AnastasiaThat films like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and 101 Dalmatians, have sort of humanised animation films is because of today's sophisticated techniques. And one would have thought that Anastasia' would fall in the same mould.In fact, this legend of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholavena looking for her Romanoff ancestors in the midst of the red revolution begins promisingly. But maybe there are too many characters and not much attention is paid to them individually. If Anastasia alias the 18-year-old peasant girl Anya and the Dowager Empress Marie are well etched, the same cannot be said about the villain mad monk Rasputin and the conman Vladimir and some others.The sets are cleverly put together but directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman are rather lackadaisical in their approach to the narrative. It lacks an urgency or any cumulative buildup. Then the music is at best patchy (`Long-forgotten past' is probably the best song) and the goings-on far too noisy. And though Dimitri does his best to look romantic he ends up more platonic and the romance falls flat.The screenplay by four writers is rather weak with only stray good lines, so despite the makings of a good story the action is episodic. The voices of big stars like Meg Ryan (Anastasia), Angela Lansbury (Dowager Empress Marie) do not really make much of an impact.To start with, the conceptualisation is poor with the result the film falls between two stools with children and adults both finding much wanting and that's putting things mildly.ERVELL E MENEZES
