r/Anastasia1997

I just saw this rare picture in one of the (many) "Anastasia" short novels they issued after the movie release. It follows narrowly the movie script, and if it sometimes cut some éléments (the full Raspoutine ark in the shortests books), it never creates new scenes.

So I am wondering if that "fun" reference to the Stephen King book "The Shining", where young Danny gets attacked by the big leafy animal topiaries outside of the Overlook Hotel, was actually considered in the "Anastasia" movie, leading to the Pont Alexandre III final showdown (we only see spiky vines attacking her in order to she gets here in the movie). I shall try to get my hand on one of the early scripts to check that!

(on the pictures order I posted, you see first attacking topiaries and then the topiaries coming to life at the top of the hedges, but you have to consider that the "top" pages (74-75) are before the "attack" pages(78-79))

I find this kid's existence in the Anastasia universe confusing to say the least.

His name is Prince Ivan, and he's shown as ruling from Moscow (setting him before Peter the Great), but he's also a Romanov? (Ludmilla says his ring that he gives to Bartok is a Romanov ring.) Except there weren't any ruling Romanovs named Ivan that I can find any records of. The link in the wiki for this character just takes you to a real life page of a relative of the first Romanov tsar who never ruled because they lost the election going on at that time. That... Seems... Like... A Stretch...

We also know (in addition to the fact he's supposed to be a Romanov) he can't be a young Ivan the terrible because Bartok has a signed portrait of that tsar as an adult.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Who IS this kid? 😂

If so, which one?

I had the one with her in rags with the dog that came with the child-sized "gold" necklace. I remember as a kid, the one I really originally wanted was the one with her in her Once Upon December Dress that came with a cassette tape of the song (God, I feel old saying that). But I think when I went to the actual store with my mom to buy it, I saw the other one came with the necklace and plastic dog and got more excited about that one, and that was the one I ended up begging for instead. I kind of regretted it afterwards (I was generally a frilly girly child who liked dolls in fancy puffy dresses 😂), but I still loved my doll to bits. Had her for years. I eventually gave her (and a Dimitri doll I also had) to another little girl when I was fifteen; that I really regret. I'm happy I gave that other little girl something new to play with, when I was too old to play myself, but if I could go back in time I'd keep the Anastasia ones for myself as a memory/display and have just given her my Hunchback of Notre Dame dolls (which I also gave her) and all my doll furniture. I've often wondered what became of those dolls. That little girl must be grown up now.

Anywho, I had a cousin growing up who had the Anastasia with the blue Paris Opera dress, which was gorgeous.

I don't know of anyone who had the tsar doll though. I actually didn't know it existed when I was a kid. I remember another cousin having a little plastic playset that included Tsar Nicholas but I never saw the full sized doll IRL. Seeing pictures of it now, I'm really confused why his eyes are BROWN. The tsar had blue eyes. Very strange choice.

The 1916 ball in the animated movie seems to be heavily inspired by the IRL 1903 costume ball (you can see various guests, little Anastasia, and what appears to be Alexandra all in 16th century costume). But the Tsar is wearing what he'd wear to an ordinary ball; I kind of wish the animators had taken inspiration from his actual 1903 costume, because it's really beautiful, especially colourized.

We could have just seen him in his regular regal uniform in the Once Upon a December scene and had him in costume during the beginning.

The movie is still gorgeous regardless, I just think it would have been a cool detail if they'd included it.