Anastasia's dresses are surprisingly historically accurate

[@hermaiamoira1064]

The real fashion icon of this movie was the "Graaaandma, it's me... Aanastasia" lady.

[@CC-cl3bb]

Oml- I will never forget that scene 😂

[@ill-2734]

Hahahaa was waiting for this one.. remindes me of Helmund Berger

[@onyx.daffodil1644]

😭😂😂😂

[@Googleusergoogleuser-b4p]

wasn't it a dude? i thought it was the whole point

[@laobok]

@@Googleusergoogleuser-b4p It's a lady. And she was voiced by a woman. She just has a deep voice.

[@katherinemorelle7115]

One of the things I remember most about Anastasia the movie- that it was the first movie that showed a plus size woman who was regarded as attractive exactly as she was. No mocking, no “jolly yet sexless fat woman”. Just attractive. I love aunt Sophie.

[@mahmeme]

Wow, thank you for bringing this up! I didn't really notice it before but its so true! Makes me love this film even more :,)

[@Naharu.]

Aunt Sophie is a queen in more ways than one. I always loved how she just took Anya under her wings and actually felt bad for her when Dimitri got (rightfully, tbf) dismissed by the grandma.

[@GallifrAngel]

Also she's voiced by Bernadette Peters who is just incredible so, all-in-all, Sophie is an ICON

[@marisrose9269]

@papí 4chan what

[@SerenEirian]

@papí 4chan What does this have to do with animated dresses?

[@honeydew75]

I'm Russian and i never saw anything wrong with it being a children's film haha I think the point of it was to give a happy ending to a tragedy, it painted the royal family in a human light, plus real life Anastasia's remains were only confirmed in 2007 and before that people were speculating about her having survived

[@ianesgrecia8568]

Nor should you. Plenty of disney princess and movies are actually real dark on their origins. Specially the Grimm ones. As a small spoiler, Ariel don't actually gets the prince on the end, the tale being more of a corpse bride ending than what disney did

[@joo98765]

it is a tragedy that the family died, and i love the movie and character Anastasia, but as a Finnish person i must point out that our country wouldve become a part of Russia if Nikolai 2nd would lived any longer and continued with his plan to russia-fy Finland. when the Romanov family died, Finland got a new hope of independency. so every story has many sides to it, to a Finnish person this story has a happy ending (ofc its horrible that Nikolai’s children were murdered bc they did nothing wrong). its scary to think what would have happened to my country if Nikolai 2nd had lived longer, as sad as it is to say

[@ianesgrecia8568]

@@joo98765 Yeah. Lets commemorate the murder of children. We already do it with the whole french history thing and the americans do it with their independence. Not really that new. Just seen throu diferent eyes

[@joo98765]

@@ianesgrecia8568 i already said its horrible how the children were murdered.

[@milkflys]

@@joo98765 yeah. while sure it's sad that the children died, there was reason for rebellion and there's not much point in being hung up over the kids. rebellions ugly when rulership is uglier

[@MichielBLKorte]

One thing that didn't make sense to me as a child: in Anya's visions, her elder sisters are her age (late teens, early twenties) which is odd because if they were murdered when Anya was 8 in this universe they would be 10, 12 and 14. Also: her little brother appears as a little boy, and not a teenager. However, as a grown-up, I understand the symbolism: looking up to her elder sisters it's easier to imagine them as adults. However, her little brother always appeared as a child in her mind because she was older.

[@23hycainths]

I actually studied this a little bit but I'm still not exactly sure how it would play out in the movie. But basically the brother was extremely ill his entire life due to a sickness called hemophilia where your blood clots easily. So that might be why he stopped growing at a young age meanwhile the rest of them continued growing fine. Though, they were all never in the best health. And Anastasia and their mother were both carriers for the disease. I'm not am expert on this but maybe that helped...?😃

[@tarachristine5727]

I get what ur saying. But realistically they weren't murdered right away. They were on house arrest for years. It was later they were murdered

[@madokami03]

@@23hycainths btw hemophilia actually does the opposite, it makes it so your blood can’t clot at all and thus even tiny cuts can make you lose a ton of blood

[@23hycainths]

@@madokami03 I apologize- like I said, I'm not extremely educated on this topic, so thank you for correcting me😗

[@Girl-rj3qe]

Great interpretation

[@diyagore1784]

Completely unrelated side note: the animation is really good, everything moves very smooth, and with real weight, which is hard to pull off.

[@shook_mug3786]

Its bc they recreated in real life for reference making it easy to make the animation looks realistic nice and flow well. Its a lot of work for it to do. Thats why i like the movie.

[@diyagore1784]

@@shook_mug3786 Holy shit I never knew that. This movie has its problems, but the amount of work they put into it I have to respect.

[@araa5422]

@@diyagore1784 popping in here a bit late but this was common practice for early animated movies! so disney movies like snow white and cinderella look so smooth because they were rotoscoped, which means they directly traced over filmed footage to get very realistic animation.

[@alexbennet4195]

The faces look pretty off at lots of points though..

[@jules8159]

Especially Anastasia’s hair when she tosses it

[@tkim2320]

The blue dress isn’t an animation mistake. In the story, she alters the dress because it’s too big and ugly. The white collar is also taken off and the sleeve ruffled trim is altered.

[@genera1013]

They didn't show that well though. I love this film amd have watched it....an obsessive amount of times, but I always just had to assume she altered it in like a deleted scene. Even a quick line of "Gotta fix this" or something like that would have helped communicate that she altered it.

[@KrisRN23935]

I remember that!

[@5th_cellar]

@@genera1013 It had that in the tie-in novel. I was obsessed with this movie and made my mom get me the novel, and I remember that part after she's looking at the dress (which was also described as being too big), that she was thinking it would be simple to fix or something like that.

[@driedmangoes2176]

@@5th_cellar I really want to read the novel. What is it called and who is the author?

[@5th_cellar]

@@driedmangoes2176 I can’t recall who adapted it, but you’d just have to look up Anastasia movie novelization to find it probably. When I was younger they used to do that all the time, have someone write a novel based on the script which ended up acting as a tie-in and would usually have “deleted scenes”

[@ModernGurlz]

oh hell yes 😳

[@chloewingate]

It’s a really good video

[@MissAnathemaDevice]

😍

[@theresacherco3503]

😊

[@msilvia4807]

I'm your local commenter who has come to scream QUEENS COLLAB

[@andrasparag302]

I almost recommended this video idea in my application but in the end I changed my mind. And I don't regret it cause Mina did an amazing job with this video on the topic.

[@jollyalois]

as a russian the interest you showed to all the little details of russian culture and pronounciation (your effort to say names was cute) is so wonderful and wholesome, it was definitely weird to see russian text on screen but the video turned out brilliant and very interesting, thank you!

[@strictlyhylian]

I'm really curious how Anastasia is correctly pronounced!

[@jollyalois]

@@strictlyhylian the correct pronunciation is a-na-sta-sIya, the I is stressed, so the last syllable sounds more like sia, the singer, ha-ha, but all the other words were pronounced very good by mina, I was really impressed by kokoshnik and boyarynya

[@MayLina]

@@jollyalois yeah it is so hard to pronounce Russian names (especially middle names) and some words for English speaking people, but Mina did so great! High five from fellow Russian haha

[@jollyalois]

@@MayLina пятюня 🥰

[@anrychan7019]

I also found it really impressive! I was kind of scared to open this one, because there are a lot of misconceptions about Russian history of this period. But it is so thoughtful and nicely done! I think the only thing was that the Royal family was shot, and not stabbed. Or did I mishear “stabbed” I am not sure?

[@MeltdKitKat]

There was a long rumor that Anastasia and her little brother survived the massacre, that's what this movie was based on. I'm guessing someone on the writing team knew this story and dreamed up of a world that she survived. Unfortunately, her and her brother's body was more recently found in 2007 further away from the rest of the family, confirming their death. The movie came out in 1997, so I'm guessing they were still basing it off of the wishful thinking that she survived. I think it's a sweet story in an alternative reality where she lived.

[@ericanight8359]

I could see one of the daughters surviving, but not the bother. Not with his condition. The impact of the bullets, even if they didn't penetrate, would have caused internal bleeding and that would have led to his eventual death if he'd managed to escape. Likely hood is he wouldn't have made it till dawn, if he did it wouldn't have lasted much longer.

[@Moonchild93]

there were also actually women pretending to be her, most notable Anna Anderson, and i think that's a good portion of the basis for the movie as well!

