So, after not seeing the film after so many years I decided to do some catching in order to give it a proper review. So here goes what I have to say, while keeping my mind clear.

Altogether, it was a decent film. I’m glad that research was done so that it maintained correctness to a fair level. The story itself didn’t keep the history it was based off perfectly, but then again what animated movie actually does (ex: Balto), so that was something I easily overlooked. But the historic elements contained, were still something that I was personally fond of and drawn to. It was well done, enough to deliver a fair idea of the background in order to understand the significance of the events seen.

The characters were pretty great. I admired Dimitri the most simply because he was the most developed and dynamic. Starting off as a selfish con-man, he underwent a change of heart and he started to see the value of good intention and what happiness really is. While this story was centered around Anastasia, I didn’t feel so much come from. She didn’t develop as dynamically as most, for she was only trying to find the past she lost. But she wasn’t a terrible character either. I admired that despite her terrible position she was in, she fiercely held on to her hope and dream to find a family, and she held on to that wish throughout the whole film. But I like that she too discovered what happiness really was. Although she found what she had been looking for after so long, her heart was settled elsewhere with Dimitri. Other minor characters seen are pretty okay, but not nearly as significant it seems. Rasputin was most interesting. I love his character design, and the way he acted: pretty funny, but still evil. However, I didn’t find him to be the best villain. He was simply butt hurt about being dismissed by the royal family and wants to get his revenge by killing them all through the dark arts. Not a very impressive motive, but it DID stick to the history of his character, so kudos enough. Bartok seemed to have no real function there, and felt like he had to go most of the time. But he wasn’t a terrible character either, so no biggie.

The animation wasn’t so bad. I don’t think it had that superb quality that I see in most movies, but it’s wasn’t awful so that I was cringing the entire time. Although I was bugged by the facial expressions seen, and it’s apparent that the skill isn’t completely there. My reason for this, I assume, it’s because the style aimed was realistic as possible. Experience has taught me that it’s easier to place certain expression and effects on loose cartoonism, rather than realism, without messing up the anatomy that is. But there are still ways to do it without making it look bad and messed up. The flow of the characters was also a little messy, and didn’t really look correct in gesture. But their anatomy IS well done, so that’s a good thing to admire. Overall their animation was decent, but still had room of improvement. But good enough so that it pulled off nicely enough.

The story itself was quite appealing. I like the characters involved and how they reacted to the various events that went down. Not bad, but not my personal favorite though. I found it to be quite dull in several instances. But nonetheless, it still worked according to the historic background and characters. The main theme of this story took some time to figure out because it wasn’t immediate, but I eventually discovered: sometimes what you have been looking for is right in front of you already. Although Anastasia has been yearning to find out who she really was and eventually found it, she found her real home with Dimitri. And the manner in which these two characters discovered it was pretty great. After a long journey of bitter sarcasm and small rivalries, they realized how much the loved each other in the end.

The music, I admit, was really great. Unlike most movies, I actually looked up a couple of these songs to hear again. The songs triggered a lot of what I remembered when I first watched this movie, when I was faaaaaar younger. So I give good props to the music, nicely done.

So altogether, this was a fair film. Not perfect, but still well thought out and produced. Because it lacks amusement, I wouldn’t think of it as recommendable. Nonetheless, it falls into the categories of the good classics produced.