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

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

Results Of The Anastasia Movie Rating

I added a ratings capsule or widget to this post about the Anastasia 1997 animated film (#ad) produced by Fox Animation Studio and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The movie is based on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and how she might have survived the Romanov massacre.

This pic shows Anya or Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia, the main character of the Anastasia 1997 animated movie by Fox, and Dimitri, her love interest

The post is about how believable and realistic it was for Anya, the protagonist, to learn how to be a Grand Duchess so quickly. It used to be published on HubPages, but I decided to delete it from that site and post it here on Movies Meta instead.

Below, you can see the results of the ratings capsule for the article in question:

So, how 'bout you? What do you think about this movie? How would you rate it?

*Notes:
- First pic is the cover of the Anastasia movie from Amazon.com; link shown above
- Second pic is a screenshot from my HubPages account

Anastasia Animated Movie: Reasons Why Grand Duchess Anya Is Believable?

Anastasia (#ad) is a 1997 animated film produced by Fox Animation Studio and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The main character of said movie is Anastasia (also known as Anya), and she just so happens to be a Grand Duchess.

Why and how is it possible for Anya to learn how to be a Grand Duchess so quickly? Is this realistic and believable?

*Warning for possible spoilers of the Anastasia 1997 animated movie by Fox

The story of the Anastasia movie

This animated film is actually based on the myth or rumor that Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, was able to survive the Romanov massacre.

Anya, the main character

An incident in Russia causes Anya to lose her memories

In this movie, we are introduced to Anya (voiced by Kirsten Dunst (child) and Meg Ryan (adult)), the main and title character. She lost her memories and was unfortunately separated from her family when she was very young.

The only clue that Anya has and her reasons for wanting to leave Russia

The only clue that she has as to the whereabouts of her family is thanks to a locket. This locket has the words "together in Paris". Believing that she can find her family and her true identity in Paris, France, Anya wants to go there.

Anya is the main character of this 1997 animated movie by Fox Animation Studio. The guy beside Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia in this pic is Dimitri, the Russian guy who wants the money that the Dowager Empress is offering, but ends up falling in love with the protagonist instead

Anya meets 2 Russian men: Dimitri and Vladimir

Anya meets Vladimir (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) and Dimitri (voiced by John Cusack) in Russia. These 2 have the means of getting her to Paris.

The Russians are looking for an Anastasia look-alike in order to fool the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna (voiced by Angela Lansbury).

Marie is looking for her granddaughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and is prepared to pay a huge sum of money to whoever can reunite her with her long-lost granddaughter.

Dimitri and Vladimir want this money. Seeing that Anya looks so similar to the real grand duchess, they convince her that she just might be the Dowager Empress' granddaughter. Since the 2 men are heading to Paris where Marie is, Anya agrees to go with them.

Anya learns how to be a grand duchess on short notice

Vladimir and Dimitri teach Anya everything that they know about Anastasia to ensure that the Dowager Empress will fall for the ruse.

By the time they arrive in Paris, Anya knows all there is to know about being Grand Duchess Anastasia. As such, she is able to easily answer all the questions thrown at her by Sophie (voiced by Bernadette Peters), Marie's lady-in-waiting and first cousin.

Sophie was tasked by the Dowager Empress to test all the women who claimed to be Anastasia since there were many who merely pretended to be the grand duchess just so that they could get the reward money.

This is the official trailer for the Anastasia 1997 animated movie by Fox Animation Studio

Why and how is this believable and realistic?

At first glance, it may seem unbelievable and even unrealistic to see how quickly and easily Anya was able to know and learn all these things about being Anastasia in such a short period of time.

After all, is it really possible for someone to know everything there is to know about a person? How does the Anastasia animated film manage to make this part believable and realistic then?

The answer lies in the way the passage of time worked in this movie. This made all these things seem plausible, realistic, and believable.

Traveling from St. Petersburg, Russia to Paris, France

Anya, Dimitri, and Vladimir didn’t get to Paris, France in one single day. It took them quite some time before they arrived at their destination and before they got to meet up with Sophie and the Dowager Empress.

