Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Caitlin here. I just wanted to give you
Speaker 1: a quick intro to the episode you're about to hear
Speaker 1: on the movie Anastasia. We recorded it live as Jamie's
Speaker 1: Birthday Show, which we had so much fun doing. And
Speaker 1: while the audio quality for the most part is pretty good,
Speaker 1: there are a few times when the audio kind of
Speaker 1: blips out for a split second, and we apologize for that,
Speaker 1: But otherwise it's a damn fine episode and we hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy cast questions, ask movies have women? And are
Speaker 1: all their discussions boyfriends and husbands? Do they have individualism?
Speaker 1: The patriarchy? Zeph start changing it with the beck del care.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Welcome to the bec deel Cat Welcome.
Speaker 1: I just context for everyone. I just got a six
Speaker 1: pack of Mike's hard watermelon. Thank you. That's just proof
Speaker 1: that when you get a d M saying are you
Speaker 1: allergic to watermelon? You answer it as quickly as you
Speaker 1: can because you never know. Oh man, what a gift.
Speaker 1: This has got to be real bad, right this is
Speaker 1: I'll be I'll be sampling it throughout the night. Welcome everyone,
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming to be here for for Jamie's
Speaker 1: Birthday show. It feels like we're and we're caught and
Speaker 1: we're recording it. It's not my birthday for a month,
Speaker 1: but for the sake of tonight, we're cosplaying as if
Speaker 1: it is my birthday, and the episode will be released
Speaker 1: pretty close to your birthday. Yeah, so suspend your disbelief,
Speaker 1: don't cancel me. It's not necessarily my actual birthday, but
Speaker 1: feel free to give me gifts. I think is the
Speaker 1: real takeaway. So we're doing one of my one of
Speaker 1: my favor movies tonight. I'm so excited, Anastasia. Oh but
Speaker 1: let's get some business out of the way first. My
Speaker 1: name is Caitlin. My name is Jamie. We talked about
Speaker 1: the representation of women in movies on this here podcast
Speaker 1: at the end there. Oh we Well, we use the
Speaker 1: Bechdel test as a jumping off point for discussion. What's
Speaker 1: the Bechtel test? Uh? What if I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I can answer a question. The Bechdel test
Speaker 1: is a media metric designed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel uh
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test, in which there must
Speaker 1: be an interaction between two named female identifying characters and
Speaker 1: they have to talk to each other for two lines
Speaker 1: of dialogue about something other than a man. I wish
Speaker 1: there was like a mathematical equation for like what we
Speaker 1: just said, because it sounds like math. Right, It's like
Speaker 1: a square plus B squared equals C squared. That's theorem. Hello,
Speaker 1: so it's not. She's a master's degree, so keep up.
Speaker 1: Let's let's demonstrate it. Okay, Hey Jamie Caitlin, I got
Speaker 1: you a birthday gift too. Really, here it comes. I
Speaker 1: don't know I didn't wrap it. Oh my god. Wait,
Speaker 1: this is so cut. Describe it for our listeners at home.
Speaker 1: This isn't what if I was like, I love it,
Speaker 1: thank you. It is an enamel pin of rose from Titanic. There,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, thank you. It's the moment where
Speaker 1: she looks up and she sees Titanic for the first
Speaker 1: time and she's not that impressed, and she's like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't look any bigger than the Martinia, and then cal ak.
Speaker 1: Billy Zane is like, oh si, it's long. It doesn't
Speaker 1: because you said cal but oh, I guess we finished
Speaker 1: a while ago. There. I'm sorry. I just's okay, sorry.
Speaker 1: I can't look at this without thinking of Billy Zane
Speaker 1: and that is tragically my feminism. Another surprise, so much,
Speaker 1: is that I got one for my stuff. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that I'm gonna I'm gonna fasten it on
Speaker 1: right now onto my little suit. Sodaying. I'm wearing a
Speaker 1: little suit. Thank you. This is welcome, truly, I can't.
Speaker 1: I won't leave home without it ever again. Um, that
Speaker 1: was all our business, right, I believe, so business? What
Speaker 1: the show is business? Oh, clap if you have been
Speaker 1: to one of our live shows before, and then clap
Speaker 1: if your if your friend dragged you here, Yes, very
Speaker 1: brave of you, and all right, by round of applause.
Speaker 1: Who has seen the movie Anastasia? Okay, good? Is there
Speaker 1: anyone who has not seen it? Clap your little paws together.
Speaker 1: It's they just apologize. It's okay, listen. I what I
Speaker 1: think that women should be doing more is apologizing. And
Speaker 1: so I really welcome that in the room. Uh yeah, yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's okay, it's okay. I've written a recap, as I
Speaker 1: always do. It's I think the longest recap I've ever written.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. It's not a movie. It's not
Speaker 1: a long movie, but the story is so rich and
Speaker 1: also I mean it's I would say it's more or
Speaker 1: less historically accurate. Yeah, if you're familiar with the you
Speaker 1: know Russian history, you know this story inside and out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: To join us in our discussion, We of course have
Speaker 1: a guest. She is a wonderful person. She is a
Speaker 1: hilarious comedian. Please give it up for an Oh my god, wow,
Speaker 1: I mean to grab a. Mike said literally grab mis
Speaker 1: feeling crazy. Thank you for being here, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. Of course, So Anna, what is
Speaker 1: your history relationship with the movie Anastasia or Anastasia as
Speaker 1: a historical figure. Wow, it dates back to yesterday when
Speaker 1: we watched it together, and so in that it is
Speaker 1: rich and uh luscious and historically bound and I feel
Speaker 1: very rooted in it. Also, um, and I'm Russian and
Speaker 1: my name is Anna, and really it's Anya. So people
Speaker 1: when I moved here, people were like, oh, like the
Speaker 1: like Anastasia, you know, just like that, and so I'd say, well, yes,
Speaker 1: so that for a long time I just didn't watch it.
Speaker 1: I think that of that, I was like, I'm different
Speaker 1: times of protest. There's that movie called Caitlin that I
Speaker 1: refused to watch. Yeah, there's there's a Jamie in a
Speaker 1: Walk to Remember, but she dies? Is she the She's
Speaker 1: the one? She's Mandy Moore and she and she she
Speaker 1: dies to teach Shane West a lesson, which is a
Speaker 1: plot device that I love. I love, I think you
Speaker 1: should do. I can't wait to die one day as
Speaker 1: to some guy can learn something, yeah, just to make
Speaker 1: him a little nicer in college. My history with this
Speaker 1: movie is that I saw it once. It came out
Speaker 1: in nine seven, so I would have been eleven. I
Speaker 1: must have seen it when I was eleven, and then never.
Speaker 1: The only thing I remembered was that there was a train.
Speaker 1: I didn't remember what happened with the train. I just
Speaker 1: knew there was a train. That's the only thing I remembered,
Speaker 1: because I only thought that once, and then I have
Speaker 1: rewatched it three times now in the past few days.
Speaker 1: I know it's fun. This was one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 1: The movie came out when I think I was like
Speaker 1: four or five, and I was like the Target demo
Speaker 1: because it was really loud, like there was a lot
Speaker 1: of music, and I was like really scared of rasputing.
Speaker 1: But I kind of also had a crush on him,
Speaker 1: of course you really like. I love the rasputing character.
Speaker 1: And I remember telling my mom. I was just like,
Speaker 1: why are there toys of him? And she was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, and but there's I would say some
Speaker 1: of the maybe this is I just got nervous for
Speaker 1: some of the sexiest cartoons. Uh. And because this isn't
Speaker 1: a Disney cartoon, if that matters to you, it really
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. But it's it's not a Disney cartoon, so
Speaker 1: it is a little bit hornier than you're and a
Speaker 1: little better, I think than like your average cartoons. So man,
Speaker 1: I love I saw it on ice. Ah, it was
Speaker 1: Anastasia Ice. It was it was telling you night was
Speaker 1: the first time I noticed a butt. I was like
Speaker 1: that was like maybe a few years after that when
Speaker 1: Annastasia was making the rounds on ice this time but
Speaker 1: Dmitri's but oh good, alright, but there was Me and
Speaker 1: my brother still talk about it sometimes. How at that
Speaker 1: ice show Resbuten was on ice and his beard kept
Speaker 1: flying into his mouth and he was having a really
Speaker 1: difficult time. I love I mean, I love this. I
Speaker 1: probably watched this movie like it's like a go to
Speaker 1: a movie for when I'm like sick. I'll watch it,
Speaker 1: and so I watch it. You know, I'm very sick
Speaker 1: all the time. Great shall we shall we dive in
Speaker 1: with the recap. Let's dive in Caitlin. Alrighty, So the
Speaker 1: year is nineteen sixteen. Titanic has been sunk for four years.
