Epic 'Anastasia' Has Heart

"Anastasia", the Fox animated feature now out on video, is a gorgeous film that pulls every heartstring a good romance should yet bursts with G-rated fun, wonderfully human characters and solid and hummable songs.

Produced and directed by animators Don Bluth and Oakland-born Gary Goldman ("An American Tale"), "Anastasia" benefits from several strokes of genius. Not the least of them was the casting of Meg Ryan as the voice of the heroine, the Romanov princess who loses her title and is separated from her family during the Russian revolution, and John Cusack as Dimitri, a kitchen boy in the palace. The two meet again in the 1920s as young adults, and their search for Anastasia's kin in Paris is the soul of the film.

Ryan is pert, feisty and fun as Anastasia. And Cusack gives a wonderful mixture of guile and sincerity to the fast-talking Dimitri. The cast also includes Kelsey Grammer as the rotund ex-aristocrat Vladimir, Angela Lansbury as Anastasia's beloved grandmother in Paris and Christopher Lloyd as the wicked sorcerer Rasputin.

"Anastasia" is pleasing to the eye and frequently spellbinding, with its rich colors, deep shadings and exquisite detail. The army of artists that created "Anastasia" made realism a priority. The picture also features a lush score by David Newman and songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.