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Anastasia Parent Guide

Dump the typecast bad guy, and you would be close to animation perfection..

The last of the Russian Czars, Nicholas Romanov II, was brutally executed in 1917 with the rest of his family by revolutionaries frustrated with imperial control of their country. The question is whether one of his five children, Anastasia, managed to escape the massacre.

Release date November 14, 1997

Run Time: 94 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

In the movie, the grandmother of the Romanov family is willing to pay a large reward for the return of her granddaughter. Two enterprising men, both former staff members of the Czar’s family, see this as an opportunity to escape St, Petersburg and perhaps pick up the reward. All they need is someone who can pass as Anastasia. Anya, an orphan girl with no history of her past, fits the men’s requirements precisely—perhaps too precisely. The trio are soon on the train and bound for Paris and the inevitable adventures that will happen to them on the way.

The most discouraging mimicking of Disney is the inclusion of an extreme bad guy, in this case Rasputin. In reality an unofficial advisor to Nicholas’s wife, he is depicted as a sorcerer who after falling through the ice and dying, continues to live in his decaying body. This character seems completely out of place from the rest of the film, and I can’t believe that escaping from revolutionary Russia wouldn’t provide enough opposition for the heroes. With his body parts falling off of him, young children may be disturbed by scenes that include this character.

In every other way, Anastasia is a first rate animation that marries traditional and computerized art work. I appreciated a modestly dressed heroine whose character was based more on personality rather than figure. Dump the typecast bad guy, and you would be close to animation perfection.

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Rod Gustafson

The most recent home video release of anastasia movie is march 14, 2006. here are some details….

Anastasia releases to Blu-ray on March 22, 2100, with the following bonus extras:

- Audio Commentary by Directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

- Sing-A-Longs

- Anastasia’s Music Box Favorites

- Russian Stacking Doll Game

- Anastasia’s Seek and Find

- Bartok the Magnificent

- How to Draw with Don Bluth

- The Making of Anastasia

- Anastasia: A Magical Journey

- Making of “Journey to the Past” Music Video

- Music Video: “Journey to the Past” by Aaliyah

- Trailers and TV Spots

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Anastasia Reviews

A passable clone, but for all its technical accomplishments, a movie that does not have the magic.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 10, 2023

Anastasia is another of Don Bluth’s attempts to wrest control of the genre that remains inferior in nearly every way, except one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 23, 2022

The world of “Anastasia” seems well-developed and lived-in. There’s a sense of realism contained in the film’s scenery.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 3, 2022

It's unable to reach the level of emotional resonance that Disney's string of '90s pictures so masterfully obtained.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 9, 2020

As a triumphant return to form after a string of failures, it stands as one of Bluth's finest works.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 10, 2020

Overall, Anastasia ends up being a very entertaining animated film.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 19, 2019

It is a film that leaves us with an optimistic, albeit somewhat corny, message; love is the most important thing there is, be it familial, romantic or platonic...

Full Review | Aug 24, 2018

Flawed but not fatally, this ambitious epic's strength lies not just with its haunting melodies, pretty pictures, star voices and kid-friendly sidekicks... What gives Anastasia its edge is that most elusive of ingredients, an emotionally gripping script.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 9, 2018

Anastasia is OK entertainment. But it never reaches a level of emotional magic.

Full Review | Jan 5, 2018

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

It's Bluth and company's skill as artists, as well as some of the better celebrity voice casting in an animated movie of the 1990s, that give Anastasia its merit.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 22, 2011

Beautiful, not factual depiction of missing Russian duchess.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 21, 2010

This enchanting fairy-tale, the first release from Fox Animation Studios, is pure family entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 18, 2008

There is much for tots to enjoy: decent songs, an amusing script and some surprisingly imaginative animation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 1, 2008

An ambitious, serious but not particularly stimulating musical feature that unconvincingly attempts to graft warm and cuddly family-film motifs onto turbulent aspects of modern history and mythology.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2008

It does veer horribly towards the sentimental at times, but still provides proof positive that other people can do cartoons too.

I have nothing but superlatives for this, a most phenomenal film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 13, 2006

...it's the typical boy-meets-girl-boy-annoys-girl-boy-and-girl-snipe-at-each-other-as-a-disguise-for-being-fond-of-each-other relationship.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 6, 2006

Bluth has rediscovered the ingredients of quality mainstream animation...

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

Looking at Film from Every Angle

Review: Anastasia (1997)

Wesley Lovell

Don Bluth, Gary Goldman

Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, Eric Tuchman

Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, Angela Lansbury, Rick Jones, Andrea Martin

MPAA Rating

Buy/rent movie.

When the preeminent animation house dominates the industry, it’s difficult to find animated films that can surpass the gold standard for the medium. Anastasia is another of Don Bluth’s attempts to wrest control of the genre that remains inferior in nearly every way, except one.

For his 9th animated feature, Bluth takes us on a different fairy tale adventure, one that looks like something Disney might have created, yet borrows not from literature, but from world history. The story of the collapse of the Romanovs in Russia is an oft-told tale of limited factual certainty. Bluth’s screenplay takes some of the most basic elements of that Russian story and mixes in fantastical elements to create a strangely appealing story about the mysterious missing Romanov heir, Anastasia.

Meg Ryan provides the adult voice of Anatasia who suffers from amnesia after an incident the occurred while fleeting the Russian Revolution. Believing her name to be Anya, Anastasia follows the instructions on a locket of unknown origins that says “Together in Paris.” As she attempts to flee Russia without proper documentation, she falls into the hands of Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vlad (Kelsey Grammer), two con-men hoping to pass off Anya as the Dowager Empress’ (Angela Lansbury) long lost granddaughter. Along the way, the sorcerer Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), with his talking albino bat Bartok (Hank Azaria) by his side, attempts to thwart the happy reunion and insure the curse he put on the Romanov family remains intact.

As far as stories go, it’s difficult not to be impressed by what’s been crafted here. Based on the famous Russian legend of a survivor of the Romanov family, who were all assassinated during the Russian Revolution, significant liberties are taken with the narrative, weaving in fantastical elements such as the underworld and magic. It’s the kind of story that would have fit well within the Disney realm of animated stories perfectly. The difficulty is that Bluth’s animation style isn’t exactly rudimentary, but it’s not as polished as that of Disney’s master craftsmen.