Speaker 1: Nicholas is the are of Imperial Russia. There's this royal family,
Speaker 1: the Romanoffs. They are celebrating. So far this is accurate,
Speaker 1: except for I think the year is even right, it's
Speaker 1: already two years off here. But there is the romanof family, uh,
Speaker 1: and they are the royal family, and they're celebrating three
Speaker 1: years of ruling the country. And Anastasia is I think
Speaker 1: the youngest daughter. She's this the young princess duchess, and
Speaker 1: her grandmother gives her a music box and a necklace
Speaker 1: that says together in Paris. And there's the next there's
Speaker 1: I mean, there is the most annoying thing in the world,
Speaker 1: poking historical and accuracies. But I will be doing it
Speaker 1: all night. She went to Denmark, she didn't go to Paris.
Speaker 1: But no one wants to sing a Bernadette Peters didn't
Speaker 1: want to sing a song about Denmark. So Paris. Uh
Speaker 1: So before they can go to Paris together, Rasputin shows up.
Speaker 1: He's like he's built. It's kind of like he's like
Speaker 1: as skinny as Jafar, that's like already dead. Like it's yes,
Speaker 1: he is, like, yeah, he's posted. Yeah, it's hot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: factually and historically historically hot. I was there, yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll be looking over for confirmation from anything you want.
Speaker 1: Absolutely was there the whole time, right he was yes, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: he was hot. So Rasputant places a curse on the
Speaker 1: Romanov family. He's holding a grudge. He wants them to die.
Speaker 1: He's mean, and he has he sold his devil to
Speaker 1: to the Green thing. Yeah, he sold his soul and
Speaker 1: he places his curse, and I guess that's what starts
Speaker 1: the Russian Revolution. According to this movie, he also bit
Speaker 1: someone's ankle. Yes, yes, a huge power amazing there. I
Speaker 1: mean really, it's so weird. There's been so much written
Speaker 1: about World War One and the Russian Revolution, and it's
Speaker 1: like it really was quite simple. What happened. Ya respue
Speaker 1: threatened the czar and he put a curse on and
Speaker 1: I mean we're starting a war of course, so chaos
Speaker 1: and sues. Anastasia and her grandmother managed to escape with
Speaker 1: the help of a servant boy, but she drops her
Speaker 1: music box that was given to her. The music box,
Speaker 1: by the way, like it's so I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone who was watching it like got really distracted by
Speaker 1: the fact that the music box is clearly c g I.
Speaker 1: But the rest is too d where you're just like,
Speaker 1: what planet is? What plane does this music box on?
Speaker 1: It looks so freaky, like the whole why did they
Speaker 1: do that? So okay, the like flying horse at the
Speaker 1: end is also c g I. Oh my god, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like some e g I that works, Like the
Speaker 1: and the train scene. I'm like, god, this is like
Speaker 1: kind of effective. And like in the ballroom scene where
Speaker 1: all the ghosts are dancing, you're like, this is fun.
Speaker 1: But the fleshy horse I did not like fleshy horse.
Speaker 1: So then Resputin drowns as he's trying to like grab
Speaker 1: at Anastasia. And then Anastasia and her grandmother are headed
Speaker 1: to safety, but in all of the chaos they get
Speaker 1: separated forever or not, maybe we'll see. And then Anastasia
Speaker 1: bumps her little head and right she's like, I forget. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: she forgot it gives her amnesia for a very long time.
Speaker 1: So it's ten years later. Now we're in St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: we're under Joseph Stalin is in power now effect that
Speaker 1: is not not mentioned at all, and at this point
Speaker 1: he's hot and that's actually the trail. Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we tell we take your word from please. Yeah there,
Speaker 1: I mean he did the facial hair. You know, it's
Speaker 1: under discussions under so rumors are being spread around that Anastasia,
Speaker 1: who was thought to have died in Rasputants revolution, uh
Speaker 1: that he got ankled by it alone, but he that
Speaker 1: Anastasia might actually still be alive, which she is. She
Speaker 1: goes by Anya now, but she has no memory of
Speaker 1: her former royal life and she has no idea that
Speaker 1: she is Anastasia. The only clue that she has is
Speaker 1: the necklace that she was given that says together in Paris.
Speaker 1: So she decides to go to St. Petersburg and tries
Speaker 1: to buy a ticket to Paris to discover her family history,
Speaker 1: but she doesn't have the proper documentation. So someone tells
Speaker 1: her to go find this guy Dmitri to help her out.
Speaker 1: John Cusack, John Cusack This is one of the like
Speaker 1: sexier cartoons in that I think cartoon history, because he's
Speaker 1: got he looks like John Cusack at that exact moment,
Speaker 1: like he's got the middle part and he keeps flopping
Speaker 1: his bangs. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? Like
Speaker 1: that's sickos grous. So we learned that Dmitri is a
Speaker 1: con man and he is in the process of auditioning
Speaker 1: actors who look like Anastasia to pretend to be her
Speaker 1: so that they can take her to Paris and get
Speaker 1: the reward that the dowager Empress is offering. And he
Speaker 1: also is in cahust with Kelsey Grammar. Yes, yes, his
Speaker 1: name is vlad sure. Um. My favorite part of the
Speaker 1: movie has went later on the Grandmother's like, Dmitri, I've
Speaker 1: heard of you, as if Dmitri wasn't one of the
Speaker 1: most common Russian names, just like someone walking and being like, ah, yes, this, Joey,
Speaker 1: I've so Dmitri has Anastasia's music box and we're like,
Speaker 1: how do you get that? But this gives him a
Speaker 1: leg up on bringing an Anastasia like person to the Empress.
Speaker 1: So then Anya shows up to where Dmitri Is and
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, you look just like Anastasia. We think
Speaker 1: you might be her. She's like, I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. This whole scene happens
Speaker 1: while she's standing next to an oil painting of Anastasia herself,
Speaker 1: and she's like, could be a cart But then she
Speaker 1: decides to go to Paris with them, rationalizing that like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe I am Anastasia and maybe I'm not, but there's
Speaker 1: only one way to find out. Well, and also they
Speaker 1: were able to like get her the documents she needed.
Speaker 1: It seemed like if she didn't play ball with this
Speaker 1: plan she had would get into the parent right. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Raspute and remember him? Ever heard of him? He is
Speaker 1: still alive sort of yeah. He a lot of like
Speaker 1: cartoony body horror, very graphics stuff. Well, the rest prude
Speaker 1: and stuff is like this movie has like some like
Speaker 1: tonal dissonance issues where they'll be like the serious scary
Speaker 1: happened to Anastasia and then you'll like cut to rest
Speaker 1: Spute and being like my plan didn't work, and then
Speaker 1: he'll rip his face off and like throw it on
Speaker 1: the ground. Very spooky. Verry tom Waite's sort of bones dancing.
Speaker 1: It's great. And his side like kept trying to call
Speaker 1: it a side piece, but sidekick, you know, he's got
Speaker 1: this classic side piece. It's it's a nude bats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's and I know all bats are nude, but like
Speaker 1: this one's I mean, well, it's an albino bat. It's
Speaker 1: got a little bit of a luscious, small, lushious body
Speaker 1: that's also hot. I love my curby bat voiced by
Speaker 1: Hankazaria with an accent that is to me problematic. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's trying to do, but it's
Speaker 1: not right. Whatever. And we'll talk about the accents in
Speaker 1: this movie too, because we were checking. We were checking
Speaker 1: with Anna last night for they checked any sort of
Speaker 1: realism to it, and it looks like no. To be determined, Okay, teaser.
