Reviewing Anastasia: 1997 Movie & Broadway Musical Thoughts ft. Sage

Sage joins Matt on this week's episode to review the 1997 animated classic, Anastasia, and the Broadway musical it inspired! Lots of fun moments and bunny trails that you won't want to miss!

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Time Codes:
00:00 - Opening Act: All the Random Things
12:37 - Anastasia Movie Overview & Initial Thoughts
24:22 - What Did & Didn't Work For Us
41:00 - Final Movie Thoughts
44:18 - Anastasia Broadway Musical Thoughts
1:07:38 - Ideal Broadway Season Pass
1:15:00 - Final Anastasia Overall Thoughts
1:17:58 - Curtain Call

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#movie #review #musical #anastasia #broadway #downoncemorepod

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Down Once More. I'm your host, Matt, and I'm joined by our first guest of 2026, uh recurring guest, Sage. Sage, welcome. Welcome to the new year of the pod. Um, this will also be the first movie, the musical review on the pod this year. Um, and I asked you on because we are going to be talking the 1997 animated 20th century Fox classic Anastasia. And why I asked you on specifically was partially because I had never watched the movie Anastasia growing up. I think I mentioned it briefly on a podcast episode when I watched it. We were talking about the musical, and you had said it had been one of your favorites, and so I actually watched it, and then I'm like, well, now I need to review it, and I need to be joined by someone who is a noted fan of the movie. Thank you for bringing your access to it.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

This is technically, I think, my favorite movie. In most cases, if somebody asks what my favorite movie is, I'll say Anastasia or Big Fish, which are both pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

I've never seen Big Fish. Um They have a musical of that one too.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Really musical of that, and you're learning life. Life on the pot.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

I'll have to go listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Um I haven't gotten through it. I don't know that it's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

I'm kind of surprised that this is one of your favorite movies because this movie came out in 1997, which not to dox you or anything, but that would be before you were born, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah. I think it's before my parents knew each other, actually. Technically, yeah. But I don't know how I must have watched. I think they must have had like a VHS of this somewhere in my life. Because uh otherwise, when were you watching this? I can't imagine. But didn't you and your brother watch this?

SPEAKER_04 2:03

We we discussed it because we're like, I don't remember actually watching this. And it was at one the end of one of the podcast episodes and went off the rails a little bit from what I remember. It devolved quick. Brad was like, yeah, I think we did, but I think we weren't supposed to, because I think it was one VHS my grandparents had, probably. That was where like a lot of like Fern Gully. I don't know if you've seen that one. Balto, that was one grandparents' VHS's. Okay, okay. Teddy Ruck spin was.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I don't know that one. Oh, we watched Balto.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

We we owned Balto, but probably not this because it was magic and Rasputin. We'll get into it. Rasputin, genuinely scary.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Oh, I was that's one of my notes. I was gonna be like, hey, are you actually afraid of him? Because I remember being really afraid.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yeah, yeah, I still am. Okay, good. I'm glad we're all good. Um but before we get into the movie, I have a general note that something that happened to me today, and I thought you would appreciate. So I went to the library to pick up some books tonight. Um, and my wife texted me books. She's like, hey, get this one, this one, this one. And I have never ran through the alphabet and like questioned myself more than like when I'm at the library going through when everything's alphabetical by last name. I'm like, okay, what letter is first in the alphabet? I'm at the SLs, which what order? And I'm just standing there like running through the alphabet. And I've never like questioned my knowledge of the alphabet more than when I'm at the library.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

This is a a daily at my job because there's so much employee files going through everything where I have to, I go, set up a and then I have to like sing it every time. I'm like, where am I? Where am I in the alphabet right now? It's horrible. No, it doesn't stop. I also I can't imagine, you know, when you get like a test I've never had one, but when they so sobriety test you and you're supposed to do the alphabet backwards, not gonna be able to do that. I'm gonna tell you right now to fail that.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

But I've been sobriety tested once, and it was uh by uh at my house with a friend that was a sheriff's deputy, um, and it was on New Year's Eve, and we had both been drinking. And he said I would have passed. Now he was slightly intoxicated as well. He was drunk though. I probably wouldn't have.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

And if the cop is drunk, you're gonna be fine though.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Yeah, yeah. But uh I don't drink and drive, so that's a non-issue. I never have to worry about that.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Not a problem.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Because it's not worse than Ubers are cheap.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

No. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

So that's true. Um but yes, you said you had something that you wanted to get my feedback reaction to you before we get into it. So the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

So I don't I don't know if you've noticed, but I've got headphones that work this time and I can hear what you're saying. Yeah. And you said that I don't sound like garbage, so they must be working fine. Uh I like when I got home, I was like, son of a bitch, I was supposed to go get headphones. I should have done this so much earlier in the week, and I still had to watch Anastasia before the podcast. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna go to Walmart. It's not, it's like five minutes away, it's gonna be fine. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna tough it up. All I need is headphones. I had to even look up on Walmart to make sure they still had earbuds to like plug in. Because I was like, I wonder everything's bluetooth. No clue. Everything's Bluetooth, but but my computer from 2000. Whatever. My ancient computer. But uh I go there, I have just these stupid little headphones. I'm like, you know what? This is fine. I don't even wander, I go, I just want to go home. It's so fucking cold out. I want to go home. So I go to the like this Walmart has only one section of like self-checkouts. And there's like two lines going into them right now, and they're both really long. But I go, how stupid it would be would it be to waste somebody's time in a register for me to buy one little thing. I go, I can make it, I can just I'll wait in the self-checkout, it's fine. And I stand there for a while and I'm just you know looking around for a little bit, and I realize what's holding so much of this up is there's a man who has already checked out. He has two carts full of food just bagging them. He's bagging everything one by one. He's done at the register. It would be so easy to not be in the way. And then the whole time. I'm just sitting there trying so hard not to laugh. I'm like, this is the biggest test of patience I've ever had. This is hilarious. I go, and he's just chilling.

SPEAKER_04 6:42

He's got headphones on, he's he's just I might have been like, can I help you like this? Dude who I thought about it. Okay. Who doesn't you scan and you put directly in the bag? Oh my god. Who doesn't scan and put directly into the bag? Like as you're scanning, you should be doubling up that process.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

I couldn't. I yeah, it should be so much easier. Because what's the point? He scanned it and then put it back in the cart. So that would have been so much easier to just put it in the bag, put it in the cart. I have no clue. A whole register.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

See, that's he was trying to do uh a scam. He's like stealing like three things, he's buying 200 things, but he's like, he's like, ooh, I put this back in. Did I scan it? Did I not? You don't know. Because I think that's why my pet peeve with that. I I'm a self-checkout person. Um, I know there's different, like, oh, well, it it costs employees jobs and took those away. Now you're just having people stand there, people are stealing more, and stuff like that. And I think I think the theft is more because let's be honest, uh, Walmart does not care about their employees, they just care about money and lost revenue. So um I think that's why they got rid of the second set of self-checkouts. But every time I go, there's usually only one or two actual cashiers checking people out. So they've got like 10 aisles, 10 checkouts or more, but there's only one that's open, and then there's uh the two self-checkouts, and so it's I'm gonna be waiting here forever, regardless. So it's a pain in the ass.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

I need every store to have the efficiency of an Aldi. When you go to an Aldi, they only need two lanes, and they don't even need both of them going at once. They are going as fast as they can, going through. They don't need, you know, they'll say two words to you, they'll be like, find everything. And it was like, yeah, I did. Right away. I get anxiety going to be that everywhere. That would be so good. Why? You don't go to the quarter anymore.