Before computer animation became the dominant form of animated storytelling, hand-drawn animated features like Anastasia wove in elements of computer animation to try and create a sense of modernity. Beauty and the Beast famously did this with their gorgeous ballroom sequence and subsequent efforts attempted to employ computers to create breathing environments in which the characters could move. What helped Disney’s films avoid the pitfalls of blending computer and traditional hand-drawn animation was that they typically used it to create backgrounds rather than foreground images. Anastasia doesn’t avoid that trap and uses it for things such as the music box, thrusting it into the front-and-center of the audience’s vision and thereby sticking out to the audience and looking ill-used.

While the animation style is one of the key issues with the film’s inability to stand out, the voice acting shifts from the credible (Lansbury, Azaria, Grammer) to the craftless (Ryan, Cusack). Then there’s Lloyd whose over-the-top villainy is an ill-fit to the other more subdued work.

For fans of animation, it’s crucial to step outside the carefully curated image that Disney, and later Pixar, have created for themselves. Learning to appreciate animation requires finding films like Anastasia , Bluth’s All Dogs Go to Heaven , and Ralph Bakshi’s The Hobbit to find examples of how many styles and types of animation there are. Anastasia is oftentimes inferior to Disney’s 1990s renaissance films, but it has some charms. It’s better than Disney’s 2000s nadir of Home on the Range , but everything looks brilliant next to that. This film is for young children who are less picky than their adult counterparts. Yet, some of the imagery and subject matter might be a better fit for older kids. Either way, the film works well enough for the effort put into it.

Review Written

August 17, 2022

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Cast & Crew

John Cusack

Christopher Lloyd

Kelsey Grammer

Hank Azaria

Bartok the Bat

Beautiful, not factual depiction of missing Russian duchess.

• Average 7.1

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© 1997 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

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Anastasia: Once Upon a Time

Dove review.

A little more retro than the 1997 animated classic Anastasia , Anastasia: Once Upon a Time adds a magical 80s twist to the legend of the mysterious Russian duchess.

Lenin serves as the ultimate bad guy in this tale, as he tries to murder Anastasia’s royal family—the Romanov Dynasty. Rasputin (the animated classic’s villain) creates a time portal for the Romanov family to escape through, but only Anastasia travels through the portal and into a new world. Angry, Lenin hypnotizes Rasputin and sends him into the portal to bring Anastasia back. However, Anastasia isn’t alone. She now has the help of her new preteen friend, Megan, from a 1980s USA.

Megan has her own crisis. She is always bullied and has a tough time finding her place in school and everywhere else, but the girls form a strong friendship. Together, they have a bond that no evil magic can touch.

This film includes a strong message of friendship and sacrificial love, including a scene where Anastasia sacrifices her reputation and the approval of others by inviting local orphans to the palace ball. However, several scenes mention alcohol, like whiskey and vodka. Mild magical violence is scattered throughout the film, but there is no gore. Parents need to be aware of some of the heavier magical elements (i.e. good versus evil), as well as one haunted house-like scene that includes disturbing characters.

Because of some of the scary, magical elements, we award Anastasia: Once Upon a Time Dove-approval for Ages 12+.

The Dove Take:

This retro redo of the animated classic Anastasia hosts new themes of friendship and sacrifice, but parents need to be aware of darker magic and scary scenes that aren’t appropriate for young children.

Dove Rating Details

Swords and guns used, but no blood and gore

Unclear, potential homosexual reference when one character mentions a "partner" rather than a female date to the ball

Mild name-calling, like "idiot"

Reference to whiskey, bad guys seen toasting vodka

Fashion show includes models in tighter, more revealing clothes

Lots of child-like magical elements, Halloween party with witches and a disturbing haunted house-like scene

More Information

Film information, dove content.

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‘fifty shades of grey’: film review.

Bondage stakes its claim on the multiplex as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele transition steamily from best-seller to the big screen.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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As the tens of millions of readers of Fifty Shades of Grey know, Christian Grey doesn’t do hearts and flowers. The long-fingered antihero of E L James’ 2011 novel is a sexual dominant, practiced and resolute, determined to make Anastasia Steele his submissive without giving her the dreaded “more” — i.e., the dinner-date trappings of conventional romance. Both on the page and in the glossy, compellingly acted screen adaptation, one of the more perverse aspects of their zeitgeist-harnessing story is the breathless way it melds the erotic kink known as BDSM with female wish-fulfillment fantasy of a decidedly retro slant. Hearts and flowers are barely concealed beneath the pornographic surface, and as with most mainstream love stories, an infatuated but commitment-averse male is in need of rehabilitation.

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Arriving on Valentine’s weekend with record-setting ticket presales, the first in a planned trilogy of movies will stoke the ardor of James’ fans, entice curious newbies, and in every way live up to the “phenomenon” hype. Although the book’s soft-X explicitness has been toned down to a hard R, this is the first studio film in many years to gaze directly at the Medusa of sex — and unlike such male-leer predecessors as 9½ Weeks , it does so from a woman’s perspective. Aiming to please, the filmmakers submit without hesitation to the bold yet hokey source material, with leads Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson breathing a crucial third dimension into cutout characters.

The Bottom Line A well-cast conversation starter, by turns provocative and romance-novel gooey

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who depicted the psychosexual domestic drama of John Lennon’s adolescence in Nowhere Boy , has a feel for the dark corners of relationships. Telling the story of a virginal young woman in thrall to a man with “singular” needs — the book began as Twilight fan fiction — she depicts fringe pursuits within a familiar, reassuring romance-novel dynamic. And she makes brisk cinema of the opening sequence, placing English-lit major Anastasia in the gleaming high-rise Seattle office of supercapitalist Grey and setting up the contrast between her fumbling innocence and his affected formality. She’s a last-minute substitute for her roommate, Kate (Eloise Mumford), who’s home nursing a cold while Anastasia interviews the young entrepreneur for their school paper.

In that glass box, Dornan seems lacking as the stormy-eyed Grey, displaying little of the animal magnetism of the serial killer he plays on BBC series The Fall (indirectly referenced in an exchange of in-joke dialogue). But his performance quickly grows fascinating in its containment, revealing a disturbingly more animated side of Grey when he next encounters Ana. With a suddenness that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror thriller, he shows up in the aisles of the hardware store where she works and leaves her deeply flustered as she helps him with a shopping list of items — rope and cable ties among them — whose true purpose she’ll soon understand.

But not all that soon. It’s a slow build to the smutty bits, and one that’s disappointingly devoid of tension. Even so, the movie is, by definition, a stronger proposition than the book because it strips away the oodles of cringe-inducing descriptions and internal monologue that tip the text heavily toward self-parody. Things grow more compelling once Grey whips out his nondisclosure agreement — along with a nice Pouilly-Fumé, naturally — and shows Ana his “playroom,” expertly outfitted with state-of-the-art S&M gear.

