Anya/Anastasia (character)

Anya is the fiery, feisty redheaded heroine of the 1997 20th Century Fox film Anastasia. She is voiced by Kirsten Dunst as a child, by Meg Ryan as an adult, and her singing voice is provided by Liz Callaway. The character also appears in the novelization of the film, as well as the Fox Interactive CD-ROM Anastasia: Adventures With Pooka and Bartok.

Historical basis and deviation
The character is based on Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, but deviates from the real life person's exection at the hands of Russian revolutionaries by having her escape. Nevertheless, The New York Times asks, "if the cartoon has the young princess (with the voice of Meg Ryan) meeting up with a handsome young con man (John Cusack) who persuades her to pretend to be the lost czarina, not knowing she really is the lost czarina, is it really much more farfetched than the real-life assertions of the best-known pretender, Anna Anderson, that she was Anastasia even though she could not speak Russian?"

Family
The Romanov is her royal family that has been assassinated by angry commoners when Anya was 8 years old.

Friends
Her best friends are Vladimir, her dog, Pooka and Dimitri. Dimitri is also her love interest. Vladimir, Dimitri and Anya met when she was spotted in the old Romanov palace, then they encouraged her to come with them to Paris to see if she was the Lost Romanov Princess. Anya and Pooka met when he started to play with her scarf when Anya was waiting for "a sign." At first, Dimitri and Anya don't get along until they began to spend more time with each other.

The Dowager Empress Marie is Anya's grandmother. On the night of the assassination, her and Anya tried to get on board a train but she lost hold of her hand. Then, 10 years later, she offered a 10 million rubles reward to whoever found her granddaughter.

Sophie is Empress Marie's plump cousin and friend, Vladimir's apparent true love and Dimitri and Anya's friend. She tried to help Anya meet the empress when they went to Paris.

Enemy
Rasputin is the Romanov family's arch enemy. He is obsessed with killing the Romanovs but drowns in frigid waters when he makes his first attempt. He later returns when he realizes that Anastasia was alive. He makes many attempts to kill her but was unsuccessful. When he tries to kill her personally outside Empress Marie's Palace, he is defeated by Anya with Dimitri and Pooka's help.

Personality/Appearance
Anya is portrayed as stubborn, bold and headstrong but she is also kind, playful and determined. She was the most playful in her childhood and is seen with red hair, sometimes seen in a short ponytail, long ponytail, let free or up in a bun. She is seen as skinny, is average height for her age and has many outfits throughout the film.

Anya's Outfits
Yellow/Brown orphanage outfit. Purple gown with white gloves. Blue dress Yellow/Gold dress with crown

Reception
Stephen Hunter writes, "With Meg Ryan and John Cusack voicing the roles, Anastasia and Dimitri have been simplified from the Bergman-Brynner cosmopolitan wariness into twentysomethings, with faces an uncomplex as Ohio cheerleaders." The New York Times reports that "Anastasia stops just short of making its title character a blonde. (She, like many of the other characters has auburn hair.) Otherwise, she has the slender curving body and peachy complexion of a small-town Miss America contestant dreaming of conquest in Atlantic City. Meg Ryan's voice gives her the slightly combative tone of a snippy, know-it-all cheerleader. In a beauty contest, she would definitely be docked points for lack of charm."

Merchandising
In 1997, 20th Century Fox and Galoob have released various dolls of the character.