Speaker 1: So Rasputin is stuck in this like hell limbo place
Speaker 1: because Anastasia survived and he has a horcrux. He's basically Baltimore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's also sort of living in the same place
Speaker 1: Scarf from The Lion King lives in. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of like a rock den and it's there's green fog,
Speaker 1: but instead of Hyena's there's bugs, yes, um. And then
Speaker 1: he has the bat friend bar Talk, who helps He
Speaker 1: helps recput and get out of limbo so that Resput
Speaker 1: and can kill Anastasia, and they sing a terrific song
Speaker 1: about it. Really good. It rocks. It does, so Dmitri
Speaker 1: and Anastasia and then Vlad also Kelsey Grammar are on
Speaker 1: their way to Paris, and Dmitri and Anya are attracted
Speaker 1: to each other. And then yeah, they're doing a little
Speaker 1: bit of light n egging. I could call it heavy
Speaker 1: little there was. It's so weird, Like I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that until this watch, but like Meg Ryan voices Anastasia
Speaker 1: and they're just doing a scene from most Meg Ryan
Speaker 1: movies where she's being nagged, but she's like stop, that's
Speaker 1: just kind of what's happening. So then rest mutants, little
Speaker 1: ghost minions caused the train that they're on to crash,
Speaker 1: but they survive and they continue onward to Paris, and
Speaker 1: then Lad and Dmitri teach Anya how to be fancy
Speaker 1: so that she can alien scene in the middle of
Speaker 1: the movie yeah uh. And then she and Dmitri almost
Speaker 1: kiss on a ship that sort of looks like Titanic,
Speaker 1: and Anastasia's wearing the dress that Ariel wears in The
Speaker 1: Little Mermaid, right, um, and also kind of looks like
Speaker 1: the dress that the little girls in the Shining weear.
Speaker 1: Oh well, there's another Shining reference when she gets trapped
Speaker 1: in a maze later on. Oh yeah, so who knows
Speaker 1: what's going on? So they almost kissed, but then Dmitri
Speaker 1: was like, no, I shouldn't, and then rest mutants minions
Speaker 1: try to kill Anastasia again on the ship. Remember when
Speaker 1: minions were just little evil things that helped respute and
Speaker 1: not and not cut things with glasses and keute pies
Speaker 1: that I love. Then Dmitri saves her from and so
Speaker 1: she doesn't die, and then they finally get to Paris.
Speaker 1: The plan is to see Sophie the empassis first cousin,
Speaker 1: to convince her that Anastasia is in fact Anastasia, or
Speaker 1: rather Anya is Anastasia, and Sophie and Flat a k A. H.
Speaker 1: Kelsey Grammar are for sure fucking which doesn't isn't really
Speaker 1: relevant to the plot, but he foreshadows really heavily for
Speaker 1: some reason, like he keeps bring him like Sophie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, she's a cream puff and I want
Speaker 1: to fuck her, like, I don't know why it's so
Speaker 1: important to the plot of this movie that you know
Speaker 1: that Kelsey Grammer's character is like, for sure, fucking this
Speaker 1: French lady, but it's really important. It's important for it.
Speaker 1: It comes up a lot. Yes, So then Anya answers
Speaker 1: all of Sophie's questions correctly, including one about how she
Speaker 1: escaped the palace, saying that there was a boy who
Speaker 1: helped her escape by opening up this wall because I
Speaker 1: guess her memories coming back. And then Dmitri is like, oh, fuck,
Speaker 1: that actually is Anastasia because he was the boy who
Speaker 1: helped Oh hope, I hope you're not going to make
Speaker 1: fun of that, because that's really nice. No. I think
Speaker 1: it's like a really effective use of plant and payoff.
Speaker 1: I have a master's degree in screenwriting from Boston. Take
Speaker 1: Caitlin's course. I don't like to break it up, Okay,
Speaker 1: So but right then, the Empress decides not to see
Speaker 1: any more women claiming to be Anastasia because it keeps
Speaker 1: letting her down in her keeps breaking her heart. So
Speaker 1: they decide to stalk the Empress at the ballet instead,
Speaker 1: and then Dmitri goes up to her, and he's like,
Speaker 1: you gotta see her. She's the real deal, and the
Speaker 1: Empress is like no, and then Anastasia overhears the Empress
Speaker 1: saying that she knows about Dmitri's reputation somehow. Again she's like, Dmitri,
Speaker 1: I've heard of you, that he's a con man who
Speaker 1: was holding auditions for Anastasia lookalikes. So Anastasia hears all
Speaker 1: this and she's like, Demitri, you freaking asks you used
Speaker 1: me what a good slack? I forgot that she slack?
Speaker 1: I always I always get something like oh, like it's
Speaker 1: very exciting, it's very gratifying. And he doesn't even go
Speaker 1: like that sucked. He's just like, I'm sorry, you have
Speaker 1: to know the truth. Yes, It's like whoa, that's love it.
Speaker 1: So she runs away and then take each other around
Speaker 1: um to set things right, Dmitri kidnaps the Empress and
Speaker 1: takes her to Anastasia uh, and then the Empress doesn't
Speaker 1: believe that she is Anastasia at first, but then Anastasia
Speaker 1: is like, you smell like peppermint, and she's like it
Speaker 1: is you. Yeah, And then finally grandmother and granddaughter are
Speaker 1: reunited and Dmitri doesn't even want the money because he's
Speaker 1: a good guy. He's different now, and he leaves because
Speaker 1: he's in love with Anastasia. I just handle it. The
Speaker 1: scene where the grandma's like, did you have a change
Speaker 1: of mind? And then he goes more like a change
Speaker 1: of heart in your life. That's that's powerful. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I'm tearing up. I'm just like people can change. And
Speaker 1: then she's like, well, if you don't want the money,
Speaker 1: what do you want And he's like, nothing you can
Speaker 1: give me, which is code for like, he wants to
Speaker 1: put his pep into Anastasia v v. Caitlin. That's a vulgar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he wants her very heteronormative. But it's fine. That's fine
Speaker 1: for him. Change changed. So at the celebratory ball, Resputin
Speaker 1: shows up. He traps Anastasia in the maze from the
Speaker 1: shining and he tries to kill her, but then Dmitri
Speaker 1: shows back up and helps her defeat Respute, and he
Speaker 1: punches Resputin in the face. Yeah, and then gets attacked
Speaker 1: by that creepy horse, and then they defeat Resputing and
Speaker 1: then they share and we'll talk all about it's so exciting,
Speaker 1: And then they share a kiss and then they elope
Speaker 1: right away, right away. I honestly kind of respect that.
Speaker 1: You don't see the wedding. You just see a letter
Speaker 1: saying like, yeah, we will be back in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. That's it. What if they went back to
Speaker 1: Russia and got killed by Stalin? I'm sorry the real
Speaker 1: estate should died in anyway find from this documentary that's
Speaker 1: not true. Okay, So then that's the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: Well you've forgotten bar Talk. Bar Talk finds a pink
Speaker 1: bat and what a what a horrible thing to like
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, the movie ended. I'm actually not too
Speaker 1: upset about how it ended, for for a movie of
Speaker 1: this type. And then all of a sudden they're like,
Speaker 1: Mrs Bat is here like assault the Hank Zario bet
Speaker 1: but he's into it the end. All right, that's that's
Speaker 1: the end of the movie. Right where do we want
Speaker 1: to start? I wanted to start by Okay, so part
Speaker 1: of the crew. Okay. This movie was well received when
Speaker 1: it came out, an instant classic, I am uh and
Speaker 1: but but in retrospect, it is considered one of the
Speaker 1: most the movies with the most celebrity voice miscastings in
Speaker 1: any animated movie ever. So I just wanted to just
Speaker 1: just a yes or no quick opinion on like do
Speaker 1: you think, because like after Aladdin, and like after Robin Williams,
Speaker 1: like this is literally a Lindsay Ellis video that came
Speaker 1: out a couple of months ago, Robin Williams like gets
Speaker 1: the whole celebrity voice thing kind of takes off. Now
Speaker 1: all voice actors are unemployed. Suck it. Uh, And now
Speaker 1: it's celebs only and this, like everyone in this movie
Speaker 1: is a celebrity, even parts that don't matter. It's weird.
Speaker 1: So just quick yes or no? Do you think? As
Speaker 1: Anastasia Meg Ryan, what do you think? Yes or no? Yes?
Speaker 1: Fine with me? I think yes? Okay, cool, Okay, we agree, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm doing easy ones at the top. John Cusack as Dmitri.
Speaker 1: It worked, I'm sorry, ya absolutely, Okay, maybe this game
Speaker 1: isn't fun? All right? Up next, we got Angela Lansbury
Speaker 1: as the Empress. Well, the accent she's attempting is perhaps not.
Speaker 1: I'm a no on this. She's Mrs Potts and nothing else. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean yes to the general. Yes, I was. Here's
Speaker 1: my note for her. A bit much, okay, honey, quick
Speaker 1: note we actually dial it back. This movie isn't about you.