SPEAKER_04 8:41

Always sometimes with the cart, it doesn't want to listen and it'll be like the the push thing, and then her either like half in a bag it. I always I never go to the like table to put it in bags there. Like when they throw it back in the cart, I just go to the back of my car and I bag it at my trunk.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

That's too much stress for you to bag and try to get back to the bag.

SPEAKER_04 9:05

No, I think it's also bags at the Aldi. They they open later. I like doing my groceries early when no one else is out. Like I do my grocery shopping at like 6 a.m. on Saturday or Sunday morning. That's crazy. And but Trader Joe's doesn't open till eight, so sometimes I'll push it a little bit. So I hit up Trader Joe's. But I think Aldi is not till like nine. Or maybe they're back at eight. For a while they were like nine, and I'm like, that's not worth it. I'm fact checking you right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

When is the Aldi?

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Hey, I said they could have changed.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

It does close kind of early. I'm also closes at like eight.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

I'm like an old person. I look at the weekly ads and see what the sales are at places, and I I shop. Everything's on sale at Aldi.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Everything's cheap.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

It's true. It's true. It used to be back before COVID. This might sound like an old person. I remember back when like a dozen eggs was like 36 cents.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

So I always went to Aldi for eggs because they were so cheap. And now it's still it may be cheaper than other places, but it's still. I know. I know. But no, that that you said you were laughing at it. I would have been infuriated. I would have been, I'm what are we doing here? Like I may have said that out loud.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Every once in a while, every once in a while, I'm like, this is just the best test of my patience I've ever seen. And I'm gonna be calm. Like the other day, I came down to my parking garage underneath my apartment, and somebody was just parked by the elevator. So I couldn't get around them. My parking spot's past the elevator. We have assigned spots. I was like, What are we doing? Surely they're not like dropping something off or dropping someone off down here because you have to use one of the you know doodads to open the door. She moves, she drives. Like once I like creep up on her, because she just sits there in the car, doesn't even move. I I'm staying so far behind because I was like, maybe she's like gonna back up on this spot. I creep up on her and she finally goes forward, pulls into a spot, I pull into my spot, she backs up, goes back to the elevator, so she could unload her car with the like they have little pushcarts for your groceries. Take the pushcart to your car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

How easy is that?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Why it seems harder to park your car, unpark your car?

SPEAKER_04 11:18

I was annoyed because when I went to Hades Town, which reviewed last week's episode of Soda the Pod, check it out. Members of the cast have shared it, so that was fun. Um but anyways, when I went to that, I park at a parking garage that's down there by it. It's downtown area, so there's a Chipotle on the corner of where the parking garage is. There was someone that I'm assuming was like a DoorDash driver or someone that was parked in, like pulled off on the road with their hazards on, but they were blocking the turn-in to go to the parking garage. Like they were there. I'm like, you can't just park here. I'm like, what are they? And they were in their car. You can park it anywhere with a hazard. But I can't turn into the park garage because they're sitting there with their freaking hazards on. And then they, after like two minutes, eventually pull it on.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I'm like, This is a beautiful city full of very smart people, and I'm happy to live here every day.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

No, it's not. Don't lie. This is an honest.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

It could be worse. We could be in Missouri.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

That's true. Or Iowa. We're in Nebraska. We have to show in Iowa, not Missouri. That's true. I'm sorry. Okay. But Anna Back to business. Let's get into it. So this is the general flow. If if you are new to one of our podcast movie reviews, in theory, we try to have a somewhat of a framework where we'll talk a little bit about the history of the movie, general plot summary, then we'll talk about what we liked, favorite songs, what worked for us in it, what maybe didn't hit for us in it, uh, and then final thoughts wrap-up. And this week, since we're talking about the Animated Anastasia, which was turned into a Broadway show, we will also talk briefly about the Broadway cast recording and some of the differences there, but nothing too crazy or in depth as well. But like I said, we're primarily focusing on the animated 1997, 20th Century Fox animated movie that you can watch on Disney Plus if you want to check it out before listening to our review. So this movie is loosely a fictionalized adaptation of a 1956 movie, which is an adaptation of a 1952 play, which was an adaptation about a true story about Anna Anderson, who is the most famous Anastasia imposter. Real thing, Russian family, Romanovs, that type of thing. All the the hijinks afterwards that ensue, not so much. But um, the one thing I didn't prep in my notes was pulling up just the general summary of the movie. But basically, long actually, Sage, you know what? I'm gonna put you on the spot since you've said this is your favorite movie. Give what's your elevator pitch summary of this movie?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

My elevator pitch. Yeah, that's true. Okay, if I were to describe this movie very quickly, I would say that you have our protagonist, Anya, who has no memory of her past. And so she's kind of swindled into helping these two conmen, Dimitri and Vlad. They're trying to uh in the best terms, like find their Anastasia to bring to the I what's her name? She's just always grandmama.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

Yeah, the uh Dowager Grand Duchess, Dowager Empress.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Dowager Empress? I have it somewhere. Yeah. Yes. So they're like holding auditions, and then they find this girl, Anya, and they're like, this is perfect. And so they kind of trick her into thinking, you know, maybe you are the princess as well. And so it's kind of us following them as they travel to Paris. And then can I sp am I supposed to spoil it? Probably.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

I mean, there are in our review of this movie, there will be spoilers for the 1997 movies.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

But if you don't know what the if you don't know what happens in a 1997 movie, that's not my fault.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

You've got no one to blame. Plenty of time. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

No one to play.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

And we gave you the warning now. So go watch on Disney Plus. It's an hour and a half, then come back. So yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

It's beautiful, it's short, it's very fun little songs. Uh, but basically, there's a moment in the movie where Anya knows a fact that they didn't teach her about Anastasia, and Dimitri's like, oh my god, she's the real deal. And it's a very beautiful ending after a very scary fight scene. But it's I remember the movie being being very pretty when I was younger, but now watching it, it's kind of scary. You know, the like art style. Uh all of the townspeople are missing a tooth, at least. And all of the women are drawn with like the biggest eyes, but so far apart, like to the sides of their heads. So they're very fish-like. Yep. Um, is the best way to put it on the street. Well, that's what it was like. The art of the time, probably great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Yeah. Well, that's just the reality of 1926 Russia with the Soviet Union.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, and that's true.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

That's how they all looked.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

They couldn't see anything right in the middle of their heads. That's right. They were just fucked. Only great peripheral.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Yeah, like hammerhead sharks that were fully set.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Was that a good summary? Did I miss any?

SPEAKER_04 16:40

That was pretty solid. Oh, the bad guy. The bad guy resputin. Evil wizard horrifying unholy forces. Yeah. And we do have magical talking animals, but only one in this.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

So technically, she should be a Disney princess.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

Technically, she should be a talking animal. So yeah, my I had not watched this that I fully remembered. Like Brad and I discussed maybe we saw bits and pieces, some like I kind of remember uh Bar Talk, the bat, the little that's voiced by Pinkazaria. I I vaguely remember some of that, but it may just be from like previews that I saw because before every VHS movie, you had all the previews um when you played it.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

And so it could just be from the art looks very fan. Yeah. It is very similar art to like Fern Gully, like you said. So it's very probable that you can.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

Yeah. So I think Yeah. I think you did a great summary of it. Uh there is a music box at the focal point. Um, which when we get into the Broadway, uh, have things to talk about. But this, like it's like the classic kids animated movie where there's it's a musical, but there's really only I think like seven songs, eight songs maybe, um, that are musical numbers. Because it's short, it's an hour and a half, it's quick, you got more of the spoken dialogue. There is just a stacked cast on this as well. Like Meg Ryan voiced Anastasia, uh, John Cusack was Dimitri, Kelsey Grammar was Vlad, Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future fame, uh, played Rasputin, Hain Cazaria was Bar Talk, Angela Lansberry plays the Dowager Empress, the Queen, whatever her title was they have somewhere. Anastasia Anastasia stands don't come after us. It's Age's favorite movie.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

