7 Things ANASTASIA Teaches About Childhood Trauma

What does trauma recovery look like?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are reacting to Anastasia and discussing Anastasia’s journey through trauma and recovery. They talk about what it takes to face what you’ve been through head on and how Anastasia’s trauma journey is quite accurate. Jonathan explains what Anastasia teaches us about trauma, and Alan questions the head injury/memory loss trope in movies. They also question why this movie is rated G??

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Nathan Judd
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[sdfhkm]

“In the Dark of the Night” is one of the most iconic villain songs ever. Jim Cummings nailed it.

[joanebf]

Animator here: a teacher once said the reason the animation looks weird in this movie is because everything is always moving. You need some still frames to hold the poses and to give good contrast with the movement. When everything moves all the time, the timing gets too even and unnatural.
It's similar to what happened in the old Fleischer animations because they hadn't figured the "ease in" and "ease out" principles Disney animators established later.

[shelbsreine]

"which one are you talking about?"
"both"
Alan was so real for that

[BooTedesco]

Liz Callaway is the gorgeous singing voice of Anastasia. Liz auditioned for multiple Disney Princess films and never got her time to shine. I can’t imagine Anastasia without her gorgeous voice!

[nint]

"How did this get a G rating?"

90s Alan, it was the 90s😭

[Anikai]

Anastasia dancing with her dad ALWAYS, without a fail, makes me sob. So touching and heartbreaking at the same time

[taylorannbicica]

One of my favorite little moments in the movie is from “Learn to Do It, ” when they memorize the names of the royalty, and Anya remembers a cat they never mentioned. Also, in the same song, just how naturally things come to her because she still has some of those motor skills, it’s just so fun watching her, and Dimitri as well, discover those parts of Anastasia shining through bit by bit.

[YayLalala]

I've always thought that Anastasia remembering the melody of Once Upon a Decemeber spoke more to how different parts of the brain remember different things - like when someone with Alzheimer's can still recognise music and sing along, but not remember much else. To me it's always spoken to the power of music that can stay with you. In the same way she seems to recognise the emotions of the palace, but not the exact memories. Different parts of the brain.

[yb]

Can we talk about that slap she gave Dimitry? Smacked the Cusack straight out of him

[yb]

The OG haters to lovers animated movie

[HeyItsLeePH]

Now, I realized why I relate with ANASTASIA so much. "I'm a victim, now I'm a survivor, now I'm an advocate, now I'm me." - You're right I am empowered because I am able to use my past to help and reach out to others.

[yellowbatgirl]

I'm shocked this wasn't included because it PROVES Jon's point: As Anastasia is being kicked out of the orphanage the lady who runs the place ridicules her for calling herself "Princess Anya" and the lady makes fun of Anastasia's "Together in Paris" necklace.
I always interpreted the fall 'from' the train and getting knocked out as the reason that she didn't keep running after the train and got separated from her grandmother - not the cause of her amnesia.
The amnesia was brought on by the trauma of that night immediately followed by being alone in a big city, going to an authority for help, and having that adult not believe her because she's a child. Of course Anastasia would start to question her reality and eventually discount it to the point of amnesia - as she says to Dimitri 'Every little girl would hope she's a princess.' That's probably a line she told herself over and over when she was a kid to convince herself that her memories were childish fantasies.

[NobodyC]

Fun Fact: Carrie Fisher, in addition to acting, would work part time as a script doctor. The whole Once Upon a December sequence was something she personally worked and oversaw, even suggested the idea that the ghosts of the Royal Court fly out of the paintings.

[gemami]

During once upon a December, I love that she’s the only one that has a reflection on the floor

[jenniferthomas]

This movie had such a strong influence on me as a child that I named MY child Anastasia.
I always loved the strong-willed, he decisive, survivor that this princess is. She went through unimaginable horrors and not only survived, but she was well on the way to healing before she ever met Dmitry.

[madeleinereads]

I like the scene where Anastasia and her grandmother finally reunite. She smells the peppermint oil the dowager empress uses on her hands, and memories return. I have heard that smells can trigger memories, especially those so emotional. The power of our senses. It's amazing!

[Overlordofthelollipopguild]

For real though it’s so relatable when Alan says “I’d hit that” and then saying “both” and shrugging. He’s so real for that.

[hodaramy]

I am an animator. I haven't watched Anastasia in a long while, but from my memory, I can say that the Human characters are fully rotoscoped, Like Anastasia/ Dimitri, etc, but other characters are animated traditionally, like Bartok . The differences between the two styles also make it look more obvious and exaggerated. ps : I love your show.

[tobyto]

Omg, so cool you made this video, it's a 100% underrated gem of a movie. Also, guys, some random facts from a native Russian here: Rasputin was poisoned, shot several times and then fell into a river where he finally freezed to death (that's probably why the animators put it into a movie). Also, it's reka Moika (Moika the river), and Anastasia is Nastya, not Anya (Anya is Anna). And finally, the family wasn't murdered during the siege, they were held hostages for 1, 5 years and eventually were sent to a house near Yekaterinburg and then they all were executed. Anyway, thank you for being so respectful though the facts and material might be really tricky here.

[dogsarefab]

There is so much to unpack here. The animation and the animated gore is again the 90s. This was advanced animation at the time. Also when this came out (1997) we still didnt actually know what happened to Anastasia, it was still a mystery. Her body wasnt found until 10 years after this film was released in 2007. Lastly Liz Callaway is a bloody legend. She has performed singing voices for loads of films including Disney.