Except for his prowess at pleasuring women, everything is slightly off in Grey, from the not-quite-swagger of entitlement to the not-quite-revealed memories of a wounded childhood. In his first major big-screen performance, Dornan creates a remarkable range within Grey’s tightly wound intensity. When he takes Ana up in a magnificent glider, both characters let go, and the two leads wordlessly evince very different forms of unhinged joy, equally affecting.

The screenplay by Kelly Marcel, whose only previous feature credit is the utterly wholesome Saving Mr. Banks , is ultra-faithful to James’ writing, and retains some of its most risible lines. Many of these fall to Dornan, who finds the icily deranged conviction in such morsels as “I’m not going to touch you until I have your written consent” and “Welcome to my world,” Grey’s pronouncement after receiving said consent and giving Ana her first spanking.

As the attraction plays out, Ana is both doe-eyed and skeptical, challenging Grey on his philosophy as well as specific clauses of the contract that would officially make her his submissive. They negotiate that document in a nighttime “business meeting,” with cinematographer Seamus McGarvey finding a stylized sensuality in the widescreen frame. Throughout the film, his use of close-ups is fully attuned to the central performances.

First seen looking in a mirror, Anastasia is a figure defined by self-discovery. She’s embarking on postcollege life at the same time that she experiences a physical awakening that she never would have imagined. Although the character’s literary leanings are as flatly drawn as Grey’s vague philanthropic undertakings and high-powered tech-biz talk, Johnson is captivating. Her facial features recall both her parents (Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson), but she’s very much her own actor.

With a loose-limbed naturalness, she conveys naiveté, intellectual curiosity and romantic yearning, and shows the unassuming Ana’s newfound thrill at being seen, however complicated the man holding her in his admiring gaze. She’s open and vulnerable but no fool. Best of all, Johnson and her director embrace Ana’s paradox: She snickers at Christian’s predilections, but they also turn her on.

The movie, too, wants to have it both ways: Informative and nonjudgmental about bondage and discipline, it distances itself from such pursuits with shard-sharp slivers of backstory, indicating that Christian’s desires are expressions of trauma-induced pathology. He’s supremely dreamy damaged goods, ripe for the saving. And so the moonlit postcoital sonatas he plays at his piano — interludes of self-conscious melancholy that are among the most laugh-out-loud schmaltzy in the book, transplanted whole to the screen. 

From meet-cute to deflowering to the sequel-setup ending, the relationship between Ana and Christian is one of carefully navigated mutual consent. Their first use of his playroom is packaged in a montage-y way that feels nonthreatening and more than a little generic, complete with intrusive pop-track accompaniment. A few dom-sub contract details and a couple of online photos notwithstanding, the movie maintains an artful restraint even as it talks dirty; the sex scenes suggest more than those of the standard Hollywood drama without quite going there. The penultimate scene, where Christian punishes Anastasia with a belt — and thrills to it, as Dornan communicates with exquisite subtlety — is by far the film’s most extreme.

Surrounding the steamy/clinical pas de deux are barely sketched types: Jennifer Ehle plays Anastasia’s much-married mother, Victor Rasuk is her smitten photographer friend , and Luke Grimes is Christian’s demonstrative brother. Among these half-conceived characters, Mumford, as Ana’s all-American valedictorian best friend, and Marcia Gay Harden, as Christian’s adoptive mother, make the sharpest impressions.

In the workaday “purity” of Ana’s life and the otherworldly wealth of Christian’s, production designer David Wasco and costume designer Mark Bridges hew to the details of James’ story in ways that fans will spark to, while Taylor-Johnson and McGarvey cast the Pacific Northwest in an unaccustomed light, naughty and tormented.

When it’s not insistently bland and overused, Danny Elfman’s score hits the right notes of heart-thumping dread/excitement, accentuating Anastasia’s point of view. The inclusion of on-the-nose songs such as “Beast of Burden” is more distracting than helpful, but the opening-credits use of “I Put a Spell on You” sets the right hot-and-bothered tone. Who’s casting a spell on whom is the question.

Production companies: Focus Features, Michael De Luca Prods., Trigger Street Prods. Cast: Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford, Victor Rasuk, Luke Grimes, Marcia Gay Harden Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson Screenwriter: Kelly Marcel Based on the novel by E L James Producers: Michael De Luca, E L James, Dana Brunetti Executive producers: Marcus Viscidi, Jeb Brody Director of photography: Seamus McGarvey Production designer: David Wasco Costume designer: Mark Bridges Editors: Debra Neil-Fisher, Anne V. Coates, Lisa Gunning Composer: Danny Elfman Casting: Francine Maisler Rated R, 125 minutes

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Broadway Review: ‘Anastasia,’ The Musical

By Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo

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Young women and girls in search of a new Broadway role model need look no further than the title character in “ Anastasia ,” the sumptuous fairy tale of a musical that should please the kids, satisfy the sentimental and comfort those who thought the old templates for musical comedy were passé. The broad strokes of the familiar — a romantic young couple, a villain in hot pursuit, comic supporting characters, an endearing family member  —  can still be irresistible when combined with taste, craftsmanship and a willing suspension of disbelief.

Director Darko Tresnjak, who earned a Tony for “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,”  and much of the first-class design team from that production, weave an enchanting spell targeted to young distaff audiences — a built-in demographic that should reap plenty of rubles both here, on the road and abroad.

The musical is “inspired” by 20th Century Fox’s 1997 animated film and the 1956 movie starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner — which had a decidedly more mature script by Arthur Laurents (based on a Marcelle Maurette play adapted by Guy Bolton) — as it tells the story of Anya (Christy Altomare), a young amnesiac in post-Revolution Russia who is convinced by street Svengalis Dmitry (Derek Klena) and Vlad (John Bolton) that she is Czar Nicholas II’s youngest daughter, who is rumored to have escaped her family’s fate.

Anya is groomed to present herself to the surviving royal grandmother (Mary Beth Peil) and aide, Countess Lily (Caroline O’Connor), now living in Paris, so that she can claim the crown and the cons can get their reward.

Songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens , who penned the tunes for the animated film and earned an Oscar nomination for the popular anthem “Journey to the Past,” reprise their duties here, adapting their melodic (if exposition-crammed) score to the stage. New numbers have been added to pump up emotions, excitement and comic shtick, and to fill in the gaps in the refashioned and expedient-to-a-fault script by Terrence McNally .