I don't know. She's Grandma Mom.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Yeah. And then Bernadette Peters, uh Broadway legend, plays Sophie, which is Sophie. Uh got notes. Yeah, we've got notes. I my initial thoughts, like I said, like my history with this, don't really remember it growing up. I watched it on your recommendation. I had listened to the Broadway cast album before I watched the animated movie. Um, so I for some reason I thought the animated movie wasn't a musical. I thought it was just a movie that they turned into a musical because they do that a lot. Um, so that was something I was not aware of, and so I was pleasantly surprised. Um, I will say, when we get into the differences of Broadway, drastically different. Like when I had listened to the cast album first and then this, it's that there's a little bit of the same basic framework, but the vibes completely different. Um, but I had a a lot of fun with it. I think it was very fun. The character of Bar Talk is hilarious. Uh always you gotta have the little quirky sidekick character. It's like the main thing. But it was weird to me that he is the only one. There is none other. Like, she's got her little dog thing that I would when I watch this for the first time, I'm like, that dog is going to be the evil bat. Because that dog's big squared off ears that he like kind of flaps at one time. I'm like, that's that's one of the evil bats, but it wasn't. It wasn't just weird, weird looking.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

You were just cynical about it. I have one of Bard Talk's quotes. I was writing down the quotes from this because it had some good lines. It does. Uh, my favorite was when he tells Rasputin that stress is a killer. He's like, Stress is a killer, sir. What my cousin just died. He had like some kind of heart attack, and he's a fruit bat, no blood, no meat. It was so nice. I was like, oh, how sweet.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

I had uh one where before they go to the ball at the end, when Rasputin decides he's gonna come back and he's gonna take matters into his own hands, and Bar Talk's like, I gotta teach you a new dance.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

It starts with like a woo, and then it gets really crazy with the hips. And he goes, That was the Bar Talk quote. He was so high emotive. Yeah, yeah. Hank Azari is a great voice actor.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

He was fabulous. Uh yeah, that Bar Talk is definitely the highlight of this movie to me. Uh what I enjoy the most.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

And the me I think he has a spin-off movie, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_04 21:23

They did do a second movie, and I think Bar Talk is more heavily featured. There's a random pink bat that shows up at the end and kisses Bar Talk that's just comes out of fucking nowhere. It's on the notes.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I have that in my notes. It says Lady Bat for Y.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

The Bar Talk for why.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

There was no romantic interest for Bar Talk the whole movie. Last seconds, they're like, Yep. And he's gonna make out with a bat. Yeah, he's got a bat. Well, girlfriend.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

He's a bat, so it's not weird. If it was any other species, that would be weirder if you started making out with a bat.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Movie thing? Oh, the dog. He's got like a human.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

Sophie in the back start getting it on.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Oh my god. Oh Lord Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

No, I okay. We mentioned Sophie. We're jumping around already. So I just got to.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Were Sophie's bosoms necessary?

SPEAKER_00 22:22

It was like that is Vlad's just horned up. I have a quote in here where Vlad is like describing Sophie. And then Anya looks, she goes, Are we talking about a person or a cream puff?

SPEAKER_03 22:39

I don't remember that. And I just watched this two days ago.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

It was crazy. I also have a quote in here because she gets mad when she hears that they're gonna like test her to see if she's the princess. She goes, I didn't know I had to prove anything. It's like, what did you think they were bringing you here for?

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Yeah, because yeah, that's what they're Dmitri and Vlad. One of the main things in the animated movie, though, is Dimitri is when Rasputin starts like let setting the people after the Romanovs, like inspiring them and setting the wheels in motion for the downfall and and deaths and for all the Romanovs to die. Um Dmitri helps Anastasia and her grandma escape. He is the one that helps them, shows them a secret door, and then he collects the music box. And so he has this music box that he knows belongs to them, that he's had since a kid, since he was a kid. And then that's one of the things towards the end that's able to Anastasia knows how to open the music box and wind it and get it going. Because she has the necklace that her grandma gave her that says Together in Paris, and that was the only clue she had to her past and where to go. Um, and so I'm like, these they didn't put the connect the dots earlier. Come on, you guys. Um, that's insane. It because you would think he would have, I mean, he's like, you look just like her. I'm like, you gotta you're trying, you're trying. But um, I don't know. I what worked for me, I liked the setting. I thought all the songs were catchy and fun. I will say there's not necessarily like my favorite song that's more I enjoyed all the music, but none that none from the movie would make it on my playlist. Also, the movie album's not streaming anywhere. Um I do like In the Dark of the Night, the creepy Rasputin song. That one's fun. Um and Journey to the Past is solid, and most of it uh Paris holds the key to your heart. I think the an the song is not my favorite, but I think how they do that animation style and like pay like they're trying it. That song is like a love letter to Paris a little bit. I thought how they did that was really cool. The song itself, no, not a skip. It feels out of place, I felt like kind of with it. I think that was more to give Bernadette Peters a song who plays Sophie. Like she's a Broadway legend. Yeah. What's a song we throw her? And it was this one, is kind of what I felt like. Um but most of it worked for me. Like I enjoyed this. I think this was a fun movie. I would recommend it. The story you got, some romance you got, you got scarce. I I don't like kids' movies. I feel like back then were a lot scarier. Like, I remember being traumatized by the brave little toaster goes to Mars and the regular brave little toaster, and like homeward bound, and like almost any kids' movies, they're like, Hey, give kids a lot more uh credit back then for how scary things were sometimes. Because Ras Sputin, genuinely terrifying in this, especially once he's dead. It's like when Bartow goes down, he's like his head's going off, his hands popping off, body parts are going everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I have a very distinct memory that my mom's like her childhood house had this little figurine toy that must have come with like a McDonald's meal or something. And you could pull his arms out and his legs and like drop his head. Like it was just like there were just stretchy pieces you could yank off of him, and it was terrifying. Yeah, but like And why would that ever be a toy somebody wants?

SPEAKER_04 26:31

Yeah. Well, like when he sells his like he basically sells his soul to the unholy forces to who? To be able to for the power to be able to destroy the Romanovs, and that scene is like the flesh is being taken from his skin, and then he's like a skeleton and come back. I'm like, holy shit, this is a child's movie.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

I have a question in here that why would anybody sell their soul and tie all of their superpowers to a little lantern? To a little bitty glass lantern. That could break so easily. So so simple.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

It doesn't, though. She had to step on it so hard. So many times.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Like three times.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Just like three.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Well, that's how many times Dorothy had to click her heels to go back to Kansas, too. So three times.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

I thought it was just two.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

No, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home. There's three.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

You might be right. You might be right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But like if I dropped that lantern down a flight of stairs, broken, I'm dead.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

But no, that was a very durable lantern. It was built by the On the Holy Curses. They need to start making cell phones. I'm gonna sell my soul.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Not just the seat for a cell phone.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

That won't break.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

If it cracks, then I'm dead. You're done.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Just have a really bad day on just biking my phone.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Terrify. When he dies though, how terrifying it is when it's just like the flesh melting off. Yes. And then all of his bones turn to dust, and there's like a pile, and they just have the wind blow it away.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Just the full thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

That's crazy. They're like, and a happy ending. He's dead. Look at this gory death for the bad guy. Yeah. Isn't this great kid? Oh my god. What works for me every time I love watching this movie and seeing, I think it's still a very pretty movie. It's just they definitely draw every man looks the same, every woman kind of looks the same. Like there's one person this this lady could draw, except for Sophie. Sophie looks so different from everybody, which is crazy. But a choice. It was quite the choice. Um I love the little sparkle animation that they use in this. I feel like I don't see that as much. It's very distinct in this movie. You know, there's they always seem to try to use it for like every little fancy outfit that they'll wear, and especially like her necklace. And the crown. And I get mad at like content in the crown. The necklace, the crown, or she'll have like like sleeves and stuff. Love that. I think that looks so fun. I do get so pissed because there's so many the necklace is obviously very important. It looks very strange when it's just like a very sparkly line on top of this like drab green shirt that she'll wear. But also, like they go to the opera and she wears that very sparkly choker, and then all of a sudden, when she's meeting grandmama, she's wearing the necklace.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

Yeah, she's from the next necklace.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I'm like, she didn't have that on. That was not there.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

The continuity of this child's movie is not great, but their death scenes are fabulous.

