The story begins in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the year 1916. There is a ball going on at the palace.

The queen is Dowager Empress Marie. She gifts a music box to her youngest granddaughter, Anastasia. It sings her a lullaby while Dowager Empress Marie is in Paris.

Unfortunately, a dangerous man comes into the town. His name is Grigori Rasputin. He and his soldiers attack everyone in the castle during the ball. Poor Anastasia ends up having to leave her music box behind. A young boy servant helps her and her grandmother escape. Sadly, the two end up getting separated.

Ten years have passed. Anastasia has forgotten a lot of her past, including being royal. That is because she somehow got amnesia. She is now living in an orphanage and has been renamed Anya.

“Anya” goes out, hoping that she can go to Paris to find out who she really is and who her real family is. On the way, she meets a young man named Dimitri and his partner-in-crime, Vlad. She also finds this stray puppy that she names Pooka.

The two men accompany “Anya” on her way to Paris. A pitfall for her, though, is that she needs a special visa to travel. Luckily, she is able to obtain one elsewhere.

Dimitri has been trying to audition different girls and young women to pose as Anastasia. But he has had no luck… until he sees that “Anya” looks a lot like Anastasia. “Anya” starts thinking that he might be right.

However, the two don’t exactly get along for a bit, such as when they’re on the train. If that’s not bad enough, the train gets attacked by these random monsters.

It turns out that Rasputin is still alive and is trying to kill Anastasia. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, even if his bat assistant doesn’t support it.

Sometime later, Anastasia, Dimitri, and Vlad are on a boat. Dimitri gives Anastasia a new dress, which she puts on. Then the two learn how to dance.

That night, however, Rasputin curses Anastasia into having a dream where she follows a friendly boy into a pond by a cliff. She is sleepwalking while this happens.

In the dream, Anastasia is asked to jump into the pond, which she almost does in real life… only for Dimitri to save her. He wakes her up and tells her that it was just a dream.

At some point, the three finally reach Paris. They go to where Marie lives—except that she won’t see any more girls claiming to be Anastasia.

However, her cousin, Sophie, is willing to quiz Anastasia to see if it’s really her. Anastasia answers all the questions correctly. Then she gets to go shopping for outfits to wear to see a Russian ballet.

That night, everyone enjoys the performance. Dimitri sees Marie and tries to inform her that he found the real Anastasia. But she dismisses that since she’d had so many imposters before. Then she makes Dimitri leave her.

Anastasia gets mad at Dimitri, thinking that he used her and lied. She distrusts him for a bit.

What will happen next?

I will admit that this movie did not engage me as much as I hoped. The beginning was kind of boring and a little bit slow.

Some parts were also a little hard to understand. For example, it was not made clear that Anastasia suffered from amnesia and forgot a lot of her past. I found that out on Wikipedia. And it was never explained how she lost her memories.

But one sloppy detail was how Anastasia’s hair went from shoulder-length to waist length within a few minutes when she tried on her nicer dress. I know it’s a cartoon, but it’s still a bit too unrealistic. I thought she’d put on a wig at first.

Another issue, which was small, was how she looked old for an 8-year-old at the beginning of the movie. I had thought she was 12 or 13 based on her design.

Regardless of the flaws, though, the film did get better later on. Most of the songs were beautiful—especially “Once Upon a December.”

The characters were also well-developed. I particularly admired Anastasia’s bond with Pooka. He was sweet and caring of her. He would even try to protect her from danger.

The pacing got quicker as the story progressed. The tension levels also increased, thus making the tale more exciting.

Twists and turns also occurred. See the film to find out what they are.

Overall, I thought Anastasia was decent. As much as it looks like a Disney classic alternative (it came out long before Disney bought Fox), it didn’t have that same type of excitement.

Is it still worth watching? I’d say yes. Just because I didn’t love it, that doesn’t mean you or your kids wouldn’t. The strengths were still stronger than the weaknesses.

I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.