REACTING to *Anastasia* BETTER THAN DISNEY?? (First Time Watching) Animator Reacts

Don Bluth wasn't fired by Disney-- on his 42nd birthday he resigned and took 10 other Disney animators with him to start his own studio. He was unsatisfied with the bureaucracy and wanted to work on projects that were more creatively fulfilling. You definitely can tell Bluth's movies apart by the creativity, rotoscoping (to capture those really realistic human expressions and body movements), and a lack of fear to add dark/scary elements to films largely marketed to children. Anastasia may be my favorite of his but there are lots of other great ones: The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven. (Titan AE will also very much give you those Treasure Planet vibes!)

Both Anastasia and Prince of Egypt are two of the best animated movies ever but so often overlooked. Neither are Disney.

Honestly, i love Dimitri and Anya as a couple. Normally I hate "We despised each other, so it must be love" Storylines, but this movie makes it work. I don't think they ever did despise each other, they are just both very guarded because of their upbringing. There was defitly an attraction there from the start, It just wasn't easy for either to open up to the other, so they resorted to pulling up the wall and tradig witty banter. And the Banter. They are clearly matched in wits and strength of will, wich makes it really refreshing.

Fun fact: the drawing Anastasia gives to her grandma in the movie is based on a real painting from the real Princess Anastasia from 1914

Her family did have a small dog, that was her brother 's dog. Also, Anastasia was known to be a jokester and prankster. She was very rambunctious and did, in fact, "terrorize the cook."

As a russian, I absolutely love this movie. I studied the tragic history of the Romanovs in school, and it’s always so sad to remember that this movie is only a beautiful fantasy

The part where Anastasia sings Once upon a december you can see that she has a shadow but the others don't because they are in her mind. That is so sick!

This movie was a Don Bluth production. Don Bluth WAS a Disney artist, and he separated to create his own movies. Unfortunately he went out of business, but before he did, he made masterpieces like All Dogs Go to Heaven, Secret of NIMH, Land Before Time, Thumbelina, and Anastasia. There are many other movies under his belt, but these are the best known. Highly recommend you watch them.

Another underrated movie. I feel it isn’t getting the credit it deserves. I’m getting chills from the opening every time.

My suspicion is that Don Bluth wanted to show the Disney Company that they made a huge mistake firing him. So he made a better Disney movie in the princess musical genre and gave her a strong personality and her own hero's journey who defeats the bad guy herself.

I'm Russian and this was my favorite animation when I was in school. Everybody loved it, it's so good. And the Russian dub for it is amazing, I mean the songs and everything, sounds really authentic. Great reaction! <3

Actually this movie was made into a Broadway musical. My mom took me to see it when I was like eleven. It was more realistic in its portrayal of Russia back then and it didn’t have to be kid friendly. I suggest listening to the songs. Some of them are from the movie but it has a lot of original ones too. My favorite is Land of Yesterday

The Real Anastasia was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, which is very tragic to hear.

"In The Dark Of The Night" is seriously one of the best villain songs ever in my opinion. Also, since you asked, Bartok is a bat.

Dmitri's sassy head wiggle when he says "Miss what? You're talking?!" always makes me so happy.

I’m so glad y’all understand why this was one of my favorite movies as a kid. The animation is gorgeous. I recommend The Road to El Dorado too!

God, Anastasia had such a HUGE impact on me as an artist when I was growing up! I was 13 when this originally came out, and I was enamored. I eyeball copied stills from it endlessly since it was right at that sweet spot when I had officially decided to pursue art as a career in some capacity. This film, Titan A.E., and the Disney Renaissance films I grew up with all had a tremendous influence on my drawing style — particularly drawing people, which is my specialty — that's still evident to this day even now that I've been working professionally as an illustrator for the last 15+ years. It always amuses me when someone asks if Anastasia influenced my work because it's THAT evident to anyone with an eye for visual styles, especially the way I draw cheeks in profile.

Both of them nerding out about animation the entire video gave me life 😆

"Is that supposed to be a reference?" Um, to himself I guess? Rasputin was poisoned with cyanide, which failed to kill him, then shot, a lot , which also failed to kill him. Then thrown into a frozen river wrapped in a carpet, failed to freeze to death, and drowned.

Anastasia was my favorite princess movie growing up. I wanted her to be a real Disney princess. Also loved princess Odette from the Swan princess too