SPEAKER_04 29:33

Fabulous. Insane.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

And I can't have any complaints about those.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Only one, I guess. And well, no.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Well.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

All the Romanovs. If you count all the Roman offs, there's a lot of death scenes. It's true.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

There are quite a bit of a game. You don't see it. It's implied.

unknown 29:50

But we do.

SPEAKER_04 29:51

I think part of that you notice in a lot of the more like classic animation because it's back when they're like hand drawing all the animation and that style and how much work and effort. Like still a lot of work and effort goes into things nowadays, but you catch and you see things from a lot of the older Disney movies where they reuse uh a basic frame and animation because of the time that it takes for everything. So you have almost like stock characters, so you have a lot of the builds and frames that you're repeating. So I wouldn't be surprised if it was something similar, like similar to that for this. Um the I there's multiple like scary scenes like we're talking about, just in general. Um, like when the bat demons are sabotaging the train, like those things, trying to kill her and like blowing it up. That's wild. When she gets the nightmare where she thinks it's like her siblings, like kids, like, hey, come jump at the water, and it's everything going on the ship, and then she ends up having like the actual nightmare of like the demons and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

A little freaky, a little scary.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

That is, yeah, exactly. My words in here. Did the nightmare freak you out? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Very important question. It's I do enjoy like the green light that they always bring out when Rasputin's doing crazy stuff, or like when the bats like have giving him like a very distinct, like oh, the bad guys coming. I love that. Love that from the movie.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

Well, I found my note. It is the Dowager Empress. That's what they call her.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

The Dowager.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

Dowager Empress. My exact note about Sophie is quite the cleavage and bosoms on Sophie that Vlad is going gaga over. That's that's my that was the exact note that I that I put.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Mine was um, why did they draw Sophie's honkers as big as your head?

SPEAKER_04 31:46

I think they're bigger than her head. Like inch honker is like two heads.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

I don't understand. Why was that needed at all?

SPEAKER_04 31:57

I well, that's what big Russian men like Vlad, what they like.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Storytelling. It was important. Yeah. They needed to know. The kids need to see a very well-drawn woman and a couple of scary dead songs. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

That's how it embraces you for life and adulthood. Um, I what what are your favorite songs from the show? Because it's your favorite movie, and I'm assuming you have favorite songs. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

I do have favorite songs. I would say that my favorite was always Once Upon a December. I love the first time that they have that big scene of like all the people coming out of the walls, and it's like this big vision that comes in that uh I w I do have a question that I was wondering. Do you think because Puka is there, the dog is there the whole time. She's having these visions, people dancing, all this stuff. Do you think the dog sees this or does she just see the woman just answering?

SPEAKER_04 32:55

I think the dog thinks she's on the heart.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

I do not think the dog is seen the visions.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Dog wasn't seeing it. It did. I feel like also this one does a this movie to me does a very nice job of having like small little emotional kind of because we both are pretty big on like we want like very emotional, very like passionate uh songs or like musicals. I always think of that scene with Once Upon a December, because when they have like her whole family like processes, is that the word processions out? They have a procession out uh to her, and she's got like her fancy dress, and like there's that moment where you're like, this is what it was supposed to be for her, that you know, a life that she would have had, and then she dances with her dad, and then everything kind of like disappears for her, and she's just in the ruins of the castle. It's I really, really love that scene. I think when I think about this movie being very beautiful, I think that's like visually what I'm thinking of. Uh the just the banger of the whole movie though is in the dark of the night. I and Rasputin's got all his little backup bug dancers. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah, it's so good.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

The energy is insane. I don't understand why he didn't get out of hell earlier.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

If he had the means, what was he didn't have his super fun vial it when Anastasia because it thought the mission was done, because he sold his soul to be able to kill all the Romanovs. And so that's what he says. He's like, Oh, that's why I was stuck here because they weren't all dead, but this vial just magically needed Anastasia to go past. I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

He doesn't immediately get out of wherever the hell he is, though, when he gets true. He hangs out there. I also have a very nice note. Do you remember when he's like, Well, we've gotta go to Paris? I love Paris, and he gets out this pretty huge red jacket, just ginormous. Like, is it King John from Hamilton? I'm messing up everything.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Uh King George, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

George. I mess everything up. Who's John? But he has this huge coat. It's insane.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

Little Prince John for King John in Robin Hood.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

You're right with King George.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

Too late to be known as John the first. Yeah, that's from Robin Hood. It's John. Prince John. But there is also Little John, so that's why I was second-guessing myself.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

That sounded right.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

Did you watch Robin Hood? Have you seen Robin Hood, the animated one?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

I don't remember it too much, but I do like the little, because Robin Hood is a fox, right?

SPEAKER_04 35:36

And then the brother Little John is a bear. Little John is a bear.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

She is also a fox.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

Yep, she is a fox. Prince John is a lion. Why? Why do they have to be the same species?

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Uh well, it's kind of probably like a bat and a human kind of deal. Dude.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

How many Disney movies have you watched? But I guess then you have Zootopia now.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

No, it's fine. Okay. Never mind. I take it back.

SPEAKER_04 36:01

See?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

I think I was just thinking, are the kids going to be.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Shame.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

I'm sorry. I'm not as woke about species. That's like I haven't watched Zootopia 2, okay? Maybe my opinions will change.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

I don't know. Apparently it'sotopia 1. Okay. But see, I don't have younger siblings like you. Like it's like my nieces and nephews are the reasons I watch it. Like, I don't gravitate towards Disney movies as much anymore. I did watch Inside Out 2. I watched that one. Oh also, not a kid's movie. Inside Out is just like straight up. Like most Pixar movies are just straight up not children's movies.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Why?

SPEAKER_04 36:43

What do you feel like they're for? They're depressing for adults like soul. That's depressing shit. And inside out with the elephant bing pong or whatever. I don't know. I just remember it sad.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah. No, you're right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Pixar.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Even like uh not as sad of a death as this movie, though. That would be crazy. Could you imagine if Bing Bung had a death like Respuent?

SPEAKER_04 37:10

That's the dude.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

It turns to the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

We need to bring back the gory deaths in kids' movies. Kids' movies.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Yeah. Um it's very shit's movies.

