Well, I just signed up for one of those free online courses at Stanford. It's called Creativity: Music to My Ears, and I really have no clue what it's gonna be like, but the fact that people like Mike Shinoda, Lily Allen, and Tegan & Sara are involved has piqued my interest. Haven't decided if I'm going to audit the course or not, but chances are I'll make an effort to actually be an active student. Plus, I'm really curious how the team projects will work, since people from all over the world are taking this class. Obviously I happen to have a lot of free time which is not the case for most people, but if someone is also bored and looking for something to do, come join me! The class starts tomorrow and lasts for six weeks.
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So I made an indulgent purchase last night. I found the DVD for Anastasia at Target for five dollars. It was the cheapest looking DVD cover I'd ever seen; the print quality was terrible and Dimitri looked like he'd gotten a bad nose job. But five dollars for my favorite childhood movie on DVD? I'll take it. Plus, my roommate had never seen the movie before, so obviously I needed to enlighten her on how incomplete her childhood was. |
| This is NOT the DVD cover I got. I have no clue why they couldn't just stick to the perfectly good VHS cover. A decade later, and I'm still digging Anya's WTF face, which perfectly encapsulates the batshittery she puts up with. |
This is the movie equivalent to Ella Enchanted in terms of how it's irrevocably nestled into the fibers of my childhood and thus my entire being, and how if anyone tries to diss it, the little girl in me WILL CUT YOU.
It's more tempered now that I'm old and financially independent and whatnot, but when I was a kid, if I became obsessed with something, I WENT ALL OUT. During my Sailor Moon phase in kindergarten, I had a Sailor Moon towel, Sailor Moon bookbag, Sailor Moon sneakers, a Sailor Moon t-shirt, two Sailor Moon dolls (Moon and Venus), and probably more stuff I can't even remember anymore. When Anastasia came out in 1997, I watched this movie in theaters, then later received the VHS as a present from my parents and watched it a billion times after that. For Christmas, I received an Anastasia doll--the one wearing the pale yellow dream sequence dress. For Valentine's Day, I gave out store-bought Anastasia-themed valentine cards. For my birthday, my mother let me pick out an Anastasia music box---and to this day, I still regret my brainlessness in picking out one of the most boring music boxes in the store instead of the highly-sought replica of the very important music box from the movie. What was I thinking? I have no idea.
At some point, the obsession died down and gave way to something else, though I can't remember what. Might have been The Parent Trap featuring Lindsay Lohan, because I also rewatched the crap out of that one as well. Anyways, for a long while I didn't watch it again until I think 2012, when E came over and I realized another poor soul had never seen the movie in her life.
Thoughts from 2014
So I did watch this movie relatively recently (in the last two years), but last night I tried to watch a little more critically and judge whether or not nostalgia was a key factor to my adoration.
Thanks to my American public high school education, I was more knowledgeable this time around about the history behind the Russian Revolution, especially the Romanov family and Rasputin. So that first scene of the revolution was just a wee bit uncomfortable to watch. But overall, the historical inaccuracies aren't very detracting once the story kicks off--you've just gotta think of it as a fairy tale that takes place in a quasi-historical setting.
My overall conclusion from last night's viewing--I won't call it the greatest animated movie ever, but goshdarnit, I am not embarrassed that I still like this movie. And here's how I break it down:
Sophelia's Recipe for Movie Instalove
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| A: What? Hey - why are you circling me? What were you, a vulture in another life? |
1) Fiery heroine tells it like it is. I've always been drawn to the spunky heroines, and Anastasia is no exception. She and Dimitri get off on the wrong foot from the very beginning, which leads to some of the funniest banter in the movie.
Dimitri: Look I think we got off on the wrong foot.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anastasia: Well, I think we did, too. But, I appreciate your apology.
Dimitri: Who said anything about an apology? I was just saying that...
Anastasia: Please don't talk anymore, it's only going to upset me.