[@ericanight8359]

@@Moonchild93 True

[@gabrielarivera8058]

Yes, their bodies were moved a couple of times and Anastasia‘s body has never confirmed. There was even a woman that said she was Anastasia and the royal family even welcomed her and believed her and even still spoke with her when they found out it was a lie. They were shot so much they couldn’t even recognize the bodies 😥 the girls were wearing all their jewelry under their clothes for when they would be let go so it worked as a sort of armor vest and the gun man thought they were possessed because they don’t die

[@lilyuu2195]

@@Moonchild93 when i was younger, i saw an other Anastasia movie and i think it was pretty accurate to the Anna Anderson version

[@kitchensinkchronicles3272]

mina: i can't believe someone would make a children's film about such a tragedy me: *looks at disney's pocahontas*

[@che7941]

Well actually most original disney stories are either a tragedy or have at least very disturbing elements 😅

[@liberteddy]

Originally there wasn't going to be a love story between them and they were going to be close in age to their historical counterparts. Jeffrey Katzenburg made the creative team turn it into a love story. That was just one of the stunts he pulled before leaving Disney to co-found Dreamworks.

[@helliumballoons7546]

@@che7941 well, yeah, but there’s a difference between a dark fairytale, and an actual tragedy that happened to real people.

[@MminaMaclang]

I think the dress from the once upon a december sequence is knowingly designed more to evoke a sense of "dreaming to become a princess" that little girls watching the show would be relating to in this part of the movie. Like it has the ethereal flowy transparent nonsense and the big blue ribbons and the big flowing dress. but it's a dream or a memory thats not exactly quite right, like it evokes the feeling of reconstructing memories you dont have. So more like, little Anya imagining herself in court gowns that adults wore that she never did but her memory of what that would have been like is a little off after being poor and having amnesia for the past decade

[@BT-il1zm]

Love this comment!❤

[@SCompton4]

That’s the impression I always got with the OUaD dress. I also noticed later on after research that the style/silhouette seems to combine the dresses in two iconic pictures of Anastasia - the one in her court dress, and the one where she’s older in her lawn dress (both of which are shown in this video).

[@asalways1504]

Fun fact about the dresses worn in that scene, each sister is wearing their favorite color of their IRL counterparts. There's also an interesting little touch when the visions of her parents and her little brother approach her, Alexei is walking with a limp.

[@АннаКубалова-г5о]

She is Nastya. Anya is short for Anna. All that bullshit came because Anna Anderson was the most well-known imposter of Anastasia. Anna and Anastasia are two different name, Anna is Jewish, Anastasia is Hellenistic.

[@Lulu-ut9pv]

I was mesmerized by the dress

[@lizzygrace4459]

In the musical, the lyrics of Rumor in St Petersburg are addressed because they purposely choose to say St Petersburg as like a revolt against the communist rule. Dimitri says “they can call it Leningrad, but it’ll always be Petersburg”. So luckily the musical fixed that

[@Gna_d54]

Lol thank you. This video was missing a lot of context clues when pointing out the "holes"

[@andreasolis9466]

So the line should've been "they call it Leningrad, but it'll always be Petrograd", but people in the US wouldn't understood it

[@majakorbacz3121]

Musical fixed a lot in regards of historical accuracy

[@amadeus2166]

@@andreasolis9466 i mean not really as it was established as Sankt-Pieter-Burch before which then let to the various versions of (St.)Petersburg. the ending -Grad just means burg in russian.

[@marinadeburgos8666]

The musical fixed most of the historical plot holes. Rasputin is no longer the enemy but a soviet soldier for example

[@nimmieamee1988]

I had a very embarrassing crush on Dmitri as a child.

[@quincymason9123]

Same 😂😂

[@rachaelmdickson]

SAME HERE omg. My sister and I had a whole thing about how hot Dmitri was.

[@katmhcharis1236]

Dimitri and Flynn/Eugene embody that DND Thief/Rogue energy and 10 year old me was really into it

[@aelisedasilva]

I’m not even embarrassed about my crush on Dmitri tbh hahahah I was 4 years old when the movie came out and I was convinced I was gonna marry him someday 😂

[@zeineb8870]

Same😂😂😂

[@marietheotaku94]

bisexual culture was having a crush on both Dimitri and Anya as a kid

[@cutephantomJCAGdoll]

YES

[@kitchensinkchronicles3272]

yes exactly

[@gwenchase97]

Definitely lol

[@camila7148]

AHHH

[@folded_pizza]

I relate

[@quinty9169]

The romanov's were shot to death not stabbed, which was actually sadder because the princesses had their jewels sewn into the corsets for when they were exiled, so they didn't die immediately

[@marinadeburgos8666]

They had bayonets so when they saw that the bullets were not effective they stabbed them

[@naivelopez3601]

If you do your research it's mentioned that after being shot they were still alive so there only option left was to stab them to death which is more sadder

[@mikeg8276]

It took 20 minutes to finish the “job” after the firing squad and they were pummeled, beaten with the butts of guns, and stabbed with bayonets and knives. It was very violent and protracted 😔

[@ericanight8359]

When the bullets didn't work they were beaten and stabbed to death. Then one or possibly two of the daughters still survived for a time and were later beaten over the over until death.

[@gorzkawodka]

No, they weren't shot, they were stabbed, because women sew into their clothes diamonds and other jewels famous for being the hardest material in the world and bullets were bouncing back, the soldiers couldn't kill them with bullets so they stabbed them to death with bayonets.

[@retrodarling1884]

I swear everytime I see a show/movie on Netflix, the next day Mina will literally post a video about it instantly

[@Fantozz2]

SAME. I watched Anastasia last weekend and BAM here’s a Mina vid

[@anaistshiunza3486]

I was adding Brindgerton to my watch list and 2 days after that she made a video about it

[@gresiim8104]

I just watched this recently as well 😭😂

[@rileykveton9866]

Rasputin may not have had a hand in their death but dude was supes creepy

[@myepictbr6968]

Romanovs’ involvement with Rasputin destroyed their flagging reputation among the subjects, which is not dissimilar to how The Affair of the Necklace further villainised Marie Antoinette in the public eye. For some of the educated elites of both countries, these events were the “last straws” that made them more receptive and sympathetic to the cause of the revolutionaries. So, an argument can be made that Rasputin contributed to the downfall of the Romanovs.

[@TicBoumHoupsClic]

@@myepictbr6968 thanks, I was looking for that comment ! We all learn that in school in france about thoses 2 relovutions

[@kabukiforever]

Suuuuupesss!

[@cerebrumexcrement]

i think thats just propaganda. people wanted someone to blame.

[@dontgetjazzywithit]

There’s rumors he assaulted the girls too and he was definitely accused of rape by staff

[@Caitctus]

I think the reason why Anya's dress in the 'Once Upon a December' sequence was made this way can be explained by the fact that she is imagining it, and it's just her fantasizing about the ball in the Winter Palace. She technically cannot remember having danced in such a gown with Nicholas, so she merges scrapes of memory and her own fantasy to picture the dancing with her family. That's only my theory, of course. But since they designed Anya's court gown so well later on in the film, I think they deliberately designed the 'Once Upon a December' dress this way.

[@BT-il1zm]

This makes total sense, I had never thought of it!

[@Caitctus]

@@BT-il1zm Right??

[@盧璘壽로인수]

but the real Anastasia DID have an extant photo of her wearing an imperial gown & kokshnik, though it's a kid's version in RL Anya would've been too young (aka not debuted yet) to participate in the 1903 Winter Palace ball (everyone in 17th century costumes except Nicholas II & Dagmar/Maria Feodorovna, whose costume is based on extant photos, a hand-tinted version currently in the UK Royal Collections) & 1913 Romanov tercentenary ball (pushed to 1916 in the movie)

[@Caitctus]

@@盧璘壽로인수 Yes, but that's not what the issue with this outfit is at all. It's that the dress doesn't even resemble an imperial gown, it doesn't even resemble anything from that period, it's more like a fairytale dress, whereas what she wears later once she's back with her grandmother is historically accurate The kokoshnik is also accurate, it's a modernised version that started being worn about the time that the real Anastasia grew up

[@Caitctus]

@@盧璘壽로인수 And indeed, we know that she was too young to participate in the ball, which is why it's pointed out in the video that the timeline is completely off. But as I said, my theory is that it comes from Anya's imagination, it's a fantasy that she has

[@t.rae.storyteller]

Something I love about the costumes in this movie is the TEXTURE. There are sparkly fabrics, fabrics that look rough, silky, velvety, etc. Really stands out from most 2d animated movies, I love it.

[@MinnakRajala]

I am from Finland. We have a joint border with Russia so when i first saw this movie, i already knew about Anastasia and her real history. For that reason the movie was sooo much more touching to me and makes it more interesting for older viewers aswell. I dont think its inapropriate for children that the real storie is so tragic. Anastasia was a child, she had a family, she would have had this if things would have gone differently. Its absolutely beautifull for a childrens movie to explore themes of new hope, new life, personal history and loss. I think that because of this Anya is a far more likeable and touching character than most princesses and even relatable to people who have experienced loss of family or are in other ways disconnected (in social care etc) from their family.