SPEAKER_04 37:21

Shit's movies. Um I was watching one of the podcasts that I watch, shows I watch is The Yak. They had there's this one guy who's like 25. Uh he's a he might be ordered that. He's a chef. And he was talking about how there's this mat that you lay on. It's got like crystals that helps you. And he was doing a presentation for these people that are there's like five people that have kids and everything. And he's talking to them. He's like, no, the the mat and the crystals. It helps, like it helps with sleep.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

He's like, You do like you have kids, right? He's like, like, you know, one of the hardest things is to get those rat fuckers to go to sleep, and they just are laughing. They're like, Yeah, yeah, I've got three rat fuckers at home. That's so hard to get them to sleep. It's like who? Like that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

So I'll I'll call kids rug rats sometimes, and that's about it. Um that's good.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

Yeah. Or their names is what's more appropriate. But um, is there anything in this that doesn't work for you that you're like, eh, didn't love that, didn't need that. Meh.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

We already talked about the song in Paris. I'm just not a big fan of Perry Holds the Key to your heart, which it's fine. You know, it doesn't ruin everything for me. The visuals are great, you know, it always says. But the other thing that I wrote in here that was very important to me, uh, at one point in the movie, they say that they've been on this trip for like four days, and then maybe two days pass, right? Uh, because they meet the Dowager Empress and they're like, Yeah, we've been doing this for four days. And then she leaves the letter for her grandma, and they're like, Oh, they eloped four to seven days after knowing somebody for the first time, and he's already lied to you once.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

But they known each other since childhood. He was the one that saved them.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

If it weren't for him, they'd be like, She doesn't remember she doesn't even know. But doesn't even remember that.

SPEAKER_04 39:24

But she thinks he's hot.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

He didn't even know.

SPEAKER_04 39:27

And they grew close. They traveled four days together, didn't change their clothes once until he buys her a pretty dress. Um, they've almost died multiple times. They got that trauma bond. Um, so they got lots of things. Lots of things.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Eloping after seven days. That's my biggest problem with this movie. They didn't have to elope. Also, where did they go on the boat? I hope not back to Russia. That didn't make any sense. When Dmitry was like, I'm not good at jeez. I'm not gonna take the money and I'm gonna go back to Russia. Russia, where he said he doesn't like it doesn't make any sense. Well, it wasn't a good one. It's so hard to get out of there. Go somewhere else. There's so many other places you could go.

SPEAKER_04 40:07

Or you could just stay in Paris. I'm sure there are other women in Paris.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

No. It's just Sophie, Anastasia, and Sophie's taken with his friend. Or like it's bad broco. That's true. He's got dibs. Can't have to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

Vlad did have dids.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Dids. I I enjoyed when I was like looking up the characters, because I forgot Vlad's name for for a second. I was like, I gotta write this down quick. Uh and when I look it up, before finding Vlad, you find imposter Anastasia is uh a character in there first, which I appreciate because she has one scene.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

Was the smoking. I thought that was meant to be a guy in drag at one point, because that was the vibes that it gave.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Yeah. Um I'm not convinced that's not what they were doing.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

Yeah. Um it was I overall, this is a very fun children's movie. It has fun songs for like so many creatures. A nineties animated, like there's a classic, even though it was Fox at the time, and now it's Disney, it's like a Disney musical back in the day. It's wonderful, yeah, a lot of fun. And so, of course, they turned into a Broadway show. But any final thoughts on the movie before we we close that out? Any other additional notes? Let's let's run through them, okay?

SPEAKER_00 41:31

I'm going quick. The only one that I have is I would say Anya's favorite quote that I have of her is she continually says to Dimitri that men are such babies. I enjoy that. I thought that was very nice. Also, if you re-watch, I want you to see when they're holding auditions for the Anastasias, they have like a Christmas list of the women's names, and they're just crossing them out. The longest list, dumbest list you've ever seen, and it's so separate. It's literally comedic, uh, like Santa Klaus list. It's a I appreciated that.

SPEAKER_04 42:07

Were you doing Klaus? Not Klaus, you're a Klaus.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

I'm sure that's how they say it. I'm sure that's how they say it in Russia. I think those are the most important notes I have.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

It's fair.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

It's good.

SPEAKER_04 42:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

I love it. I still love it. For every weird thing about the movie, I think it just adds charm.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

It's true. It it is a it is a very charming movie. I would say that. It's got characters you can fall in love with that are fun. Fun. Um, I don't really have anything that I'm like, uh that wasn't really hit to me. My only thing I don't actually love Once Upon a December. And I don't know if it's not like it doesn't have the nostalgia, it didn't hit. It's a beautiful song, but for me, I haven't listened to it enough where I get the emotional connection. I talked about it a little bit in my Hades Town review. Sometimes when I'm just listening to the songs, um, I don't get to really, I don't necessarily always not comprehend, but uh sometimes my media literacy just listening, I don't pick up on certain things. And so uh it takes a while listening or seeing it played out or looking at the lyrics while I'm listening to it to find that emotional through line to it and find some connection. And so I think that could be what it is for me because as you're describing it, I'm like, yeah, that sounds like something I would love. But when I'm just listening to it, the music and the vibe is a little bit too classical for what I usually go towards. I would say from like the movie soundtrack, my favorite was definitely in the dark of the night and then Journey to the Past. Those were my Top two. A rumor in St. Petersburg is fun as well. But pretty good. Pretty fun. But um, those are mine. So yeah, I think it's a fun movie. Thank you for introducing me to it, more or less, from what I remember, seeing it for sure. Because I enjoyed it and it's fun. Now, on to the Broadway show, which I've not seen the Broadway show live. I haven't even watched any videos of things being recorded. I have listened to the cast recording um a few times. There's a few songs I've thrown on playlist and listened to more times, but I've listened through the whole thing a couple times. I was trying to listen through it um multiple times this week, but I'm gonna be honest, I've still been on the Hades Town train. And so I keep just like going back and listening to um basically from if it's true through the end of the show, like that part in act two, that sandwich and the epic three, and like my my favorite one, then I had to throw it on the TikTok they did for it too, was the Epic Three, the instrumental, the the they danced after it is beautiful. I love it. Um, so I didn't listen to this as much as I should have. But what is your experience and familiarity with the Broadway cast album and feel general feelings on it?

SPEAKER_00 45:24

I have good feelings about it. I think I was very disappointed when I first found it, and Raf's Button is not.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

He is not.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

They have a more kind of grounded in reality, which, you know, it brings a new light to it. Brings a new I like seeing a new version of something that I that I already enjoy. So to see it kind of adapted, I enjoyed that. Uh, when is the Broadway? When did this come out? So 2017 is what I'm seeing on this.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Roughly. That's when it transferred to Broadway. So the Okay. We'll do a little history on it before because sometimes, sometimes I actually do research for this podcast. Um, on the Broadway show, the book is by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Um, they did a reading of it in 2012 with Aaron Viet playing Dimitri, which I love Aaron Viette. Uh Kelly Barrett was Anya. Patrick Page was Vladimir, who he originated Hades in Hades Town on Broadway, and also in the musical cast recording of Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was Judge Claude Frollo in that as well. Um, and then Angela Lansbury reprised her role as the Dowager Empress uh during the 2012 reading. Um, but then they did some refining productions of it, and then they did a workshop in June of 2015 in New York City, and then they did like a kind of try-out run of the show in Hartford, Connecticut in 2016, prior to it transferring to Broadway in 2017. Um this it was nominated for only two Tonies and one nothing. None of them like best musical or anything like that. Some was costume and production design, I believe, were the two. Um, but basically, it has some of the framework of Anastasia, but is essentially uh like it feels like almost a whole new show. There's only six songs from the movie that they pull into it. Um, the rest is all new numbers, the magic elements are all removed. Rasputin doesn't exist, the new villain is kind of the Bolsheviks and the general Gleb, which come on, we're doing Gleb for the name. Crazy. I didn't know if that was like a historical word.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

I was gonna call him Gleb. I have too much so much trouble with the name. At the but maybe it's very common in Russian. Maybe everyone's named Glib Gleb.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

Maybe that's like I'm like, what is happening right now? Um, but like at the end, like I didn't catch that his name was Gleb during my initial listen to's because I was doing other things. Uh-huh. And then at the end, I'm listening to like one of the final numbers, and she's like, Gleb, just and I'm like, wait, what what name are we what did we say?