The musical has been sharpened since its premiere at Hartford Stage last year  with more sophisticated staging for the second-act opener. Major credit going to Aaron Rhyne’s hi-def projections, which bring a sense of cinematic sweep and depth to the show. Also beefed up is the part of Gleb, the musical’s autocratic-yet-conflicted Bolshevik, played with a dark dreaminess and clarion pipes by Ramin Karimloo.

But some of the show’s head-scratchers remain: A scene in which Anya decides her future after advice from her nana still seems musically empty. Gleb’s initial attraction to Anya remains wafer thin. And having Anya embrace her common hero while running through the Paris streets in a satin gown and tiara is not only absurd but sends a mixed message at the musical’s end. (But who can blame the girl for not wanting to give up one of Linda Cho’s many breathtaking outfits?)

As the young woman who finds not only her identity but sense of self, Altomare takes the spotlight with the same assured conviction with which Anya takes the crown. And if thoughts of Julie Andrews pop up on occasion, it isn’t inappropriate — or undeserved, given Altomare’s vocal strength and the “My Fair Princess” theme.

Klena fills in the generic hero outline with boyish charm, humor and a gorgeous voice. Though there are no real romantic duets for the leads, they make a perfect pair and strike a special bond with “In a Crowd of Thousands,” an unexpected emotional highlight.

As the Dowager Empress, Peil brings imperial gravitas, as well as a grandmother’s heartbreak and joy to the role. Bolton’s count-turned-con and O’Connor’s libidinous lady-in-waiting score big with their comic turns. Their mad ham waltz, “The Countess and the Common Man,” is delightfully staged by Peggy Hickey, whose choreography includes a rousing expat number “Land of Yesterday,” as well as a bit of “Swan Lake” and lots of swirling ghosts around Alexander Dodge’s elegant set, exquisitely lit by Donald Holder and enhanced by Peter Hylenski’s vivid sound design.

In this alt-reality, history is rewritten, a princess finds her bliss — and an old-fashioned musical likely lives happy ever after.

Broadhurst Theater; 1,156 seats; $169 top; opens April 24, 2017; reviewed April 21, 2017. Running time: 2 HOURS, 30 MIN.

• Production: A presentation by Stage Entertainment, Bill Taylor, Tom Kirdahy, Hunter Arnold, 50 Church Street Productions, The Shubert Organization, Elizabeth Dewberry & Ali Ahmet Kocabiyik, Carl Daikeler, Van Dean/Stephanie Rosenberg, Warner/Chappell Music, 42nd.club/Phil Kenny, Judith Ann Abrams, Broadway Asia/Umeda Arts Theater, Harriet Newman Leve, Peter May, David Mirvish, Sandi Moran, Seoul Broadcasting System, Sara Beth Zivitz, Michael Stotts, LD Entertainment/Sally Cade Holmes, Jay Alix & Una Jackman/Blumegreenspan, Carolyn and Marc Seriff/Bruno Wang and Silva Theatrical Group/Adam Zell, and executive producer Eric Cornell and produced in association with The Hartford Stage Company; commissioned by Dmitry Bogachev of a musical in two acts with book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, inspired by the motion picture by 20th Century Fox.
• Crew: Directed by Darko Tresnjak. Choreographed by Peggy Hickey. Musical Direction by  Thomas Murray. Sets, Alexander Dodge; costumes, Linda Cho; lighting, Donald Holder; sound, Peter Hylenski; projection design, Aaron Rhyne; orchestrated, Doug Besterman; vocal arrangements, Stephen Flaherty; dance arrangements, David Chase; production stage manager, Bonnie Panson.
• Cast: Christy Altomare, Derek Klena, Ramin Karimloo, John Bolton, Mary Beth Peil, Caroline O’Connor, Constantine Germanacos, Allison Walsh, Kyle Brown, James A. Pierce III, Zach Adkins, Sissy Bell, Lauren Blackman, Janet Dickinson, Wes Hart, Ken Krugman, Shina Ann Morris, Molly Rushing, Nicole Scimeca, Johnny Stellard, McKayla Twiggs, Allison Walsh, Beverly Ward.

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What to watch with your kids: ‘Haunted Mansion’ and more

Here’s what parents need to know, haunted mansion (pg-13).

Ghostly comedy is a spirited ride with peril, some scares.

“ Haunted Mansion ” is a tween-friendly supernatural comedy that’s the second movie inspired by the classic Disney theme park ride (the first was released in 2003). The frights are similar to those in horror-comedy classics like “Ghostbusters” and “Beetlejuice”: Spirits have an edge of silliness to them, but a couple (like an ax-wielding bride with demon eyes) are genuinely unsettling. Ghosts swirl through the screen in bulk, and characters — including a child — are in constant peril. All of this makes the movie more appropriate for older tweens and teens than younger or more sensitive children. Kids who do want to have the (often powerful) experience of “surviving” watching a scary movie will definitely feel like they’re watching a fright fest — but it’s creepy, not screamy, and it’s balanced with a sense of humor. Themes touch on moving on after death and loss (for both the spirits and for living characters who are mourning the loss of a loved one), and adult characters drink throughout. (122 minutes)

The First Slam Dunk (PG-13)

Basketball anime about personal loss is a winner; language.

“The First Slam Dunk” is based on writer/director Takehiko Inoue’s popular 1990 basketball-themed manga series/franchise, Slam Dunk. The action takes place over the course of a high school basketball championship game, breaking away to give glimpses into key players’ personal stories, especially point guard Ryota Miyagi (voiced by Shugo Nakamura in the original Japanese and Paul Castro Jr. in the English dub). He lives in the shadow of his brother, a promising athlete who disappeared years earlier, traumatizing their family. He also gets bullied, targeted by a group that beats him bloody. But he’s a fantastic example of the importance of perseverance, both in facing life’s challenges and in working with a team to reach a goal. The teen characters frequently incorporate insults and profanity into their speech, including “a--hole,” “bastard,” “moron,” “s--t,” “goddammit,” and more. (124 minutes)

The Slumber Party (TV-PG)

Sweetly innocent take on “The Hangover” has crushes, a kiss.

“The Slumber Party” is a tween-friendly comedy about the shenanigans of a group of 14-year-old girls during a wild slumber party. There are some moments of peril, but no one’s ever genuinely scared or in danger. Romance includes two of the characters having crushes on older boys. One girl is filmed mildly “grinding” while on a homecoming float. There’s a lot of buildup to a single kiss between two teens. Expect a bit of mild insult language (“psychopath,” “freaky”) and a bleeped out “s--t.” Messages touch on the importance of going outside your comfort zone and trying new things before judging them, and the movie shows that families come in all shapes and sizes. (82 minutes)

Available on Disney Plus.