[@AmaraJordanMusic]

In grade school my best friend was adopted, and she really identified with Anya. “Home, love, family, there was once a time I must have had them too; I’ll never be complete until I find you.” She like, a lot of adopted kids, really hoped to find her birth mother some day. She’d been adopted when she was like three weeks old, but she had that... curiosity of place and the urge to find her roots, see if she ‘went against type,’ looked just like her birth mom, etc. I imagine for kids in the foster system, it was a similar or even stronger feeling. Adoption wasn’t super big back then, thematically, (the other one I think of is Oliver’s Company and it’s not in, well, a very positive light, generally speaking) so seeing a story like this was HUGE.

[@melodi996]

Just shows you that some people shouldn't be anywhere around power, they had all the means to escape, but decided to stay, if I was the emperor who already screwed so much I would be too afraid to loose my family and just stay there, revolutions never go bloodless and risking life of your children is just stupid, no less. I also lived most of my life close to Finnish border, so I have to say I love nature and culture of the region, I think it's the best this planet has and that's my dreamland so to say, our dacha is in historiccally Ingria village, I know of separation, but still feel some kind of connection to the nature, I definitely would move to Karelia with no doubts (because of language barrier and as it's still in less populated state). Sorry, it was out of blue, but I wanted to shift from dead royals.

[@ephemeralvirgo]

Is it me, or do the historical dresses look surprisingly comfortable?!

[@korkinalina]

They actually were, especially for royals

[@chubbybunny6975]

Most actually were, even when corsets were involved. There's all this made-up crap going around trying to preach that "corsets aren't comfortable/safe and women died wearing them" when that isn't the truth. At all. They're like a new pair of shoes; You have to make sure they fit to your measurements, and slowly break them in by wearing them for a bit each day. So many female celebrities that have worn corsets for movies complained about how awful they were, because they wore them wrong. They were putting on corsets for the first time, cinching them as tight as possible right away, and immediately wearing them for 12+ hours. Obviously your ribs are gonna hurt if you do that, you don't go buy your first pair of heels and make them 8-inch+ stiletto's and then wear them all around a city for 12 hours and not expect your feet to hurt after

[@ggt47]

Yes!

[@Moszan]

@papí 4chan Please....no.

[@tototats16]

@@chubbybunny6975 Emma Watson should've researched more on corsets before playing Belle

[@louisehaagen7572]

I don't know about the US, but in Europe the story of Anastasia was quite famous. There were several people who claimed to be Anastasia. Most famously, Anna Anderson. Until the 90ies when the graves where found and the DNA tested, the hope that one of them survived, died. I think, most people did doubt the sincerities of the many claims, but hope dies last. Plus, its hard to imagine such cruel things. And that's probably, why it is still popular.

[@пекельніборошна-т1в]

Considering that two of Anastasia's aunts lived in the US and never confirmed the story (Ksenia died like in the 1980s), it was pretty clear it was fake, lol

[@shototodoroki1541]

Most people don't really know of the real story but the ones who do know it well

[@elyzionite]

it BLEW UP in uk

[@jazzie2967]

I've never heard a conversation of anastasia (the real one) in the US :'(

[@valbea9958]

I have heard of the actual story (I live in Canada), but that's purely due to my own research, none of it was taught at school

[@fa2ma2]

that movie did me dirty, i thought anastasia actually survived then when i found out the whole family died and i cried for days lmao

[@frenchbreadstupidity7054]

We only recently know for sure that she died, when they did a DNA analysis of an unidentified corpse and found it to be related to the rest. For a long time she was just MIA.

[@LaBellesGrace]

In fact, in 1997 people were still unsure whenever or not Anna Anderson (who had died nearly a decade ago) was Anastasia herself. It wasn’t until 2007; nearly twenty years after Anderson’s death and ten when the movie was released, when they completed the Romanov remains and they determined Anastasia had been among them in the execution.

[@dichterfuerstin]

@@frenchbreadstupidity7054 I read that the missing corpse supposedly was her sister and and she was with the rest of her family all along, but scientist aren’t exactly sure. It doesn’t matter much though, now that all daughters are found, does it?

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

@@LaBellesGrace THANK YOU. I've been going through these comments addressing exactly this. It was a decade AFTER this movie. I'm so annoyed at the people thinking they know all this history and how wrong the movie is for this when the reality is it was A DECADE AFTER.

[@BluePenguin200]

But DNA tests still confirmed Anna Anderson wasn’t Anastasia before they found her (or Maria’s remains). They still found the bodies of the other Romanovs before this movie, and tried to match to a DNA sample from Anderson’s hair. They didn’t know if Anastasia had escaped or not, but it seemed pretty likely she was dead anyway, with Anderson’s claim still being proven wrong before this movie came out, amongst other things.

[@brumella]

The film also includes other accurate stuff. The paintings in the palace were drawed after actual paintings that were there. And the drawing that Anastasia made mocking her sister and that her grandma had was also an actual drawing made by her. The artistic team of the film used a lot of documentation for creating it.

[@nonethewiser1694]

While Rasputin didn't have anything to do with their deaths, he did prophesise that if he died at the hand of one of their relatives, the imperial family would die no more than 2 years after his death.

[@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195]

a self-fullfilling prophecy, it was not so hard to see that the country was on the break of revolution if nothing changed in how the "lower" classes were treated

[@alex.profi27]

@@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195 but what happened after was ten times worse🤣🤣 Every country who had a monarchy at that time had hard conditions to live for the lower classes,but by peacefully and naturally changing the conditions improved. That s why russia is at the stage it is today and uk,for ex, it s where it is

[@saltandlight316]

@@qawsed4757 And Vladimir Putin is so much better. Once Nicholas abdicated they should have let him and his family go because they were no threat to anyone. They didn't have military support, or support of any kind.

[@marinadeburgos8666]

@@saltandlight316 but the danger was that they were related to half the royal families of the time and they could have entered a war. That's why the russians never told the fate of the whole family

[@wiktoriapawlak7903]

@@qawsed4757 Just curious, where are you from? - a Polish girl asking

[@KatieDontYouDare]

I think it was implied that she altered the blue dress from the boat, the big white collar is missing too. She had to take it in to fit, so I think they wanted us to believe she hand sewed all of that in a short amount of time in her cabin (still unrealistic lmao).

[@brittanyatkins6396]

Haha, yes! Thank you! I'm glad someone else said it cause I was like, "Um, large, white collar?" 😂

[@annacheprasova2294]

I think she just removed the parts of the dress she didn't like. It doesn't take so long to just cut them out (I've done similar thing for like 20 to 30 minutes).

[@Gna_d54]

Yeah it's pretty obvious she altered it since she hated it so much and then is literally in her cabin doing nothing all day. All she did with remove/ adjust the trim, maybe take in the side seams, and put a belt on it anyways. Not crazy to do in a few hours.

[@janine7384]

I agree and I think that also explains why the silhouette is not historically accurate. It would be really hard to use a belt on a large dress and put it so low around the hips

[@Gna_d54]

@@janine7384 that’s true. Also alterations aside the original dress wasn’t meant to be some chic 1920s ensemble. They’re literally leaving an impoverished area of post- revolution communist Russia. Con job or not there wouldn’t exactly be an abundance of up to date upper class western fashion.

[@lunaramamoon]

Russian culture is so fascinating to me. Maybe that's just because I find every culture interesting in their own way, but learning about the world and how different each country is from each other is incredibly amazing. Especially with langauge, food, mannerisms, music, fashion, and etc.

[@workinprogressdotdotdot]

If you are interested to learn a bit more about russian aristocracy and architecture, I advice you to google Crimean palaces: Livadia Palace, Massandra Palace, Vorontsov Palace, and famously cute and fairytail looking Swallow's Nest castle. This is my little homeland

[@Shadeadder]

Also I think Russian culture is super underrepresented or passed over completely in media that explores European cultures. Most people forget that Russia has a rich history beyond Sovietism, but the latter is all we learn about in schools.

[@nataliebasin5966]

If you live near New York City I’d highly recommend visiting Brighton Beach. It’s full of Soviet/Russian culture cuz it’s wear a lot of Russians settled down when they moved to America.

[@raynatumbeva780]

I must say, Russia has many cultures. There are more than 200 authonomous republics and regions, each with their own culture. The royals are just the ethnic Russians, there are Caucasian ethnicities, different Turks, Siberians, Besarabian Bulgarians, Chukchi (who are closest to Inuits), even some Ainu as well as many others.