Anastasia: [after waking up, flailing her arm and smacking Dimitri in the nose] Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone el - oh, it's you. Well, that's okay, then.
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| Quite possibly my favorite sequence in the whole movie. |
All of Anastasia's dresses in this movie are gorgeous and, most importantly, SO SHINY. I can't even pick a favorite because she looks great in everything. My favorite scene, though, is probably when the dream sequence in the old palace when the dancing ghosts come out of the wall and the ballroom comes back to life.
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3) Put that soundtrack on replay. I have an unabashed fondness for musicals, whether animated or theatrical; however, my love depends a lot on how many songs end up on my playlist to be played over and over again. The Phantom of the Opera, Spring Awakening, and Beauty & the Beast rank very highly with me because I can listen to their soundtracks over and over again without skipping; as a counter example, there are really only two or three songs from Wicked that I like.
With animated movies, I weigh story more heavily over soundtrack, but good songs make a big difference. This might sound blasphemous (and may also be influenced by the nostalgia factor), but I actually prefer the Anastasia soundtrack over the most recent success story, Frozen. Months since I watched Frozen in theaters, I don't listen to any of the tracks much anymore. I actually didn't love "Let it Go" like everyone and their mothers; my favorite was "For the First Time in Forever." I was rather ambivalent about the other tracks. With Anastasia, I have quite a few favorites but once or twice a year, I will go through a phase and listen to "At the Beginning" over and over and over again.
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| Anastasia = more than just about getting the dude at the end |
Ella Enchanted and Anastasia are both rooted in the traditional fairy tale formula, but they're more than your typical cardboard story where the end-all is marriage. Sure, I'll admit the respective love interests are both probably up there on my list of swoonworthy fictional characters (not that I actually made such a list or anything... cough), but when you look at the character motivations, that's where you get the meat of what I'm talking about. Ella and Anastasia aren't looking for love; the ultimate goal is not marriage.
Ella wants to break her curse, and her whole arc is built on this motivation. Her romance is woven into this arc because ultimately, she is only able to break the curse to protect Char--even though it means giving up a future with him. Anastasia wants to know who she really is and find the one thing she's never had--family. Dimitri plays a different role in Anastasia's arc, in that he ultimately forces her final choice. By the end of the movie, Anastasia knows who she is. The goal of finding family, however, takes on a different turn. The last decision she's faced with: stay with her grandmother (her last living relative) and live as royalty, or start a new family by eloping with Dimitri (who, as a former servant-boy and renowned conman, is below her royal station) and presumably give up the world of fancy dresses and balls. So yes, you can argue that ultimately it's another whoopdeedoo-marriage-ever-after ending, but I'd counter with the argument that choosing to be with Dimitri was the last step in Anastasia's journey to attain her goal.
*You could actually do this heroine motivation analysis on all the other Disney heroines, and the results might surprise you. I got the idea from this one article I read which argued that Frozen isn't actually the great feminist movie it's hailed to be. I didn't agree with everything the author said, but I thought her motivation analysis of Anna and Elsa was on point. Most Disney princesses actually have pretty clear goals in their story arcs (usually they even sing about it: Belle wants "more than this provincial life"; Ariel wants to be "part of [the human] world"; Rapunzel wants to "see the glowing lanterns gleam", etc.). Could you state Anna and Elsa's goals as clearly? In my opinion, not really. Which might explain why I didn't love the movie as much as everyone else. In fact, this recipe thing I've just written pretty much spells out why I didn't fall in love with Frozen:
1) Heroine: Anna falls under the somewhat-ditzy category of heroine that I've never felt much of a kinship towards (see: Ariel of The Little Mermaid). Elsa's just kind of a wet blanket. Who sends a snow monster after your own sister??
2) Pretty dresses and stuff: Okay, I'm one of the people who actually did like Elsa's "Let It Go" transformation, so I'll give Frozen points for that.
3) Music: As explained previously, wasn't quite up to par for my tastes.
4) Heroine's Journey: Ditto.
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