Anastasia 1997 Animated Movie: Reasons to Like the Anya and Dimitri Romantic Relationship

The Anastasia 1997 animated movie (#ad), produced by Fox Animation Studio and distributed by 20th Century Fox, is based on the myth or rumor that the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the ruler of Russia, managed to survive the shooting of the Romanov family.

What's there to like about the romance or romantic relationship between the main character and her love interest in this film?

*Warning for possible spoilers for this fictional fantasy movie

Love at First Sight in Anastasia

When Anya, the title character meets Dimitri, the main male character, in St. Petersburg, Russia, it’s definitely not love at first sight, which is absolutely refreshing to take note of because there are so many stories where you see the main couple immediately getting together after they just met, which isn’t believable in the least.

Get to Know Each Other First Before Jumping Into a Romantic Relationship

With Anya and Dimitri, we can see how their relationship evolved as they slowly got to know each other and as they slowly fell in love with each other.

At first, they didn’t exactly get along. The only reason they were even traveling together was because Dimitri needed someone to pretend to be Anastasia, and Anya needed to go to Paris to find any information about her family.

The two argued and quarreled a lot, but the audience can easily see the chemistry between them especially with how they interacted and acted around each other when they started to become friends until they were well on their way to becoming a couple.

How to Make a Love Story Believable?

But none of that happened overnight, and that’s yet another thing that makes Anya and Dimitri’s love believable. The passage of time in the movie made it possible to show how the two slowly and gradually started to fall for each other.

At first, we see them arguing and not exactly getting along and then, later on, after they had time to get to know each other, we see them about to kiss.

The fact that Anastasia and Dimitri (#ad) had to travel from Russia to France really allowed the film to present the couple’s love in a believable and realistic way. We saw their route via the map, and we saw how they had to travel by train and by ship before they can even get to their destination.

All this indicates that the 2 had all that time to get to know each other and start to fall in love with each other so the audience wouldn’t think that it only took the 2 a day or so before they were already ready to become a couple.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

What about you? What do you think about this? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment or by answering the poll below.


*Notes:
- Originally published on my Soyuz Mir Tumblr blog. I've decided to import it here as a backup copy
- YouTube video features the trailer for Anastasia
- Text was added to pic using Canva
- Pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above

Reason Why You Should Dislike Movies With Unpredictable Plots

When you’re watching a movie, do you try to predict what will happen next based on what you’ve seen so far?

The challenge that movies have is to not be too predictable because where’s the fun in that if you can already tell what will happen next, right?

Movies with Predictable Plots are not Always a Bad Thing

Sometimes, even if the movie can be a bit predictable when it comes to its plot, it can still be interesting and enjoyable especially if its cast of characters are all likable.


While a film might try to be unpredictable and offer its audience several twists and turns, it shouldn’t overdo this in such a way that would make whatever incident it shows its viewers come across as unbelievable or unrealistic within the context of the movie.

Movies Should not Overdo the Surprises, Twists, and Turns

In other words, a movie shouldn’t have events transpire or occur just for the sake of being unpredictable and wanting to surprise the audience. Events should happen because they’re supposed to and because this is part of the natural progression of the plot.

For example, characters should not just die or be killed off just to surprise the viewers. If a character’s life must end, it must be because the plot demands it and because it really is the character’s time to die.

It could be because the character has a terminal illness or some other reason, as long as it’s believable and realistic and logical in terms of the movie’s plot.

For instance, it wouldn’t be strange if a character is assassinated all of a sudden if the earlier parts of the movie had established that this person is being targeted by assassins, or that someone has ordered this character to be killed, or that someone has a reason to want to kill this character.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

So, what about you? Do you prefer movies to be predictable or would it be better if they’re unpredictable? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

*Notes:
-Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
-Image is meant to symbolize possible plots of a story or movie – the 2 figures who appear to be fighters could win or lose against their opponents
-Second pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above and via the Native Shopping Ads widget
-YouTube video features the trailer for the 2013 Japanese drama film entitled Angel Home (Kuchizuke); this was chosen because this is a very good example of a film with an unpredictable plot. However, for this movie, the story or plot actually worked in its favor
-This was originally published elsewhere

Tangled Disney Movie Review: Things to Like and Dislike About This Film

Tangled (#ad) is a 2010 animated musical fantasy-comedy movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the fairy tale of Rapunzel.