[@inferiorinferno8859]

@@Shadeadder It's not just Russia, but pretty much every culture that isn't Brittish. Like, I'm Dutch and most foreigners aren't even aware of basic information like that we have a monarchy. One time, our Prime Minister decided to have our Queen as his plus one in some kind of international event, and foreign press thought she was his girlfriend. Foreigners mostly care about the UK only.

[@Litalici0us]

i looove your disney(and other) movies videos! can you make a focus about underrated dresses that were better than the commercial one ? like ariel's glitter dress, anastasia's opera's dress, belle's winter dress etc. ? please EDIT: Disney definetly should hire you

[@nina5drioli]

Oh that would be great, she could talk about Aurora’s dress wen she’s hidden in the forest with the fairies or the dress Ariel wears wen she’s in town, love that blue dress

[@mitchelljakubka]

Oooh! Or maybe a comparison how they translate each character's clothing into the walk-around actors for the parks? What differences and changes there are?

[@am.ivanova]

Ariel's glitter dress is soooo pretty :x

[@nina5drioli]

@mbd It is gorgeous, but in the movie it’s just bruh, like it doesn’t make any sense for a dress with that silhouette and freacking glitter to be in that movie, but it’s a pretty dress so who cares

[@nina5drioli]

Also, it’s not by a long shot the most memorable dress/outfit she wears so it makes sense that it isn’t marketed like her mermaid form, or the blue and the pink dress Also I don’t know why everybody hates the pink dress, I love it. Idkw I just really like the red pink combination

[@kirstydepaor547]

Fun fact about the contrast between British and Russian dress expenses, the English monarchy was looked down upon as the dowdiest and least extravagant of the royal families of Europe, whereas the French, Prussian, Russian, German, and other royal families were considered more dignified and powerful due to their lavish palaces and dress. Ironically, the British royal family is the only one left of those powerful monarchies.

[@yamatonadeshiko567]

And the british empire at one point, was the most powerful empire in the world. Yeah, how ironic...

[@trobairitz8654]

Well if you compare, the English monarchy was one of the few constitutional monarchs unlike france or Russia so they werent as powerful as their counterparts

[@jessicavictoriacarrillo7254]

I can get not being extravagant, but no style or flair?

[@melodi996]

And where they're now power-wise?.)

[@PondOfGlue]

That’s a fascinating thing to point out. I’m sure at the surface level, it really has little to no direct correlation, but it is interesting that the most extravagant and wealth displaying monarchies were the ones overthrown over the past 200 years in Europe. I think there’s probably a correlation there. Especially considering the Russian revolution was highly driven by the over spending and obvious displays of wealth from the Romanov’s while the citizens of their country were starving and suffering horribly. I also assume, obviously, that a big part of it has to do with the fact that Britain hasn’t suffered total societal collapse from the inside out in the same way. But yeah. That’s interesting to point out. Boastful displays of wealth when your subjects are barely able to feed themselves or their families tends to make people… a LITTLE upset lmao

[@rosehawksworth]

One of my grandma’s relatives (an auntie, I think) went to work for the Tzar’s in Russia as a nanny, not long before their demise. She was given a gold medallion-type-star thing that all staff wore to symbolise that she worked for the Tzars. When she left and came back to the UK- not long before the fall of the Tzar’s- her mum told her it was too ugly and had it altered and turned into a broach!! Devastating!! My grandma has it now and it’s an amazing piece of history in our family. Also, can I just say that I absolutely love everything about your channel. It’s both fascinating and educational as well as giving off super opulent vibes!! Xx

[@LoafOfBeans424]

Wish she could tell some of her personal stories ❤

[@popculturecurious4535]

Growing up, Anastasia's court dress at the end of the movie was and still is one of my favourite animated gowns as well. The silhouette of 20th century court dresses in Russia are gorgeous, and I particularly love the sleeves.

[@ispellitjustg]

The court dress will always be my favorite animated dress. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't use something like that for the broadway musical.

[@盧璘壽로인수]

but the tiara she wore was based off one of Dagmar/Maria Feodorovna's kokoshnik tiaras (and which her sister Alexandra copied, aka the current Fringe Tiara), NOT Alix of Hesse/Alexandra Feodorovna, and in RL would've actually worn a cloth of silver court gown and a cloth kokoshnik as befitting an imperial princess (the daughter of a tsar)

[@alyalvarado1667]

ANASTASIA??? i had to put everything down to see Mina Le review one of my favorite movies ever! I'm glad to hear it is pretty accurate and am looking forward to watching the whole video.

[@sarahsteele9636]

Yes!!! Me too!!!

[@alyalvarado1667]

Now, that I've watched the entire review, it makes a lot more sense. Glad to know that they did so much extensive work on the Russian court gowns, at least, even though, yeah, her everyday outfits always seemed pretty non-20s (except the blue gown she changes to in Paris Holds the Key to your Heart song, maybe?). It is a completely inaccurate historical fantasy film, but at least one thing they got really correct!

[@yelizkoktas5679]

I've actually send her a dm to review this and a few weeks later this happened, im so happy !

[@outofthebluebloomingmoonli7705]

same!! Anastasia is such a great movie!!!

[@haley5735]

They also had a lot to go off of in terms of photos of the family

[@Yana-qq7yc]

Apparently they were the first celebrity family that shared their lives, like a 20th century reality tv

[@tabby5228]

Well the family were avid photographers. They took pictures of everything they did. School, meals, vacations, just being at home. A very private family, but they recorded everything.

[@yippedoodah]

@@Yana-qq7yc Keeping Up with the Romonovs "My earring! I lost my diamond earring!" *cries* "Tatiana, there's people dying..."

[@yippedoodah]

On a side note, some of the drawings used in the movie were real ones done by Anastasia. She was also one of the first known people to do the mirror selfie.

[@haley5735]

@@yippedoodah Wow thanks for the tidbit! Very interesting

[@Asia-zd1rg]

Actually the movie was made when it was thought that Anastasia was alive; a lady came saying she was Anastasia, and only after the movie was relished, it was found out she was lying (its actually more complicated but still). It was basically a gift to real life Anastasia and her grandmother, that's why they made it a children movie :)

[@user-hx9xi1sj2r]

You’re wrong to think that this movie is just a weird Hollywood fantasy about dark page of the Russian history. In reality, after Anastasia’s death there were many imposers who were quite successful. One of them inspired a play by Marcelle Maurette and a film with Ingrid Bergman. It all created cultural references for the future film

[@oximoron613]

It is interesting to note that this movie was based on a 1956 live-action film, which was based on real-life Anastasia imposter Anna Anderson. It's very possible the animators took some inspiration from the live-action costumes and outfits Anna Anderson wore.

[@alettom]

Okay okay okay but hear me out: you should definitely check out the Anastasia Broadway musical because it addresses the fate of her family and it's a little bit more realistic (The city is called Leningrad, it talks about the communist rule, etc) and mature you could say, plus the cast is super talented! Oh and her age actually matches with the time period in the musical

[@zoe-bi9up]

yes the broadway show is amazing!! i listen to the soundtrack all the time lol

[@alettom]

@@zoe-bi9up it's so good!! 😭❤️

[@myettechase]

irrelevant but i love your icon!

[@dragonsarelit5522]

My school is doing Anastasia and two days ago we just did a zoom call with Christy Altomare, the original Anastasia on Broadway. It was so much fun and she was super nice

[@TheMissVenise]

@@dragonsarelit5522 lucky!! I would have freaked if I saw her omg!😭

[@vasilisashakurova743]

So glad to see someone interested in Russian history and culture! I send my love and appreciation from Moscow!

[@TakittyLove]

I love Russian History, but but Anastasia story is so sad. I cried when I got knew about the REAL end of the Romanov Family.

[@aivarizhtml]

As a Russian girl I want to thank you so much for highlighting my history and culture in worldwide view. That’s so heartwarming to see English-speaking people talking about Russian history in such engaging way. Also, just so you now, her name is stressed on vowel i, like anastasIa) Love your channel❤️

[@loyaultemelie7909]

Fun fact Anastasia’s court dress sash shouldn’t be blue. The order of St Andrew was given only to the emperor, the empress, and the grand dukes of Russia. The grand duchesses were granted the Order of St. Catherine, which was two classes lower (the order being St. Andrew and St. George, awarded for military valor). The Order of St. Catherine had a red sash instead of a blue one. Grand duchesses were awarded it at birth or by marriage and others could be awarded it too. This was such an awesome video to watch btw and maybe you’ll check out the musical someday? Anyways thanks for making such lovely content!

