Anastasia/Thumbelina [DVD]

Anastasia
The first feature from the 20th Century-Fox animation unit in Phoenix, Arizona, this is the ninth film produced and directed by the Don Bluth/Gary Goldman duo (An American Tail) and the first animated feature to be made in CinemaScope since Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959). This $50 million animated fantasy retells the story of Anastasia, daughter of Czar Nicholas, beginning with her childhood in 1916 Russia. After Rasputin's curse on the Romanovs, little Anastasia is separated from her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria. After growing up in an orphanage, Anastasia emerges as a young woman called Anya. With no clear memory of her youth, Anya encounters entrepreneurs who seek an Anastasia look-alike in hopes of collecting a reward in Paris from the aged Dowager Empress. Despite demonic interference from Rasputin, the three travel to Paris where another problem awaits: the Dowager Empress is now skeptical of the parade of imposters. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Thumbelina
She may be no bigger that your thumb but her adventures are as tall as they come. The imagination of animator Don Bluth and the music of ward-winning composer Barry Manilow give magical screen life to Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina, the classic tale of a tiny girl who comes to believe that if she follows her heart, nothing is impossible. One magical night, Thumbelina meets Prince Cornelius, an enchanted fairy as tiny as herself, and is sure she's found her heart's desire. But before their romance can blossom, she is kidnapped by a family of show-business toads, waylaid by a scheming beetle and betrothed to a befuddled mole. Finding her way home proves to be an adventure. ~ Corinna Richards, Rovi