Zoey 102 (TV-14)

Funny, dramatic series reunion has kissing, social drinking.

“Zoey 102” is a movie sequel to the hit 2000s teen dramedy series “Zoey 101.” Star Jamie Lynn Spears and almost everyone from the cast of the original show — which aired from 2005 to 2008 on Nickelodeon — return. Themes of the movie include friendship, teamwork and the importance of honesty. The movie’s content is tween-friendly overall, but you can expect some social drinking and partying by adults, kissing, and characters waking up in bed together. An underlying storyline is that a killer is on the loose in Santa Monica, and a victim is shown in a body bag. (101 minutes)

Available on Paramount Plus.

Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. Go to commonsense.org for age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites and books.

• Entertainment
• Review: <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i>: Where’s the Wicked Whiplash?

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey : Where’s the Wicked Whiplash?

I come as a virgin to the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, having read not a word of E L James’ three bestsellers — ignorant of the voluminous online commentaries, knowing little of the movie adaptation. So I take notes, like Washington State University student Anastasia Steele, and share them with you.

Here are 15 takes on Fifty Shades:

1. Anastasia (Dakota Johnson in the movie) literally stumbles into a meeting with Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), 27-year-old owner of a huge Seattle IT company to which he pays almost no attention, since he is instantly obsessed with the frazzled, unconfident, we-won’t-say-mousy Anastasia. Smitten, he proposes that she be his sex slave — under stringent, lavish conditions. She takes the first book to consider his proposal and the rest of the trilogy to … well, you probably know. I don’t. Anyway, there are three.

2. A hundred million copies sold! And apparently it’s the lowest form of prose fiction — less literature than shiterature — with the enticement of gaudy bondage-and-discipline scenes. Inspired by the young adult Twilight series, James wrote for Actual Adults: women, mostly, to whose wishes, feats and dreams the risky romance of Ana and Christian spoke.

3. The Fifty Shades of Grey film opens in a double-whammy four days — Valentine’s Day in the middle of Presidents’ Day weekend — and is expected to stoke a $90-million windfall. For some, it’s a hearts-and-floggers date movie: A couple attends the movie, then he asks, “Dinner or my Red Room of Pain?” And mothers in the mall, they’ll tell their kids to go back and see the SpongeBob SquarePants movie another time-and-a-half. “Mom has some shopping to do” — for fantasies of romance and submission, whips and wisdom.

4. Among the early reviews, the critics are split between favorable and dismissive. And not to bury the lede any deeper, I’ll say while watching Fifty Shades I kept waiting to tumble into derision but never got there. My early curiosity built to a cozy level of admiration, then drifted off into ennui.

5. James (real name: Erika Mitchell) tweaked the Twilight teen virgin Bella Swan into the slightly older Anastasia, and reimagined sensitive vampire Edward as the well-mannered sadist Christian. The result had all the fidelity and floridity of fan fiction. The movie, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and scripted by Kelly Marcel, is just the opposite. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t care much for the book’s literary lapses and dramatic excesses, and set out to make a solidly ethereal romance about a smart girl who realizes her strength when she meets a lost boy eager to fill her power vacuum.

6. Gone is James’s careless jargon; Anastasia doesn’t keep saying “Holy crap!” Diminished, degraded or simply hinted at are The Big Scenes. Johnson and Dornan spend plenty of time undressed (she fully nude, he topless but rarely trouserless or towelless); there are spankings and just a soupçon of wicked whiplash. But the lovemaking is mostly tender, canoodling, cuddling. It’s all foreplay. Creating a genteel R-rated film from a very X-rated book is like making a Mamma Mia! movie without the songs.

7. Sadomasochistic romance ought to be a burgeoning movie genre, because it touches on the power vectors in any relationship, and because each person frequently switches roles of dominant and submissive: you’re on top, you give in. Once in a while such a story connects becomes a film sensation, as when Marlon Brando toyed with Maria Schneider in an unfurnished Paris hotel room in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris . Mark Rylance took the Brando role, and Kerry Fox the Schneider, in the more sexually explicit art-house drama Intimacy in 2001.

8. Last Tango was so long ago, 1972. Back then, films strove mightily to be as mature and confrontational as novels and theater; and a movie house was the only place that a group of strangers could find public connection to erotic ecstasy and anguish. Shortly thereafter ( Star Wars ), cinema reverted to a kids’ medium and trained audiences to want only spectacle and sensation: action epics, horror films, rowdy comedies — circuses. Let’s go Wow, Eek or Ha together. Watching people make love is not participatory but nakedly voyeuristic; everyone in the auditorium feels weird. They laugh nervously or contemptuously, to prove their superiority to the urgent intensity on screen. Besides, they don’t need simulated sex in a theater; they can see the real thing for free, online at home.

9. But the E L James readership presumably wanted to see writhing, walloped bodies in the movie. Why is it rated R, not NC-17? For the reason most things are what they are in Hollywood: greed. Many theaters would not show a scrupulous adaptation; fewer people would pay to see it. Hence this Fifty Shades of Pale Grey , which underlines the filmmakers’ intuition that this is less a sex tale than a love story.

10. Or possibly a commodity exchange. Christian, a dreamboat in conservative coiffure and couture, is a 50-year dreamboat throwback: a generic James Bond, or Hugh Hefner’s early Playboy man , whose essential accessories included sleek cars, well-chosen wines and a stock of beautiful women. Christian tries to win Anastasia by buying her things (a car, a new wardrobe) and paying her things (attention, respect). He takes her for a trip in his private helicopter, first applying seat belts like airborne erotic restraints, and somersaulting in a glider. It’s a seductive dream of luxe, but maybe more his than hers. She will let her mind lead her heart, in a long, amusing debate in contract law: the terms of Christian’s pre- whup . Anastasia gives it so much scrupulous attention — no fisting, for example — that any signer of a smartphone or health-club agreement would be wise to engage her as an advisor.

11. Ideally, sadomasochism is the most complementary of sexual role-players. You can’t have one without the other. Otherwise, it’s torture. (That’s what safe words are for.) Christian, veteran of 15 previous dominant-submissive relationships, has chosen Anastasia as his next partner. But she needs to decide if pain can give her pleasure. Does she like it? Can she stand it, for love of him? Can she upend his priorities and make herself the dominant? The 514 pages of the first Fifty Shade s book, and the two-hour movie, still haven’t answered that question. Stay tuned for two more sequels.

