Many spectators still make the mistake: “Anastasia”, directed by Don Bluth in the 90s, is NOT a Disney studio production.
Princess dresses, songs worthy of a musical, a beautiful love story, extremely careful animation and a very nasty villain…
At first glance, Anastasia seems to bring together all the basic characteristics of a Disney from the 90s. So much so that the day we discover it, it seems almost impossible to us that it was not concocted by the famous artists of the enchanted studios.
It looks like a Disney…
Released in 1998, the same year as Mulan, Anastasia follows the adventures of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, heiress to the Romanov family and daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, whose dynasty finds itself shattered by the Russian Revolution. While she tries to flee the Bolsheviks, the young girl becomes amnesiac following a blow to the head, and seeks to go to Paris to join her loved ones, also hoping to find traces of her origins.
Rocked by a superb soundtrack, an epic story and first-hand animation, Anastasia has indeed everything a great Disney, and seems to be directly in line with films such as Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (released a few years before it).
20th century Fox
…but it’s not Disney!
However, and contrary to what we often hear everywhere, Anastasia is in no way the work of Disney studios, since it was produced by the animation subsidiary of 20th Century Fox and it was was directed by the illustrious Don Bluth.
This cartoon genius, after having actually worked for Disney in the 80s, and following major artistic disagreements with the managers of the time, had left Mickey’s house to practice his profession on his own.
20th century Fox
His collaboration with other talented animators and with the famous Steven Spielberg (as producer) allowed Don Bluth to give birth, in the 80s and 90s, to several animated feature films whose quality and popularity sometimes rivaled those of Disney productions.
Among his most notable works, we find Fievel and the New World, The Little Dinosaur and the Valley of Wonders, Thumbelina and therefore… Anastasia.
The next time we talk to you about Don Bluth’s film as an essential classic from Disney studios, you will know that this is not the case, and that Anastasia is in reality the heiress of the rival company.
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