Things In Anastasia Only Adults Notice
Anastasia, the 1997 animated film, might not be historically accurate, but the film is still a classic. While we now have definitive proof that Anastasia Romanov definitely did not survive the Russian Revolution, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2009 that DNA testing has proven that none of the Romanovs did, this charming tale of what could have been had she managed to escape still delights fans. Kids might not be getting the greatest history lesson when they watch Anastasia, but it's still an entertaining musical that teaches the importance of being yourself.
Historical inaccuracies aside, how does Anastasia hold up in the 21st century? Is this film that is (sort of) based on a true story still as magical as it was in our childhoods? Or does adulthood, not to mention knowing the real life Anastasia's true fate, diminish its appeal? There are definitely some things that only adults will notice in Anastasia.
How does Anastasia manage to hold on to her necklace?
Throughout the movie, Anastasia wears the necklace her grandmother gave her at the beginning of the film. Unbeknownst to the amnesiac princess, the necklace is also the key to a music box and will later help Anastasia prove her identity to her grandmother. Anastasia sees the necklace as a clue to her past, which explains why she guards it so carefully, but how did she manage to hold on to it in the orphanage for so long?
It's clear that the orphanage where Anastasia grows up isn't wealthy, and the woman who runs the place isn't exactly kind. It's surprising that the necklace wasn't confiscated from Anastasia and sold to pay for food or some repairs on the dilapidated orphanage building. Considering that Anastasia is royalty, that necklace is no doubt made out of gold and other precious materials and could bring in a healthy (and clearly much needed) sum of money.
How does no one recognize Anastasia?
How did Anastasia go for a decade without anyone suspecting her identity? First of all, her bright red hair is a giveaway. Surely people knew what the royal family looked like. The palace is deserted, leaving anyone free to waltz in and look at the portraits hanging there — including a family portrait that features Anastasia. There's even a Romanov portrait for sale in the market!
How is it possible that not a single person in all this time put two and two together and guessed that the redheaded girl who is the same age as the princess, who was found around the same time she disappeared, and who, oh yeah, can't remember her childhood and is called Anya (obviously short for Anastasia!) might be the missing royal? Was Anastasia just cloistered in the orphanage for a decade, interacting with no one else? Were there really no visitors or orphans who had heard the rumor that one of the Romanovs was still alive? Or does everyone around Anastasia simply have terrible observational skills?
Why doesn't Pooka have a leash in Anastasia?
When Anastasia looks for a sign to forge her own path, she finds an adorable puppy in the snow after he tries to steal her scarf. Pooka becomes her loyal sidekick for the rest of the film, following her across Europe as she tries to find her family. No one ever comments on the fact that she's bringing a dog with her pretty much everywhere she goes, which is a bit odd in and of itself, but even stranger is that at no point do we see Pooka on a leash.
There are plenty of practical reasons to keep a dog leashed. First of all, it keeps the pup close to you. A leashed dog is also safer, as it can't get lost or stolen. For most of Anastasia, however, Pooka is left to fend for himself and is forced to keep up with Anastasia. There are plenty of times he could have easily been left behind since the princess never pays attention to where her dog is.
Why didn't Rasputin curse Anastasia's grandmother?
Rasputin is the villain of Anastasia. Set on revenge, he uses his sinister powers to curse the Romanov family. Since Anastasia is alive, the curse isn't complete, and Rasputin makes it his mission to kill the princess. Even though he is literally falling apart, Rasputin's powers are keeping him alive so that he can complete his mission.
He's clearly got a huge grudge against the whole family that has driven him to curse even innocent children. It kind of makes you wonder why Anastasia's grandmother wasn't cursed as well. As the dowager empress, you'd think Rasputin would also want her dead, right? But he makes no attempt to go after her, even though she's living a very public life in Paris and would be a pretty easy target.
Where did Rasputin draw the line? Are cousins exempt from the Romanov curse? What about aunts and uncles? Were family pets considered to be part of the Romanov family? How did Rasputin decide who he wanted dead?
How are Anastasia, Vladimir, and Dimitri surviving the journey across Europe on foot?
