Reviews for Bartok the Magnificent

I can safely say this is probably my least favorite animated movie. I wasn't originally going to write a review of it, since negative reviews aren't generally taken well, but I figure that any review is better then none. This movie was supposed to be a prequel-type show for "Anastasia", but it doesn't even come close to "Anastasia's" style.

The animation isn't very well done, particularly the coloring and the background. You'll find loud, screaming colors (usually in bright pinks, oranges, greens, and blues) which don't look too good. The songs aren't anything like "Anastasia's" quality score and soundtrack. As for the background people - the population of Moscow seems very, very small... -_-;;; That's one aspect of this film I have a wierd issue with. There are only 30 odd people in the city...It doesn't make much sense. In "Anastasia", St. Petersburg was crowded with people and Paris was full of people. "BtM" really lacks that sort of background animation.

The story revolves around Bartok, one of my least favorite "Anastasia" characters, and his sidekick bear (who is ironically voiced by Kelsey Grammer, who voiced Vlad in "Anastasia"). Together, they must save the city of Moscow and Prince Ivan from the evil Ludmilla, who's villianess ranks right up there with Rasputin's. My favorite character was Piloff - and she wasn't supposed to be any kind of animal or human, but was entirely made up with a strange design. I enjoyed her fun personality, but I can easily see her getting on some people's nerves with her bubbly, quirky silliness. I found that Bartok's design hadn't changed much from "Anastasia", which is nice. Prince Ivan looks a lot like Anya and Dimitri's son. I suppose the animators were trying to profit from Dimitri's popularity on that one. Ludmilla is terribly drawn - with sharp, jagged edges and jerky movements.

Aside from the storyline being rather boring, I did find the moral of the movie to be one good quality of it all. It's all about your inner self, and being true and using your abilities to their fullest - no matter how small or weak you are. Bartok proves that he can overcome evil by being himself.

In my opinion, this is the kind of movie you'd put a three year old down in front of to keep them in one place for an hour and a half, and that's about all. If you don't see it, you aren't missing anything.