Anastasia Journal: A Childhood Classic

Growing up, the classic Disney movie, Anastasia, was always my favorite. Watching the animated movie thirteen years later, I can assure you that Rasputin is just as terrifying as he was when I was three-years-old. Anastasia is one of those feel-good films in which a young princess narrowly escapes when her whole family is being murdered, and years later realizes her true place as the heir to the Russian throne. But as the story goes, Anastasia would not have escaped death, nor would she have realized that she was a Romanov, if it wasn’t for her kitchen-boy turned con artist, knight in shining armor, Dimitri. 

Anastasia is portrayed as a resilient young woman who is independent and strong. She survives life in an orphanage as a young girl after losing all memory of her royal upbringing. Her strong personality comes out in her initial encounters with Dimitri, in which she seemly does not fall for any of his “charm.” Despite this portrayal of “Ana,” she still goes off with two strange men who convince her that she is the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Although we know that Ana truly is Anastasia, neither the two men, nor Ana know if this is true. What exactly is Disney trying to say about women in general based on the fact that Anastasia (a seemly strong character) is so easily wooed into travelling with two men she did not know?

The relationship between Anastasia and Dimitri is one right out of the storybooks. Initially, they both act as if they dislike each other, but the whole time we know that they will end together. The plot thickens when it is revealed that Dimitri was in fact the palace kitchen-boy who saved young Anastasia from the rioters. Dimitri becomes the hero again when he saves Anastasia from the evil Rasputin right as he is about to push her off the cliff. Anastasia’s grandmother quickly picks up on the romance between the two protagonists, and eventually leaves Anastasia with the ultimatum of choosing between resuming her rightful role as Grand Duchess and heir to the thrown, and running off with her true love, Dimitri. Of course her grandmother presents this choice in a loving way, but why is it that Anastasia can’t become heir to the thrown and get the guy? In a somewhat predictable fashion, Anastasia choses Dimitri and she gets her happily ever after, or as Anastasia’s grandmother would put it, her happily ever beginning. Twentieth Century Fox is making a stereotypical social commentary on how women can’t have a career and the family—it’s one or the other. Another point worth mentioning is the strange transformation of Anastasia’s hair throughout the movie. As a child in the palace, she has long, beautiful red hair flowing down her back. As she grows older in the orphanage, she cuts her hair so that it is around her ears. Within the next few weeks when she begins to realize that she really is the Grand Princess, her hair mysteriously returns to the length it was when she was a child. I could not help but wonder how her hair magically grew so quickly. Perhaps the long hair is a symbol for finding her true place and womanhood—a step up from the short hair. The “magic” that these animated films employ never cease to surprise me.