by Stephen flyer T and Linda rinse are pretty damn good they're big hummable sound nice and are extremely easy to remember I have a useless observation but hey when it says stopped me before I always found it humorous than an animated song around Rasputin and the Romanov sounds eerily similar to an Animaniacs song around Rasputin and the romanovs I really like Rasputin cause I don't realize [Music] I only like Rasputin cause I am hypnotized that makes this song immediately bad and nobody can enjoy it but I like the one that's a nobody Susie it's the rumor the legend the mystery I am clearly not John Cusack who is singing now yep that's John Cusack s Dimitri or will be when he's not in a song I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the fall of 1983 pile the biggest Con in history that ain't you and to be fair all the singing is dubbed apart from Lansbury Peters and Kelsey Grammer who plays Dimitri's friend Vladimir no not that one this guy wants to lie and cheat his way into riches well that joke wrote itself well to me today I got to the theater but these two are likable con artists as they plan to say they found Anastasia all these years later and plan to get reward money for her well do they know the real Anastasia played by Meg Ryan has grown up in an orphanage of course with a bout of Amnesia and is going out into the world now that she's grown up you go straight down this path till you get to the fork in the road what did to call me send me a sign hi doggy hey Ryan's okay though her performance does feel like one long 90s rom-com quip me go to Paris well actually why are you circling me what were you a vulture in another life grateful to get away who's to say I'm not a princess or a duchess or whatever she is don't give me a good looking man to hate her I might love him actually the film seems to flip-flop between 90s rom-com fairy tale Disney and old school Blues a lot of people said this was trying to make too many different styles but respectfully disagree I think these Styles can go together in an animated family film and part of the time they do in all honesty I can point out all the issues of this film in one and a half problems the main problem I'll get to in a minute but the have problem I don't know staging is particularly cinematic the animation is still wonderful and the background's often amazing but the angles are usual usual pretty stale see here's the thing Bluth does anime people but they're not usually the focus he likes his leads to be mice dogs baby dinosaurs cats all characters that welcome a variety of unique and interesting angles you have to try to make what they see not interesting here though everything is mostly shot straightforward like it's a stage play I guess that makes sense because this would become a stage play in blue thin self-directed few stage shows but because of that there's not really a variety of angles it's almost always a medium shot or a medium wide shot even the bigger shots look like something you would see in a Broadway musical rather than a cinematic Epic but I say that's a half problem because there are some shots there very cinematic Anastasia makes her way to the abandoned Palace thinking about how she feels like she's been there before [Music] now that's cinematic when you hear this hauntingly beautiful music this is the kind of stuff you want to see imagery literally leaping out at you the camera spins swoops in has all sorts of cool effects stuff only movies and animation can accomplish it's a pretty cool number hey Dimitri and Vladimir find her though and figure out quickly she looks very similar to the Grand Duchess now you said something about travel papers uh you said something about being on an offender's list [Music] it's an amulet that indicates her family is in Paris and they convince her she might actually be the Lost Romanov even though deep down they think she probably isn't anything just dead all the Roman officer dead meanwhile Bartok played by Hank azarian looking like the FernGully bad microwaved into pinky in the brain ishacked to find an ancient Relic a Rasputin's comes back to life and takes him to the underworld oh yes wow for all that build up traveling in Between Worlds rescue's entrance is kind of underwhelming a lot of characters are like that bar talk the return of Rasputin even a dog I'm not sure we ever got the name for puka okay shut up but you get my point they're all just kind of there you think he's gonna give reintroduction like the horn King like really build them up but gem cut there he is I'll also say with the exception of him literally falling apart Rasputin not that interesting a blue villain he gets a really cool song arguably the best one in the movie [Music] no seriously this is kind of a jam but this imagery is nowhere near as threatening as previous blue films while many of the backgrounds in the human world are Lush and detailed the backgrounds in the Underworld are a little basic and kinda empty and sometimes repeat themselves could be a time or budget thing but it does lead to the film's biggest problem inconsistency and what in my opinion is the cause of that I know it's gonna sound weird but I think it's the editing now editing in an anime of film is vastly different from live action Jeffrey katzenberg figured that out when he wanted Black Cauldron to be re-edited and didn't allow the proper time or budget for it in live action if you want to extend a scene you cut to a different shot or let the scene play longer in animation you have to create the shot from scratch literally every frame has to be planned out before you film it many scenes in this movie I think were either cut down or weren't given the proper screen time to leave an impact here's an example watch the end of this villain song [Music] he wanted to start the next scene way too fast imagine if another great villain song got that treatment like Hellfire it just doesn't feel right does it seem like this would work better