Speaker 1: Um okay, Kelsey Grammar as breast Putin or no, wait,
Speaker 1: Kesey Grammar is glad please, Kelsey Remer is flad again?
Speaker 1: Really weird accent choices that's a no for me. Bad
Speaker 1: accent hard, Yes, okay. I would have loved him as
Speaker 1: Recipe and actually yeah yeah, um as that guy um
Speaker 1: you know who cares fine? Okay, okay, because he's like
Speaker 1: a little sneaky and has wild facial hair and I'm
Speaker 1: sure sure he's His character is confusing to me for
Speaker 1: a number of reasons, mainly because he's like, I'm a
Speaker 1: con man, and then it's a twist later that he
Speaker 1: used to work for the tsar, but then it's like,
Speaker 1: well that's not good. And then at the end he
Speaker 1: kind of just gets his job back even though there's
Speaker 1: not a tzar like. It's confusing. Christopher Lloyd as Rescipues
Speaker 1: Hard Yes, okay, I think, yes, I think Alfred Milena
Speaker 1: could have done better. Uh. And I think that the
Speaker 1: accent sounds crazy. I don't I don't even know what
Speaker 1: a good Russian accent really sounds like, but it sounds crazy.
Speaker 1: The accent leaves much to be desired. Um, however, it's fine. Also, okay,
Speaker 1: hankers Area as the bat. No, I'm gonna know, I'm
Speaker 1: now on the bat. It's going to be in firm No, okay,
Speaker 1: that was That was the people I wanted to because
Speaker 1: his accent sounds like when Russian people try to sound
Speaker 1: American as a joke to point out how stupid Americans sound,
Speaker 1: so like what we would do accents. It would be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: take the baby roll and why not here we go
Speaker 1: to the store of all It's it's like, it's like
Speaker 1: so wild, It's just so weird. It's i mean, really
Speaker 1: like Russian accents for all walks of life in this movie,
Speaker 1: some people not doing one at all. Right, perhaps the
Speaker 1: best Russian accent is the one you don't do. That's
Speaker 1: really jazz. Wow. I hope that Meg Ryan tried to
Speaker 1: do a Russian accent in a few takes and they
Speaker 1: were like, just she's too good at being quirky. It's
Speaker 1: like yeah. And then also, like, I mean, hankers Area
Speaker 1: well known for being really respectful when he's doing voice works.
Speaker 1: Just kidding. There's a whole documentary about it sure is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's who we're working with. There's also additional voices,
Speaker 1: and also Kirsten Duns is Little Anastasia, Lacey Shabet is
Speaker 1: Little Singing Anastasia, and J. K. Simmons is credited as
Speaker 1: additional voices. I was Yeah. When I was rewatching it today,
Speaker 1: I'm like, where is Yeah? Where is it? I couldn't
Speaker 1: find him. He's that good. He's that good. He disappears
Speaker 1: into the role. You can't. But he's credited in that
Speaker 1: movie as he's just maybe maybe he plays Comrade Fleming cough,
Speaker 1: which is the orphanage lady. I don't know, probably not hot.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So we've got the cast. Should we talk
Speaker 1: about Anastasia the character? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So
Speaker 1: my kind of objective take since I didn't really grow
Speaker 1: up with this movie, and I feel like it's hard
Speaker 1: not to compare this to Disney movies. They're stealing everything.
Speaker 1: So just to kind of compare Anastasia as a character
Speaker 1: to the like Disney Renaissance princesses of this time, I
Speaker 1: would say overall, Anastasia is just better characterized. She has
Speaker 1: more personality than a lot of them. We know things
Speaker 1: about her like she's offinite. She tends to like push
Speaker 1: back on anyone, like you know, giving her attitude different things.
Speaker 1: She says to Dmitri, stop bosting me around, um, don't
Speaker 1: talk anymore, it's only going to upset me. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then she accidentally punches Demitri in the face like as
Speaker 1: she's waking up, and then she's like, oh, sorry, I
Speaker 1: thought you were someone else. And then she sees it's him.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, wait, it's you. That's okay. Then and
Speaker 1: then he's like, oh, you broke my nose. And then
Speaker 1: like kind of to herself, she's like men her babies,
Speaker 1: So you know, she's feisty, she's fun. She like actually
Speaker 1: tells jokes. She starts like her her actual like journey
Speaker 1: starts because she like decides to, like she leaves the orphanage.
Speaker 1: She knows where she's going. She's sort of like playing
Speaker 1: along with Dmitri and Vlad's planned because she needs to
Speaker 1: get out of the country. So it's not like she's
Speaker 1: not she's not completely convinced that she's Anastatia just because
Speaker 1: I'm like, just because John Cusack was like you probably are,
Speaker 1: She's like, well, either way, I gotta get out of
Speaker 1: the country. So and then she uh. This was like
Speaker 1: because I wasn't quite sure because I only watched this
Speaker 1: movie when I'm sick, so I rarely see the end
Speaker 1: of it. Um, so I I forgot like how involved
Speaker 1: he is in like the final like big battle with
Speaker 1: Resciput and and I was like a little worried because
Speaker 1: the way that Seaton plays out is that resputed and
Speaker 1: you know, he's he like throws her to the ground
Speaker 1: and then Dmitri shows up punches Rescipue in the face,
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, I hope that this isn't like
Speaker 1: one of those battles where she's rescued and she's just
Speaker 1: sort of over there the whole time. But and she's
Speaker 1: over there for a little bit, but he does kind
Speaker 1: of have to like pull her up. It seems like
Speaker 1: she's going to be damseled. But then but then he
Speaker 1: kind of fails to say for a couple of times
Speaker 1: he rescputed and is really kicking him around, and he's
Speaker 1: thrown own to like the side and like passed out.
Speaker 1: And it kind of reminded me of what happens to
Speaker 1: Jasmine and Aladdin. Right, he's literally tossed out of the
Speaker 1: scene and you're like, all that never happens to the
Speaker 1: guy in and then Anastasia gets his and this is
Speaker 1: the big vocabulary word of this movie, reliquary there. I
Speaker 1: had the novelization of this, and I just remember my
Speaker 1: dad really struggling with that word. He's like all the
Speaker 1: minions and reciput and is one. Then really didn't care
Speaker 1: for that. But she stomps on the reliquary three times
Speaker 1: and she kills Resput, and yes, it's exciting. She's like,
Speaker 1: this is for Dmitri, this is for my family, and
Speaker 1: I said for you, and then she crushes it and
Speaker 1: he dies, so yeah, I wasn't. He also turns into
Speaker 1: goop and then dust. It's a very and there's like
Speaker 1: so many things that I like about this that, like
Speaker 1: Disney movies never quite go there, Like they the villain
Speaker 1: always like falls off a off and just like slowly disappears,
Speaker 1: but they're like no, no, no, you're seeing his violent graphic.
Speaker 1: When you die, you turn into goop and then dust.
Speaker 1: But there's like he's a skeleton at some point in
Speaker 1: between that. It's it's wild. Yeah, he pulls his head off,
Speaker 1: he rips his face off. He's a goof. But I
Speaker 1: did love that, you know, it seems like she might
Speaker 1: be damse old, and that's what happens in all these
Speaker 1: Disney movies. But then yeah, the the tides shift and
Speaker 1: she's the one unlike so Jasmine, she's like cast aside
Speaker 1: for the climax of the story. But she's also not
Speaker 1: the protagonist of that movie aladdins. But even in like
Speaker 1: Bell and Bootying The Beast and Aerial and The Little Mermaid,
Speaker 1: they're the protagonists of those movies, and they still aren't
Speaker 1: even allowed to participate in the climax of their own
Speaker 1: story because it's their male love interests who come and
Speaker 1: save the day. So I loved that Anastasia is the
Speaker 1: one who takes the reins and act really actively defeats
Speaker 1: the villain herself. And it just and it works better
Speaker 1: for this story too, because it's like there's that whole
Speaker 1: like the only reason she knows him is because he
Speaker 1: killed her entire family, right, so if someone else kills him,
Speaker 1: it's like, I mean, I'm glad he's dead, I guess, right,
Speaker 1: But like she's the one who would want the revenge
Speaker 1: against him. So the fact that she gets the big Cathartic.
Speaker 1: It's an awesome scene. It's the coolest. So there's that.
Speaker 1: There there are a few moments where like she helps Dmitri,
Speaker 1: like on the train scene, like she's an active participant.