12. In Christian’s “playroom,” decorated like the upmarket gift shop of a Louisiana bordello, we finally get to the climax: six whacks of a riding crop, which he gently, carefully prepares her for. Even by movie standards, the flogging is more ceremonial than sadistic. It hasn’t nearly the sickening impact of the 40 lashes given Mel Gibson’s Jesus in The Passion of the Christ , or the eight or 10 minutes spent on the torture of poor Patsey in 12 Years a Slave . The Fifty Shades scene is brief and demure. One might like to see the impact of Christian’s whipping on Ana’s emotions: perhaps pain shading into surprised enjoyment, or hardening into the resolve of revenge. But that’s for some other movie. Don’t we all dream up our private ones?

13. So Christian is a shade of Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy. Dornan, 32 and Irish, is old-school handsome with soft features. He could be the young Colin Firth, minus the sad merriment in his eyes. (For film-history symmetry, Jennifer Ehle, who was Elizabeth Bennet to Firth’s Darcy in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, plays Anastasia’s blowzy mother.) The producers first hoped to cast Ryan Gosling, but he would have made Christian sulkier, more brooding, more Heathcliff. Manacles on the moors!

14. The movie’s warming revelation is Johnson as Anastasia. The 25-year-old daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson (and looking like neither of them), she has the gift of signaling her character’s shifting thoughts and feelings through the ripples of smile lines on either side of her mouth. Director Taylor-Johnson relies on closeups of her star as the heroine, the wordless narrator and the go-between, assuring the audience that what goes on will have a measure of emotional intelligence.

15. Having built tension by nicely guiding viewers smoothly through Christian’s courtship of Ana, Taylor-Johnson has little to deliver as a climax, erotic or dramatic. The submissive gets cropped, doesn’t like it and walks out, in an ending that is startlingly abrupt — and, to one impressionable audience of New York critics, the cue for a thunderclap of pig-snorts. The real moviegoers who see it by the tens of millions this weekend may have a reaction more like mine: muted, pleased and restless in turn. We’ll all have participated in an international event that, like the Super Bowl, needn’t be loved but must be endured. And in a movie universe where a grownup couple rarely gets the chance to challenge each other with love and bondage, Fifty Shades of Grey offers the first can’t-miss Date Night film since Gone Girl .

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The presence of a new “Cinderella,” the latest of a long line of TV and theatrical movies about the fairy-tale lass (and one lad, if you count Jerry Lewis in 1960’s “Cinderfella”), caused me to realize that there seems to be a change in the attitudinal wind when it comes to popular entertainment.

The cynical side winks, knowing smirks, throwback references and dead-pan jokes that are hallmarks of post-modern culture are being ever so politely nudged aside by an emerging re-appreciation of old-fashioned sincerity and the pleasures of simply playing it straight.

Basically, warmth is slowly becoming the new cool. 

One of the first signs of this turnabout might have been Tim Burton ’s approach to last year’s “ Big Eyes ,” a biopic about Margaret Keane, the mid-century kitsch queen of the art world, and her struggle to regain credit for her work from her con-man husband.

Given the inherent creepiness of Keane’s waif portraits, many expected Burton’s humorously sinister sensibilities to seep into the beatnik-era clash of low art and high drama. But save for a couple “Twilight Zone”-style dream sequences, the filmmaker adhered to telling the true story pretty much as it happened and focused on building sympathy for its main subject. 

This apparent sincerity revival went global when it arrived in the form of Lady Gaga ’s Oscar-night performance of a medley of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs in honor of “The Sound of Music’s” 50th anniversary.

No one would blame anyone for expecting the pop singer, known for such outlandish stunts as donning a meat dress at an MTV awards show, to inject some ironic commentary about the sentimental classic into her performance. A bikini-wearing nun smeared with schnitzel with noodles would not have been out of the question.

Instead, Gaga materialized as a lilting vision of loveliness in a floaty lily-white frock and delivered near-perfect renditions of “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss” and a soaring “Climb Every Mountain” with an admirably unflinching reverence.

And the Twitter-verse, which has apparently replaced the Gallup Poll as a gauge of public opinion, exploded with thunderous approval. 

Into this shifting atmosphere waltzes “Cinderella,” Disney’s dazzling live-action version of its 1950 animated classic. Other recent retellings of storybook favorites by the studio such as “ Alice in Wonderland ” and “ Maleficent ” reshaped the material for 21st century tastes, turning Lewis Carroll’s heroine into a pro-active warrior and upgrading the villainous fairy in “Sleeping Beauty” into a misunderstood victim. Even the recent “ Into the Woods ” featured a disillusioned Cinderella played by Anna Kendrick .

But director Kenneth Branagh , the Shakespearean actor who successfully launched the comic-book-inspired “ Thor ” franchise, eschews any such shadings in his story of the abused orphaned girl who wins the heart of a handsome prince. No dark themes or disturbing notions. No blatant attempts at inserting a mega dose of girlish empowerment or the slapping on of a feminist message. Besides, the “ Frozen ” phenom—the basis of the amusing spinoff short, “Frozen Fever,” that plays before “Cinderella”—has pretty much covered all those revisionist princess bases.

Instead of letting go of the essence of “Cinderella,” Branagh boldly chose to embrace every familiar detail of this romantic fantasy: the hearth cinders that give Ella her nickname; the pumpkin that turns into a carriage; Cinderella’s rodent best friends; and, of course, the glass slippers—courtesy of Swarovski. Meanwhile, those who have seen everyone from Brandy in the 1997 TV musical to Anne Hathaway in 2004’s “ Ella Enchanted ” attempt to step into Cinderella’s shoes might wonder why more liberties weren’t taken in this faithful iteration.

Yes, most of us will know exactly where this story is heading, which may lead to some tedium. However, after thinking it over, I realize that Branagh and company are probably making this version not just for us jaded adults but for a generation of children who perhaps never had a chance to see “Cinderella” on a big screen. For them, it will be a brand new adventure. And, because of that, many parents will appreciate this rather faithful retelling. 

What is added mostly elevates the magic spell cast by this centuries-old legend. Whether it’s Dante Ferretti ’s sumptuous production designs in refreshing spring-like hues or Sandy Powell ’s eye-popping if anachronistic costumes, “Cinderella” offers an array of lavishly frosted eye pastry at every turn. 