SPEAKER_03 48:10

What did you call him?

SPEAKER_00 48:12

But yeah, is that a slur I don't know about?

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Yeah, and it doesn't have in the dark of the night because Resputin' Magic is gone too doesn't have one of my favorite slurs. Um but so that was one thing because like it is a lot more grounded, and it does have like the villain is just like the Bolsheviks were the ones that kind of kicked out the Romanovs and the and the Gleb's dad was part of the ones that killed her whole family, supposedly, and then he died of shame. But Gleb's like, well, he did the right thing still. Um and and the Gleb's basically the villain, and he's sent to he should have killed her, but he's crushing on her, so he lets her go, and then he kind of like tracks her down to Paris and was sent, like, hey, if it is actually her, you gotta kill her, and that type of stuff. So it it is a different vibe. But my biggest issue and problem with it, and then we'll get back to your feelings on it, because that's initially how we started with this. Um, my biggest issue is the Dimitri's connection to Anastasia. He just buys the music box from a street vendor, he doesn't have it, he doesn't help them escape. No, because in the show, Anastasia drops it in the movie. Anastasia drops it when they go through the wall, like when he helps them through the wall, and then he gets knocked out right by them. Um, he buys a fur coat from street people, he does buy a fur coat. But he had the music box already. He always has in the animated one.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

That's crazy. You could tell me either way, but maybe because I've watched some videos of the Anastasia musical, so it's very possible it's just blending all together in my head.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

But like and it's like their connection was like he was a boy in the animated movie, is he was a boy there, it worked in the kitchen of the palace. He helped them escape, so he had a little bit more direct connection. Um, and so when she's telling Sophie how they escaped in the animated movie, and he's re revealing the connection, he's realizing, oh, I never told her that they escaped because I helped them through. Which also, if you're trying to sell her as Anastasia, why would that not be the main thing you told me? Very important information, yeah. Very important. Um, but so that's that's going back, that's a problem I had with the animated movie. That like, why would he not tell her that ahead of time? Um, and then her realizing that was the connection. In the stage musical, it's just there is a parade and they saw each other in a crowd and bowed, which I love the song. I love the song that song one of my favorites from it, but that's the one like they don't have as strong of a connection before as the bow and the wave is what they have in the Broadway show. And before it's like he actually helped them escape, and he already had the musical, not this magical happenstance luck of he just happened to buy the music box, and that was the the main key. I don't think the necklace exists in the musical. The Wikipedia did not describe the the necklace at all.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

What? I feel like it does.

SPEAKER_04 51:23

In my heart of hearts, it has Wikipedia did not mention the the musical. That's why I did my research today. Um so this morning.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Um And I printed out all the pieces of paper from that.

SPEAKER_04 51:35

So I I don't know. I have it it does have a resputen-sized hole in the stage play. I I get that the magical elements are harder to bring to the stage and can be harder to connect, especially like a Broadway show. It it's not for children. It's like most Broadway shows, it the kids are a little bit priced out of those. Um and so you're reaching a different audience. So you're trying to pull on some of those themes of more the family bond and duty and honor, and then more the romance plot and the intrigue and the drama there, then just making it fantastical and something kids can have fun and nightmares about.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Um I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 52:26

There's also like different timelines and stuff in the musical musical. And so it it it feels like a very different one. I feel like the animated one, lighthearted and then dark at the same time. And this is all pretty a little more one note, where it's a little more serious, it's not doesn't feel as fun and playful, I feel like the stage musical. So that's a general overview and some of my initial thoughts. Now you can give your thoughts. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

I think they're good to think about very separate. No, no, we needed history, we needed background. It was good. And you took notes from Wikipedia. I didn't when I Googled it. AI, so I'm gonna use just as good of a of a citation. AI says that it was in the movie the next one.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

I don't look any farther than that. But um I I think they're good to look at as like separate medias, you know, like the movie is fabulous for everything that it has. The musical is very, very good for how well grounded and how um it has a lot of good emotion in it, I would say. Like my favorite songs in this were In My Dreams, love that. I have The Land of Yesterday, I feel like is a very fun one. That's when it's like Sophie's character is kind of talking about everything that they're missing out on now that they're just stuck, you know. Kind of talks about how, you know, it's not like they just left their home and they were totally fine, like how Sophie's song in the movie is, how it's just like, I love Paris. I wouldn't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 54:04

Also, her name is Lily in the stage show.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

Yeah. It could have been so easy to keep the name.

SPEAKER_04 54:10

But maybe they that's an actual continuous. Maybe these are actual people, and Gleb's ancestor is going to find this and write us hate mail. It's like, wow, I can make fun of Gleb.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Those aren't gonna be happy DMs you're getting. No, I'm telling you that. I love, I think my favorite might be the still slash the Neva flows reply reprise. So that scene, because there's such a beautiful moment where I think she's like standing up to Gleb and he's probably gonna kick it.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

I can't take it seriously when we're saying Gleb.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

It's his name. It's his name. I know. It's unfortunate. It is unfortunate. It reminds me of like Goob, like from The Robinsons.

SPEAKER_04 54:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

Is that the You know what I'm talking about? The little guy who turns out to be the bowler hat guy. Not to spoil the Meet the Robinsons.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

I haven't seen Meet the Robinsons. But all I picture with that is I don't know what it's from. This just blue, translucent glob that has eyes from St. Ant. Totally different.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

This Bob from Monsters versus Aliens.

SPEAKER_04 55:13

Okay. Don't know any of the movies from childhood. Well, you have to realize I was like 20 something when those movies came out. That was not my childhood.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

So I've got this. This is my your childhood. This is my comparative advantage that I bring to the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 55:34

Youthful eye.

SPEAKER_00 55:35

Early 2000s children movies.

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

But back to what I was trying to say before, you hate glamour.

SPEAKER_03 55:42

Apologies. Apologies. Glenn.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

They have a beautiful procession again out of all of her family as like standing behind her during it. And it's so gorgeous. I love that. It might just be like, you know, Catholics love a procession. We love to do things in lines. I think it's just a lot of that. I go, wow, people standing in a line and walking all together.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

You must fucking love amusement parks.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

That's why I told you I had such a great time at the Walmart. I was like, wow, a line for a long time. This is great. Lines where I where I succeed. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 56:18

Um see, I haven't watched I haven't seen any clips of this on stage. So like I've just listened to the soundtrack. So I didn't know that that is the visual, what is happening on plays stage during that. But it was still one of my favorite songs. Um love that song. Raman uh Carmelou, who plays that role. I don't know. I'm probably mispronouncing his name, but he has an amazing voice in the cast. Not the broad, I don't know if it's a Broadway cast recording or West End, but of Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera that Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote. Um he plays the Phantom in that, and he is amazing in it. And he's played the Phantom a number of times. He's played numerous roles in La Miz, um, the Le Miz concert. Uh, he performs in that as Anul Ross in there. He in the Phantom like 25th anniversary concert from like the Royal Albert Hall or something that they did a recording of. He played the Phantom in that. He I love his voice. He is so good. I love this cast, Christy Altmeyer, who plays um Anastasia in the Broadway cast album. I'm not as familiar with her, but Derek Klenna, who plays Dimitri. I love him and numerous other things he's been in. He was on uh Broadway Moulin Rouge for a while as Christian and seen clips of him there. Like very talented, great voice. And so I love the additional Dimitri songs in this as well. Like my favorite songs, I really like the Neva Flows, both the original and the Still, the Neva Flows one. Um Gleb's songs. I like Gleb's songs. I like Still.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

He does good.

