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| “ | You think you can banish the great Rasputin? By the unholy powers vested in me, I banish *you*, with a curse. Mark my words, you and your family will die within a fortnight. I will not rest until I see the end of the Romanov line forever! | „ |
| ~ Rasputin casting a curse upon Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family. |
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (simply known as Rasputin) is the main antagonist of the 1997 Don Bluth feature film, Anastasia.
He is based loosely on the real-life psychic Grigori Rasputin: however, in the film, he is depicted as a far more malevolent and manipulative being of black magic than the real-life Rasputin, though the two share the common title of "Mad Monk".
He was voiced by the famous legendary actor, Christopher Lloyd, who also played Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Hacker in Cyberchase, Merlock in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Bill Crowley in I Am Not A Serial Killer, and Kruge in the Star Trek universe, and his singing voice was provided by the popular and renowned voice actor, Jim Cummings, who also voiced Razoul from Disney's Aladdin, Ed the Hyena from Disney's The Lion King., Dennis from Disney's Tarzan, and Steele from Balto, and was also half of the singing voice of Scar from Disney's The Lion King.
History
First Death
Rasputin was banished for treason by the Russian Tsar Nicholas Romanov.
Eager for revenge for his then banishment, Rasputin plans on destroying the Russian royalty. He sold his soul to the otherworldly forces of darkness in exchange for his Reliquary and for the power to destroy the czar Nicholas II and his family, in the process becoming a lich (a type of undead creature with magical powers). He then returns to the Russian palace and inflicts on the czar's family with the Romanov curse. All of the royals are killed by Rasputin and the Russian soldiers, except for the czar's mother, Mary Romanov, and his daughter, Anastasia. Rasputin eventually attempts to murder Anastasia while chasing her across a frozen river, but drowns after falling through the ice, losing his amulet in the process and he is unable to die until he completes his curse.
Return and Ultimate Death 10 years after
| “ | Raspution: Anastasia, your Imperial Highness. Look what ten years has done to us; you are a beautiful young flower. And Me..... a rotting corpse. Anastasia: That face... Raspution: Last seen at a party like this one. Anastasia: that curse..... Rasputin: Followed by a tragic night on the ice. REMEMBER??!!! |
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| ~ Rasputin confronting Anastasia on the bridge of Pont Alexandre III. |
Ten years later, Rasputin is trapped in limbo, then his amulet is back in his hands thanks to Bartok. Driven more by his intense and malevolent desire for revenge, he wishes to finish off what he started before he rests in peace by killing Anastasia. Putting his demonic minions to work on finding and destroying her but failing, he is accompanied throughout the film by his reluctant minion, Bartok, who is a white bat who constantly tries to sway Rasputin away from his obsession but is largely ignored until Bartok eventually gives up.
After two assassination attempts, Rasputin grows tired of his magic constantly failing so he and Bartok return from limbo back to Paris to confront and kill Anastasia there in person. Realizing now that Rasputin can no longer be reasoned, Bartok leaves him and becomes an entertainer in the cities of Moscow. Meanwhile, Rasputin confronts Anastasia on Pont Alexandre III and in the resulting final battle, he loses hold of his amulet and Anastasia shatters it completely, destroying the magic, avenging her family, and killing the evil sorcerer once and for all, much to Rasputin's distraught. As Rasputin dies, his skin liquidated in a green color, his cloak rotting away, and his remains reduced to dust by the dark powers.
Personality
Since at the beginning of the film, Rasputin was seen as a very manipulative, diabolical, arrogant, and wicked man, to the point of killing the entire family without any remorse. He is the type of man who is capable of giving everything to fulfill their promises, bequeathing to the point of selling his soul to dark forces just to have the power to destroy the Romanov Family. He is also seen to be somewhat reckless, obsessive, spontaneous, and impulsive with his objectives when these are not achieved, such as the case of Anastasia. He is a man of crude and opprobrious nature, due that he constantly hits his assistant, Bartok. Rasputin also has to walk the line between being a truly villainous character yet play a part in a lot of the comedy of the film.
Appearance
Rasputin is a tall, scary-looking man. He wears a brown robe (however, in the books it has a gold interior) with black shoes, (Which appear to be high heeled). He wears some sort of purple clothing beneath his robe, but the only part of this that is shown is the sleeves. His robe trails along the ground. He has black hair that is tied back into a ponytail and has a black mustache that connects to his long black beard going below his waist. His skin is a rotting, pale green and he has skeletally long fingers and fingernails. He has a hood that hangs off of the back of the neck of the robe. Around his waist is a gold rope sash with three beads. The rope is tied around his Reliquary which hang at his shins. His sleeves go as long as his waist. Another noticeable feature is that he appears to be wearing nothing under his robe yet he has a strange purple clothing at the neck and sleeves.
After selling his soul , Rasputin is thus transformed into an undead being with supernatural powers (especially skillful evocation of strange green demons), resulting from a Reliquary made of glass, which he is linked to. Being undead for almost ten years, his body is now rotten and unstable; it follows that on numerous occasions Rasputin loses one or more pieces of his body.
Trivia
- It was because of Rasputin that Anastasia almost received a PG rating by the MPAA.
- Rasputin in Anastasia is one of several fictionalized versions of Rasputin being portrayed as villain. The others being Rasputin from the Hellboy franchise as an agent of Ogdru Jahad, Rasputin from Red Dwarf series, Rasputin from Shadow Hearts, Ivanovic from Dance in the Vampire Bund, and Rasputin from Drifters.
- The real Rasputin, while very unpopular with the Russian people, was actually very close with the family of Tsar Nicholas, particularly the Tsarina and her daughters. Contrary to his reputation, he was not an evil sorcerer; he was an eccentric monk, mystic, and healer. Neither was Rasputin the cause of the Romanov family's death. He had been killed more than a year and a half before the Bolshevik Communists overthrew the government and executed the Romanovs.
Template:Don Bluth Villains