When Anastasia, Vladimir, and Dimitri board a train to leave Russia, things go bad very, very quickly. First, it turns out that their papers aren't quite in order. Then, Rasputin tracks them down and tries to kill them. The trio jumps off the train while Pooka trails after them.
The plan is to take a boat out of Germany and towards Paris, but first they have to get to Germany. Considering that the snow melts and flowers blossom as they make their trek across Europe, we can assume that this trip takes a long time.
How exactly are Anastasia, Vladimir, and Dimitri surviving this trip? The journey might be manageable once it's warm enough, but they aren't exactly dressed for cold weather, and it doesn't seem like they have much money for food and shelter. While they hitch the occasional ride and obtain bikes at some point, it seems that they walk for most of the trek. How are they holding up on this long journey, and how is poor Pooka keeping up with them?
Why do Dimitri and Vladimir wait so long to teach Anastasia how to be royal?
As Dimitri, Vladimir, and Anastasia get closer to Germany, the men begin to teach her all the things Anastasia would know. She learns everything from how the princess likes her tea to the names of her extended family. Of course, Vladimir and Dimitri are teaching Anastasia about herself, although none of them know that she really is the princess yet.
While it seems they've been trudging across Europe for weeks — or even months — the men take their sweet time to begin the musical number that teaches Anastasia the royal ways. Why didn't they start this training sooner? Like as soon as they set foot on the train? There's a lot to learn here, and you'd think these lessons would be somewhat urgent if Vladimir and Dimitri want to be successful in their scheme of passing off a woman they think is a poor orphan as a princess.
We also have to wonder how all of these lessons didn't trigger more memories, aside from Anastasia remembering that one of her many relatives had a yellow cat.
How did Anastasia's hair grow so fast?
As a child, Anastasia has long, red hair. When she leaves the orphanage as an adult, however, it is short and pulled back under a hat. When Vladimir, Dimitri, and Anastasia board a boat to take them to Paris, Dimitri gives Anastasia a lovely dress to replace the rags she has been wearing. Anastasia puts the dress on and, suddenly, she has long, flowing hair that tumbles down to her waist. How? Her hair was still clearly short at the beginning of the scene.
Did Dimitri buy hair extensions along with the dress? Or is it perhaps a magical dress that enables one's hair to grow several inches in a mere matter of minutes? Anastasia's magically growing hair is never addressed. Of course, it's possible that Vladimir and Dimitri are simply the type of men who don't notice a woman's new hairstyle. Oddly, Anastasia doesn't seem bothered by the fact that she now has three times as much hair weighing her down now. Why isn't anyone in Anastasia as shocked as we are by this rapid hair growth?
How did Anastasia not realize that the music box matches her necklace?
While on the boat, Anastasia finds her long lost music box that Dimitri has held on to all of those years after she dropped it when escaping the palace. She doesn't recognize that it's hers, which is understandable considering that she has amnesia, but why isn't she the least bit curious about why it matches her necklace? Anastasia presumably is very familiar with what her necklace (the missing key to the music box) looks like as it has been her touchstone for the past decade. You'd think, then, that seeing a box that looks like it's made out of the same materials as her necklace that also has the same colors and designs might ring some bells.
As far as Anastasia knows, she grew up in poverty. She doesn't have many memories of seeing luxury goods. So when confronted with one that should look a bit familiar, it would have only been natural if she'd wondered if the necklace and the music box were at least made by the same craftsman.
Why do only some of the characters in Anastasia have a Russian accent?
What is going on with the accents in Anastasia? While some of the characters retain the American accents of the actors who play them, others have foreign accents. The dowager empress speaks with a Russian accent, as does her cousin Sophie. Vladimir also has a Russian accent. Anastasia and Dimitri, however, have American accents.
What is going on here? We could understand if the actors were just using their natural accents, but, according to IMDb, none of the main actors actually have Russian accents in real life. It's clear that some of them are putting on Russian accents. Why? And does that mean some of the actors were unable to pull off a Russian accent?
Anastasia would have made more sense if all of these people had the same accent as most of them are from the same country (Russia). The only exception to this is the dowager empress. According to Encyclopedia.com, Anastasia's grandmother was born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, so she's the one character for whom it makes no sense to have a Russian accent.