if they just left a little time to take in what you saw be prepared did that remember it had this big build up than just a little bit of black and a little bit of Silence I think you can do that here let's try it I'm gonna add just a little bit of extra time at the end bye [Music] see it didn't take much but it added a lot yet a lot of songs end the same way dark of the night did one ticket to Paris please [Music] honestly a lot of moments work that way we have a nice long shot of Rasputin saying his evil plan and then these weird choppy edits Know Your Grace we're taking a bus a bus in fact I'm pretty sure those are from other scenes again animation's a [ __ ] to edit I understand but movies are made in the edit and there are noticeable problems in the transitions here like if I just randomly cut to commercial right now that would be just here in the farmlands of America we Farm all sorts of things that people need lockment mobile we grow lots of them in Mobile here and it tastes delicious not like men surprisingly more like a miracle no do not actually even mobile because after years of fine print contracts and getting ripped off by big Wireless providers if we've learned anything it's that there's always a catch so I first heard them in mobile offers premium Wireless 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an accent no don't eat kitchens and take advantage of this deal bye distracting Our Heroes catch a train and again to give you an idea of the tone change the odd edits ad look at this very typical rom-com argument and what it naturally cuts to I was only asking a simple question correction ridiculous forgot we were in ectogram ones right the monsters attacked the car with our heroes on it and they tried to make their way to safety and you think that could have been you well this is our stop okay this isn't quite Lost World ordering Big Macs while calling for help but there are too many singers in this so the whole movie head should be editing it wouldn't be good not even for kids but moments like this are what helped balance it out a bit Vladimir convinces Anya that she is someone special and though it's a short moment it plays out exactly as long as it needs to it allows the animation acting music and even unique camera angle to really shine icy and fired a young woman who has shown a legal command equal to any Royal in the world Tibet is followed by Dimitri's Weinstein hats I do not remember him coming off this creepy I don't believe we told him that okay so this is definitely a nitpick but it feels weird not bringing it up should they have cut the opening I guess not totally Scrappy but maybe sum it up in simple imagery like Beauty and the Beast Blends devastating glass window it's a Babushka I don't know but by seeing this is clearly the grand duchess do we lose something that cat line might have had more weight if we didn't know it was her when she sings Once Upon a December would it be more interesting if we didn't know it was a memory and maybe just illusions of grandeur would it be more chilling if we found out that song later was actually from the music box would Rasputin be more creepy if we didn't see him interact with the royal family and was just left to our imagination how it all went down here's the thing it is meant for kids too so you want to make sure they follow the story as well as you can but I can't help but wonder if we'd be more invested if we legit didn't know if she was the real deal or not it'd be much more of a mystery if we thought maybe she was Grand Duchess aerial yeah you know that was a fox note and suddenly I see it at a glance as you'd imagine Dimitri and her start to fall in love and it's pretty cool that not only does Kelsey grammar get a song to himself he always has a great voice but where most Disney musicals at the time had about five songs this one has seven many Disney style anime films usually do less songs it's pretty cool that they did more in this one oh and I say there wasn't much old school scary blue than this this scene might change my mind I'll get inside your mind uh we're saving the scary eyes for Dimitri thank you so much it gets even more dark when he makes her sleep walk dreaming that she's returning to her family when really she's about to drown herself this is actually pretty Twisted hello sunshine Champion come on in the water's hell weeks are up in time and again try not to laugh at how abrupt the tone changes it's all right you're safe now this is like Snow White singing about her prince interrupted by the scary trees out of nowhere [Music] Rasputin Rockets his way to the surface because I don't know and they make their way to Paris where they where they talk to Marie's lady awaiting Sophie played by Bernadette Peters how did you escape a boy who worked in the Palace of course Dimitri puts together that she's the real deal because he was that boy but they'll have to wait because like Disney they know the importance of dolls with different outfits be traditionally and so smart while I do think this is one of the Lesser songs in the film the art style is really cool going Neo impressionistic I feel like this is one of the few things you wouldn't see in a Disney princess movie it as it kind of looks like a back she flick for a bit all that's missing is an animal saying something again canceled today they get dressed up for the ballet to meet up with Marie afterwards as Dimitri tells Vlad she's the real deal you will walk out of her life forever well princesses don't marry kitchen boys we live in a world where dead people rock it themselves it's just not reality while watching the ballet of Cinderella just assume that be easy and make a joke about I'm surprisingly having trouble Anya and Dimitri fine they can't quite say the words they want to say Dimitri yes I just wanted to yes well I wanted you to know princesses don't marry kitchen boys bye Felicia but we need that liar revealed slash third act breakout so she hears he was