SPEAKER_04 58:02

My Petersburg is probably my favorite. Um that Dimitri sings just uh his view on St. Petersburg, and then Inner Crowd of Thousands is amazing. So um, those are kind of my favorites from the Broadway cast albums. And like I said, and like you point out too, it I think with these it's good to look at as two separate things. Because if you go into the Broadway one expecting it to be like the animated one, it's just not, and vice versa, because that's why I think I appreciated the animated movie more the second time when I re-watched it for this than the first time I watched it. Because first time, like I said, at first I was like, okay, it's not gonna be a musical, and then I'm watching this, and I'm like, this is very different, very different things are taking place in here, which obviously the different target audiences, like we said, right? The animated one, supposedly for kids. This one, not as much. But yeah. Um, do you have any other? Oh, and the other thing that I found very interesting is just the timeline and song structure of them. Like Journey to the Past is the second song that we're hit with in the animated movie when Anya's leaving the orphanage and going out on her own. Whereas on the Broadway show, Journey to the Past closes out act one. Like that is the song she sings on the way to Paris. So I found that interesting as well.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

I think another point to bring up would be like how you talked about they didn't win awards for their costuming. But I had I remember seeing some kind of media that they talked about, they went into like fine detail trying to recreate the outfits from the movie, like even down to the dress that she wears at the opera scene because she has a very sparkly, like kind of dark blue dress. They've tried to really stay true to that costuming, which I think is very a nice way to pay homage to the movie, instead of being like, and we have to give them the exact same songs, the exact same things. I like that. I like being able to look at it and be like, oh, that's the one that I remember, you know, growing up and watching that. You know, I enjoy that. Yeah. They did a very, very, very good job on it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

That does make it fun for sure. Um so did you have other favorite songs besides still the Neva Flows?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

I I think it was just those when I look at the album of what I've downloaded. So I must I put them in my Broadway playlist, obviously. Uh my favorites were, like I said, this is still the Neva Flows, In a Crowd of Thousands, Land of Yesterday, and then In My Dreams. Which uh I would I should have added my Petersburg in my heart of hearts, but that's okay. It's not on there now.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:56

Hey, you have time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:58

Stay I nothing. Stay I pray you though is a very good emotional one, but it is a little bit crazy because I think that the like main singer in that doesn't really show up anywhere else. Am I wrong?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:10

No, because that character gets shot getting on the train in the musical, according to Wikibia. Never mind. So that is why.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

That'll do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:21

Fun notes in Stay I Pray You, they do bring in some of the melody from in The Dark of the Night into that fun notes. It doesn't feel like it because the actual main portion of in the dark of the night does not have the like opening melody, and it's like the opening melody that they pull um into um Stay I Pray. But that's a fun little nod note to that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

A nice note.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:49

A nice little note. Um I could see how the dancing bugs and skeletons and Raspiutin's arms falling off may not translate as well. But yeah, I like I said, I think it just there's a couple of different ways that Broadway adaptations of children's musicals, for lack of a better word, like animated kids' movie musicals can go. Like Frozen, for example, it leans into that vibe. It is a pretty faithful adaptation of the movie and just adding some new fun numbers in, but you're still looking at that main target demo and audience and everything. Same with Little Mermaid, same with Aladdin, those are just the ones I've seen. Uh, I'm sure there's others that are like that too. So they bring in those fantastical elements as well, as much as they can, and the magic and don't steer away from it. And Anastasia felt a lot more like making a conscious decision instead of leaning into that to lean into more the emotional heart of it than the villain's role because this is a little more justified villain who's trying to battle with his own inner demons and his sense of loyalty and thinking he's doing the right thing for the people, um, and uh views himself kind of as the revolutionary too and being faithful to the people of Russia. So um definitely a little more adult, mature themes that they decided they wanted to go into. So I just I always find that interesting, and I kind of appreciate that. Different take.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

Do you think you would want to watch the show if it came anywhere near here? Would you see yourself going out of your way?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:36

Uh depends. I would go, I think it was in Omaha a couple years ago on a Broadway tour, and that was an hour away. And I'm like, at then then I hadn't listened to anything, so I wouldn't, even now.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:50

I I don't know. I like going to live shows and appreciating live theater when I can. This one, I don't know if it's a must-see. It's one that I'd be excited to see on my season pass when it pops up. Um, but I don't know that it's one. Like, there's a couple that were in Omaha this year that I almost got taken out of my way, but things just didn't line up. Like, I want to see The Outsiders. That's one I really like the cast album. Um, and Anne Juliet, I really want to see, because that's a jukebox musical that songs that I grew up on, and so I think that would be a lot of fun. Um and uh I just Anne Juliet hasn't been there yet. Outsiders didn't work out. It was when I had a work trip um when it was here. But different things are like Shuct was there, and I was interested in that one. I I've heard so many different things, and that's when I've started listening to the cast album a couple times, and I'm like, I don't think I'm in the right mood for this because definitely goofy and corny for no pun intended, but like uh it just is. I feel like so I'm like, I need to be in the right mood to listen to this. Um, but I think because I have the season pass and go to ones um around here more. I think I do the season pass that knocks out a big chunk of my budget, and then it's like community theater stuff. If I could want to, is when I'll explore more. Because a lot of times I'm like, well, it might be in the season pass in two years, so I could go see it now. But if it's not one that I love and I'm like really excited to see, then maybe not. Now, like I I kind of wish with how much I enjoyed Hades Town, I wish I would have gone like if that one came to Omaha again, I would go see it again. Um, because I enjoyed it um that much, and this cast is fantastic. So anyone that has the Hades Town tour coming anywhere near your city, you should check it out. It will be worth it. Um, what about you? Would you go out about

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

your way to see Anastasia I could see myself going out of my way probably only because I have that nostalgia factor though. You know what I mean? I know this movie too well. If it came anywhere close, I would probably be like, okay. This I mean we gotta put this in the budget.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:22

Now do you think the nostalgia factor could that hurt because the Broadway show is so different? Do you think are would you be able to go into it with like an open mind and separate them enough that you wouldn't be let down like have realistic expectations.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

Yeah. I think I've been listening to the Broadway recording so much that I'm like, I I'm already in the mindset these are very similar.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

You know, very, very separate to me. But I think that I connect with the with the Broadway recording enough that, you know, it's close to what I grew up with. And also I've listened to it for years and years and years now. And I still, like I said, I love the emotion that they're able to put into it. I like a good musical that gets a little deep. Like you know, Shocked is a very fun, very like good time musical. But there's good moments too where they're like talking about how nice it is to be close with your cousin also gets a little emotional. I like it when there's maybe I like something where it's like a good moral or a good like ending where I'm like this is great. I'm learning something my brain is doing good. So I think I would still go out of there. I would still go out of my way.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:32

That's fair.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

To see this, even though I know in my heart it's not the same as what I what I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:37

If you could sidetrack and maybe it's something we'll dive into further at a draft at some point. If you could build your ideal Broadway season of shows that were coming like close to here and you would automatically get a season pass.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:53

Five shows what are five shows that you would want to see live gotta look at what I've saved it's okay I don't know just based off bias I have to I forget everything in my brain the second a question is asked to me it's like when you look at your and you're like oh no I definitely think Hades Town I was very sad to miss it but I I did go to Kansas City I Hades Town would have to be on it. Maybe if Big Fish was on the list I would actually go see it but it would be one where I think at this point I'd have to go in blind because I've tried so many times to listen to music and I just haven't gotten into it. Um the lightning thief the Percy Jackson musical that would be fun so I've got three yeah Grover is one of your dreamers of course four that's true that's true I okay I've already seen B Mart show in a community theater in the Lincoln community theater so I'm not gonna put that one down because it's already I've already seen it it's already there I think four is Anastasia five would be I'm gonna say waitress. I think waitress is what I'm picking.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:06