[@honeydew75]

Anastasia was made with so much love and care and it shows, I'm Russian and it was my favorite movie when I was a kid 😭 so happy to see someone take interest in Russian royal history, I had such a crush on both Dimitri and Anastasia and it made me want to be a princess sgshdjd

[@TakittyLove]

Here in Peru(South America) this movie was so success, many of us got interested in Russian History but SPECIALLY RUSSIAN MONARCHY. I was 7 years old when this film waas releades but years after that I cried when I knew the REAL STORY and END of Anastaasia and Romanov Family :( Really it broke my heart ♥ But when you grew up you understand REAL LIFE is row and HARD and maybe unfair, that is not just about "there is ONLY good and bad people", Life is more complex than that.

[@LilianaCroush]

"In the dark of the night" is also the most banging villain song ever !

[@yelizkoktas5679]

As a child I was so hypnotised/scared by that scene and Rasputins head falling inside his body... Another great song was "once upon a december" I always wanted the little music box with the necklace that was also the key

[@ianesgrecia8568]

Second only to Scar's song. I don't know if i'm glad or sad they didn't used it on the new movie...

[@kedleymedley4046]

While it may seem obvious and disturbing Anastasia is about the real life Anastasia if she were still alive. Believe it or not its actually based on an entirely different woman who thought herself to be Duchess Anastasia when it had yet to be known that she was in fact dead, her name was Anna Anderson. Before announcing to the authorities that she was supposedly Anastasia, she had resided in an asylum. Due to her resemblance to Anastasia and the scars upon her body, many people believed her. People treated her like the real Anastasia for several reals even as it became more and more suspicious she could not remember important events related to the Romanovs

[@MinnakRajala]

This movie is clearly based on both the history of romanovs and the myth of Anastasia wannabes. Anna was the most famous case and the surviving Romanov, Anastasias grandmother, believed Anna was Anastasia. So this movie is clearly inspired by that whole scenario.

[@kedleymedley4046]

@@MinnakRajala true true

[@AlannaMacree]

Despite not being Anastasia (obviously) or the nicest person (she was well known to be very anti-semitic) Anna Anderson actually had a fascinating but terribly sad life. Would deff recommend reading her biography, its gives such a unique angle on 20th century European/Russian history :)

[@onetrickponysona2613]

is this why they call her Anya instead of Nastya (Anya is a petname for Anna in and Nastya is a petname for Anastasia in russian)

@@MinnakRajala so Anastasia's grandmother did survive in real life?

[@user-hx9xi1sj2r]

As a Russian, I’m screaming inside when they call Anastasia “Anya”. “Anya” is informal version of Anna, for Anastasia it’s Nastya. It’s like they call Putin “Vlad”, when it stands for Vladislav. And it’s fine if you’re foreigners and can call him any nickname you want, but, Gosh, making Russians call her a wrong name it’s ridiculous.

[@sablethompson1212]

I always thought of it like she forgot her real name but remembered it was similar to Anastasia. Like if someone was Kristen but forgot her name and went by Kim.

[@dynasty0019]

"Anya" was used because the movie was partly inspired by a real-life Anastasia imposter, Franziska Schanzkowska aka Anna Anderson.

[@sleepy_koko]

It wouldn't make since if she was Nasyta, namely because everyone would know she has the informal name of Anastasia, what I could assume is someone might have asked for her name and she only could misremember Anya which they assumed her name is Anna, since if they found her as a kid and said her name is Anastasia she would likely have been murdered by the mob

[@anastasiiaiurkova8897]

@@sleepy_koko lmao there were millions of anastasia's before and after the October revolution. she would not be murdered unless she would tell them her last name.

[@marinadeburgos8666]

Maybe it was an informal name they gave to her in the orphanage, since she technically forgot everything. Also, since part of the story is based on Anna Anderson, it could have been simply a fun fact.

[@TeylaDex]

when the movie was made it was still thought that not everyone had died in the basement. the actual proof that everyone was dead, including anastasia only came a few years after the movies release.

[@tanziliasnow2333]

Hey! A Russian person here. Just wanted to say that the emperor's family were shot, not stabbed, and also correct pronunciation of her name is anastaSIA (the i should be stressed)

[@annapettit8045]

Tanzilia Snow they were both shot and stabbed. It began with a firing squad, but then they also used bayonets. Caitlyn Doghty is a KZbin creator with a very informative video on the event.

[@louisaugustexvi4515]

they were stabbed and shot. not all of them died and the children were bayonetted

[@tanziliasnow2333]

@@annapettit8045 oh my bad, I googled it and it appears that you're right. Thanks!

[@shireenqasimm]

@@annapettit8045 watches that video. jon solo had a pretty good one too!

[@khasaki1]

Some were shot, some were stabbed. They had to resort to stabbing the children due to the jewels they had sewn into their clothing, which helped stop the bullets.

[@gabgagnon5]

I think the court dress in Once Upon a December was probably so wildly inaccurate because it's a dream sequence of hers, and what life in that palace could be. Not only does she not remember her past life in the palace, she most likely would have been too young to notice and remember the fashion of adult women. So the court dress she wears is probably more of a dream dress that she'd see herself in -- unaware of the court fashions of the time

[@sophiamock5774]

I think maybe the dress in the imagined ballroom scene is so inaccurate because it is a dress from Anyas imagination, she probably wouldnt have known what court clothing looked like so just imagined something pretty

[@shannarafryer3111]

I think so too

[@pussepinkman]

maybe she saw paintings of the royal family in the orphanage or some places she went? just a theory

[@sadsadratatouille5984]

as a russian i want to say THANK YOU for a good and accurate representation of this royal fashion part of our culture that people don’t really talk about (which is understandable but still kinda sad) and all the translators did a great job!💓

[@cwendolyncarynalauri2537]

To be completely fair, the movie came out in 1997, but the last 2 bodies (Aleksei and either Anastasia or Maria) were found in 2007... So they did have hope she survived

[@natashabalderas4802]

Dimitri and Anya's relationship was *chef's kiss*🥺

[@CC-cl3bb]

And it wasn't rushed, they actually had time to discover feelings unlike *cough* snow white, Cinderella, sleeping beauty, several others~ *cough*

[@natashabalderas4802]

@@CC-cl3bb PERIOD🙄💅

[@pcbassoon3892]

They were shot to death. A few of the girls were stabbed with bayonets after they failed to die from the gunfire. The gunman didn't realize they had smuggled jewels sewn into their corsets so the bullets ricocheted off. A horrific end.

[@tobymidnight1957]

Anya has some of the best lines coming from a woman in a children's movie ever

[@miyannapittman5580]

I know the musical isn't everyone's thing but i love it, and one thing it does is have Dimitri say "they can call it Leningrad, but it'll always be Petersburg" which i think is actually a good way of fixing that innacuracy, as it gives us an explanation for why everyone calls it Petursburg without having a great long description.

[@realmothchu]

I would to see you do a style breakdown of Padme Amidala's outfits in the Star Wars prequel movies. Love your channel btw!!

[@LaBellesGrace]

Actually, I’ll have to disagree about it being wrong about creating a film based on tragic history and altering it for a children’s movie. This was based on the legacy of the rumour of Anastasia being alive. (which is heavily based on Anna Anderson and the fact that it wasn’t officially reported that they had found the bodies. Much less all of the Romanov children until 2007) While this movie *is* a topic of controversy in terms of whenever or not it was appropriate and accurate; many distant relatives of the Romanovs are not in favour of this movie, however most do understand that this movie is a fairytale children’s movie centred on a longtime mystery that wasn’t yet to be concluded, and they do not despise it. Other than “The Romanovs: An Imperial Family”, this is so far one of the only movies centred on the Romanovs (particularly, Anastasia) in a way which is respectful. I personally like to believe myself that if any movie about Anastasia was going to be made for kids and to potentially spark their interest one day into the real tragedy when they are old enough, this movie isn’t a bad way of introducing them to it. It’s extremely dark for children alone, so it wouldn’t be too much of a shock once they learned the truth. Also to add, this is a Don Bluth film: he was never known to shy away from dark and tragedies - whenever it’s due to its source or the movie itself. Also, if you want a *bad* Anastasia movie made for children that truly disrespects the history, check out “Anastasia: Once Upon a Time” ew 🥴 Sorry for the rambling aha. Overall, fantastic video! :)

[@rhiannonmackenzie2527]

Thank you!! Also, something failed to be pointed out is that the film does show revolutionaries and hints that the entire family (except Anastasia, which at the time was considered a mystery) dies. Much of it still feels really sad, particularly the trickles of memories the protagonist feels and the deserted palace etc. I watched this film as a child, I already knew a little about the Romanovs and therefore it always had a very sad feel to it. Even with the happy ending it felt quite bitter-sweet due to the tragedy. I don't think it's a topic that children shouldn't know about.`

[@LaBellesGrace]

@@rhiannonmackenzie2527 oh yes, definitely!! Even before properly seeing the end credits mentioning it was based on real life people or seeing the documentary about the found remains in 2007, there was always something that felt much different than any of the Disney movies; even Pocahontas or Mulan. Definitely felt the same way you did about it feeling sad and bittersweet, especially the ending. I feel like the feeling of what the movie tried to do gets heavily ignored by everyone and mistaken as either bad writing or disrespectful; which was to make everyone feel like a missing piece was there when watching it. You desperately wanted Anya to remember who she was and find her family. Even when those didn’t know of the real Romanovs, and Don Bluth was brilliant in trying to capture that feeling. Someone mentioned that this movie is a happy, alternative, fairytale ending of the tragedy that the legend deserved, much like how “Once Upon a Time: in Hollywood” did for Sharon Tate, and that’s definitely what it is.