Speaker 1: He's still kind of like taking the lead after the
Speaker 1: train starts crashing, like he's kind of doing most of
Speaker 1: the stuff, and then she helps. I do think that
Speaker 1: like that. It feels mostly like a lot of times
Speaker 1: he'll try to do something and then it will fail,
Speaker 1: and then she'll just do it like the correct way.
Speaker 1: Like that happens a couple of different times. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how intentional that was in the writing, but
Speaker 1: it's like kind of fun to see like this, like guy,
Speaker 1: this like macho character over and never be like I've
Speaker 1: got this, and then there's like an explosion in front
Speaker 1: of him. He's like then and then anaesthesia kind of
Speaker 1: takes Russian woman to come in and our work is
Speaker 1: never done. Me. Another thing that this movie doesn't do
Speaker 1: that a lot of Disney movies from this time definitely do,
Speaker 1: is like really over sexualized. It's female character, its main
Speaker 1: character for most of the movie, Anastasia is in like
Speaker 1: this giant coat and then like, you know, she's got
Speaker 1: the hat and the scarf. Still somehow she's like, look,
Speaker 1: it's a good look. It's a very med Bryan look.
Speaker 1: Actually it's very like chunky bangs and like a floppy hat,
Speaker 1: like a clumsy jacket for her to be like just right,
Speaker 1: I would say that, yeah, we see like more of
Speaker 1: Dmitri's body than we do have hers for most of them,
Speaker 1: and that's fine with me, no credit, but like resput
Speaker 1: And and Anastasia are wearing the same outfit from most
Speaker 1: of them, just like a belted sad you know, communism,
Speaker 1: you know why. But then she does get a makeover,
Speaker 1: and there is a shopping montage because say it with me, now,
Speaker 1: women be shopping this movie is there's a whole shopping song.
Speaker 1: They brought in Bernadette Peters to sing the shopping in
Speaker 1: France song. And yeah, it's so weird because it's like
Speaker 1: this movie doesn't like get too into like the Pygmalion
Speaker 1: and like My Fair Lady references, but there's a solid
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes where that's all it is. And so it's
Speaker 1: all like random con artists giving women makeovers for sinister purposes.
Speaker 1: I guess at least It's not to make her more
Speaker 1: attractive to the man, it's to make her be able
Speaker 1: to asked as royalty. Yeah. I mean this is like
Speaker 1: one of still one of those movies. I hate to
Speaker 1: admit it, but it is one of those like nineties
Speaker 1: Arrow movies that the central plot is a woman being
Speaker 1: deceived and eventually fucking him. Anyways, Okay, So, because I
Speaker 1: didn't remember this movie at all except for the train,
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I see them. They're negging each
Speaker 1: other there. Jamie is opening her Mikes hard watermelon. I
Speaker 1: smell it from over here. I always worried about they're
Speaker 1: twisted up. Mike's is never trying to challenge. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a hard lemonade, but it's not that hard. So anyway,
Speaker 1: they meet each other, you can tell is it horrible?
Speaker 1: And her had the flavor before? This is how is
Speaker 1: it is? It's salty? Salty taste? Salty taste it? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it's overwhelming. Oh it has a really bad after taste.
Speaker 1: May I taste it? Go for it? Salty bad after
Speaker 1: I gotta know mm hmm salty. Oh I will finish
Speaker 1: it bead after taste. Yeah. Story anyway, Okay, So the
Speaker 1: two characters come face to face for the first time,
Speaker 1: Anastasia and Dmitri, and you can tell that they're gonna
Speaker 1: be foisted together into a romantic entanglement. Um even though
Speaker 1: he's an asshole. She knows that he's an asshole. We
Speaker 1: know he's an asshole as the audience. He's nagging her,
Speaker 1: he's treating like ship most of the time, and he's
Speaker 1: also lying to her for a good chunk of the movie. Yes,
Speaker 1: as I'm seeing all this unfold, I said, I bet
Speaker 1: myself ten dollars that they kiss at the end, and
Speaker 1: I won ten dollars. They kiss at the end. They
Speaker 1: do kiss, but it's a hot kiss. So there's that.
Speaker 1: Not to be a dimitri apologist, but there is a
Speaker 1: lot of Okay, so what is like different about this movie?
Speaker 1: I mean, what isn't different about this thing? But the
Speaker 1: way the relationship is between the prince's character and like
Speaker 1: the the guy pursuing her as it's literally a Meg
Speaker 1: Ryan movie, which is why all those weird nineties tropes
Speaker 1: of like being deceived, where normally it's like the princess
Speaker 1: is inactive, the prince has no personality, and somehow there's
Speaker 1: a beginning, middle, and end regardless. But they treat each
Speaker 1: other like rom com characters, and they're like bickering and
Speaker 1: flirting and dancing and almost kissing but then not kissing,
Speaker 1: like it's it's like a night these romcom movie. And
Speaker 1: then I do think that he maybe not to the
Speaker 1: degree he should, but he does change and he's wrong,
Speaker 1: express remorse and then gives her space until she decides
Speaker 1: she wants him back. So it's maybe that's poor judgment
Speaker 1: on on her part, but at least she decided it
Speaker 1: because it was like, you know, when he kidnaps the
Speaker 1: old lady, You're like, I don't know, you know, he's
Speaker 1: maybe he's lawless, and maybe I shouldn't be rooting for him,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't kidnap her in that way. He's an ally.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a moment where Lad says to him,
Speaker 1: um about Anastasia, Oh, she certainly has a mind of
Speaker 1: her own, and then Demitri responds by saying, yeah, I
Speaker 1: hate that in a woman. So but then Anastasia goes
Speaker 1: she sure does, and she sure does on the train,
Speaker 1: and I love that for her. For her, she always
Speaker 1: does have like a really good retort. So that's not
Speaker 1: an example of one, I don't know for yourself. And
Speaker 1: that scene pays off Kelsey Grabber taking out this notebook
Speaker 1: he has where he's keeping score Anya and Dmitri and
Speaker 1: the raspberry does count as a point for it really does.
Speaker 1: Actually it says so much by doing so little. We're like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I guess she is in the lead. She's in the lead.
Speaker 1: So this is a feminist text. Yes, we read a
Speaker 1: fun fact. Although the credibility of this website was wildly tested,
Speaker 1: it was written by a guy named Nat, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty much all we know about. Even offer up his
Speaker 1: last no, no credentials, just Nat. You know, you know
Speaker 1: how that is, and you know how he gets one
Speaker 1: of the facts. It was like ten facts about right now.
Speaker 1: You know. One of them was just wrong. One of
Speaker 1: them was like it came out the same week as
Speaker 1: a Little Mermaid, and you were like, that was ten
Speaker 1: years before that. Okay, so I read something that that
Speaker 1: person might have meant. So Disney re released The Little
Speaker 1: Mermaid I think like a week before Anastasia came out,
Speaker 1: and then they released a bunch of other stuff the
Speaker 1: week after in a clear attempt to like to bury Anastasia.
Speaker 1: So Nat had a point. Yes, okay, I guess what
Speaker 1: what what was? What's what does he saying? Oh? Well, Nat,
Speaker 1: Nat said this wonderful thing. This, this is a classic Nat.
Speaker 1: He said that Megrian was really trepidacious about doing it,
Speaker 1: and she did not want to do it because it
Speaker 1: was like right after Sleepless in Seattle, and she was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to do cartoons. And
Speaker 1: then the animators convinced her, or the director convinced her
Speaker 1: by animating a scene from sleep Listency Dolt. It was
Speaker 1: just like, look, it can exist as an animation and
Speaker 1: still hold it's merit. And then she got to really
Speaker 1: bring her own acting into the piece, and so you
Speaker 1: see a classic migrant trope being acted out. That's why
Speaker 1: it's so real. And I'm pretty sure that's actually true
Speaker 1: that they did do that, even though the credibility of
Speaker 1: the website that was right in ninety seven is a
Speaker 1: good year for this movie to come out, because I
Speaker 1: think that Disney animated movie that year was like Hercules
Speaker 1: or like something that I don't think did well at first.
Speaker 1: I do love those stories where it's so fucked up,
Speaker 1: but whenever Disney tries to just absolutely murder something in
Speaker 1: a really obvious way, and then we're still like, but
Speaker 1: it's fine because my childhood, Like you're like, it's not good,
Speaker 1: it's scary. Yeah. I just still don't like what they
Speaker 1: did to Andy Serkus is Jungle Book movie. I guess
Speaker 1: that's just what I'm saying. They killed Circus with that one.