They were in St. Petersburg, Russia at first. Then, they had to ride a train and they even had to board a ship before they could finally arrive in Paris, France. This meant that Anya had all that time to learn all the things that she needed to know about Anastasia.

Importance of time and the truth that Anya is Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia

This meant that Dimitri and Vladimir had all that time to teach Anya all the information that she needed to know. Anya also had all that time to learn how to act and be like Anastasia.

The fact that Anya really is the Grand Duchess Anastasia also helped because this meant that she already knows all the things that Dimitri and Vladimir are telling her about.

It’s just that, thanks to her amnesia, she couldn’t recall anything. However, the memories were still inside her even if she couldn’t remember them. She just needed a little boost to help her remember everything.

What do you think?

So, what about you? What do you think? Do you agree that it was believable, possible, and realistic that Anya was able to learn how to act like Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov of Russia so quickly and easily? Or do you think that this was unbelievable and that it doesn't make sense?


*Notes:
- Pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
- This was previously published on HubPages in 2015

How The Pleasantville 1998 Fantasy Comedy-Drama Movie Can Confuse You?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for Pleasantville, an American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross)

Pleasantville (1998) (#ad) is a film about fraternal twins who have a very interesting out-of-this-world experience when they encounter new people and end up bringing changes to a quiet, pleasant town.

Pleasantville can be confusing

So, what can be confusing about this movie? How exactly can Pleasantville confuse you?

Well, for starters, you can try not watching this show from the very beginning. That will definitely confuse you.

I didn’t get to watch this movie from the beginning, so I found it hard to understand what was happening at first.

With regards to this film, it can be hard to infer or get what’s going on if you don’t know what went on during its opening scenes.

Normally, usually, or ordinarily, if you find that the plot or story of a show is just too confusing to understand, you’d be more inclined to stop watching it and just go and find something else to watch, right?

Pleasantville may be confusing, but it is interesting

That’s what I would have done too, but Pleasantville was able to pique my curiosity and get me interested enough to want to find out more about it even though I missed seeing the opening scenes and was having a hard time trying to figure out what was going on.

Seeing all the black and white colors, I thought at first that this was one of those old movies. It certainly seemed that way.

But then color suddenly started showing up, deepening the mystery of the storyline and really making the audience wonder as to what is really happening.

Is Pleasantville a fantasy?

The seemingly sudden appearance of the colors also added an element of fantasy to what, at first, appeared to be a realistic drama of sorts.

Now, it seemed that magic was actually involved as part of the story. And this is reinforced when we see Bud Parker (played by Tobey Maguire), the main character, talking to the TV and having it respond to him.

There was also a scene, which showed Bud reprimanding his sister, Mary Sue Parker (played by Reese Witherspoon), for something that she apparently did.

I didn’t get that at first and had no idea what Mary Sue supposedly did, but I was curious enough to continue viewing the movie even though I was still horribly confused and said film didn’t seem inclined to clear things up anytime soon.

Could Pleasantville be a horror movie?

I even considered that Pleasantville might actually be a horror film since we saw Bud looking troubled at whatever his sister was doing and he was even worried for the guy that his sister was dating.

Add that to the sudden appearance of color in an otherwise black-and-white movie and that really makes the possibility of this being a horror story plausible.

As such, I was wary of seeing something horrible and terrible since I don’t like horror movies. I was still really curious about the storyline of this film though so I kept watching it.

I was pleased when nothing scary happened and the mystery was starting to get solved, little-by-little.

All-in-all, Pleasantville is a confusing movie if you didn’t get to start it from the beginning, but don’t let that stop you from watching it anyway.

Why? It’s because it has the ability to pique people’s curiosity and interest and get them to continue watching even if they’re confused just so they can try to figure out what is really going on and be able to solve the mystery of Pleasantville.


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize how confusing the Pleasantville movie can be because of all the details in said image
- The rest of the pics are from Amazon.com; link shown above
- YouTube video features the Pleasantville trailer