[@MakeyJu]

sorry but no. it may be a good animated film or whatever but it's a pure travesty concerning the Romanovs and Russian history. if people can be pissed off about Pocahontas that happened centuries ago then they definitely can be about something that wasn't even 100 years ago at that point and even Romanovs' close relatives are still alive

[@LaBellesGrace]

@@MakeyJu sorry but no. I don’t agree, but hey you are allowed to have that opinion. In one way or another every movie, series and books are based on something in the real world. titanic is the greatest example of this: even though the love story and main characters was fiction it was stilled centred on a real life event with other characters based on real life people interacting those said fictional characters - thus making this a completely fictional part of the tragedy all together. As stated in my original comment there was too many things helping to back up creating this, such as the Romanovs still being discovered and unknown if all had lived, etc. It’s simply a way of introducing young children to the real life event without completely scarring them until they are of right age to find out of the darker elements. This movie is perfectly fine to exist because it’s simply that; a fairytale loosely based on something that was real. Personally, I don’t *really* have a problem with Pocahontas because I view it the same way but I completely understand why people do with that one. Anastasia, not so much. Have a good day.

[@Annaonesun]

@@MakeyJu The difference with Pocahontas is that the indigenous people of America are still being discriminated against and oppressed today and they not only romanticised but also sexualised Pocahontas, who in real life was just a little girl, not an adult woman. The amount of years that have passed have nothing to do with wether or not its disrespectful. Indigenous women are still being kidnapped, murdered and abused and the police are doing next to nothing about it because they don't care or aren’t given resources by people who don't care. Many Indigenous people know someone who has gone missing or been murdered, simply for being indigenous. The Anastasia movie treated the historical person with respect and based it off of the legend of Anastasia's possible survival (that came about from not all of the remain being found until 2007, the movie having been released in 1997, a year before the grave of most of the familymembers was revealed to the public), Pocahontas romanticised the story of a grown man getting with a young girl amidst a genocide and put her in a skintight, short dress, disrespecting her memory and her well-known sudden death. You can't really compare the two without sounding ignorant.

[@chantintin10]

The tiaras that they used for the animated Anastasia is actually accurate! Though I’m pretty sure she would’ve wore it once she’s married. For anyone wondering what tiara Anastasia wearing, it’s the Kokoshnik tiara and her grandma was wearing the Vladimir tiara. The tiaras are now with the British royal family now, for all y’all curious ones😉.

[@lulima8064]

Why do the British have the tiaras now? Were they gifted or stolen (like most of artifacts in European museums)?

[@chantintin10]

@@lulima8064 For the Vladimir tiara, it was bought by Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother, Queen Mary who was Tsar Nicholas II’s cousin-in-law (they can also be blood-related through royal inbreeding) but Queen Mary bought it. You can also research more about it and the Kokoshnik tiara because there a lot of sources.

[@Pollicina_db]

@@lulima8064 It’s in the family, most royal familys back at the beggining of 20th century was closely related

[@andreasolis9466]

6:40 About why they chose St. Petersburg over Leningrad, let's remmember Leningrad is the name it took after Lenin, the president of the USSR, there is no way in hell a US movie made in the 90's will sing about a marxist, communist named city.

[@andreasolis9466]

Also, why did they choose such a terrible historical moment to portray on a film? Well because it's low key anti comunist propaganda, also because there was a rumor that some of the Romanov's weren't killed and they could try to get back to power back in the day.

[@alex.profi27]

@@andreasolis9466 as it should😘 More anti communist propanga movies or tv shows be made today so maybe westerners would truly learn what those times meant and maybe their tick heads and stupid mouths would not spew bolschevik words

[@pinkpanther7442]

@@alex.profi27 westerners need to unlearn the propaganda they've been taught and understand that communism is not the evil they think it is

[@jandm4ever716]

@@pinkpanther7442 While communism in theory may sound at least decent, most of the time it doesn’t go over too well, and sometimes people get the short end of the stick ( I say this as a person with grandparents who escaped from a communist country, they dealt with a lot of stuff there.)

[@basedkaiser5352]

@@pinkpanther7442 communism is shit ! We used to hunt them down where I’m from.

[@papaya388]

I remember how this movie sparked my interest in fashion as a child, because the way the ladies FLOAT OUT OF THE PAINTINGS in their *SPARKLY DRESSES* just takes my breath away TO THIS DAY ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

[@charlie2.048]

"They can call it Leningrad but it will always be Petersburg!" - Dimitri

[@noomre9105]

nice profile pic

[@synkronized]

Well, they should call it Leningrad. All of the adult royal family a pieces of shit who allowed for the slavery of anyone in the working class. I feel absolutely no remorse. Monarchs don't deserve to exist, because their existence means the misery of others in a lower class.

[@Pollicina_db]

@@synkronized Than time travel back to the October revolution, I’m sure you’ll have a blast

[@f89jgb7]

@@synkronized found the miserable commie

[@Wickedfan219]

I see that someone has seen the musical! I actually got to see the musical the night of the movie’s anniversary last year!

[@alyonkalevashova1923]

a-na-sta-sía is correct))) AND in the time they made the movie, there were still no proofs for Anastasia being killed with others (communists buried her body in other place for any reason?¿) and that is why the myth started. THANK YOU so so so much for this theme and for doing this great job)) after Peter the great we wore traditional Russian outfits only as costumes for a mascarades. those Russian outfits on people on ball are too traditional for the time I may say, but your whole story is really correct, im grateful! No hate? I love you!

[@Vampire_Nightshade]

Yeah, there were probably more than two communal 'graves' were Romanovs' bodies were ditched by the communists and since it was hard to find all of the remains and only a few of the bodies were found the first time they dug them up, the rumor was born, that not all of them were killed.

[@operanchu]

You're right we went over it in forensic class, and for some reason, anastasia and one of her brothers (if I'm remembering correct) were buried in a completely separate grave from the other victims, so there was a lot of speculation before they were able to find the bodies and test their dna.

[@alyonkalevashova1923]

@@operanchu I'm Russian, so we had this history classes really accurate)) so yes, Anastasia and her only brother Alexey were buried separate from other Romanovs

[@alyonkalevashova1923]

MURDER TRIGGER ALERT from some official literature: "...the bodies were loaded onto a truck, taken out of the city and thrown into a three-meter pit, partially filled with water. The bodies were completely stripped so that they could not be identified. The clothes of the killed were burned, and the jewelry was transferred to Moscow. But when rumors spread around the city about the shooting of the royal family (the shots were loud), the leader decided to reburial the corpses, as he feared that the monarchists might use them for propaganda. The Bolsheviks returned the following night to reburial the bodies." , after that communists made a lot of confusing mistakes with reburing proces...

[@alyonkalevashova1923]

And then in 1920 a girl appeared in Berlin who called herself saved Anastasia! Anna Tchaikovskaya came up with a story in which one of the killers saved her, and many people believed her! even some of the Romanovs recognized Anna as Anastasia - for some time Tchaikovskaya received support from the uncle of Nikolay II, Prince of Denmark Valdemar. In 1928, Tchaikovskaya, under the name of Anna Anderson, arrived in the United States, where she was very popular, but not for long. It turned out that she had a mental disorder, because of which she was admitted to the clinic and was declared incompetent. After that, many other people tried to repeat her success in order to inherit the wealth of the Romanovs.

[@audricounelis3086]

I totally understand the point of not understanding why they made this a kids movie and it feeling disrespectful. But I have always seen it as a rewrite of the history to give the tragedy a happy ending, kind of like what Tarantino did for Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Something to make in memory of her and erase the tragedy in whatever universe the movie takes place in. I hope that makes sense.

[@marketasladka1939]

I agree. There was actually a lot of speculation (conspiracy) if she survived the massacre. I believe there was actually lot of imposters of Anastasia. So I am pretty sure it's based on somewhat true. But they did dirty for Rasputin.

