One of the movies that I watched this summer was (formerly Fox's, but now Disney's) Anastasia (1997). As per many, many, many requests from my friend, seeing as it is one of her favorite movies, I finally decided to watch it. Anastasia is a movie about the Russian Royal family, the Romanov's\Nikolaevna's. Anastasia, our main character, is the Grand Duchess of Russia, and she can not remember any of her past. The wizard Rasputin put a curse\hex on her and her entire family, which causes at a young age for her to get separated from her family. Anastasia ends up in an orphanage with an entirely new name; Anya. Many years later, two con men hold auditions to find a girl who looks exactly like the missing Duchess, to send her home to Paris with her extended family, so they will be included in collecting prize money for finding her.
I found that this movie moved entirely too quickly. Understanding that it is a children's movie, I still thought that the plot advanced too fast for anyone other than a child to enjoy. I had to continue asking my friend questions during the movie because I felt that things moved so fast. The tragic beginning to the movie was summed up in an instant. There was barely a back story between the Royal Family and the wizard Rasputin, making a viewer wonder, "why does he hate this family so much to sell his soul to kill them?" (Maybe not in all of those words, but something along those lines.) This, at least in my opinion, makes a new viewer feel entirely confused.
In addition to my previous statement, it seemed that every problem that was created along her journey was almost instantly fixed. Once again, seeing how it is a children's movie, the film probably was better off having a quick fix to the issues that were created. Alongside the movie being fast paced, I found that there was little to no character development. Sure, bad guys stay bad, and good guys stay good, unless the "bad guys" are supposed to be friends with the main character, then they turn good for the benefit of the movie, you see this pattern often. Other than this, there was not much back story on any of the characters, which is something I found problematic.
All in all, I feel like this movie falls into the bad-good movie chart category, for me at least. While I found the movie itself to be quite boring overall and leaving me unenthused, it is considered a classic, and therefore I feel like I can't hate it entirely.
If you have not seen the movie before, or want to refresh your memory, watch the clip linked below and see for yourself if you find that the beginning is a bit fast paced, and showing minimal back story\information in general.
Anastasia Opening Scene
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