Why doesn't Dimitri tell Anastasia who she really is?
When Anastasia meets with Sophie for a preliminary interview, Sophie asks how she escaped from the palace. Anastasia's memory begins to come back just a little bit, and she describes a kitchen boy leading her and her grandmother out of the palace through a secret passage. At no point does Anastasia question why she'd have a memory of living in the palace and wonder if it's a clue that she really is the princess. And at no point does Dimitri even attempt to enlighten her.
As it turns out, Dimitri knows now that Anastasia really is the princess because — plot twist! — he was the boy who helped her escape. First of all, you'd think this would be a critical tidbit of information to share with the person you're trying to coach into being a believable Anastasia. Second of all, you'd think that he would later pull Anastasia aside and say. "Anya, that was a real memory! I was that boy and I've never told anyone that story! You are the real princess!"
Instead, Dimitri just stands there and says nothing. Classy move, Dimitri.
Why wouldn't Sophie just send Anastasia to speak to her grandmother?
Honestly, a lot of what happens in Paris just seems like a way for the writers to build up drama. There is so much that is illogical. Why would Dimitri meet with Anastasia's grandmother? Why wouldn't Sophie just send Anastasia in right away? Why bother with the go-between at all?
For that matter, why would Dimitri beat around the bush? He already knows that the dowager empress isn't meeting with any other would-be Anastasias, so the sensible thing to do would be announcing that he was the one who had helped her escape from the palace. He should have then presented her with the long-missing music box and explained that Anastasia was suffering from amnesia but that he was convinced she was the missing princess.
But then, if all of that had happened, there would have been no reason for Dimitri to dramatically steal the dowager empresses' car and force her to meet with Anastasia.
Why would Dimitri go back to Russia in Anastasia?
It's admirable that Dimitri has a change of heart towards the end of Anastasia and no longer wants the reward money for finding the missing princess, but his plan from here doesn't seem very solid. Why on earth would he go back to Russia? He clearly doesn't have much going on for him there, and it seems like he doesn't have any career prospects. There's also the question of how he's going to get to Russia since he clearly doesn't have very much money.
Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to plan to stay in Paris and find a job? He doesn't have to take the 10 million rubles from the dowager empress, but he could have at least asked her for some help in finding a job. Or perhaps he could have borrowed some money to move to a place where he'd have better opportunities than work as a grifter.
Why doesn't Anastasia seem a little more upset when she realizes what happened to her family?
When Anastasia is finally reunited with her grandmother, it's a touching moment. Her memories come flooding back, and she's overjoyed to be with her beloved grandmother again. You'd think she'd be a little more upset, though, at learning of the horrifying way her family was executed. Yes, she already had a feeling that she might be the missing princess, but there's a difference between thinking it and suddenly remembering the terror of losing your entire family. Such information would probably be enough to send anyone spiraling into a depression. Yes, Anastasia finally found what's left of her family... but there isn't much.
Not only that, but she's also lost the only home she's ever known. Considering that she now knows her family was overthrown and her true identity has been revealed, going back to Russia is probably not the safest thing. While Anastasia seems happy by the end of the movie, there's a lot of trauma for her to work through.
Why would Anastasia and Dimitri elope without any money?
The ending of Anastasia makes no sense. We understand why the princess would run off with Dimitri because, hello, those two were obviously endgame and their chemistry was clear from the beginning of Anastasia. But why did they just... leave? Would it really have killed them to say goodbye to Anastasia's grandmother and Sophie? And why exactly did Dimitri think they couldn't be together? Because she was born a princess? Because the Russian Revolution put an end to the monarchy, so Anastasia doesn't exactly have a throne to inherit, making her just as much of a commoner as Dimitri.
Running off in the middle of the night is immature and impulsive. Anastasia should have said goodbye to her newly found family. And she and Dimitri should have packed some clothes, or at least have gotten some money — that reward money from Anastasia's grandmother would certainly have come in handy.
And just where do Anastasia and Dimitri think they're going to go anyway? They're already in Paris which, as far as honeymoons go, is about as romantic as you can get. They're better off staying put with their family and friends.