[@Candy-md1uk]

Yes! Also Anastasia’s remains weren’t found/confirmed to be hers until 2007 and the movie came out in 1997, so there was still a lot of speculation as to what had happened

[@page394potter8]

I mean we can consider this movie as an uchronia (it is right ?) There nothing to get offended by it tbh. I don't think it's messed up. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Inglorious Basterds, The man in the high castle, are considered uchronia i think even if both are very far off the reality. Why not Anastasia then ? April and the Extraordinary World is considered an uchronia as well and it's a "children" movie.

[@tabby5228]

I had to laugh a bit when she mention about making a children’s movie about a dark event. This was a don bluth film. He does not shy away from dark children’s movies.

[@audricounelis3086]

@@page394potter8 uchronia!! I could not think of that word, thank you!

[@Serioslump]

At the time the movie was made they didn’t know for sure that Anastasia had died, it was only later that they found and confirmed her remains. It is still a bit uncomfortable since they did know that most of the family was killed, but I guess it’s like how there was a Titanic movie in the ‘90’s 🤷🏼

[@reddawn15]

I grew up watching the animated Anastasia and it really got me interested in learning everything I could about the Romanov family. I highly recommend checking out the Broadway play as they lean a lot closer to historical accuracy and don't gloss over the tragedy of what happened to the Romanov's. They have songs that touch on the Romanov tragedy ("The Neva Flows", "Still", and "The Neva Flows/Still Reprise") and all throughout the play as well. There are so many details that they added (like a comment made by Anya about diamonds sewn into her undergarments. That actually happened and I'm obsessed with the fact that the playwrights included that detail) that made it just that much more historically accurate while still maintaining the story/plot from the movie the play was based on. In the Broadway version of "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" one of the first lines said by Dimitri is "They can call it Leningrad But it will always be Petersburg". Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[@sabrinat6838]

that doesn't make it more accurate, just more deceptive. there simply was not furver for the return of the csar after the revolution. and the amplification of the tragedy of the Romanov''s without context of the horrific pogroms and children they killed is dishonest. all these details add is to misrepresent the whole of the early soviet society while having more minute details be accurate. however in general its impression is more skewed.

[@watchmedo635]

YESS! The Romanovs are my speciality in history, this is so exciting to see you cover them. There are a few little details in 'Anastasia' which are lovely, such as drawings which were actually drawn by the real Anastasia being on the walls of the film. Overall, I wish they had used a proper Catherine Sash red for the gowns but apart from that (and the glaring historical issues), it's a pretty good film costume wise

[@victoriamarie5664]

I feel like the 1920s fashion was so unique that it's hard to make accurate clothes for a modern movie. We even see this in Tiana's outfits too. I think it's because the 1920s silhouettes are not popular today and hasn't been popular since maybe the 60s and even then 😐

[@frenchbreadstupidity7054]

Ballgowns are not fashionable nowadays yet they are a Disney Princess staple, with even Tiana wearing one. And we only like ballgowns as much as we do because of Cinderella. Disney could easily glamourize flapper (and give us a Disney princess with a less curvy figure, to boot), they just didn't try.

[@victoriamarie5664]

@@frenchbreadstupidity7054 I think ball gowns are classic even in 2020 you can see they've exploded in popularity, Lirika Matoshi (designer of the strawberry dress) and Teuta Matoshi's (I'm sure you've seen her "Charming Iris Gown") dresses are all over Instagram. Everyone loves a ball gown they'll never go out of style. Especially because ball gowns are synonymous with fairy tales.

[@victoriamarie5664]

@@frenchbreadstupidity7054 I'm sure Disney could glamorize a flatter silhouette but curves are what's in at the moment. Disney doesn't make the trends they follow the trends.

[@casir.7407]

well most of the time the disney (and by extension the rest of mainstream animation companies) try to have designs that specifically appeal to the fashion sense of the times. it has been quoted that disney gave ariel a "princess diana style" wedding dress, and that jasmine was dressed less like an actual "arabian princess" and more like a teenage girl of the 90s. similarly, since the 1920s style was all about flat straight bodies and thats definitely not something thats still in fashion, theyre going to change it to accentuate the waist -since a thin wasp waist is whats been in fashion for more than thirty years now.

[@pinkattics9708]

There’s princess and the frog concept art where tiana’s swamp wedding dress is a robe de style dress and I’ll never forgive them for not going for it

[@RobynonYouTube]

The Romanov family was murdered by firing squad in a basement - bayonets were also used on those who weren't already dead.

[@page394potter8]

Apparently they had a hard time killing the girls by guns because the girls sewed jewels in their corset because they didnt want it to be stolen.

[@Vampire_Nightshade]

@@page394potter8 I think they sewed family jewels to their undergarments so when they'd have to run away, they wouldn't leave with nothing

[@page394potter8]

@@Vampire_Nightshade ah you're right, thanks for the correction !

[@page394potter8]

@@lumKyo it's not a joke, it's something i read on the wiki page of the execution of the last romanov (on the french wiki it's mentioned)

[@KristenK78]

@@lumKyo um...no. They were put under house arrest for months and stripped of their royal titles. Then they were moved to Ekaterinaberg (sp) for a little over a month, at the height of summer, before being woken in the middle of the night on July 16-17, taken to the basement, and told they were going to be moved to another location because the White army was coming. Instead they were read their sentence of execution, and shot to death. The people firing the guns were, frankly, incompetent, and bungled the job. And the five women - Alix and her daughters - did have their remaining jewelry sewn into their clothing in case they were rescued, or had the chance to run; this effectively turned their corsets into bullet-resistant vests. The executioners then had to go to each person and bayonet them until they died. It was an ugly, awful, terrible way to die. And then the Russian government (Lenin) covered it up for decades. The death of Nicholas was announced to the public, as punishment for political crimes; but for years, they insisted the rest of the family had been moved to a sEcReT location for their safety. Other members of the Romanov family were murdered within a week. Only the ones who had been able to leave the country before the murders survived. I’m not going to go into what was done with their bodies. That’s a whole other story.

[@currielee]

I also only buy secondhand furniture. it gives the room more character and panache instead of just buying a matching set from ikea which is so boring. congrats on the apartment!

[@AnastasiaR]

I’m personally totally down for including real life stories, even when disturbing, in children’s stories. Life is cruel and it’s nicer to be eased into that reality than to have to learn it all at once lol . This was one of my FAVORITE movies as a kid, both for the obvious reason and for many of the reasons you stated. Now that you bring it up I do wish they had found more excuses to feature some embroidery because Russian embroidery is just.... ahhhhhh 😍 But it makes sense why they wouldn’t have that much for this time period and class but still

[@Lucy-fn3qr]

6:38 This is why the Anastasia musical is one of my all time favourites! It's definitely more accurate in this way (as accurate as the legend of Anastasia can be aha), but specifically the beginning of 'Rumour in St. Petersburg' when they refer to it as 'the Peoples' Leningrad'. This is one of my favourite movies of all time, and one of my favourite periods to study, so it always irritated me a tiny bit whenever I rewatched! Loved this video :)

[@sophiarawls9334]

I love how someone is finally talking about this movie, when I was younger noooo one talked about, I’m glad I’m not the only one that was obsessed with this movie

[@BT-il1zm]

Me too! This movie made my childhood, I still know every single line by heart💕

[@eileenzm0911]

WHEN I TELL YOU I CLICKED FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT I-

[@LixiaWinter]

You nailed pretty much every Russian word, and THANK YOU for this thorough analysis. The amount of work you did is amazing, especially considering the language barrier. I rarely see my culture studied and respected like that and not slipping into politics. Much love from Moscow! 🌹

[@starthelotus3453]

The yellow sparkly ballgown in Once Upon a December, along with her sisters' dresses in that scene, were based on the lawn dresses seen in their 1914 photoshoot from what I can tell. The sheer sleeves, necklines, etc, all vaguely resemble what each of OTMA wore in the photoshoot.

[@diamondcentury21]

I swear Anastasia is the most beautiful animated movie ❤️ Anya and Dimitri remind me of Jack and Rose from Titanic a little bit

[@creakimoi2958]

If it helps any at all, there were rumors for years that Anastasia survived and was an amnesiac, the story the film rolls with. It was debunked as there were many women claiming memory loss and "gaining" memories of being Anastasia during those years, a thing you see in the flm as well. Still dark and a sad reality to learn it wasn't true...but..

[@sonamuexx5850]

I loved this movie as a kid...I'm so happy to see you talking about it 🥰

[@avam3740]

yessss, her outfits were so pretty and there was something about the movie that I felt like Disney princesses can’t compare to

[@lizlosee7433]

I’m from Ukraine, this was a story going around that the younger duchess escaped. People wanted to believe someone happened to survive from that family. Unfortunately they found all skeleton remains in the woods nearby their execution place.