holding auditions for Anastasia look-alikes and now she hates him and I not only believed you I actually ah it's not great but it's one of the few times the fast editing helps because it's not focused on very long Anya please you have to know the truth up guess I can't get past these two people that's taught me good he drives Marita Anya in a shot that he should have been rendered one more time and we get another great moment that's allowed to play out again it's great animation great music and the acting is Stellar as each isn't trying to prove to the other who she is but rather themselves you're a very good actress best yet in fact but I've had enough there's a great moment where Marie doesn't have to say anything just her sitting down shows for the first time in a long time she's letting hope sink in once more was our secret my Anastasia's and mine it's a really great scene and again stops me from saying there's nothing in this for grown-ups because this is a very grown-up moment [Music] home with me they sing the music box lullaby and realize they are reunited I think it's cool too that most movies would be ramping up around this point but this is only the beginning of the third Act we see or get used to living with her new family trying to figure out where her and Dimitri should go from here and of course a confrontation with Rasputin with a grand duchess have a moment then we'll kill her kill her that was a record scratch everybody oh that's missing his recipe and going whoa I wonder if this is what you really want I found what I was looking for I found I love stepping on peasants he didn't take the money he didn't no he stole it okay it was a toss-up between that and this Spaceballs clip he just took 248 space bucks for lunch gas and Toes you decide if I made the right choice Rasputin approaches Anya and tries to finish her off but Dimitri again just kind of appears come on couldn't Rasputin turn to see him or couldn't Dimitri see she was in trouble why is this film allergic to insert shots it's a pretty cool scene with the Statue of a horse coming to life but again there's not much of it as the climax is pretty short and Anya steps on the hell ooze or whatever it's supposed to be doesn't mean again if there was no interference blue would have a solid minute of him melting the day is saved oh wait Dimitri's dead oh wait no he isn't that was a quick random thing to have there and the two of them obviously decide to hook up oh okay I'll wear it they decide to get married go back to live in Russia and I may want to double think that and oh dude we forget to write you in [Music] so long everybody ah looking forward to the spin-off movie where that won't be expanded on so that was Anastasia like I said it does have a lot of little hiccups that can be distracting for adults but I don't think they will be for kids kids will only focus on the pros like the great animation the characters the songs where I think adults will see that too they just might feel like something's a little off compared to other films like it it is a movie that feels like a lot of fingerprints were on it and therefore it doesn't have as much of a personal touch but like I mentioned bluef did also do a spin-off film where they let him do whatever he wanted and that's much more the strange and bizarre stuff we expect from him it's nothing phenomenal but it is very charming and has a lot more creative creatures and angles and is allowed to be exactly what it is without feeling rushed so I guess in some way you'll fully realized blue film did come out of all this but I don't know Anastasia still has too many things to be impressed by it's a fun film to admire but also pick apart it's false weirdly suck me into it more like trying to figure out where is that line between mainstream conveyor belt and unique one of a kind I've grown a soft spot for it even if I can't say it all comes together for adults I never view a Jimmy Neutron last week comparing it to a Super Soaker mainly for kids but adults can admire it for its creativity maybe this is like the fancy dollhouse version of that I can't say it entirely wins me over but man it is impossible not to be impressed by it and drawn animation just isn't as prevalent as it used to be I think that goes a very very very long way [Music] I'm a Nostalgia Critic I remember it so you don't have to so long everybody hey everybody this month for cameos for charity we're doing Wounded Warriors family support their mission is to provide support to the families of those who have been wounded injured or killed during combat operations the families of these casualties suffer in many ways some physically some psychologically they offer veteran training to assist in meaningful careers family Retreats and custom outfitted vehicles and grants to enhance the lives of the Wounded beds rated a four-star non-profit by charity Navigator Wounded Warriors family support AIDS veterans and their families and healing the wounds that medicine cannot so if you want a cameo from me saying happy birthday congrats or whatever click on the link below and know the money is going to a good cause or if you're like screw your face I would never give a cameo from you well consider checking out this charity anyway it's a wonderful organization to 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Channel: Channel Awesome

Views: 390,901

Keywords: channel awesome, nostalgia critic, anastasia movie, anastasia 1997, doug walker, anastasia movie reaction, anastasia musical, anastasia nostalgia critic, movie, film, don bluth, don bluth anastasia, nostalgic, movie reviews, film review, reaction, animated musicals, musicals, best animated movies, anastasia full movie, anastasia movie review, anastasia, best don bluth films, anastasia 1997 review, anastasia ending, anastasia songs, animation, animated movies, nostalgia, critic

Id: IBCkhf5n5hM

Length: 30min 41sec (1841 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 09 2022