Most importantly, Branagh and writer Chris Weitz provide Cinderella, who had barely a wisp of a personality in Disney’s cartoon original, with a reason to put up with being reduced to an ill-treated servant in the cherished mansion she once shared with her late parents. She could obviously just run away. But instead she dutifully follows the upbeat mantra that her loving mother passed along to her: “Have courage and be kind.”

The handling of the heroine might prove to be the film’s most controversial detail. Some might find this Cinderella, whose belief in kindness is meant to be her super power and the key to overcoming those who stand in her way, a little too lacking in spunk and ambition. A goody-two-slippers, as it were. Yet her compassion for others is what makes her special and saves her from simply being a victim in need of rescue.

Casting makes a great deal of difference, too, and Branagh has recruited the winningly winsome British beauty Lily James to bring Cinderella to vivid life. As forward-thinking Lady Rose on TV’s “Downton Abbey," James has capably brought out the best in the sometimes headstrong though charming young woman who nonetheless can look out for herself. And the actress relies on some of that same female fortitude here as well.

As for her prince, Scottish actor Richard Madden (best known as Robb Stark on “Game of Thrones”) certainly has the dashing royal looks and boyish smile to pull off his part, despite having to don some unfortunate tight trousers.  One key addition to the story is that Cinderella and the prince meet cute—he pretends to be a palace apprentice named Kit—long before the fateful ball, which means they at least fall in love on second sight. 

And one cannot say enough about the contributions of Blue Jasmine herself, Cate Blanchett , who slyly and subtly subverts the notion of the evil stepmother so the audience can summon at least some sympathy for this fabulous she-devil. Another plus: You can’t wait to see what gasp-inducing, gorgeous, ‘40s-style glamour-queen ensemble she will show up in next. Her Lady Tremaine is not just a fashion plate. She is a fashion platter.

Counteracting her lack of parental concern is an unexpectedly wonderful portrayal by the great Derek Jacobi as the ailing king, who provides this wise counsel to Madden’s prince: “You must not marry for advantage. You must marry for love.” As for Helena Bonham Carter as the slightly loopy Fairy Godmother—I mean, come on, who else could you possibly cast?

The biggest crinkles among all these tasty crumpets, however, are the portrayals of Cinderella’s stepsisters, Anastasia ( Holliday Grainger ) and Drisella ( Sophie McShera ). They are written as such annoyingly clueless ninnies that whatever comic relief they are supposed to provide too often falls flat—a problem not helped by the fact that McShera (a delight on “Downton Abbey” as kitchen maid Daisy) could do with some crisper diction.

Still, you can’t fault a family entertainment extravaganza too much if it actually goes out of its way to integrate the ensemble of a fairy tale in an Old World European setting with a diverse array of supporting players. Branagh deserves an extra bravo just for that. And we mean it sincerely. 

Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna spent much of her nearly thirty years at USA TODAY as a senior entertainment reporter. Now unchained from the grind of daily journalism, she is ready to view the world of movies with fresh eyes.

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Cinderella (2015)

Rated PG for mild thematic elements

112 minutes

Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine

Holliday Grainger as Anastasia

Sophie McShera as Drizella

Stellan Skarsgård as Grand Duke

Lily James as Cinderella

Helena Bonham-Carter as Fairy Godmother

Richard Madden as Prince "Kit" Charming

Hayley Atwell as Cinderella's Mother

Nonso Anozie as Captain

Derek Jacobi as The King

Ben Chaplin as Cinderella's Father

• Kenneth Branagh
• Aline Brosh McKenna
• Chris Weitz

Cinematography

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The Other Princess: 25 Things About The Anastasia Movie That Make No Sense

Anastasia may not be a Disney princess, but she certainly makes a few of the same mistakes as they do!

After Don Bluth left Disney and set off to work doing his own animation, one of the movies he made was a retelling of the story of Russia's last imperial family.  Anastasia  came out in 1997 and was a pretty good success in the box office. Part of this may have been because the studio wanted a typical princess movie. While widely different from the historical figure she's based on, Bluth's Anya makes a journey to discover herself. Because the film was requested to be so similar to the hits Disney was churning out, we can see a lot of the same problems with it as far as common sense goes.

I absolutely love this movie. From the memorable music to the incredible animation, it really captured my imagination. It was one of the things that led me to research the real (and upsetting) story of the imperial family and the political problems of the day. While it is wildly different from reality, sometimes it's nice to think that Anya made it out of the house of special purposes and found someone to love. Even though I love this movie and will let the problems pass in favor of nostalgia and appreciation for the music, it's not hard to find parts of the movie that don't make sense. A lot of liberties were taken in order to bring this story to life. Let's dive in and take a look at a few of them!

25 When Did The Story Take Place?

The film starts out with some narration from Grandma about the world that Anastasia grew up in. She lived in lavish homes and could eat more in a day than some people would see in a week. That's where the first mistake is made. In the narration, Grandma says that the party was held in 1916. Anya is portrayed as an eight year old. Anyone who has done any kind of looking around would know that Anastasia was actually born in 1901, making her fifteen instead of eight.

24 When Did He Come Up With The Plan?

You know that if a character has made any dealing with the man downstairs it's a bad thing. But other forms of media have shown us that he doesn't always do his own dirty work, occasionally sending one of his people to collect souls.

Rasputin's deal changed everything.

So that's why we have to wonder about Rasputin's deal. This may be a detail for nitpickers, but it's still kind of fun to think about. How he got in contact with a bad spirit and then decided to make the deal is reading between the lines.

23 Why Was He Included?

Anastasia has its fantastical elements, and most of those make sense within the confines that we're given. Rasputin has access to magic bats? Sure, we'll go for it. But Bartok is one of the confusing elements. It doesn't seem that he is magically able to talk, he just is able. No other animal in the movie is capable of human speech, not technically even the female bat who greets him at the end of the movie. Why was he given this ability? By whom? And where did that accent come from, anyway?

22 What About The War?

Granted again that this movie does not accurately depict the historical record, you have to give it a little leeway. The problem here is one little fact: It doesn't reflect one of the biggest issues that brought the downfall of the Romanov line: the Great War.

Anastasia seems to live in a world without a World War 1.

Russia's involvement dropped morale, resources and fanned the flames of revolution. Travelling to different countries should have been much harder.There should also have been more areas affected by war and its horrors. Instead, we get fairly easy travel and pretty countryside.