Which they're teasing it looks like it's gonna go on a national tour again waitress for the 10th anniversary so that sweet and I was surprised Heathers was not on there um because that's one that I think we there's a good chance we get either in Lincoln or Omaha next year because it's starting a national tour at the end of this year. Or no no this year is Australia next year is US I believe.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:36

I think I've seen Heathers so many times though I think I told you when we were in I say we when I was in high school we would watch this uh it was called illegal heathers it was like a high school had it was illegal for two reasons because obviously you shouldn't be videotaping recordings but also a high school had done a rendition of Heathers horribly like changed so much it was insane there's a point in it where Heather Chandler is like getting off the stage it's like at the end of the first act and she goes what did she say she goes like I hate this I hate all of you you guys suck and it gets picked up in the microphones. That's how it all goes I made a friend sit through Heathers the movie and then we watched Heather's the musical we watched a video of it and then we had to watch illegal heathers I made her watch those two just so that she could enjoy illegal heathers how insanely rough script it was I think I've seen too many versions of it like it's okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:44

I might be heathered out see what would your top five or what are your like perfect five mine of ones that I haven't seen um is tough. I made fun of you and now I'm gonna have the exact same thing. I know that's karma right there. Be more chill would be up there for me because I haven't seen it live. Heathers is up there because I really love Heathers and I haven't seen it live um see this is uh karma I but she feels some of them I'm like they're ones that I've seen before but I would love to see them again because they were so good. Um part of me like I think like I think legally blonde would be a lot of fun but that's not one that like even listened to a ton. It enjoys that was when I was back and forth with Waitress I want to see Next to Normal uh live again even though I saw it in the community theater that's my favorite one um I think I would love and I don't think it ever fully went on stage in a tour but the Hunchback of Notre Dame Broadway version I absolutely love um and that album is fantastic and then maybe waitress uh there's I don't I don't know right now I'm struggling I was looking at my playlist and I'm like oh that's karma uh I'm always just intrigued by the new shows they did the Merrily we roll along the Sondheim musical that they did a pro shot with Jonathan Groff um and Daniel Radcliffe and I'm blanking on her name but she was in 21 Chump Street played the main female role in that and she was in it I'm blanking on her name but the pro shot they did of that uh is out now on digital and I picked that up and I'm hoping to watch that soon um because I like seeing more pro shots of music excuse me musicals so I I don't know um it's it's harder than you would think because sometimes like I've enjoyed some of the ones that I wasn't counting on more than like Shrek the musical I enjoyed much more than I thought it was before like going into that one I'm was not looking forward to it and I really enjoyed it. So I'm I try to just go into it that's what the the beauty of the season ticket sometimes like well I'm seeing this anyway like I have tickets I'm gonna go into it see how it is and that's why I've debated getting season tickets for the community theater because they are doing well not the Lincoln one um the one out in Hickman Nebraska Playhouse they're doing a they do more they're doing some more classic ones this year and I'm like I need to expand my horizons on classic so they're doing Guys and Dolls next month um I think they're doing anything goes they're doing James and the giant Peach which I'm not familiar with that musical at all. I know that movie was a thing when I was a child but I don't know it. They're doing something rotten which I'm excited about and I definitely will be getting tickets to that because I've been wanting to see that one for a while. And they're doing Jekyll and Hyde which is another one I'm excited about and we'll be getting tickets for so I almost got season tickets for that and I'll probably still go to most of the almost economical at this point.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:31

It is it is so um we'll see I'd it's hard to be put on the spot and uh I should have counted on you flipping around and me so uh we'll see maybe we will have to do a fleshed out and build out full lists and build a season and do it draft and fight now that we knew what everyone would pick and so we can be rude if we want.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:57

But yeah steal them. Yeah exactly do you have any final Anastasia thoughts as we've gone off track for a little bit I think I would recommend this to someone but I I think Brad said it it when you guys talked about it too like maybe don't show your kids or maybe wait for a little bit until you can explain to them what a skeleton in death is and then show it to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:23

That's great. That's right um I just is it a children's movie sometimes a little bit questionable can't tell um but is it beautiful? Absolutely very good. What is it I think you could watch it at like 10. 10's a good age.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:39

That's enough yeah that's like what those if you have a child you probably know your child and what they can handle. Like if you're like hey my eight year old's watching Saw well that's maybe a different conversation. If they're watching Saw they can handle this they'd be fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:54

Yeah they can watch this they're fine yeah this could probably be like a good workup so that you can get your kid to watch saw yeah that would be great.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:01

Yeah exactly you just move hey kids we're gonna do American we're gonna see which one gives you worse nightmares it was scary like I had nightmares uh after watching those as an adult and then I had nightmares of murder suicide wood chipper I don't know my dreams have been fucked lately I don't know what it is it's been problematic that's been it's been not fun uh not do it great there's no wood chippers in this movie I wanted to know that wasn't on uh yeah I don't know he brought that in on his own I did I did my mind hates me what would be your final Anastasia thoughts yeah my final Anastasia thoughts uh some great music it in the dark of the night you have to check out at least like it's worth a watch just for that scene it's fun um and listen to the cast album like I said the some amazing talents on it on the Broadway one and it's good to throw on in the background like it's a pretty easygoing like easy listening album too I feel like um background when you're doing vacuuming I did when I was vacuuming and doing dishes and cooking dinners when I've listened to over the past few days. It's good good kept you engaged beautiful voices beautiful music a beautiful love story yeah and about finding your family and your truth and your past and ultimately deciding what's best for you and not just having to go with what other people think you should do independence also key key theme in here and Russian men named Vlad like big bosomous women yes and Gleb is a name it is a name. Whether we like it or not I guess I guess I guess I do well sage thank you for joining us once again thank you thank you I don't next well I do know actually next week's podcast will be talking about what's gonna be on streaming theaters all that fun stuff in February so tune in next week for that and then February's up in the air it's a mystery I think Brad and I might do a review of a very odd musical that I can guarantee you have not watched it is available on Amazon Prime though. Yeah you sage and probably most of the audience because I have not talked to a single other person who has ever watched this movie. It is a musical it is the Emperor's new clothes um it was I need to find the description I hadn't originally planned on searching this and discussing it today. I love the 1987 nope not the emperor's new new groove damn it um it is on Amazon Prime it on IMDB it has 4.7 out of 10 stars only 300 ratings um it has Sid Caesar as the Emperor a lot of really old timey classic artists in there it is ridiculous it is a musical that I I watched Brad and I watched a lot growing up we had recorded it off of a VHS um like it was recorded off TV on a VHS we watched it song about Close Bake the Man like so Brad and I I I told him I found out I'm like this is on Prime Video we need to revisit this and we need to discuss it on the pod will it hold up like I have not watched this movie in probably at least 20 years. Um so it it's been a hot minute there's a good chance it doesn't hold up but in my head as nostalgia and so I think Brad and I are going to watch that and review that at some point in February. So stay tuned for that and you all have fair warning now and fair notice go watch this fever dream of a movie it is ridiculous but it is fun. So we'll be reviewing that some point so there's some little teases for what's coming soon on the podcast. But thank you all have a great night have a great hopefully this closes out January 2026 hopefully your 2026 is off to a great start and if you got this far on the podcast we know it's off to a great start because you chose to spend it with us so thank you sage thank you again everyone like comment share subscribe all that fun stuff I have to tell you to do do it on all platforms. Show us all your support slide in the DMs have some fun musical conversations I'm always down for that but thank you all don't forget to go down once more later