Speaker 1: Sarcas should be a billionaire. I just sorry, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I had two SIPs of a hard just going off.
Speaker 1: I'm acting speaking of things that I found about the
Speaker 1: movie Anastasia that come from my website that is perhaps
Speaker 1: not the most credible. So I don't know how much
Speaker 1: validity there is to this different, different way. But Bernardette Peters,
Speaker 1: who voices the character of Sophie the emphasis cousin, cousin, yes, um,
Speaker 1: Bernardette Peters reportedly said that she did not like the
Speaker 1: way her character Sophie was designed because Sophie is plus
Speaker 1: size and she did not apparently want to be represented
Speaker 1: as someone who was plus sized, to which I respond,
Speaker 1: who even knows that Bernardette Peters looks like he shot
Speaker 1: up picture her? Like, No, one's like that doesn't look
Speaker 1: like Bernadette Peters no one knows what that. What I
Speaker 1: love about animation is that they look exactly like the
Speaker 1: person who's voicing them, Like Kelsey Grammer looks exactly just
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like looking at the mirror. Right. The
Speaker 1: only example is that Dmitri looks exactly like John Kia
Speaker 1: say yeah, And everyone else looks like guess what a cartoon,
Speaker 1: except for Hankazaria, who looks just like the Bad. He
Speaker 1: does look like the Bad. It's true, a luscious, luscious
Speaker 1: little body, but that brings me I just want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the way plus sized people
Speaker 1: are presented in this movie. Because Vlad is a big guy,
Speaker 1: he is shown as being like extremely ungraceful most of
Speaker 1: the time. He falls over on the train and like
Speaker 1: that's why he can't help Dmitri, and that's why I
Speaker 1: like Anastasia has to step up and help Demitri with
Speaker 1: the train to Bockle, and then later on there on
Speaker 1: the ship and he like takes the top bunk of
Speaker 1: the bunk beds and it like stinks down so low
Speaker 1: that it like crushes the dog so basically, like his
Speaker 1: weight and his body is like played as a joke.
Speaker 1: Several times. I feel like the same thing happens for
Speaker 1: Um Sophie's character. It's just not good in a movie
Speaker 1: that like doesn't seem to like punch down at anyone
Speaker 1: else really, But yeah, and I think that that is
Speaker 1: like such an older animation trope to that it would
Speaker 1: just be like crazy to not do um and they
Speaker 1: for some reason like choose to like play too, because
Speaker 1: there's a million old cartoons where that happens repeatedly and
Speaker 1: it's not necessary and it's not funny, and it's Yeah,
Speaker 1: it does feel like weirdly out of place in this movie.
Speaker 1: Can I talk about the Titanic parallels? Yes, I have
Speaker 1: the same list, I think, all right here mine and
Speaker 1: let's compare notes a poor guy trying to make money
Speaker 1: in Paris and a woman with red hair coming from
Speaker 1: a rich family and the two of them fall in love.
Speaker 1: The shot on the staircase, the full body shot of
Speaker 1: the dolled up female protagonist on an elegant staircase. That
Speaker 1: was on my list. Okay, I don't have that one.
Speaker 1: The man saving the woman from going overboard on a
Speaker 1: ship a necklace being a pretty big plot point. What
Speaker 1: about the poor guy being dragged out of the room
Speaker 1: being like you don't understand. Oh yeah, that's one. The
Speaker 1: woman has a music box the end. They came out
Speaker 1: the same year. Could it be a coincidence? Who copying? Who? Uh?
Speaker 1: There was also there, Like, so this movie was made
Speaker 1: by Fox Animation. From what you were telling me, this
Speaker 1: is not an animation company that lasts very long. They
Speaker 1: make this movie, it's very successful. They make one every
Speaker 1: other movie. It's dogshit the end. That's the whole history.
Speaker 1: And they're kind of doing I almost thought this was
Speaker 1: a DreamWorks thing, but I don't think, like I think
Speaker 1: this pre dates DreamWorks. But they're doing the DreamWorks thing
Speaker 1: where they're just kind of stealing from Disney movies and
Speaker 1: being like people will think this is a Disney movie.
Speaker 1: And there's so many and that's I think part of
Speaker 1: like why this movie is so good because they steal
Speaker 1: a lot of really good parts from Disney movies that
Speaker 1: came out very recently. Where like the rumor in St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg number, which historic, I mean if you look, so
Speaker 1: this takes place in Stalin is in power and this
Speaker 1: is a musical number where the people under Communist Russia
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah there's food rations, Yeah, life is really difficult. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're all suffering. And then the last line before you
Speaker 1: get into the chorus is like, but we love rumors
Speaker 1: and gossip anyways, and then they start to dance about
Speaker 1: rumors and it's so that's true. Yeah, that's actually true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like, yeah, it's really tough about here. Thank God
Speaker 1: for these rumors. What I'm lacking in food, I'm just
Speaker 1: making up for a rumor. It's delicious, your fool. But
Speaker 1: that number looks a lot like the first number and
Speaker 1: Beauty and the Beast where it's also like the peasants
Speaker 1: of this community being like we're the goofs because poor people. Uh,
Speaker 1: what else we've got, like the like female protagonists singing
Speaker 1: her mission. I mean, Anastasia all but sings. I want
Speaker 1: much more than this provincial Yeah, except she actually has
Speaker 1: like motivation. Right, Well, that's the other thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about, Like like in Station Versus a Disney movie,
Speaker 1: is that like and the does happen to some extent
Speaker 1: in Anastasia, but like in like Little Mermaid where she's like,
Speaker 1: oh she loves people culture. Uh, she wants to go
Speaker 1: up where the people are. And then in Bell's case,
Speaker 1: people culture in Bell's case, she uh wants much more
Speaker 1: than this provincial life. She wants to go on an
Speaker 1: adventure in the great wide somewhere. But in both movies
Speaker 1: they don't really get farther than like the hands of
Speaker 1: the arms of a man. Uh and Bell literally goes
Speaker 1: I would say, less than three miles yeah, and has
Speaker 1: no idea there's a castle. But the story then becomes
Speaker 1: about like her involvement with the male love interest, whereas
Speaker 1: I mean in Anastasia, yes she does elope with a
Speaker 1: man at the end, but the story is more about
Speaker 1: like her journey to figure out herself and her family
Speaker 1: history and her back story, rather than like, there is
Speaker 1: the subplot of the Roman, but it's not what takes
Speaker 1: over the whole story. So yeah, like it another one
Speaker 1: of the big I think we already sort of said this,
Speaker 1: but in the dark of the night is is like
Speaker 1: the same exact number as be Prepared from Lion King
Speaker 1: to the point where it is sung by the same man.
Speaker 1: I know you guys, okay, uh does Jeremy irons not
Speaker 1: saying be prepared? He sings about two thirds of it,
Speaker 1: and then he was getting a little pitchy dog on
Speaker 1: some of them and so they bring in Jim Cummings,
Speaker 1: who does all who sings entire in the dark of
Speaker 1: the night. But but it's like, not only is it
Speaker 1: super visually similar similar where they're in a cave and
Speaker 1: there's green fog and there's singing animals who are standing
Speaker 1: for nazis there, Uh, but it's also literally the same
Speaker 1: guy singing it. It's such a blatant rip off that
Speaker 1: I do respect it. Um. Yeah, So they just like
Speaker 1: stole a bunch of like some of the best scenes
Speaker 1: from Disney movies and just sort of retrofitted it to
Speaker 1: fit this historically accurate movie. Yes, can I give a
Speaker 1: brief rundown of the historical accuracy please, because it is
Speaker 1: I mean, it is like wild that this story was
Speaker 1: chosen to be adapted. And I guess that there is
Speaker 1: like early drafts of this script that were more closer
Speaker 1: to the real story, which when you know the real story,
Speaker 1: seems impossible in Children Nation because what actually happened. So
Speaker 1: in in I R. L. Resputen was not an enemy
Speaker 1: of the romanofs. He was a close friend of the
Speaker 1: Czarina slash fucking her. We don't know, um, but he
Speaker 1: claimed he claimed to like have magical powers. He somehow
Speaker 1: cured the youngest romanovs hemophilia with either magic or basic medicine,
Speaker 1: we don't know. Uh. Either way, he gets a lot
Speaker 1: of influence in the court. The Czarina really likes him.