21 What's In A Name?

Here's another one for your nitpicky friends who have done as much research into this as I have over the years. Anastasia is typically referred to as a princess. By all means as far as movies go, she is. However, due to Russia's patriarchy, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, and Marie were technically duchesses, not princesses. They weren't directly in line for the throne, and couldn't be because they weren't men. When Alexi was finally born, All of Russia was happy to finally have an heir. Too bad he had hemophilia and was seen as too fragile to rule.

20 How Convenient Is That?

One of the biggest movie coincidences in the whole situation is that Grandma and Anastasia were able to escape using a very particular method (i.e, the servant's quarters) so that 10 years later when they were looking for Anastasia, Grandma would be able to definitively say who was lying.

Anastasia's room had a way out during the revolution.

Makes you wonder why servant's quarters were even put in a room where Anastasia could be hanging around. The nobility had not been nor was not exactly friendly to the lower classes.

19 Why So Mean?

Brief history on Rasputin: he was a man who had some really crazy happenings that made people have full faith in him as a holy man. Being both desperate and devout, the Czarina Alexandria called on him to utilize his influence to heal her son Alexi. Alexi had hemophilia, a disease that made him very fragile. Being that his main attention went to Alexi, it's interesting that he would be the villain for the movie, since they didn't do a lot in life.

18 Anastasia, Who?

If an alien race ever watched our movies and television shows (particularly the dramas I love so much), they might think that amnesia is quite popular. In most media, amnesia is an easily made story element that drives the plot and explains plot holes. We all know that amnesia doesn't actually work like that. Has amnesia become a tool for lazy writers who want to get two characters together without equal footing? If you ask me, yes... yes it is.

17 How Far Did They Have To Go?

For years I wondered if I had missed anything with Anya's hair. In one scene it was short and she had the dress Dimitri bought her, and in the next she was all of a sudden able to make a long ponytail and had a different dress. I wondered if it could have been a mistake with the dress, but as I got older, I rationalized it was to show the passage of time. But my question is this: how much time actually passed? It wasn't like they were going from Russia to France...

16 Where Did He Come From?

Fitting in with the rest of the would-be Disney princesses meant that Anya would need some sort of animal sidekick. Anya wouldn't have to go too much time before she managed to get one though, as before "Journey To The Past," Pooka showed up and adopted Anya as his owner.

Pooka came out of nowhere and adopted Anya.

But where did he come from? What breed is he? How does he have dramatic timing? Pooka is such an integral character that it's hard to not want some back story.

15 Did She Not Know Her Own History?

The whole starting for the movie is an explanation that the lower classes did not like the upper class and revolted. It didn't look like things had gotten much better at the beginning of the film. What makes anyone think that she would be welcomed back on the throne at the end of the movie? Women weren't even able to rule on their own. Was the plan to stay in Paris? Chances are good that if she ever returned to Russia, the secret police might try to stop her from gaining followers.

14 Why Do We Root For Him?

Bartok is one of the characters who had no place in the real story of the Romanov family. He in himself doesn't make sense because he can speak while Pooka can't. But that's not the point we're looking at here. Instead, you have to ask yourself, why is Bartok so likeable? He has a spinoff movie, but I don't think he deserves it. Not only is he Rasputin's henchman the entire time, at the end he leaves Rasputin in a sense of self-preservation. It's not a turn to the good side. He discredits his species.

13 Who Decided That?

During the insanely long time that our trio is on the steamer, their sleeping arrangements are as follows: Dimitri gets the floor, Anya gets the main bed and Vlad gets the top bunk. One of the sight gags that I never understood was that at one point, the excessive weight Vlad puts on the bed causes it to dip until it's right above Anya's head.

How did Vlad not crush Anya?

It doesn't make any sense to keep Anya in a spot where she could be injured just to keep her from doing a little climbing.

12 What Kind Of Glue Was On The Box?

Speaking of the steamer, that's the location where we first see the music box Anastasia got from Grandma after her memory loss. With it falling out of Dimitri's bag as easily as it does, it's a wonder that it hasn't been lost at all yet. The music box is supposed to be their surefire way to capture Grandma's attention and sell her their story. What's more, that box must have been sealed pretty tight to resist opening with all of their travels.

11 Why So Convenient?

What do they teach you at those orphanages is right, Dimitri. One of the first times Anya and Dimitri start seeing eye to eye is when they have to work together to uncouple their car from the rest of a train before it crashes. As luck would have it, they find some TNT and use it to escape. But why was it there? This was clearly a passenger train, so it couldn't have been heading for mines of any kind. It's almost as if the entire thing was just a story.

10 Why Be Alone?

Historically speaking, Grandma never went to Paris. She left Russia and went to London, to be with some of her other family. She knew going back to her homeland would lead to personal disaster (and there were a lot of sticky things that kept at the very least Alexandra and the children from joining her).

Why was Grandma in Paris?

However, in the movie she was in France, living alone and heartbroken. She was the kind of woman to face the hard situations. Living away from family makes it feel like she was running away.

9 How Did They Time It Right?

Sophie and Vlad were in love  and had kept up enough contact that they were able to discuss bringing a girl to meet Grandma. (Which, as I'm writing this makes me wonder if Sophie was in on this little con...) As they were on the road travelling, it must have been miracle timing to have correspondence along the way. Back in the mid 1900s, mail couldn't go very fast. For Sophie to know where to send it was a miracle as well.

8 Is Paris Really The Key?

One of the biggest aspects of a princess movie is the music. I LOVE the music in this movie, and it has never bothered me when people break out into song in movies and TV shows. One thing that does bother me now, though, is the language barrier. Given that Anya grew up in an orphanage (and forgot literally everything, especially languages she may have learned as a duchess) she should have only understood Russian. Conversely, the French who joined in song should only really have been able to understand French. Perhaps music is more powerful than language?

7 How Do They Afford It?

Speaking of Paris, it must have been a miracle that they got that far. We know for a fact that they were stowaways on the train; Vlad had forged their papers in the wrong ink. But there's nothing suggesting that they had sneaked onto the boat.

Where did Dimitri's money come from?

Besides that, boat passage was more expensive than train tickets. So where on earth did Dimitri and Vlad get the money for this little adventure? Surely that's worth a story. Or perhaps, looking at  Solo , maybe it's not.

6 Why Include Another Version?

Okay, though the soundtrack isn't technically part of the movie, I'm including it. My sister got the CD when it came out, and we listened to it a lot. I knew the words for all of the songs except one: it was the singer Thalia's version of "Journey To The Past." While an amazing version of the song (it was in Spanish), if you look at the CD contextually, that is the one that doesn't fit. Our heroes never went through Spain nor spoke Spanish. It was cool for the viewers, but out of the ordinary for the characters.