[@cassandrarocha7369]

I remember when I found out about the real life Anastasia. It messed me up knowing she had such a violent death

[@shockingheaven]

I remember watching the movie as a young kid and being completely enamored by how the dresses moved (how they were animated), especially during Anya's fantasy dance

[@levibarnett-nash3968]

This was one of my favourite films growing up. The film was apparently based on the theory that Anastasia escaped before she could be killed, some people think she just ran away and some people think she got caught and killed anyway.

[@graceglue8913]

I was obsessed with this movie as a child, I am still obsessed with it now! When I’m feeling under the weather this is the film that I put on. The court dresses in this movie are amazing, I absolutely love the dress she wears in her “memory dance” scene. Also the Kokoshnik is such a gorgeous head piece, I have always wanted her tiara. I think the thing that sets this film apart from most animated films is the use of glitter, the effect it has on the tiara, her blue dress, and the accents on the court dresses is absolutely stunning.

[@nowanknows7131]

Also! The way that all the Russian court gowns have those buttons or a line down the middle of the dress in front is a reference to the traditional Russian garment "Sarafan" which I personally loveeee so much!

[@IsabelleRagan3]

For the record, the movie was born out of wondering if Anastasia survived. They found the mass grave that was dug for the family and they miscounted the bodies. They thought one was missing and so rumors started that Anastasia had survived. Her body was later discovered, but rumors still persisted.

[@angiechan87]

I don’t know what you mean with “it never was addressed, that they were murdered”, because the whole Russian population broke into their palace and Anastasia and her grandmother hat to escape through a hidden door, why do you think that is?? 😕😅

[@lenalernova]

And if that isn’t clue enough, it is said flat out in the first song. “... although the tzar did not survive one daughter may be still alive...” -

[@marinadeburgos8666]

It was an off-screen murder (it's still a children's movie)

[@veraaurelis8931]

Interesting point, I watched this movie growing up (I’m a 97 baby) and what I recalled was that Anya’s family “died.” My child brain didn’t connect the dots that they were murdered by the soldiers storming in (ofc I didn’t know about the revolution then either), maybe the writers were on to something considering children’s psyche. I do remember the last scene where Rasputin died and turned into a skeleton gave me nightmares though lol.

[@Darlvua]

Someone commented that while they were escaping through the door, there was a bang. Maybe the bang was a gunshot ?

[@Kahtisemo]

@@Darlvua yeah when Anastasia was going back for the music box, her grandmother at first was trying to get her to come back so they could stay with the others, but then you see her pause at the sound of a gunshot before staying with Anastasia. I guess she knew in that moment the other way wasn't safe. Although it's interesting that "they didn't address it" would be hard to do when Anna didn't know what happened to them exactly since, in this version, she wasn't there. She knows somewhere in her dreams (nightmares even) they were all killed even as she's on this quest to find her family, she knows deep down something terrible happened to them. I think the grandmother's narration at the end of the prologue addresses it too but maybe I'm forgetting.

[@nar_aspan]

боже, я так рада читать эти отрывки текстов и понимать, что там написано! Я не живу в России, но учила их историю, было так интересно узнать о моде тогда, обожаю Анастасию 💘

[@homoabsurdus9758]

Поздравляю ты единственный русский комментарий :)

[@nar_aspan]

sandwich de nata нас стало двое 😌👊🏻

[@imvelvi]

@@nar_aspan трое. 😎

[@cesareborgia8060]

@@imvelvi подвинься, четверо

[@oliviasteven1796]

This was my favourite film growing up, and then I did the Russian revolution in school and found out it was all a lie. But the film is great, and the real Romanov family history is very interesting. But thank you for making a great video, I now know that something in Anastasia was accurate 😂

[@Lobxx1]

I was obsessed with this film when I was growing up, it was great to have a princess with a bit of sass especially when all I had been exposed to before were the more docile princesses in early Disney films. Also the soundtrack is glorious

[@heyitsannie.]

i’ve gotta say, i love how anya isn’t extremely proportioned. she’s trim, but not an impossible body type.

[@mardeie7204]

I love anastasia and her overall outfits and my favorite youtuber talking about it makes me really happy 😭❤️ thank you

[@Luke-qp2bd]

I've been waiting for someone to make a historically accurate video about this move for soo long. Thanks!

[@frauleinbird]

The actual Russian pronunciation is AnastaSIya and not AnasTAsiya as far as I know, but I think for an English speaker you were close enough :)

[@BT-il1zm]

I've watched this movie so many times when I was little that I memorized every line (and even background noises🙈) and used to repeat them along with the characters. My mum was so annoyed 😅😂 I think it really has something special, the whole atmosphere is so magical, warm and dreamy, yet more realistic than many children movies. It'll always have a special place in my heart.

[@BirdieBirdieBirdie566]

I always thought we were supposed to assume she cut the trim off of the blue dress, maybe I’m just readying to much into it 😳 this was a fun video thank you for making it

[@thegirlwithredspecks]

It’s not crazy to think her dress is one of the best in animated history. Because it is. 🙌🏻

[@mishaa7263]

is Anastasia officially a Disney princess now since DIsney bought Fox?

[@juliettedbr5570]

I like to think so ! On Disney + the movie is under the « Disney princess » category

[@katarinak9722]

She's not

[@AH-sg8bn]

Not necessarily, but I consider her a Disney Princess in my heart 🥺💕

[@xoltacueponi]

Nah she's Don Bluth all the way

[@frenchbreadstupidity7054]

Not even Elsa and Anna are official Disney princesses. The line-up doesn't consist of every Disney princess or even only Disney princesses. It's all about who is marketable, and sadly Anastasia isn't well known enough.

[@alexm5616]

russian guy here -- i think you pronounce the names and other russian words really well! it's wonderful to see someone research russian history and style so thoroughly. also you're cute as hell and i love your makeup. love from moscow

[@kimberlyterasaki4843]

"Why is this a children's movie?" The same reason Pocahontas is a children's movie: historical revisionism. Gotta start misleading kids while they're young, or else they start questioning what they're taught.

[@ArtemisMoon12]

I do say both films did spark my interest in those particular time periods- I probably wouldn’t have looked into the 1917 revolution if I didn’t have this false history I wanted to uncover all the real stories behind the falsehoods & what was actually correct.

[@KatieLHall-fy1hw]

Agreed. Pocahontas (and living in Virginia) had me on a research train to learn the real story. Same for Anastasia. I don’t think using the story for kids is a bad thing overall. Some people might never know details of that chapter of Russian history or even bother to learn more about Pocahontas

[@valentinelove8029]

@@KatieLHall-fy1hw but they can spark that fire without lying :(

[@Gna_d54]

Historical revisionism is much more insidious in schools than in simple fantasy films made for entertainment. No one is growing up using these films as a knowledge base for history. Using textbooks based on the values and works of old scholars who didn't want to make room for marginalized communities and the emphasis on nationalistic narratives is far more damaging.

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

Or, this is a movie because there was a famous story that Anastasia had survived by an impostor whose story wasn’t disproven certainly until DNA evidence in the 90s I believe. There was a Hollywood film in the 50s for which Ingrid Bergman won best actress Oscar for. As for Pocahontas, she is famous as one of the first know Natives to meet Europeans and travel to British court and had the famous story of saving John Smith’s life. I don’t know if making films for children based on them is the best idea, but some women become so famous their stories are told even for children so they were already famous. It’s not indoctrination, it was Fox trying to find a real story based on a Princess that was glamorous and Disney trying find a story starring Native American.

[@Matteus2109]

In the films defence, rumours of her supposed survival persisted the whole century after her death, and it was in 2007 when her remains were found.

[@Elphaboy]

I LOOOOVe this kind of stuff! however i do want to say just from a "movie making" stand point a lot of the historical liberties taken in the film were most likely decided on due to the publics general knowledge of the actual events and goings on. Rasputin was an easy villain to use for the movie given the very mysterious history surrounding him and how polarizing he actually was as a figure. he also allowed for "magic" to have a role at all. the Ball happening at the winter Palace probably has more to do with that palace being the most historically famous palace and is more than likely the one that the vast majority of ppl just, off hand, know about and can identify. and as for it being St. Petersburg in the movie that is 100% due to at the vast majority of film-goers having absolutely zero idea it was ever even a different name in general. and St. Petersburg is a KNOWN city name as far as world recognition and requires no exposition or historical lesson for reference. but i do see the point you're making. oooo also in regards to this being a tad inappropriate subject matter for kids, i actually feel this is a good way to get kids interested in history. when they r too young to truly be affected by wut really happened they'll just take it at face value. and eventually learning its based on true events will spark research and educational exploration. i know it did for me. also wut Don Bluth did with Anastasia isn't nearly as problematic as wut Disney did with Pocahontas. Anastasia isn't romanticized to the same degree.