Speaker 1: He's a friend of the family. And he dies two
Speaker 1: full years before the Romanos are killed, so that has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with anything. The romanofs are all for
Speaker 1: sure killed. They were all shot in a basement by
Speaker 1: the Bolshevik government during the Russian Revolution. But like the
Speaker 1: Resputen and the Romanos were like never on bad terms.
Speaker 1: All the Roman kids died. The grandma was out of town,
Speaker 1: but she was in Denmark, which is too boring for
Speaker 1: the movie. Um, the grandma never looked for her family.
Speaker 1: She was she took it. She was like, I guess
Speaker 1: they're dead, and she was right. They were all dead.
Speaker 1: There were some rumors that Anastasia lived and it's funny
Speaker 1: why this is horrible, but like the rumors were that
Speaker 1: Anastasia had maybe lived because she was wearing so many
Speaker 1: diamonds that they deflected the bullets, and so she lived
Speaker 1: and she was around, and there was one very successful
Speaker 1: Anastasia impersonator which it looks like most of this movie
Speaker 1: is is modeled on if it were true, which it wasn't.
Speaker 1: But there was this girl named Anna Anderson who was
Speaker 1: like poor and looked similar, and they were like the
Speaker 1: reason they gave their like, well, she suffered a lot
Speaker 1: of depressions, so it's probably her and and she like
Speaker 1: wrote memoirs as if it were true. There was some
Speaker 1: hot guy involved in the con and so that is
Speaker 1: that's unfortunately. And also they you know, they erased all
Speaker 1: the all the messy, oppressive Stalin stuff. Yes, it's so
Speaker 1: weird that they chose to make this a movie. That's
Speaker 1: kind of the one thing that I would say most
Speaker 1: differentiates it from other Disney movies at this time is
Speaker 1: that it's taking history and then really taking a lot
Speaker 1: of liberties with it. But it is but most of
Speaker 1: Disney movies were based from like fairy tales and and
Speaker 1: you know, mythology and stuff like that, and this is
Speaker 1: in Anastasia is taking you know, historically inaccurate events and
Speaker 1: then making those into a movie. But it is based
Speaker 1: in at least real life figures, which is irresponsible to
Speaker 1: so wildly misrepresent what actually happened and then have that
Speaker 1: be a children's movie, because you know how many children
Speaker 1: will watch the movie version of something rather than like
Speaker 1: reading the real thing at all of us. I thought
Speaker 1: this was the only thing I knew about Russian culture
Speaker 1: for the first like sixteen years of my life, and
Speaker 1: it was like one of those things where I sort
Speaker 1: of took it at phase value until forced to say
Speaker 1: it allowed I was like, yeah, well he was a wizard,
Speaker 1: but he failed, but then he died, but then he
Speaker 1: came back. So I don't think that's the best choice
Speaker 1: that a movie has ever made, but I would say
Speaker 1: overall it handles a lot of things better than a
Speaker 1: lot of Disney movies of its time. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we're just looking at the way like it is if
Speaker 1: this is like this company's take on what is clear,
Speaker 1: like trying to take a little bit of whatever the
Speaker 1: princess market is at this time, Like they do a
Speaker 1: better job and they steal a lot of what Disney
Speaker 1: was doing better than them, which I guess respect I
Speaker 1: don't know this movie rules. I don't know. I can't.
Speaker 1: No one's going to talk me into disliking it. So
Speaker 1: there's four credited writers on this movie, two of whom
Speaker 1: are women, which you have to think has to do
Speaker 1: with because most Princess movies were not written by women,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it really shows it all. No,
Speaker 1: there's one one screenwriter, Nanni White, who also wrote newsies Tarzan,
Speaker 1: Hunchback in Notre Da, and Two Dalmatians and worked on
Speaker 1: The Lion King. Then there's another screenwriter, Susan Gothier. I
Speaker 1: couldn't find her CRIDs. And then also Carrie Fisher did
Speaker 1: rewrites on this movie. Yeah, because she was a prolific
Speaker 1: script doctor, yeah for many years, and she would help
Speaker 1: punch up a bunch of scripts. She was supposed to
Speaker 1: have been the person who added in the what did
Speaker 1: you say the name of the lady who ran the orphanage?
Speaker 1: So that would be um, comrade Fleming cough. That's so,
Speaker 1: I yeah, canonically as a Carrie Fisher. It's also spelled
Speaker 1: like because I watch everything with subtitles on and the
Speaker 1: subtitles spell Fleming cough p h L E g M
Speaker 1: the way that flem is spelled. And she's like characterized
Speaker 1: as like this old bag and it's like, oh, girls,
Speaker 1: a woman over thirty five. I think that that is
Speaker 1: probably true. And also but like over thirty five and
Speaker 1: poor Nor because you see Angela Lansbury is kind of
Speaker 1: like she's hot because she's right, which you know canon, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: did you have anything else? The only other thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to mention was rest Sputan talks about at least
Speaker 1: three times in the movie how much he loves cologne.
Speaker 1: Did anyone else pick up on this? It's in his song.
Speaker 1: He mentions it later before he's about to go try
Speaker 1: to kill Anastasia himself in the flesh, and then I
Speaker 1: think there's another scene where you see him like sprit
Speaker 1: sing it on. So he is obsessed with cologne. Rewatch
Speaker 1: Anastasia Beyond Cologne. Watch. I just wanted to point that out.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that is like a fact about I,
Speaker 1: as someone who who has several biography as of resput
Speaker 1: And in her home, I've never encountered that before. My
Speaker 1: favorite respute, in fact, if you want to check it
Speaker 1: out on and on your own, is you should look
Speaker 1: up Resputen. He has three kids on the books, but
Speaker 1: there there were some some side kids. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: that his bat was, but he had three kids, and
Speaker 1: the one who didn't get killed later his name Maria Resputen,
Speaker 1: and she went on to be a lion tamer and
Speaker 1: burlesque performer, and then she moved to l A. So honestly,
Speaker 1: live your best when your dad is a cartoon villain,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Become a lion tamer and
Speaker 1: moved to l A and burlesque performer. Yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: a and a major resput and did nothing wrong at
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I've seen the movie. Yea, I know
Speaker 1: what he did. Anyone have any other final thoughts? Literally?
Speaker 1: All right, does Anastasia pass the Bechtel test? Yes? It
Speaker 1: does does right away? Between young Anastasia and her grandmama. Um,
Speaker 1: it does pass between Anastasia and Comrade Fleming cough believe
Speaker 1: it or not. And then I think also between Anastasia
Speaker 1: and Sophie. Um, did you get about the circumstances of
Speaker 1: her entire family's death? Right? Yeah? There was also a
Speaker 1: pass between Grandmamma and Sophie right, um. But other than that,
Speaker 1: I think that that Yeah, that's all I had. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Misses the bat didn't didn't get any character. Why isn't
Speaker 1: she name? Where is her arc? There is a directed
Speaker 1: video about Bartalk magnificent. Yeah, it's all right, I won't
Speaker 1: spoil anything. It's quite bad, but it is like I
Speaker 1: think Hanks Area is one of those people who is
Speaker 1: kind of down for whatever. He was fully back. He
Speaker 1: didn't call in a backup. He's like, I'm available, bar
Speaker 1: talk the magnificent. I'm in. Oh good grief. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's write the nipple of the movie on our
Speaker 1: nipple scale. Rate the nipple on our movie scale. How
Speaker 1: many movies would you give this? So our nipple scale
Speaker 1: is zero to five nipples based on its representation of
Speaker 1: women and all things considered, I'd give it like a
Speaker 1: two and a half or three. Were you expecting lower? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm exciting for your birthday. I'll bump it up to
Speaker 1: a three. Yes, okay, yeah, I think again. If if
Speaker 1: you're comparing it to other like animated children's media of
Speaker 1: this time, especially like a princess narrative, I think it
Speaker 1: does handle a lot of things way better by comparison. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's still, you know, wedging in a romantic relationship where
Speaker 1: there doesn't need to be one. I would say it's
Speaker 1: you know, but his haircut, did you see him? But
Speaker 1: that's another Titanic the haircut. Oh that's true. Oh I
Speaker 1: had one. I did have one. More Titanic parallel on
Speaker 1: my list is men doubting a woman's identity because that
Speaker 1: happens at the beginning with Old Rose. They don't believe
Speaker 1: that she is who she says she is, and they're
Speaker 1: also not sure if Anastasia is Anastasia. So the movies
Speaker 1: are basically the same. And may I just say that
Speaker 1: one of the songs in Anastasia was nominated for an
Speaker 1: Academy Award but lost to my Heart will go on
Speaker 1: our Queen. Also, it's where it's worth mentioning if you
Speaker 1: if you like to go to places like YouTube dot
Speaker 1: com like myself, there is like a making of featurette
Speaker 1: about Anastasia that's hosted by Aliyah. Uh may she rest
Speaker 1: in peace because she if you listen to the song
Speaker 1: at the end of Anna stage to the credit song,
Speaker 1: it's sung by Aaliyah. She did a song for this movie,
Speaker 1: and she does that whole like how they used to
Speaker 1: do this weird wonderful world of Disney, but not of like, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm this person, you know, let's see this movie and
Speaker 1: like she's she hosts it, so she's just stag chair
Speaker 1: turnaround or no no, she's standing in front of the
Speaker 1: Eiffel Tower looking deeply uncomfortable. All right, She's like, as
Speaker 1: we all know, Anastasia comes as soon. Let's learn more beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's good. The Alia song is good. You should on
Speaker 1: the soundtrack. It's snow in the dark of the night.
