Could be great but just isn't

Um, I still remember and will always remember "Once Upon a December" and "Journey to the Past." I love this movie!

Don Bluth is known to make entertaining, yet dark, cartoons with female protagonists. This falls into that category.

Rasputin was a delusional that somehow gained the favor of the daughters at the real Romanov court. He was ordered killed by one of the higher ups, possibly by the Tzar himself.

Aye aye comrad

You're not wrong. I think the songs are acceptable but certainly not of the standard of Disney movies. Not that Disney is the standard to measure all songs by, but it's obvious that's what they were going for.

Don't get me wrong, I like the songs. Once Upon A December is a highlight. The only one I wasn't keen on was the opening one about the reward for finding Anastasia, I forget the name of it. I found it difficult to make out some of the lyrics. Also I wasn't overly fond of the 'if we can do it so can you' song.

I didn't find the songs that bad overall though, not even the two I mentioned. Certainly not as bad as some from other movies, such as 'Playing With The Big Boys' from Prince of Egypt which is an utter turd of a song. OR indeed 'What's This' from Nightmare Before Christmas. These ones never made me cringe which is a positive already!

As for the villain, absolutely 100% agree. I don't see the point of him. They could have just stuck to the history, the family killed during the revolution etc etc. Didn't have to go into huge amounts of detail. I think the story would have worked better without a villain for the sake of having a villain, which is basically what Rasputin was. Or they could have made him a serious threat, because with some more work he might have been a good villain in that sense. Also I'd have cut out the ridiculous bat.

I have no problem with them altering history slightly for a film if it makes for a better movie, obviously with the understanding that they don't try and pass off the story as historical fact.

There are three things you are totally forgetting. 1. It's a fictional depiction, an animated movie targeted at kids. Of course it's not going to be 100% true to history because you know, it's not entirely appropriate for a kids film. 2. You know who else sanitized history in one of their movies? Yep, Disney. Or did you not see Pocahontas? Your argument pitting the movie against Disney does not hold up in regard to making a movie about historical events. Disney did it too. 3. Name me an animated movie, Disney or otherwise in which the villain and their song was not super cheesy or comedic. Frollo from Hunchback is an exception, but the themes in the story were too dark to make him a comedic character. The reason filmmakers play up villain in kid movies is because children respond to extremes of good and bad. The simplest way they understand the differences is to clearly distinct them from one another. And yeah, the comedy too, will evoke a response from them.