months before its release , fox's epic animated musical anastasia had been touted as the first legitimate challenge to disney's animation empire , which looked more vulnerable than ever after the disappointing box office ( and , as it turns out , merchandising ) performance of the fun-but-phoned-in hercules . now that the film has arrived in theatres , does the mouse indeed have reason to worry ? during its exquisite first twenty or so minutes , i found myself agreeing with the buzz , but the film soon collapses under the weight of convention , becoming a merely pleasant entertainment . a harrowing prologue set in 1916 swiftly gives us the necessary backstory : during a revolution the entire russian royal family is killed save for the czar's youngest daughter , anastasia ( spoken by kirsten dunst , sung by lacey chabert ) , who is lost after escaping from the palace ; and her grandmother , dowager empress marie ( angela lansbury ) , who left russia for paris just before the unrest . then the film flashes forward in time , jumping into its buoyant opening number , " a rumor in st . petersburg , " which introduces the main action : the presumed-dead princess is rumored to be alive , and with their eye on a possible financial reward from the empress , con men dimitri ( spoken by john cusack , sung by jonathan dokuchitz ) and vladimir ( kelsey grammer ) seek out a young woman who can be a believable anastasia stand-in . while a big opening production number is part of the disney formula , directors don bluth and gary goldman approach it in a fresh way . in disney films , the characters do little more than sing and slightly sway to the music ; here , the style is more live-action broadway and mgm , with background characters forming a full-on dance chorus , spontaneously breaking into heavily choreographed moves . dimitri and vlad ultimately find their perfect impostor in orphan anya ( spoken by meg ryan , sung by liz callaway ) , and that's no accident--she truly _is_ anastasia , but with barely any recollection of her royal past . freshly released from an unpleasant orphanage , anya articulates her dream of having a family in the stirring " journey to the past . " this number is equivalent to the disney " i want " song in function , but once again the stage-influenced execution sets it apart , with anya literally prancing her way through the snow-covered forest and even capping her song by dramatically raising her arms into the air ( you almost expect the movie to pause for audience applause ) . right before anya meets up with the scheming duo comes a truly stunning , magical moment--as it turns out , the film's way-too-premature peak . she steps foot in the ballroom of the abandoned palace , crooning the hauntingly beautiful " once upon a december , " a lullaby her grandmother used to sing with her when she was young . after a single verse , the ghosts of the past waltz in through the windows , enveloping her , creating a lavish ball out of thin air . by this song's end , the glitter and glamour disappears , and so does much of the luster of the film . the songs by stephen flaherty and lynn ahrens ( the latter of whom holds a special place in my and many others' hearts for her enduring work on abc's schoolhouse rock ! ) become increasingly forgettable , and even worse , the story loses some steam . the strict adherence to the established disney formula becomes a hindrance . there is really no dramatic need to include an out-and-out villain in the piece , but , true to convention , there is one : evil monk rasputin ( spoken by christopher lloyd , sung by jim cummings ) , whose supernatural curse on the royal family caused its near-destruction . while the dying rasputin's plot does lead to some standout sequences ( in particular a suspenseful and spectacular sea storm scene ) , and the running gag of his body parts constantly fall off is amusing , i never felt as if he and his sidekick , wisecracking albino bat bartok ( hank azaria ) , played a necessary role in this story ; they seemed to be shoehorned in for formula's sake . more interesting and involving than the good-versus-evil plot is the romantic sparring between anya and dimitri ; this may sound odd , but ryan and cusack generate a lot of chemistry with their voices . but the resolution to their romance is far from satisfying . instead of being moved by the ending , i was merely pleased . one thing , however , does remain consistently impressive throughout anastasia , and that is the visuals . the animation is a little ragged and not nearly as fluid as disney work , but the artwork is outstanding . from its beautiful handdrawn images to the three-dimensional computer-generated work , all shot in the 2 . 35 : 1 cinemascope aspect ratio ( the first animated feature to be shot so since 1959's sleeping beauty ) , anastasia truly looks and feels like an epic even when the goings-on are less so . in the end , the heavily hyped anastasia does not announce fox's animation division as a challenger to disney's throne . what it does announce , however , is fox as a _potential_ challenger . anastasia may not be great , but it is good , and if the film is a jumping-off point for the fledgling animation house , the mouse should be prepared for a war . 