I found the film to be pretty enjoyable and interesting, but I thought that it could have been so much better. What’s there to like and dislike about this adaptation of the Rapunzel story?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for said movie)

Good Things About Tangled

The movie started out so nicely, presenting a riveting storyline and managing to create a seemingly unique perspective on the aforementioned fairy tale, what with the magical flower and Rapunzel’s magical hair, among other things.

There were a lot of very humorous and amusing moments, but there was action and adventure too, all of which really blended well in the film.

Rapunzel and Gothel’s Relationship

I found the mother-daughter relationship between Rapunzel and Gothel to be very believable. It really seemed like Gothel truly loved and cared about Rapunzel, so much so that I don’t think I would have minded much if that was really how it was.

Gothel’s actions just appeared to be that of an overprotective parent who was really concerned and worried about the safety of her daughter, which made sense especially considering the magical hair and how there really were people who would want to take advantage of Rapunzel for that.

The Climax = Epic Fail?

However, while the beginning of the story was perfectly fine, I thought that it fell flat near the climax and especially during the parts where the film was about to end.

This was where things started to become very disappointing and where the Tangled movie could have been so much better.

Rapunzel Discovers the Truth About Her Mom

The way Rapunzel found out that she wasn’t really Gothel’s daughter and her subsequent reaction to this news seemed to have come from out of nowhere. This happened so fast that it just didn’t seem believable at all.

It’s like she was just looking at the symbols when, seemingly all of a sudden, she already knows the truth. Her reaction to this discovery also didn’t seem believable to me.

Previous scenes showed just how much she loved Gothel and how worried she was about disappointing her, but now it seemed that she had gone from being the loving daughter to hating her mother in practically 5 seconds flat.

No more than just a few scenes ago, Rapunzel was so happy to see her mother coming to her rescue, but now she suddenly hates her. How could she suddenly hate the woman who had raised her and whom she had been with practically her entire life?

What about all the times that the two of them spent together? The movie gave the impression that those weren’t exactly bad times for Rapunzel and that she really did love her mother, so how could she easily forget or discard that?

Flynn Looks for Rapunzel

After this, the disappointments just seemed to pile up though there was a good scene wherein the thugs from the bar show up to help out Flynn who now goes off to see Rapunzel. The last time the two saw each other, Rapunzel fully believed that Flynn had abandoned and left her.

Understandably, she should be angry with him for this. So why was she happy to see him when he showed up? How come she was no longer mad at him? How did she know what really happened unless Gothel explained things to her? But then why would Gothel tell her about that?

Why Did Rapunzel Have to Lose Her Hair?

Flynn gets hurt by Gothel, and Rapunzel insists on helping him. The outcome is that Rapunzel’s hair ends up getting cut thanks to Flynn. Why did this have to happen?

Her long, golden hair was one of the things about her that really made her stand out. This was part of what made her Rapunzel, but now her hair gets cut and she’s suddenly a brunette.

How the Villain Was Defeated

The film added more disappointments in the way the villain or antagonist was ‘defeated’, if you could even call it that.

You would have thought that this should have been harder, and yet Gothel didn’t even seem like a threat now even though in earlier scenes, she certainly appeared like she could be very threatening and you wouldn’t want to cross her.

Her defeat hardly made much sense. How could she age so rapidly just because Rapunzel’s hair had been cut? It made it seem like she needed to have the hair wrapped around her all the time when that hadn’t been the case at all.

Best Part of Tangled

Overall, I found the beginning of Tangled to be the best part of the film while the ending was rather weak and pretty disappointing.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

What about you? What are your thoughts and opinions on the Tangled movie? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.


Notes:
-Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by lilie-morhiril (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
-Image was chosen because it features Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled
-The rest of the pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above and via the Native Shopping Ads widget
-YouTube video features the trailer for Tangled
-This was originally published elsewhere on 15 October 2015 at 4:29 PM