Anastasia compared to Disney Princesses

I feel like you're judging Belle a little too harshly. I totally agree about Ariel because she was just being a brat. Her life was great. Her dad was being a little bit unreasonable too but only cause he was just as ignorant of the human world and didn't want Ariel to get hurt. Belle, on the other hand, had real struggles, I felt. People in town didn't really like her, they thought she and her father were weird, and, I know this is probably a product of her times, but Gatson was a total Jerk to her about how he thought she shouldn't read since she's a woman. She wanted something different cause she didn't fit in where she was.

Otherwise, I totally agree. Anya seems more real, so therefore she is more relate-able.

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Also anya wasn't a damsel in distres, dimiti did help a little but she defeated the villain herself and not some prince or someone

Anya/Anastasia had definitively a more logical goal in her life, but it's also due to her situation/upbringing. She's an orphan who has grown up in a orphanage. Of course she wants to find her family and her forgotten past. But at the end, she somewhat gives up her forgotten past to stay with her love interest.

Sure her goal was more relatable than Ariel or Belle's goal, but between Ariel and Belle, I sympathize more with Belle. While Belle's quest isn't as deep as Anya's, Belle is still an outcast for reasons she can't help and she's still somewhat rejected when she tries to connect with her fellow townspeople. I'm not a Ariel-hater, but my problem with her is that she longs for something that she doesn't know what is and the movie never really establishes a logical backstory for her obsession with humans.

So yeah, it's easier to sympathize with Anya's goal than with Ariel or Belle's goal. But remember that their goals are still different.

Actually I thought Belle, Ariel and Anya all have a similar structure. They have a dream that gets put aside for romance.

Belle: Wants an adventure, not to just get married and become a housewife; falls in love with Beast instead.

Ariel: Wants to be human and live in the human world; falls in love with Eric instead.

Anya: Wants to find out who she is and be with her family; falls in love with Dimitri instead.

I found Anya to be wonderfully refreshing, especially how she dispatched the villain without getting pathetically "saved" by the male protagonist. She was interesting, spunky and capable.

My only complaint was running off with Dimitri at the end. Would have been better had she had him come live with Grammama and her.



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Anastasia is one of my all time favourite animation musicals. Definitely up there beauty and the beast etc. and Anastasia is an honoury Disney princess in my eyes

Firstly I need to say Belle is one of my faves but don't want to get sidetracked bigging her up here :D

The things I really like about her are that she's the only female protagonist I can think of that has her adult intro with NO emphasis on her looks. Her clothes couldn't be more shapeless, her hair's all tucked up, no suitors arguing over winning her or focus on packaging her ready for a marriage. Her stubbornness and sweetness are what endear her to both of them. It's the only film apart from Mulan where there's no instant "Gosh she's a stunner love at first sight" stuff going on. It's much easier to get behind a couple that spark off each other growing close on a roadtrip with ships, trains, bike rides. I also think her relationship with Vlad is gorgeous and I want to hug him with he finds out she's the real deal and his first thought is "our Anya has found her family!" Awww love him. So yes relationship wise this is one of the most romantic films by far.
For all that Disney package themselves as being love stories, all it takes their characters most of the time is one loaded first look and the deal is sealed when they get a duet.

I think that Disney has been much better with their main characters that people give them credit for. It's a shame that the more useless ones (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty) remain amongst the more popular. From the same era as this we had Pocahontas - risked herself to save her love and diffuse a war, stayed where duty kept her and let him go. (The sequel never happened and doesn't count.) Esmerelda - saucy advocate for gypsies and other outcasts. Belle - doesn't want to be held back by a society that wants to keep its women dumb (I'd consider being a housewife if I was given that library to peruse til I died...). Meg from Hercules - reluctantly paying off a debt and been done wrong by a man in the past. Mulan - all round kickass. Jane from Tarzan, the most lovable dork of all time. I think they're good at having ladies with things going on apart from their lovelives but the overfast romances undermines this a bit since they feel the need to wrap it all up with a wedding by the end :D

Essay over