Speaker 1: I don't know that's disrespectful. Um, so yeah, I'll stay
Speaker 1: with three and a half. Sorry, three nipples? God, oh
Speaker 1: my god, yes, three because it does handle a lot
Speaker 1: of things well in terms of like the princess character, um,
Speaker 1: giving her more development, more personality, more agency, more motivation
Speaker 1: than a lot of other comparable movies of its time.
Speaker 1: But it's still has some things about it, as we've
Speaker 1: discussed that bump it down to a three, not a
Speaker 1: three and a half. So that's so sorry. I know
Speaker 1: it's your birthday. It's not, but it's over a month
Speaker 1: away your birthday. But no, um. Yeah, So it's three nipples,
Speaker 1: and I will give one to a historically accurate representation
Speaker 1: of Anastasia, so not this movie, but the dead one.
Speaker 1: So the dead one. Okay, I will just gave one
Speaker 1: of your nipples to a dead eight year old. That
Speaker 1: go off. I guess I'll give one to um, but
Speaker 1: think of having a panic at that. I'll give one
Speaker 1: to the dog whose name I forget, and I'll give
Speaker 1: my phone apple to Mrs pink Bat. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go three and a half, I think, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that in a lot of and you're saying that
Speaker 1: this last night, we're like Disney acquired Fox and you said,
Speaker 1: a lot of mouth breathers are trying to figure out
Speaker 1: if she's a Disney Princess now where there's a whole
Speaker 1: just community out there that's been like finally our princess
Speaker 1: has been crowned, finding out that they're crawling out. I mean,
Speaker 1: like at last she's doing Disney, so which is like
Speaker 1: the weirdest like late capitalism, like take to have of
Speaker 1: like this is actually a good thing, like as unstaged
Speaker 1: as Disney Princess. But there I mean for the like
Speaker 1: you were saying, like for the fact that this is
Speaker 1: a separate animation company trying to do the same format
Speaker 1: and then they do it better, they give their character
Speaker 1: more agency. She's funny, she's cool, she's calling the shots
Speaker 1: in the relationship for the most part, except for, of course,
Speaker 1: the large deception, uh right. Other than that it's all
Speaker 1: her go. I love her. Resiputing is is an icon
Speaker 1: of any sort, really, you name it, He's an icon.
Speaker 1: I I like the Bat. I I feel like I
Speaker 1: was kind of dead a little hard in the bat
Speaker 1: earlier and in the marketing, especially at the ice show,
Speaker 1: we had a we had a we had a slushy
Speaker 1: in the bat's head. They were really pushing the bat
Speaker 1: in marketing. They really want to make the bad thing,
Speaker 1: and I we still have that cup. My dad, my
Speaker 1: dad dreams out of that bad's head to this bad
Speaker 1: my dad drinks out of all the on ice cups.
Speaker 1: He doesn't like to throw things away at he he
Speaker 1: puts coffee in the bad and then he writes about
Speaker 1: hockey all day. And that's his feminism. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I like this movie a lot. I think that it,
Speaker 1: like is one of the best versions of this format.
Speaker 1: So so three and a half nippies. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give two to the cartoon Nanna Station Jesus. Uh. Then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give one to dmich Uh. I'm sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: did you I've been holding that back for a long
Speaker 1: time ago uh. And then I'll I'll kick the last
Speaker 1: half nip I'll give it to the dog. Dog kind
Speaker 1: of looks like my dog. Yeah, a little floppy dog
Speaker 1: that looks stupid. Does Does anyone remember what the dog's
Speaker 1: name was Pa? It's Puka. The dog's name is Pouka.
Speaker 1: Does that mean something? No, it's just it's Russian for dog. Wow.
Speaker 1: Punts is to fart. So that's right in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And that's fun. That's just fun. That's fun. I hope
Speaker 1: they named the dog far. I was gonna say the
Speaker 1: comrade Fleming cough or whatever. That's actually like a pretty
Speaker 1: common Russian trope in Russian literature, especially like humor stuff,
Speaker 1: is that someone's name. Someone will be like an asshole
Speaker 1: and their name will be Mr. Ship and it's just
Speaker 1: like never addressed. It's just like Mr Ship is being
Speaker 1: mean again. And so that's like a very very common
Speaker 1: trip and it's dealt with like very matter of factly,
Speaker 1: like it's not really addressed, like the Stay Sky. A
Speaker 1: lot of times it's there's a there's somebody with the
Speaker 1: name Mr. Ship literally, so I don't know, so that's
Speaker 1: a for me. That's I don't know, there's some accuracy,
Speaker 1: that's uh. And what would you rate the movie on
Speaker 1: the nipple scale. Okay, so on the nipple scale, I
Speaker 1: rate the movie. I think three and a half is
Speaker 1: a great rating. I think you were wrong with three.
Speaker 1: So what are you vote? An embarrassment? No, I just
Speaker 1: it really is so different from other I mean, it
Speaker 1: really rocked my world that it was not a Disney
Speaker 1: movie because it looks so much Disney movie that it's
Speaker 1: alarm like, how did they not get sued? Um? But
Speaker 1: she seems like an autonomous I mean, given the time, also,
Speaker 1: which is the turn of this? You know, the like
Speaker 1: this nineteen sixteen, nineteen twenty six I don't know how
Speaker 1: independent women were in Russia. Quite frankly, they were fiercely independent,
Speaker 1: super independent. Yeah. It was actually a very feminist community feminist,
Speaker 1: this little community feminist running around whatever, very small, you
Speaker 1: knew everybody, all the girls were there. But yeah, she's
Speaker 1: like at least an interesting character who's funny and stands
Speaker 1: up for herself. So yeah, I'm comfortable with three and
Speaker 1: a half nipples for this movie. Well, Anna, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here, and thank you. Tell us
Speaker 1: where can pe? We'll follow you online? Is there anything
Speaker 1: you would like to plug? Um? I have a very exciting,
Speaker 1: not yet to be talked about project involving Kiana Reeves
Speaker 1: that will be a podcast sometime soon. It does, it
Speaker 1: will pass the back del test, even though it's about
Speaker 1: Kiana Reeves, even though okay, yeah, that's impressive. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: do we identify? How do we, as women who are
Speaker 1: obsessed with Kiana Reeves maintain our time? Uh yeah yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean all you really need to know, I guess
Speaker 1: is that by Twitter is touching Cheesus. Yes, and that's
Speaker 1: really all I have to say for myself. Okay, thank
Speaker 1: you follow Anna at Touching Jesus. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thanks to The Ruby for hosting us.
Speaker 1: Thanks to our very good pal Sammy recordings for us.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Jeff and the Tech Booth. Hell yah and
Speaker 1: happy birthday, Jamie and I'm one Mike yea. Thanks once
Speaker 1: again to our guest Anna sair Gina for joining us.
Speaker 1: Make sure to follow her on all the social media
Speaker 1: platforms and check out her stand up comedy and her
Speaker 1: upcoming podcast. Thanks to The Ruby for having us, Thanks
Speaker 1: to Sammy Junio for recording us, Thanks to the audience
Speaker 1: for supporting us, and thanks to you for listening to us.
Speaker 1: We will be here next week. See you then,