Synopsis

In an alternate 1926, amnesiac orphan Anya leaves a Soviet orphanage and travels toward Paris with con artists Dmitri and Vlad. Hoping to claim a reward, they present her as the vanished Grand Duchess Anastasia. As Anya recovers fragments of her past, the group is pursued by the undead Rasputin, whose curse threatens both her survival and the fate of the Romanov family.

Factoids & Trivia

• Anastasia was the first animated feature produced by Fox Animation Studios, the Phoenix-based animation division established by 20th Century Fox to compete in the feature-animation market.

• Don Bluth and Gary Goldman researched Russian history and the Romanov era with help from former CIA personnel who had served in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

• The film deliberately treats history as fantasy. The real Anastasia was killed with her family in 1918, while the story draws on the long-running legend that she survived.

• Liz Callaway recorded demonstration vocals for the songs before the main voice casting was complete. Her singing was retained for Anastasia's musical numbers, with Meg Ryan providing the character's spoken voice.

• Carrie Fisher contributed uncredited script rewrites, including work on the sequence in which Anya leaves the orphanage for Paris.

• The film was released on November 21, 1997, after a November 14 premiere in New York City. It became Don Bluth's biggest commercial success, earning nearly $140 million worldwide.

• "Journey to the Past" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, while the film's score was also nominated in the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score category.

• The film later inspired a 1999 direct-to-video prequel, Bartok the Magnificent, and a stage musical that opened in 2016.