4 Czars for Little Orphan Anya

At times, the romantic chemistry between the two leads of "Anastasia" becomes so compelling and even magical that you must forcibly remind yourself that these are "only" animated figures.

This outrageously ambitious project from veteran producers-directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman ("An American Tail," "The Land Before Time") takes their art to a dizzying new level, creating the most convincing, complex and endearing human characters in the history of animation.

In the process, the filmmakers uncannily transform a forbidding old story into an enchanting experience for both children and adults.

The tale begins with 8-year-old Anya living the life of a fairy-tale princess in a gorgeously detailed rendering of Czarist Russia.

Ten years later, long after the Revolution has killed the royal family, a sassy orphan (the voice of Meg Ryan) turns up, and she bears a striking resemblance to the legendary lost princess Anastasia. Charming con man Dimitri (John Cusack) and fallen aristocrat Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer) together train her to impersonate royalty before taking her to Paris to meet the Dowager Empress (Angela Lansbury), who dreams of reconnecting with her granddaughter.

All of this bears only the flimsiest connection to history, or to previous stage, screen and TV-movie versions of the Anastasia story. In an unnecessary nod to cartoon convention, the movie turns mad monk Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) into a fiendish villain who defies death with his supernatural powers. But with an albino bat (Hank Azaria) as his deadpan comic sidekick, the bearded baddie combines scary, ridiculous and gross elements in a diabolically amusing manner.

Savvy adults will notice witty references to famous movies about Russia ("Doctor Zhivago") and a Paris populated with cameo appearances by Gertrude Stein, Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier and Charles Lindbergh.

Songs by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (the Broadway-bound musical "Ragtime") feature six sturdy, serviceable numbers and one haunting, unforgettable gem ("Once Upon a December"), while computer-generated effects in a spectacular train chase provide thrills to compete with lavish live-action films.

In dramatizing the fall of the Romanoff dynasty, this product of the audacious new Fox Animation Studios will shake the formerly all-conquering Disney empire down to its very foundations.